Animal behavior is the scientific study of the observable actions, interactions, and behavioral patterns of animals, typically investigated within ethology, behavioral ecology, and comparative psychology. It encompasses mechanisms (proximate causes such as neural, hormonal, and genetic control), development (ontogeny and learning), function (adaptive value in survival and reproductive success), and evolution (phylogenetic history and divergence among taxa). Research on animal behavior quantifies activities such as foraging, mating systems, parental care, communication, social organization, and antipredator strategies, often integrating experimental, observational, and modeling approaches to understand how behavior emerges from organism–environment interactions and contributes to fitness and ecological dynamics.
Baboons are one of the most widespread of Africa's primate groups. They range across sub-Saharan Africa and into the Arabian Peninsula. Baboons' ability to spread across such a vast geographic area is based on their great ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 27, 2026
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A new study by an international research team led by Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) has revealed striking similarities in the way humans and dogs interact ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 27, 2026
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When biologists study cooperation in animals, they usually offer just a single task at a time. But what happens when animals can choose among several opportunities to work together? Biologists at Utrecht University discovered ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 26, 2026
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Until recently, researchers were unable to conduct satellite-tracking studies on juvenile turtles because of their small body sizes and immediate dispersal into the ocean, leaving this period of their lives enigmatic and ...
Scientists have shown that the stride length of the front legs (but not the hind legs) of senior and geriatric dogs decreases as their cognitive performance worsens. In contrast, chronological age itself was a poor predictor ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 25, 2026
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Deep within the dark caves of northeastern Mexico lives a fish that has spent hundreds of thousands of years adapting to a world without light. The blind Mexican cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus) has evolved in perpetual darkness, ...
Evolution
Jun 24, 2026
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For conservation and the management of human–wildlife conflicts, it is of great interest to know which species are eaten by carnivores. Scientists from the Ngorongoro Hyena Project at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 24, 2026
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If drought in an area persists longer, elephants move closer to areas near human settlements. This is the finding of research by biologist Irene Bouwman of Radboud University. During short-term droughts, the animals remain ...
Ecology
Jun 23, 2026
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A new study has uncovered a fundamental link between brain size and offspring size, helping to solve a long-standing evolutionary puzzle: Why do birds lay such disproportionately large eggs?
Evolution
Jun 23, 2026
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220
Many bat species emit echolocation calls and use the returning echoes to find their way, detect the presence of fluttering insects, and locate and catch them. A new study investigated this behavior in greater horseshoe bats ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2026
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