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Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth’s magnetic field

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Zoology, December 2013
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#1 of 700)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Citations

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64 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
362 Mendeley
citeulike
6 CiteULike
Title
Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth’s magnetic field
Published in
Frontiers in Zoology, December 2013
DOI 10.1186/1742-9994-10-80
Pubmed ID
Authors

Vlastimil Hart, Petra Nováková, Erich Pascal Malkemper, Sabine Begall, Vladimír Hanzal, Miloš Ježek, Tomáš Kušta, Veronika Němcová, Jana Adámková, Kateřina Benediktová, Jaroslav Červený, Hynek Burda

Abstract

Several mammalian species spontaneously align their body axis with respect to the Earth's magnetic field (MF) lines in diverse behavioral contexts. Magnetic alignment is a suitable paradigm to scan for the occurrence of magnetosensitivity across animal taxa with the heuristic potential to contribute to the understanding of the mechanism of magnetoreception and identify further functions of magnetosensation apart from navigation. With this in mind we searched for signs of magnetic alignment in dogs. We measured the direction of the body axis in 70 dogs of 37 breeds during defecation (1,893 observations) and urination (5,582 observations) over a two-year period. After complete sampling, we sorted the data according to the geomagnetic conditions prevailing during the respective sampling periods. Relative declination and intensity changes of the MF during the respective dog walks were calculated from daily magnetograms. Directional preferences of dogs under different MF conditions were analyzed and tested by means of circular statistics.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2,501 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 362 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 6 2%
France 4 1%
United Kingdom 4 1%
Germany 3 <1%
Italy 2 <1%
Ireland 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Hungary 1 <1%
Sweden 1 <1%
Other 6 2%
Unknown 333 92%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 73 20%
Researcher 70 19%
Student > Bachelor 44 12%
Student > Master 35 10%
Professor 19 5%
Other 66 18%
Unknown 55 15%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 121 33%
Physics and Astronomy 23 6%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 17 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 16 4%
Psychology 15 4%
Other 103 28%
Unknown 67 19%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3276. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 March 2024.
All research outputs
#1,854
of 25,593,129 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Zoology
#1
of 700 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5
of 321,126 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Zoology
#1
of 22 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,593,129 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 700 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 321,126 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 22 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.