Animal Behaviour:
It now seems clear that we have grossly underestimated the cognitive abilities of other animals. In recent years, research has shown, for example, that African cichlids use simple logic to infer their social status, and that rodents can think abstractly...
Read on »
Posted on April 2, 2008 7:55 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Traditionally, the use of tools was believed to be restricted to humans and several other primate species, and, like language, was argued to be a major driving force behind the evolution of the human brain. However, this view is now...
Read on »
Posted on March 26, 2008 4:09 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Sea cucumbers are marine invertebrates which live on the sea floor and feed on debris that drift down. When threatened, they can harden their skin within seconds, so that they are less likely to be devoured by the approaching predator.This...
Read on »
Posted on March 8, 2008 3:25 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In this wonderful passage from King Solomon's Ring, Konrad Lorenz, who, together with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch founded the science of ethology, describes some of the behaviours of his pet capuchin monkey Gloria: She occupied a large, roomy...
Posted on December 28, 2007 7:10 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The film clip below shows a pack of killer whales co-operating to catch a seal. First, they break up the ice floe on which their prey is standing, and push it out into open water. Then, they create large waves...
Read on »
Posted on December 15, 2007 7:41 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Researchers from Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute report that a young chimp can out-perform university students on a working memory task. (Cognitive psychologists use the term working memory to refer to the temporary storage and manipulation of information.)The researchers developed...
Read on »
Posted on December 3, 2007 6:37 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Using sophisticated techniques to silence or activate specific neurons, researchers from Stanford University have established that a simple behaviour used by fruit fly larvae to evade attack from parasitic wasps is triggered by a type of sensory neuron that...
Read on »
Posted on December 1, 2007 7:33 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
An individual ant is quite insignificant, but a large group of ants can do quite remarkable things. Likewise, neurons evolved to communicate with each other, and are quite useless except when connected to a network of other neurons.I've always...
Posted on November 14, 2007 4:28 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A new paper about the reproductive behaviour of the spiny anteater, to be published in the December issue of American Naturalist, makes for fascinating - if slightly disturbing - reading.The spiny anteater (Tachyglossuss aculeatus) is a primitive mammal with an...
Read on »
Posted on October 28, 2007 4:02 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ants and aphids have a symbiotic (or mutually beneficial) relationship. The aphids provide the ants with a food-source - the sugar-rich honeydew they excrete when eating plants - and, in return, the ants protect the aphids from ladybirds and...
Read on »
Posted on October 11, 2007 7:42 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
