This Is Why Dogs Spin Around Before They Poop

Most dog owners have probably been puzzled and possibly impatient waiting for their dog to do its business. Instead of just finding a soft area of grass to go number two, they make a whole ritual out of it, spinning in a circle before finally squatting. Luckily, the ultimate pet owners’ question may finally have been answered.

A few theories have circulated about why dogs might circle before pooping, and most are similar to the reasons they spin before lying down. Trampling around in a circle would flatten the grass around, which would keep tall blades from trapping their waste and hitting their butt while they poop.【小题1】

But Czech researcher Hynek Burda didn’t quite buy into those theories.【小题2】 And if they were scanning their environment, keeping still to listen and sniff would be more effective than giving the area a quick once-over. Instead, Burda suggested that dogs spin to get a feel for the Earth’s magnetic pull.

The Earth has a magnetic field around it protecting it from radiation from space, and some animals seem to use it to get a sense of where its North and South poles are.【小题3】 In 2013, Burda published a study in the journal Frontiers in Zoology suggesting dogs have a strong internal compass, too. He and his team spent two years watching 70 dogs poop and pee and recording which way they faced and how strong the magnetic field was.

As it turns out, when the magnetic field was calm, dogs preferred to poop facing either north or south.【小题4】 The pattern couldn’t explain why dogs like facing the Earth’s poles, but the researchers think it might help them remember where they marked their territory. “Doing so, and calibrating his magnetic compass, is probably easier for him when being aligned with the magnetic field,” Burda told the Washington Post. 【小题5】

So before you roll your eyes when your dog takes ages to do his business, remember that pet might just be getting scientific about his potty spot.

When photographer Simon Czapp took pictures of a curious five-month-old fox, he soon realized this little fox was attracted by his subject. The clever fox was so curious about the camera equipment that she climbed on top of it. And while she was supposed to be the subject of the shoot, the fox stood on the shutter release button (快门按钮) and took her own frames.

Mr. Czapp visited the New Forest Wildlife Park to capture images of new arrival Jessie. Jessie is a lovely little fox. She has been at the animal park in Ashurst, Hampshire—home to wolves, deer and others in 25 acres of ancient woodland after being abandoned by her mother.

Mr. Czapp said, “Jessie was very playful and curious and not shy at all in front of the camera. Soon after I arrived she was chewing my shoes and everything seemed to be a game to her. Then she started exploring the camera I had set up on a tripod (三脚架). She stood on her back legs to look at the back of the camera. She balanced her front paws on it and at one point knocked it over. ”

He put the camera back on the tripod and Jessie soon jumped back up. At one point she had all four paws on the camera and was keeping her balance. Mr. Czapp added, “She jumped up there several times and I realized it could make a good picture. As I was leaving away with the public’s viewing window (取景窗) behind me, I thought I heard the camera go off but didn’t think much of it. However, when I checked the memory card afterwards, I was amazed to see Jessie had actually taken two frames of me photographing her. I couldn’t believe I had been outfoxed (智取) by a fox! There were some lovely photos of her but she obviously thought the photographer was worthy of a picture too! ”

Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua have made medical history as the first cloned primates (灵长目动物),with the efforts of a team of Chinese scientists.

According to the journal Cell , it is a milestone for biomedical research. It could potentially lead to the development of new treatments for human disease. But it also makes ethicists (伦理学者) about where this all might lead. Do Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua suggest the coming of human cloning?

Born in 1996, Dolly the sheep was the first cloned mammal, and was followed by many more, including dogs, rabbits and pigs. But researchers were unable to clone primates because the genes involved didn’t react well to the procedure. Over the years, a handful of research institutions have tried and failed to birth a live monkey clone.

The successful team, at Shanghai’s Chinese Academy of Sciences, used the same basic method that created Dolly but had failed in subsequent(随后的) primate cloning attempts. It’s called somatic（躯体）cell nuclear transfer and involves transferring DNA from adult cells into eggs that have had their own DNA removed. Without the addition of sperm(精子), the eggs are stimulated （刺激）chemically to develop into an embryo that’s a clone of the DNA donor(提供者). The embryo is then placed into a substitue(替代) for gestation（妊娠）.

The researchers modified the approach in two important ways, however. Rather than use adult cells in the DNA transfer, they used fetal (胎儿)cells, which react better to chemical stimuli（刺激）for embryo development, says Mu-ming Poo, director of the academy’s Institute of Neuroscience and a co-autho of the paper. They also fine-tuned the cell transfer process to minimize damage to the eggs

As for creating human clones, Poo says the research shows it can be done, but he and his team have no interest. “Besides many technical dificulties that remain to be overcome, we see no justifiable reason to do human cloning,” says Poo, “nor would the societies around the world permit such an attempt.”

While human cells may be cloned experimentally, for example to research tissue regeneration, the cloning of an entire human is illegal in more than 70 countries, according to the Center for Genetics and Society. U.S. law does not ban it, but over a dozen states do. (Discover 2019J&F,P60.)