Google Earth has enabled scientists to prove the theory that cows automatically point to the north because they have their own in-built compasses aligning them with the Earth's magnetic field.

Farmers have long had sayings that cows appear to have a talent for weather forecasting and are able to predict when rain is on the way. For some reason they have always been able to find North. Various theories have suggested that it all might be a relic from the days when their wild ancestors needed an accurate sense of direction to migrate across the plains of Africa, Asia and Europe.  Others just felt they were standing out of the wind.

Dr Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen studied thousands of images of cattle on Google Earth in Britain, Ireland, India and the USA.

However Begall looked at the wind direction and sunlight in the areas and could rule this out as a factor.

In an article he wrote for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal Belgall wrote that the magnetic field is the only common and most likely factor responsible for the observed alignment. X