tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61797251436948486032024-03-18T01:16:44.179-07:00The Scorpion and the Frog...it's in our nature!Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.comBlogger297125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-31819147192329578392019-10-13T18:23:00.000-07:002019-10-13T18:23:28.381-07:004 Real-Life Monsters<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A repost of an <a href="https://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2015/10/4-real-life-monsters.html" target="_blank">original article</a> published October 26, 2015.<br /><br />
During the Halloween season, we find ourselves surrounded by monsters in movies, stores and decorations. We laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, oblivious to the fact that <i>there are true monsters on our planet today</i>! Mind you, these are not monsters in that they are evil, but they do have many of the same abilities and inclinations of our own mythical werewolves, vampires, zombies and shape-shifters.</span><br />
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Werewolf birds:</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EU-rUKyF-6E/Vi5n9gFHRXI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/0fvL_0gUicY/s1600/Petrel_Barau%2Bby%2BSEOR%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="107" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EU-rUKyF-6E/Vi5n9gFHRXI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/0fvL_0gUicY/s200/Petrel_Barau%2Bby%2BSEOR%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Barau's petrel. Photo by SEOR<br />
available at Wikimedia Commons.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Barau’s petrel is a migrating sea bird that is most <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21215-zoologger-werewolf-birds-hook-up-by-the-full-moon.html">active during nights with a full moon</a>. Researchers tied bio-loggers on the birds’ feet to track their activity levels and found that under the full moon, the birds spent nearly 80% of these moonlit nights in flight! It is thought that since these birds migrate <i>longitudinally</i> (parallel with the equator), they can’t use changes in day length as a cue to synchronize their breeding, so they use the phases of the moon instead. </span><br />
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<h3>
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Vampire bats:</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;"><br />
Three different bat species <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2015/10/vampires.html">feed solely on blood</a>: the common vampire bat, the hairy-legged vampire bat and the white-winged vampire bat. Feeding on blood is not uncommon – The actual term for it is <i><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2015/10/vampires.html">hematophagy</a></i>, and it is common in insects (think of those pesky mosquitos) and leeches. Although we don’t commonly think of it this way, blood is a body tissue and, like meat, it is rich in protein and calories. The reason it has not become a more popular food source among mammals is probably because it is so watered down (literally) compared to meat, that it can’t provide enough nutrition to sustain a large warm-bodied mammal. This is where our little vampire bat friends come in… small, stealthy, and with specialized saliva that prevents their victims’ blood from clotting, these guys are able to take advantage of this abundant resource, drinking up to half of their body weight in blood every night.</span><br />
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<h2>
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Zombees:</span></h3>
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Scientists have recently discovered some strange honey bees: They mindlessly leave their hives in the middle of the night and fly in circles, often towards lights. It turns out that these honey bees are being parasitized by a species of phorid fly called the zombie fly. Female phorid flies lay their eggs inside the abdomens of honey bees, where the eggs hatch into larvae. The larvae feed on the insides of their bee hosts until they are mature enough to leave through the poor bee’s neck (the honey bee is generally dead by this time). Once out, the zombie flies develop into adults so they can breed and start the cycle anew with a new bee host. This phenomenon is still in the early stages of discovery, so if you would like to get involved in this project by watching honey bees in your area, check out <a href="https://www.zombeewatch.org/">ZomBee Watch</a>, a citizen science project to track this zombie infestation.</span><br />
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Shape shifters:</span></h3>
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The <a href="http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/accumulating-glitches/the_mimic_octopus_master_of">mimic octopus</a> is a small harmless octopus that lives on the exposed shallow sandy bottoms of river mouths. To avoid its many predators it has developed an amazing strategy: it pretends to be something else, morphing its body into new shapes, like the shape of a deadly lion-fish, a poisonous flatfish, a venomous banded sea-snake, or any number of other animals that live in the area. Not only does the mimic octopus change its shape, it also changes its behavior to match its “costume” to convincingly fool predators. Most cephalopods, which include octopuses, are well-known for their ability to <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/02/did-that-rock-just-ink-on-me-guest-post.html">change the color, pattern and texture of their skin</a> to blend in with rocks, coral and plants. Furthermore, octopuses do not have rigid skeletal elements, which allows their bodies great flexibility in the forms they imitate. But this ability to change both physical appearance and behavior to switch back and forth among imitations of multiple species is unique to this astounding shape shifter.
