animal behavior
clock | September 14, 2007Unfortunately, due to the Murphy's Law of conference dates, I will have to miss this fantastic meeting, because I will at the time be at another fantastic meeting, but if you can come, please do - registration will be open online in a few days.
Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity
The conference theme is about bringing scientists and humanities scholars to talk about ways that science is changing human life.
November 8th, 9th, and 10th, the National Humanities Center will host the second ASC conference.
And the program features a Who's Who list:
Thursday, November 8th
Frans de Waal
Martha…
clock | September 8, 2007Two recent examples of successful and aggressive defense against carnivores - the first one was everywhere, but I watched it first on Stranger Fruit (African buffaloes chasing away the lions - with a crocodile playing a supporting role) and the second one just got posted on Anterior Commissure (wildebeest mother chasing away African wild dogs). What great examples of strong parental behaviors - worth your time watching both videos in their entirety:
clock | September 8, 2007It is not unusal to write an obituary when a great scientist passes away. It is much more unusual to do so when a lab animal does so. But when that animal is not just an experimental subject, but also a friend, colleague, teacher and collaborator, than the species boundaries lose importance. And Alex, the famous African Grey Parrot, was just that, and more, to Irene Pepperberg and to the entire field of cognitive ethology. He died yesterday, unexpectedly, at the age of 31 (about half the normal life expectancy for the species) and he will be sorely missed. You can send donations, that…
clock | September 6, 2007Bjoern Brembs placed his latest manuscript about the generation effect in fruitflies on Nature Precedings before resubmitting it to PLoS Biology. He is seeking feedback to make the manuscript better. So, if you think you can, go and try to help him out.
clock | August 29, 2007One cool thing about being a blogging biologist is that one can write every day about sex with a straight face and then blame readers for "having a dirty mind". But sex is so interesting - life would cease to exist without it and it is a central question in biology, so we have a license, nay, duty, to write about it all the time. We get all blase about it, I guess, compared to "normal people". ;-)
One cool story that revolves around sex is making the rounds of the science blogosphere today. Jake Young explains in seemingly dry scientific language:
This issue has spawned a variety of weird…
clock | August 28, 2007If we are not there at the moment of birth, how come we can bond with the baby and be good fathers or good adoptive parents? Kate explains. Obligatory Reading of the Day.
Update: Related is this new article by former Scibling David Dobbs: The Hormone That Helps You Read Minds
Update 2: Matt responds to Kate's post.
Update 3: Kate wrote a follow-up: Why help out? The life of an alloparent
clock | August 22, 2007Do you remember all the buzz about the paper on the not random but not deterministic either behavior in fruitflies? By our blogfriend Bjoern Brembs?
Well, you can now watch the behavior of the insect in the movie associated with the paper. The video is up on SciVee of course - see it here.
And if there is a text box on top of it that bothers you, you can easily toggle it off - see the menu on the left, find Selection and click on the selection you are watching - textbox is gone. Click again, box is back. Also there on the left are Options, one of which includes "disable selection box",…
clock | August 1, 2007The textbook example of commensalism was always the interaction between trees and the birds who make nests in those trees - it was always assumed that the birds gain from this relationships, while the trees are not in any way affected by it.
Now, a new study came out, demonstrating (for the first time, as far as I know - is that correct?), that the relationship between at least some trees and some birds is actually mutualism, i.e., both partners profit from the relationship:
Chickadees, nuthatches and warblers foraging their way through forests have been shown to spur the growth of pine…
clock | July 31, 2007There is a new study this week about an unusual reproductive strategy in a bird, the Penduline Tit, which, if anthropomorphized, would appear to be an example of some really bad, deceptive parenting. But, Anne-Marie and Kate demonstrate the proper way to think about this. Obligatory Readings of the Day.
clock | July 26, 2007Bjoern Brembs is at the ICN meeting and is blogging about the talks he saw. If I went, I would have probably attended a completely different set of talks, e.g., on birdsong, memory in food-caching birds, aggression in crustaceans, strange sensory systems, spatial orientation and animal cognition, but I am certainly glad that Bjoern has highlighted the best of what he saw there:
Robert de Ruyter van Steveninck: Velocity estimation and natural visual input signals
Martin Egelhaaf: Active vision: a strategy of complexity reduction in behavioral control
Roy Ritzmann: Movement through complex…
clock | July 25, 2007In this post from April 06, 2006, I present some unpublished data that you may find interesting.
