Adámková Jana, Svoboda Jan, Benediktová Kateřina, Martini Sabine, Nováková Petra, Tůma David, Kučerová Michaela, Divišová Michaela, Begall Sabine, Hart Vlastimil, Burda Hynek
Department of Game Management and Wildlife Biology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, Praha 6, Czech Republic.
Department of General Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
PLoS One. 2017 Sep 25;12(9):e0185243. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185243. eCollection 2017.
Laterality is a well described phenomenon in domestic dogs. It was shown that dogs, under calm Earth's magnetic field conditions, when marking their home ranges, tend to head about north- or southwards and display thus magnetic alignment. The question arises whether magnetic alignment might be affected or even compromised by laterality and vice versa. We tested the preference of dogs to choose between two dishes with snacks that were placed left and right, in different compass directions (north and east, east and south, south and west or west and north) in front of them. Some dogs were right-lateral, some left-lateral but most of them were ambilateral. There was a preference for the dish placed north compared to the one placed east of the dog ("pull of the north"). This effect was highly significant in small and medium-sized breeds but not in larger breeds, highly significant in females, in older dogs, in lateralized dogs but less significant or not significant in males, younger dogs, or ambilateral dogs. Laterality and "pull of the north" are phenomena which should be considered in diverse tasks and behavioral tests with which dogs or other animals might be confronted. The interaction and possible conflict between lateralization and "pull of the north" might be also considered as a reason for shifted magnetic alignment observed in different animal species in different contexts.
偏侧性是家犬中一种已被充分描述的现象。研究表明，在平静的地磁场条件下，狗在标记其活动范围时，往往会朝着大致北方或南方行进，从而表现出磁定向。问题在于，磁定向是否可能受到偏侧性的影响甚至损害，反之亦然。我们测试了狗在面前不同罗盘方向（北和东、东和南、南和西或西和北）左右两侧放置的装有零食的两个盘子之间进行选择的偏好。有些狗是右侧偏侧，有些是左侧偏侧，但大多数是双侧的。与放置在狗东侧的盘子相比，狗对放置在北侧的盘子有偏好（“北方拉力”）。这种效应在中小型犬种中非常显著，但在大型犬种中不显著，在雌性犬、老年犬、偏侧性犬中非常显著，但在雄性犬、年轻犬或双侧犬中不太显著或不显著。在涉及狗或其他动物的各种任务和行为测试中，应考虑偏侧性和“北方拉力”现象。偏侧化和“北方拉力”之间的相互作用以及可能的冲突，也可能被视为在不同背景下不同动物物种中观察到的磁定向变化的一个原因。
