TheStudyofAnimalBehavior

This field is where a large expanse of the fun facts on animals originate. From research comes interesting and weird information about all animals on this planet. Learn about a few of these things here. Feel free to message with any of your questions, research, or findings!

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http://news.discovery.com/animals/sharks/sand-tiger-sharks-surprisingly-social-in-open-ocean-160224.htm

In a new study it is believed that sand tiger sharks are more social than previously thought. AFter acoustically tagging 300 sharks, researchers found that these sharks actually spend much of their time together, with about 200 encounters per year. At the start of spring however, the number of interactions greatly diminishes (possibly due to mating periods).

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Blue monkeys have a surprising low levels of aggression and stable hierarchies. So they have no confines against grooming with everyone in the group. Kin based bias (grooming one’s offspring more than others) is not present. However, with changing group size, the amount of time spent on each individual, including one’s kin, becomes more limited in order to groom every one.

“Effects of demographic context on kin-based affiliation in wild female blue monkeys” E Nikiitopoulos et al

Photo credit: http://www.bioexpedition.com/blue-monkey/

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Climate change is having more repercussions in the north than we think. As the snow melts exposing the ice below, the usually dark sea floors are being exposed to light. This benefits northward-spreading species like Atlantic cod, salmon, mackerel, and herring which are expected to find it much easier to see and catch prey. However keystone species, like polar cod, will suffer due to the new competition.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/151217-arctic-ice-fish-predators-prey-animals-science/

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Lemon damselfish use a technique in which they call more predators in order to protect themselves. At Uppsala University researchers found that a damselfish will emit chemical signals that actually call other known predators of the damselfish to the scene of the attack. As weird as this may sound, the two predators fighting over the damselfish gives the fish a 40% greater chance of escaping into nearby coral 

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/06/damselfish-in-distress-release-chemicals-that-summon-more-enemies/?sf15092594=1

Image: http://myfishgallery.com/marine-life/lemon-damsel/

[thestudyofanimalbehavior]

A new study released revealed that a species of tortoise on the Galapagos Islands are in fact two very separate species. Though they looked rather different, they were believed to be undergoing speciation (a term Darwin coined to describe how different biotic/abiotic factors could cause different adaptations within 2 different groups to become separate species). However, it is now shown that the new species of the turtles on the western side of the island broke off 1.74 million years ago in contrast to the eastern turtles that broke off about 0.5 million years ago. It turns out that there are only about 150 of this new species on the island (and anywhere in the world). So this news of a new species is hoped to bring greater awareness to the extremely critical endangerment of these turtles.

http://www.livescience.com/52545-new-species-galapagos-tortoise.html

photo credit: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/a-new-species-of-giant-tortoise-was-just-discovered-in-the-galapagos-20151022-gkgi76.html AP

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Lek exploded courtship consists of the puffing of the feathers and trotting back and forth as well as a vocalization. The call made is sufficient in its own to provide some mating success but the system is multimodal. Both the visual and acoustic signals help a female to have strong mate preference. The same occurs with birds. The males court the females with a bow and vocalization. The more potent the call and the greater the bow the better. Both help the female to select her mate.

The role of multimodal sensory reception in female mating decisions- KL Ronald

Rapid Research #55

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Amazon mollies are all female or hermaphrodites created as a deviation of the atlantic molly and the salifn molly. they must mate with either an atlantic molly male or saflin molly in order to reproduce. These females do have olfactory senses that allow them to merely smell the pheromones of those in their groups to know where they are. Especially the younger ones spend more time associating with their conspecifics.

Do asexual mollies use chemical cues to avoid associating with diseased individuals? LP Reding

Rapid Research #54

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The draco, indigenous to Southeast Asia, has long flaps that can be elongated from its body to help it glide through the air. These pategia does change its colors though depending on there the species resides. Possibly due to risk of predation, the colors on their wings closely resemble the color of the leaves of the trees that they glide from. When the trees are falling they are distinct colors that match the draco’s wings almost perfectly. This may help for an aerial predator can’t notice where they are as they are landing.

Marked color divergence in gliding membranes of a lizard mirror population differences in the color of falling leaves- DA Klomp

Rapid Research #53

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Frogs produce vocalizations at night to get females to come. When she does, she attaches herself to him and he carries we to the water. There she lays her eggs and the male fertilizes them.

Genes, peeps, and non-random hook ups: a population genetics approach to mate choice in the spring peeper- RC Taylor

Rapid Research #52

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Fish are a lot smarter than they look; there able to make decisions about their direction based on following knowledgeable individuals. If the decision on where to go is split, majority is able to direct the place in which the fish will go. But if the minority really wants to go to a certain direction and they stay firm with their beliefs, the majority will follow the minority. However when individuals are added to the group and they don't have their own opinion, majority will be able to direct the direction they go.

"Collective sensing and decision making in animal groups" Dr Iain Couzin

Rapid Research #51

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Baboon groups are connected mainly by one central individual that has familial ties with all the others in the group. When she dies, there are links between some of the baboons so they can either split into two separate groups or merge together. The baboons actually compensate for the loss of the central individual and combine to groom and be groomed by those that the central individual groomed.

"Changes in baboon social networks following the death of individuals" M Franz

Rapid Research #50

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Strong social bonds are indicative among lemurs depending on how much they groom each other. The more time spent grooming the stronger the bond. However due to the closeness needed for grooming one cannot show the bond unless within close proximity with the individual. However contact calls are also used to talk to those that one individual is most connected with. It will be more vocal towards those who they groom more with. Regardless of group size or the presence of an actual Lemur, vocal calls are said to be long-distance grooming and are exchanged between those with great social bonds.

"Lemur vocal communication networks indicate social relationships" IG Kulahci

Rapid Research #49

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Upon adulthood, male rhesus macaques must disperse from their families and join a new group. There are many costs to this. The monkey must form new relationships while breaking old ones. There is also a higher mortality rate among dispersing monkeys due to predation from being alone. For these apparent reasons, during the time leading up to dispersal and actually dispersing and joining a new group, the monkeys are very stressed. They experience this transient stress with elevated Testosterone and Glucocortosone levels. The genes that deal with dispersal and the stress related to it are also connected with the immune system; which postulates that these stress levels take a toll on the monkeys' well being.

Dispersal transiently alters the expression of immune-related genes in male rhesus macaques- N Synder-Mackler

Rapid Research #48

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The spring pepper frog is indigenous to two different areas: Louisiana and Maryland. The Louisiana females have no distinguishable preference for the type of calls made by the male. The Maryland females on the other hand were pretty picky. They mated with males with no sweeps and preferred lower frequency scores. The Louisiana group though had more homogeneous individuals (with a lot of variation in the group). The Maryland group may in fact be an incipient species, branching off from the Louisiana group to have more specific mating call preference.

Genes, peeps, and non-random hook ups: a population genetics approach to mate choice in the spring peeper- RC Taylor

Rapid Research #47

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McDonalds has recently announced that it will be making the conversion over to cage-free eggs. This is a big step for McDonald’s because their customer load is so huge that buying solely cage free eggs could have a huge difference on farm life for hens. They will begin by buying 1 million cage free eggs a month (only 5% of eggs currently on the market are cage free so this fully sustainable yet) but as they are able to get more cage free eggs they will be the new star of the Egg McMuffins and Breakfast burritos (a process that can easily take up to 10 years!). This may seem like a small thing, and it will in no way make up for all the mass producing of animals McDonald’s must go through to feed their customers, but it shows that improvement is coming...it’s just a slow battle!

For more info:  http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110519/NEWS07/110519830/mcdonalds-to-start-using-cage-free-eggs

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If an animal is able to detect a parasite within itself, it is able to adapt and change space use, eat infectives, and reduce activity to try to get the parasite out. Some animals compensate for their parasites, so while they still get them, they are able to continue their lives by working harder essentially. Other animals build up such an immunity that they never get the parasites in the first place.

Coevolution between hosts and manipulative parasites selects for behavioral variation- SP Fogarty

Rapid Research #46

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Geladas are an interesting species of monkeys as they have soft calls that are distinct to other species. They not only grunt in multiple instances to promote group cohesion but they also have social grunts that signal affiliative nature. Their grunts are higher than those of other monkeys possibly due to competing for sound with the high winds in the mountains they live in.

Why grunt? Exploring the form and function of soft calls in geladas and other primates- ML Gustison

Rapid Research #45