News tagged with animal behaviors

Scientists learn much about humans from birds' singing lessons

Why wasn't this intruder getting the message? The lord of the manor had warned him repeatedly to back off, with threatening gestures and loud admonitions. But the trespasser just sat there - singing.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 18, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Scientists discover first ever record of insect pollination from 100 million years ago

Amber from Cretaceous deposits (110-105 my) in Northern Spain has revealed the first ever record of insect pollination. Scientists have discovered in two pieces of amber several specimens of tiny insects covered ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 14, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Robosquirrels versus rattlesnakes

Robot squirrels from the University of California, Davis, are going into rattlesnake country near San Jose, continuing a research project on the interaction between squirrels and rattlesnakes.

Electronics / Robotics

created Apr 03, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

World record find: Oldest evidence of lobsters living together discovered in gas shale

(PhysOrg.com) -- Discovering direct animal behavior from the fossil record can only be done in exceptional circumstances. Such circumstances exist in the German Posidonia gas shale from the Jurassic period ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Mar 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (11) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Chronic stress in elephants can affect long-term behavior

Stress is known to lead to short-term escape behavior, and new research on elephants in South Africa shows that it can also cause long-term escape behavior, affecting the extent that elephants use their habitat. The work ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 22, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Honeybees shown to speak directly to hornets

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most higher order animals have some means for “speaking” with enemies or predators. Dogs and cats growl and hiss for example when threatened to let others know not to mess with ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 15, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Hunger may inhibit defensive behavior

Most animals don't spend nearly as much time and energy defending nesting or mating sites against intruders outside the breeding season. That's a given.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Bonobos' unusual success story

Mate competition by males over females is common in many animal species. During mating season male testosterone levels rise, resulting in an increase in aggressive behavior and masculine features. Male bonobos, ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Evolutionary psychologists find macaques more likely influenced by friends than family

(PhysOrg.com) -- In order to better understand human relationships, researchers who study such things often turn to other primates for the simple reason that they are more accessible, being locked up in zoos ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2 | with audio podcast report

Early growth trajectories have long-term effects on fitness, study finds

(PhysOrg.com) -- Food supply and environmental conditions affect the growth rates of organisms, which in turn influence future survival and reproduction. A new study by researchers at the University of California, ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Wandering females give stags the slip

The fierce battles of rutting stags may be the most famous symbols of males competing over females in the animal kingdom. But it turns out the stags don't have things all their own way.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 19, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Crows are capable of distinguishing symbols, study finds

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study published in Animal Behavior shows that crows are capable of recognizing symbols designed to represent different quantities and is one of many different studies currently lookin ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 10, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 10 | with audio podcast report

Polar dinosaur tracks open new trail to past

Paleontologists have discovered a group of more than 20 polar dinosaur tracks on the coast of Victoria, Australia, offering a rare glimpse into animal behavior during the last period of pronounced global warming, about 105 ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Aug 09, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Surviving sex with black widows

Scientists have discovered that male black widow spiders, famous for ending up as their mates' post-coital supper, are not as clueless as you might think. In a series of careful experiments, a team of researchers ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 08, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Manakins, birds of tropical forests, cooperate for common goal

(PhysOrg.com) -- Leks, they're called, gatherings of males of certain animal species for competitive mating displays. But not every lek's members are competitors, scientists have learned. Some--birds called ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast