Page 40 - World of Animals - Issue #30

Nature’s most cunning

Red foxes use the

Earth’s magnetic field

to aid their hunting

Everyone’s heard the phrase ‘as cunning as a fox’, but do
these supposedly crafty canines live up to their reputation?
Certainly, if their remarkable hunting technique is anything
to go by. Unlike wolves, red foxes tend to be solitary hunters,
stealthily stalking their prey before leaping high into the air
and striking the clueless victim from above.
The fox’s recognisable pouncing technique is called
mousing, and it’s thought by some scientists to rely on the
Earth’s magnetic field. Other animals such as birds, bats and
sharks also use the magnetic field like a sixth sense.
As if using a built-in compass, the prowling predators tend
to jump in a northeasterly direction when catching their
food, and are much more likely to make a kill when they do
so. It’s believed that the fox can accurately target its prey
by comparing the angle of sound waves hitting its super-
sensitive ears with the axis of the Earth’s magnetic field. Once
these two curvatures match up, the fox is able to pinpoint the
exact distance it will need to jump in order to make a kill –
sometimes from as far as five metres (16 feet) away.
RED FOX
Vulpes vulpes
Class Mammalia

Territory Throughout
Northern Hemisphere
Diet Rodents, rabbits, birds,
reptiles, insects, fruit
Lifespan 2 to 4 years
Adult weight 9kg (20lb)
Conservation status

LEAST CONCERN

“As if using a built-in compass,

the predators tend to jump in a
northeasterly direction”

Alligator snapping turtles fool
fish with their worm-like tongues

There’s a good reason why fishermen camouflaged against the rocky riverbed,
use worms as bait: fish find them the turtle’s cylindrical pink tongue could
irresistible. Alligator snapping turtles easily be mistaken for a worm. This
also know this, and have developed a cunning illusion spells disaster for any
sneaky technique to take advantage of it. curious fish that is drawn to it – they
meet an untimely end when the turtle
The prehistoric-looking reptile tends
© Thinkstock; Corbis; FLPA; Nature PL “The cunning illusion spells disaster
clamps down its jaws, which are strong
to lurk at the bottom of murky waters
with its jaws wide open. With its mouth
enough to bite a broom handle in half.
for any curious fish drawn to it”

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