Understanding the role of serotonin in depression has led to development of anti-depressant drugs, like Prozac. Much of the research in this area has been performed in Crustaceans: lobsters and crayfish. The opposite behavioral state of depression, something considered a normal state, could possibly best be described as self-confidence.
Self-confidence is expressed differently in different species, but seems to always be tied to high status in a social hierarchy. In crayfish, self-confidence is…
clock | July 22, 2007Sea lions are a big draw at Pier 39. I have seen them in zoos many times, but this is the first time I see them in their normal geographical setting, as 'un-natural' it may seem. Unfortunately, only a dozen or so young, non-breeders are here right now. The mature adults are at their breeding grounds, further south, and will be back in August, just after I leave. Still, these were interesting to observe for a while:
clock | July 21, 2007Russ reports on a new study of elephant communication via vibrations transmitted through the ground. It was documented before that elephants could detect these. It was also documented that they could send out infrasonic rumbles which travel faster and farther through the ground than through air. But this is the first study I know of in which there may be hints that this is really a mode of communication between elephants:
For the study, she used recordings of two calls that had been made to warn of hunting lions. One was taped at Etosha, the other in faraway Kenya. They were played at the…
clock | July 18, 2007By The Associated Press
HEMLOCK, Mich. -- A woman who hates spiders is crediting them with helping save her from a house fire. Danielle Vigue, 18, says she awoke early Tuesday to find spiders in her room, and started killing them. When more showed up, she says she went across the hall and got into bed with her 15-year-old sister, Lauren.
"At first there were five, they were all around the light fixture," Danielle Vigue told The Saginaw News. "I hate spiders, they freak me out."
A fire, the newspaper said, apparently was smoldering in the attic of the home about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.…
clock | July 17, 2007A very interesting new paper was published today in PLoS Biology:
Flight Speeds among Bird Species: Allometric and Phylogenetic Effects by Thomas Alerstam, Mikael Rosen, Johan Backman, Per G. P. Ericson and Olof Hellgren:
Analysing the variation in flight speed among bird species is important in understanding flight. We tested if the cruising speed of different migrating bird species in flapping flight scales with body mass and wing loading according to predictions from aerodynamic theory and to what extent phylogeny provides an additional explanation for variation in speed. Flight speeds…
clock | July 11, 2007You really don't want to be an enemy of the aphids - two papers today! The first is quite straightforward:
Aphids Make 'Chemical Weapons' To Fight Off Killer Ladybirds:
Cabbage aphids have developed an internal chemical defence system which enables them to disable attacking predators by setting off a mustard oil 'bomb', says new research. The study shows for the first time how aphids use a chemical found in the plants they eat to emit a deadly burst of mustard oil when they're attacked by a predator, for example a ladybird. This mustard oil kills, injures or repels the ladybird, which then…
clock | July 10, 2007Such fascinating creatures! If you have missed it so far, don't miss it now - the two-part series by Mark H on DailyKos:
Marine Life Series: Horseshoe Crab Basics
Marine Life Series: Horseshoe Crab Anatomy
One day when I find some time, I'll have to write a long detailed post about the fascinating aspects of the circadian system and vision in the horseshoe crab (oh, some of which was done by Erik Herzog, so you know I like the stuff!).
clock | July 3, 2007There is a new paper on PLoS-Biology describing a tit-for-tat-like reciprocal behavior in rats: Generalized Reciprocity in Rats:
The evolution of cooperation is based on four general mechanisms: mutualism, where an action benefits all partners directly; kin selection, where related individuals are supported; "green beard" altruism that is based on a genetic correlation between altruism genes and respective markers; and reciprocal altruism, where helpful acts are contingent upon the likelihood of getting help in return. The latter mechanism is intriguing because it is prone to exploitation. In…
clock | June 13, 2007Probably not. You are not one of Pavlov's dogs, after all. Or a Pavlov's cat for that matter. Or a Pavlov's sea slug. But, see what's your salivary response to reading a brand new paper on Pavlov's cockroaches and report your findings in the comments.