title: Magnetic alignment in carps: evidence from the Czech christmas fish market.
abstract: While magnetoreception in birds has been studied intensively, the literature on magnetoreception in bony fish, and particularly in non-migratory fish, is quite scarce. We examined alignment of common carps (Cyprinus carpio) at traditional Christmas sale in the Czech Republic. The sample comprised measurements of the directional bearings in 14,537 individual fish, distributed among 80 large circular plastic tubs, at 25 localities in the Czech Republic, during 817 sampling sessions, on seven subsequent days in December 2011. We found that carps displayed a statistically highly significant spontaneous preference to align their bodies along the North-South axis. In the absence of any other common orientation cues which could explain this directional preference, we attribute the alignment of the fish to the geomagnetic field lines. It is apparent that the display of magnetic alignment is a simple experimental paradigm of great heuristic potential.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Praha, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Vlastimil
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hart
authors.forename: Tomáš
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kušta
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Němec
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bláhová
authors.forename: Miloš
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ježek
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nováková
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Begall
authors.forename: Jaroslav
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cervený
authors.forename: Vladimír
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hanzal
authors.forename: Erich Pascal
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Malkemper
authors.forename: Kamil
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stípek
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vole
authors.forename: Hynek
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Burda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002347:Carps / Q000502:physiology*; D003132:Commerce; D018153:Czech Republic; D008027:Light; D060328:Magnetic Phenomena; D009949:Orientation; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water