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Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com61tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-76806975232669263802019-10-05T06:19:00.001-07:002019-10-05T06:19:30.161-07:00It Feels Good When You Sing a Song (In Fall)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A repost of an <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/10/it-feels-good-when-you-sing-song-in-fall.html" target="_blank">original article</a> published October 3, 2012.<br /><br />
Most male <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/search/label/passeriformes" target="_blank">songbirds</a> will sing when they see a pretty female during the breeding season. But some male songbirds sing even when it’s not the breeding season. Why do so many birds sing in fall at all? <br /><br />
Maybe singing <em>feels good</em>… But how do you ask a bird if it feels good to sing?
European starlings are one of those bird species that sing both in spring (the breeding season) and in fall (not the breeding season). Lauren Riters, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist.html#Kelm" target="_blank">Cindi Kelm-Nelson</a>, and Sharon Stevenson at the <a href="http://www.zoology.wisc.edu/" target="_blank">University of Wisconsin at Madison</a> did a series of ingenious experiments to ask starlings if and when it feels good to sing.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uNKTMAQ2fEA/UGxPVhleZ0I/AAAAAAAAAhU/tlningKnP3I/s1600/Singing+starling+by+Linda+Tanner+at+Wikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uNKTMAQ2fEA/UGxPVhleZ0I/AAAAAAAAAhU/tlningKnP3I/s400/Singing+starling+by+Linda+Tanner+at+Wikimedia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A European starling sings his fall-blues away. Photo by Linda Tanner at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Psychologists have long used a paradigm called conditioned place preference (CPP) to evaluate whether an animal finds something rewarding or pleasurable. CPP is based on the idea that if an animal experiences something meaningless while at the same time experiencing something else that is rewarding, the animal will learn to associate these two things with each other in a phenomenon called <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/search/label/conditioning" target="_blank">conditioning</a>. For example, a puppy that has learned that every time it sits it gets a treat, will find itself sitting more often. <br /><br />
A researcher can also compare how rewarding different types of treats are. If we want to know if puppies like carrots or steak better, we can give one group of puppies a carrot every time they sit and another group of puppies a piece of steak every time they sit. If the group of puppies that are conditioned with steak spend more time sitting, we can conclude that steak is more rewarding to puppies than carrots are.<br /><br />
Lauren and Sharon used this principle to ask starlings if singing is rewarding. They put spring starlings in a cage with a nestbox and a female and let them sing away, while counting how many songs they sang in 30 minutes. Then they immediately put them in another cage that was decorated with yellow materials on one side and green materials on the other, but they restricted each bird to only one of the two colored sides. This is the conditioning phase in which the bird learns to associate the colored cage with the feeling they get from singing. <br /><br />
The next day, they put the starlings in the yellow and green cage without restrictions so they could choose what side they wanted to hang out in. If singing is rewarding, we would expect starlings that sang a lot to spend more time on the side with the color they were placed in the day before. <br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SuUPbRsaPbY/UGxW-LT0slI/AAAAAAAAAh0/a9kGZSguNyk/s1600/in+car+at+freedigitalphotos+dot+net.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SuUPbRsaPbY/UGxW-LT0slI/AAAAAAAAAh0/a9kGZSguNyk/s320/in+car+at+freedigitalphotos+dot+net.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do people that sing in the car spend more time in the car? <br />
Photo by <a href="http://freedigitalphotos.net/">freedigitalphotos.net</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That didn’t happen. The spring starlings spent the same amount of time in the yellow or green side of the cage regardless of how much they sang the day before.<br /><br />
But when Lauren and Sharon did the same test with fall starlings singing without a female, there has a huge effect: Males that sang more spent much more time on the colored side of the cage they were placed in the day before. Singing, for a male starling, is apparently rewarding in fall, but not in spring. <br /><br />
This result actually makes a lot of sense. In spring, males sing to attract and court females, so they are rewarded by the feeling they get from the female’s response, not from the act of singing itself. But in fall, males are not attracting females. So why do they sing in fall? Because it feels good.<br /><br />
It looks like Sesame Street got it right with their 1970s song <a href="http://www.6lyrics.com/sing_a_song_john_legend_and_hoots-lyrics-sesame_street.aspx" target="_blank">“It Feels Good When You Sing a Song”</a>:<br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">You can't go wrong</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">when you're singing a song</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">Sing it loud, sing it strong</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">It feels good when you sing a song</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
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But why does singing feel good? At least some of the reason, it seems, is opioids. Not quite what Sesame Street had in mind, but hey.<br /><br />
Despite their reputation for being one of the world’s oldest drugs, many opioids are naturally occurring neuropeptides (brain chemicals). They are involved in pain relief and euphoria, commonly combined in the phenomenon of runner’s high. Could opioids be involved in the feel-good sensation created by singing? Maybe.<br /><br />
Cindi, Sharon and Lauren suspect that singing in fall causes male starlings to release opioids in their little brains, which makes singing more rewarding and makes them want to sing more. But how do we know how much opioid an animal has in its brain? Hmmm… Opioids cause analgesia (pain relief). Therefore, if singing a lot in fall releases more opioids, then birds that sing a lot in fall should be more pain-tolerant, right?
The researchers let male starlings sing and counted how many songs they produced for 20 minutes. Then they dipped their foot in uncomfortably warm water and timed how long it took for the bird to pull its toes out. Fall males that sang more took longer to pull their feet out of the birdy foot-spa than did the males that sang less.<br /><br />
Interestingly, if you give starlings a drug to enhance opioids, they leave their feet in the foot-spa longer than if you give them a drug to block opioids. So it seems that singing in fall increases pain tolerance in the same way that opioids do, likely because the act of singing in fall causes the brain to release its own opioids. (Although it is also possible that birds that produce more opioids feel like singing more).<br /><br />
And what about singing in spring? When Cindi, Sharon and Lauren repeated the study with spring starlings, these birds did not get pain relief from singing. Again, they are probably rewarded by their interactions with females and not the act of singing.<br /><br />
So if you ever find yourself in pain, just<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Sing<br />
Sing a song<br />
Make it simple<br />
To last your whole life long<br />
Don't worry that it's not good enough<br />
For anyone else to hear<br />
Sing<br />
Sing a song<br />
La la la la la la la la la la la<br />
La la la la la la la<br />
<br /></div>
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Want to know more? Check these out: <br /><br />
1. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Physiology+%26+Behavior&rft_id=info%3Apmid%2F22285212&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Reward+and+vocal+production%3A+song-associated+place+preference+in+songbirds.&rft.issn=0031-9384&rft.date=2012&rft.volume=106&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=87&rft.epage=94&rft.artnum=&rft.au=Riters+LV&rft.au=Stevenson+SA&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CNeuroscience">Riters LV, & Stevenson SA (2012). Reward and vocal production: song-associated place preference in songbirds. <span style="font-style: italic;">Physiology & Behavior, 106</span> (2), 87-94 PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22285212" rev="review">22285212</a></span><br /><br />
2. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=PLOS+One&rft_id=info%3A%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Context-dependent+links+between+song+production+1+and+opioid-mediated+analgesia+in+male+European+starlings+%28Sturnus+vulgaris%29&rft.issn=&rft.date=2012&rft.volume=7&rft.issue=10&rft.spage=0&rft.epage=&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plosone.org%2Farticle%2Finfo%253Adoi%252F10.1371%252Fjournal.pone.0046721%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bplosone%252FPhysiology%2B%28PLoS%2BONE%2BAlerts%253A%2BPhysiology%29&rft.au=Kelm-Nelson%2C+C.A.&rft.au=Stevenson%2C+S.A.&rft.au=Riters%2C+L.V.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CNeuroscience"><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0046721?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+plosone%2FPhysiology+(PLoS+ONE+Alerts%3A+Physiology)" target="_blank">Kelm-Nelson, C.A., Stevenson, S.A., & Riters, L.V. (2012). Context-dependent links between song production 1 and opioid-mediated analgesia in male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) <span style="font-style: italic;">PLOS One, 7</span> (</a>10)</span><br /><br />
3. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Behavioral+neuroscience&rft_id=info%3Apmid%2F15727529&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Evidence+for+opioid+involvement+in+the+regulation+of+song+production+in+male+European+starlings+%28Sturnus+vulgaris%29.&rft.issn=0735-7044&rft.date=2005&rft.volume=119&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=245&rft.epage=55&rft.artnum=&rft.au=Riters+LV&rft.au=Schroeder+MB&rft.au=Auger+CJ&rft.au=Eens+M&rft.au=Pinxten+R&rft.au=Ball+GF&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CMedicine%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CHealth%2CNeuroscience%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Riters LV, Schroeder MB, Auger CJ, Eens M, Pinxten R, & Ball GF (2005). Evidence for opioid involvement in the regulation of song production in male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). <span style="font-style: italic;">Behavioral neuroscience, 119</span> (1), 245-55 PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15727529" rev="review">15727529</a></span><br /><br />
4. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Behavioural+brain+research&rft_id=info%3Apmid%2F21147175&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Mu-opioid+receptor+densities+are+depleted+in+regions+implicated+in+agonistic+and+sexual+behavior+in+male+European+starlings+%28Sturnus+vulgaris%29+defending+nest+sites+and+courting+females.&rft.issn=0166-4328&rft.date=2011&rft.volume=219&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=15&rft.epage=22&rft.artnum=&rft.au=Kelm+CA&rft.au=Forbes-Lorman+RM&rft.au=Auger+CJ&rft.au=Riters+LV&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology">Kelm CA, Forbes-Lorman RM, Auger CJ, & Riters LV (2011). Mu-opioid receptor densities are depleted in regions implicated in agonistic and sexual behavior in male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) defending nest sites and courting females. <span style="font-style: italic;">Behavioural brain research, 219</span> (1), 15-22 PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21147175" rev="review">21147175</a></span>
