animal behavior
awild | March 4, 2009Achenbach, A., Foitzik, S. 2009. FIRST EVIDENCE FOR SLAVE REBELLION: ENSLAVED ANT WORKERS SYSTEMATICALLY KILL THE BROOD OF THEIR SOCIAL PARASITE PROTOMOGNATHUS AMERICANUS . Evolution, Online Early, doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00591.x
Abstract: During the process of coevolution, social parasites have evolved sophisticated strategies to exploit the brood care behavior of their social hosts. Slave-making ant queens invade host colonies and kill or eject all adult host ants. Host workers, which eclose from the remaining brood, are tricked into caring for the parasite brood. Due to their high…
clock | February 14, 2009w00t! Miriam Goldstein had a piece published in Slate! The real references to that piece arehere.
grrlscientist | February 3, 2009tags: Luna the orca, Orcinus orca, orca, killer whale, wildlife, streaming video
This video is from my other home. This is footage of Luna, an orca ("killer whale") Orcinus orca, who was a southern resident (fish eating) whale who tragically died 10 March 2006 when she was hit by a large tugboat in British Columbia's Nookta Sound. Luna lived a solitary life after she found herself alone hundreds of miles away from her feeding grounds. Luna was lonely. She was very affectionate and social, making friends with boats, humans and other animals during her short and sad life [2:38].
clock | February 1, 2009Long-time readers of this blog remember that, some years ago, I did a nifty little study on the Influence of Light Cycle on Dominance Status and Aggression in Crayfish. The department has moved to a new building, the crayfish lab is gone, I am out of science, so chances of following up on that study are very low. And what we did was too small even for a Least Publishable Unit, so, in order to have the scientific community aware of our results, I posted them (with agreement from my co-authors) on my blog. So, although I myself am unlikely to continue studying the relationship between the…
clock | January 13, 2009Evolution is the theme of the month for January at PLoS ONE, so we have picked , for your pleasure, some of our papers for the Top picks in Evolutionary Biology. In conjuction with this, I have also conducted an interview with our Evolution Section Editor Dr.Tom Tregenza.
Dr.Tom Tregenza studies sexual selection and sexual conflict in crickets, both in the lab and in the field, and we discuss some of his research in the interview. He is also involved in a collaborative study of the amazing mimic octopus - see the movie below - so I hope you go and check out the interview:
clock | January 9, 2009This is your weekend reading - lots of it, some fascinating, some enraging, but perhaps if enough people are aware and scream loudly enough, something can be done:
Assistance Monkeys, Ducks, Parrots, Pigs and Ducks ... Should the law protect them?
More Follow Up on NYT Story About Assistance Creatures
More Assistance Creature Follow Up - The History of Service Monkeys, Plus Monkey Waiters
Newsflash! DOJ ADA Changes Leaked -- All Animals Set to Be Banned Except Dogs
DoJ's Rationale Behind Banning Non-Canine Service Animals
DOJ's Proposal and Rationale for Allowing Psychiatric Service Animals (…
clock | December 31, 2008
See the discussion about identification of this strange animal here. Is it correct?
clock | December 24, 2008Naughty male Australian satin bower bird selectively steals blue items to decorate his nest. The female bower birds rate their partner by their home decor so they do a lot of stealing.
clock | December 23, 2008In National Geographic:
A new investigation into the tangled sex lives of deep-sea squid has uncovered a range of bizarre mating techniques. The cephalopods' intimate encounters include cutting holes into their partners for sex, swapping genders, and deploying flesh-burrowing sperm. These and other previously unknown reproductive strategies were documented in a survey of ten squid species living worldwide at depths of between 984 and 3,937 feet (300 and 1,200 meters). Study leader Henk-Jan Hoving, a Ph.D. student at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, examined squid caught during…
clock | December 23, 2008A well-written press release on a very well done and exciting study:
Honey bees on cocaine dance more, changing ideas about the insect brain:
In a study published in 2007, Robinson and his colleagues reported that treatment with octopamine caused foraging honey bees to dance more often. This indicated that octopamine played a role in honey bee dance behavior. It also suggested a framework for understanding the evolution of altruistic behavior, Robinson said.
"The idea behind that study was that maybe this mechanism that structures selfish behavior - eating - was co-opted during social…
grrlscientist | December 17, 2008tags: yawning, thermoregulation, budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulatus, animal behavior
Yawning human, Homo sapiens serving as a perch for a domestic budgerigar, Melopsittacus undulatus.
Image: Wendy (Creative Commons License).
Yawning. Everybody does it. In fact, I am yawning now as I write this piece. Yawning is interpreted to have a variety of meanings, ranging from tiredness to boredom. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that yawning is contagious among humans, at least: watching someone else yawn, seeing a photograph or reading about -- and even the mere thought of -- yawning is…