Discovery
3 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2014–2021
2:49 · 39M views · Jul 5, 2013
A short Discovery nature clip from North America showing a red fox listening for field mice under the snow and then diving headfirst to catch them. The narration says the fox uses its hearing and the Earth's magnetic field to aim its jump.
HN commenters cite the footage as anecdotal evidence in threads about animals sensing the Earth's magnetic field, and for the head-tilt listening behavior.
3 comments from Hacker News
Watch [1] @ 1:08. Is it really a mystery as to why canines tilt their heads when spoken to? It's always seemed self-evident that they are hearing a sound that is of interest and they are evaluating to see if it's useful information. 1. this video
> any plausible reason for a non-migrating animal to align with the magnetic field, when defecating or at any other time. Snow foxes seem to hunt better when oriented in direction of the magnetic north. [LINK] this video
I remember seeing a show remarking on similar sensitivity being observed in foxes when hunting mice in the snow. Apparently, the fox is much more accurate when diving when facing north. this video