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Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-39021389715118350722019-09-29T09:23:00.000-07:002019-09-29T09:23:26.026-07:00A Yawn & Man’s Best Friend<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
By <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#Gellings" target="_blank">Erin Gellings</a><br /><br />
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of coming home after a long hard day and being welcomed by your dog. Many things dogs do are in response to their owners’ actions, including comforting and mimicking actions like yawning. There are many theories about why humans and other animals yawn, but <a href="https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/yawn.html?ref=search" target="_blank">no one theory has been proven 100% correct</a>. What causes dogs to yawn in response to seeing a human yawn though?<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XmcQMhmPeDc/XZDXhBbWjmI/AAAAAAAACqA/36vYwSHKEcknhDTGWkGPaZUg0ZaaoMCYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Dog%2BPicture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XmcQMhmPeDc/XZDXhBbWjmI/AAAAAAAACqA/36vYwSHKEcknhDTGWkGPaZUg0ZaaoMCYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Dog%2BPicture.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yawning Dog. Image by <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yawning_dog,_Japan_01.jpg" target="_blank">Scientre from Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
This was the question Silvia Karine and Bessa Joana from the <a href="https://sigarra.up.pt/up/pt/web_base.gera_pagina?p_pagina=home" target="_blank">Universidade do Porto</a> in Portugal set out to examine. The researchers found preliminary evidence that simply the sound of a human yawn and their relationship with their owner is enough to make a dog yawn. <br /><br />
Sometimes, when dogs are under stress, they can do something called a ‘tension yawn.’ There is still little evidence that explains why dogs yawn when experiencing stress. The best way to know if a dog is yawning due to feeling stressed, or in response to a human is to look at the environment. If the dog is in a new setting with new people, it is likely yawning due to stress. Researchers were very careful to make sure all the yawns dogs produced were genuine and not stress related. This was partly achieved by allowing dogs to become used to researchers before being introduced to audio of yawns. They made this determination by carefully reviewing what events led up to the dog’s yawn. <br /><br />
Karine and Joana used 29 dogs of various breeds and let each one become acclimated to them by just sitting in the dog’s home for about 10 minutes before they started the experiment. The researchers then exposed them to four conditions: a prerecorded sound of their owner’s yawn, familiar control sounds from their home, a stranger’s yawn, or control sounds not from their home. Each dog experienced the prerecorded sounds in a random order during two different sessions. A researcher played the sounds through a large set of speakers from audio files from a laptop in the dog’s home. The researcher wrote down every time the dog yawned, and also made a video recording of the dogs listening to the sounds so other researchers could go back and double check that their count was correct. <br /><br />
Twelve of the twenty-nine dogs yawned during the experiment. Out of the dogs who yawned, more dogs yawned at the yawning audio than at the background audio. This leads us to believe that the sounds of yawning are contagious and the dogs “caught” the yawn. The researchers also found that dogs yawned more when listening to the yawn of their owners than of strangers. <br /><br />
Aside from showing that dogs tend to yawn after hearing a human yawn, this research also hints that there may be some sort of social variable in why dogs yawn more at their owner’s yawn. The researchers suggest this may be related to a sense of empathy dogs feel towards humans, but this claim needs more research in order to be demonstrated. This research also showed that dogs do not necessarily need a visual cue of seeing a person yawn in order to yawn on their own. This is a claim that is unique to this particular project. While this research is still in its early stages, it does give us a new perspective on why dogs may yawn when around humans, and what leads to this unique behavior.<br /><br />
Although this study does not help us understand the function of yawning in dogs, it does bring us closer to understanding why dogs yawn in response to humans and sets the stage for future research in the field. So, after your next long day when you sit down and yawn and notice your dog yawn too, take a moment to appreciate the connection they have with you.
