Oh well that's the funny thing, Southwest is the next best direction given that it's on the same axis as northeast.

> a large majority (74%) of successful attacks in high cover were confined to a cluster centred about 20° clockwise of magnetic north with a small (15%) secondary cluster at due south, while attacks in other directions were largely unsuccessful.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3097881/ (there's a nice little chart showing angular preference.

The researchers also mention a previous study they'd worked on in the first paragraph of the introduction, dealing with the geomagnetic alignment of grazing cattle. I hadn't read this one before so I took the time, and it's equally fascinating. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2533210/

If the fox jumps northeast preferentially prey facing that way will see the fox more often. There is some equilibrium here I can't calculate but that was the thinking behind my joke.