<br /><br /><br /><b>
References</b><br /><br />
Finlay, K. (2017, June 15). <a href="https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/why-do-dogs-yawn/" target="_blank">Why do dogs yawn?</a> American Kennel Club. <br /><br />
Silva, K., Bessa, J., & De Sousa, L. (2012). <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22526686" target="_blank">Auditory contagious yawning in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris): First evidence for social modulation</a>. Animal Cognition, 15(4), 721-724.<br /><br /><a href="https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/yawn.html?ref=search" target="_blank">Why do I yawn?</a> (2019).
</span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-64474174712689914442019-09-21T11:23:00.001-07:002019-09-21T11:23:59.217-07:00A Master of Disguise (A Guest Post)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
By <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#Klemm" target="_blank">Jake Klemm</a><br /><br /><a href="https://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/search/label/cephalopods" target="_blank"> Cephalopods </a>are among the most intelligent of marine life. Their highly advanced nervous systems allow them to exhibit a complex array of behaviors (for example, <a href="https://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/02/did-that-rock-just-ink-on-me-guest-post.html" target="_blank">camouflage</a>). Within this array is a rather unique behavior observed in the cuttlefish <i>Sepia pharaonis</i>. These elegant beings are now known to… intensely flap their arms? These animals are truly graceful.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wSt8kOqTR-g/XYZmYvw1zHI/AAAAAAAACpc/kvnJoJ5xS-MCeTuKLjlcTUXOV1s0CukFwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Cuttlefish%2Bside%2Bview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wSt8kOqTR-g/XYZmYvw1zHI/AAAAAAAACpc/kvnJoJ5xS-MCeTuKLjlcTUXOV1s0CukFwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Cuttlefish%2Bside%2Bview.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lovely photo of <i>S. pharaonis</i>. Image by Silke Baron at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sepia_pharaonis.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">Researchers Kohei Okamoto, Haruhiko Yasumuro, Akira Mori, and Yuzuru Ikeda of the <a href="http://www.biology.sci.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/?page_id=585&lang=en" target="_blank">University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa</a>, Japan observed this behavior on two separate occasions while studying <i>S. pharaonis</i>. The scientists had initially collected these cuttlefish with the intention of conducting other experiments but noticed this behavior while the cuttlefish were introduced to a large water-filled tank and while hunting prey. After noticing this wild arm-flapping behavior, the researchers turned their attention towards why the behavior was being displayed. <br /><br />
The researchers first observed this behavior in December of 2011. The cuttlefish were placed in a large, circular tank for conducting other experiments when a couple of them were observed to flap their arms. After the initial experiments were finished, a few of the cuttlefish were placed in the same sized tank and observations were recorded with a video camera over a period of five days. This behavior was revisited in 2013 for further observation. The cuttlefish they used were reared from eggs found in the same coastal waters of Okinawajima Island as the cuttlefish that were part of the 2011 experiments. Again, cuttlefish were placed in a large tank to observe the behavior with a video camera. The researchers counted each occurrence of the behavior and recorded the duration of each behavior. After observations were complete, the researchers performed experiments to observe the hunting ability of <i>S. pharaonis</i>. This arm-flapping behavior was observed unexpectedly while the cuttlefish hunted prey. The means of recording the behavior were the same as described above. In addition, the researchers recorded the number of prey caught between cuttlefish that did and did not display the behavior.<br /><br />
The researchers noticed variation in the frequency and duration of this behavior in the presence and absence of prey. When placed in a tank without prey, only a small number of cuttlefishes displayed this behavior. Of the cuttlefish that did flap their arms, the behavior lasted (on average) no longer than 37 seconds. However, the cuttlefish that were placed in a tank with prey, the behavior was displayed for at significantly longer period of time. In addition to that, more cuttlefish overall were seen flapping their arms in this second experiment. The cuttlefish that flapped their arms caught a significantly larger number of fish than the ones that did not flap their arms, despite being observed in the same tank and having access to the same number of prey animals. This observation led the researchers to believe that something about this unique behavior is helping the cuttlefish capture more prey. <br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lfjY-NdqCIA/XYZmYiekfAI/AAAAAAAACpY/OYAUNq-uOSgACec--ak-cVBwKriq5KCAACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Cuttlefish%2Bfront%2Bview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="936" height="307" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lfjY-NdqCIA/XYZmYiekfAI/AAAAAAAACpY/OYAUNq-uOSgACec--ak-cVBwKriq5KCAACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Cuttlefish%2Bfront%2Bview.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A front view of a cuttlefish. Image by Stickpen at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sepiapharaonis.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fj53zeGTNZc/XYZmYiRPnKI/AAAAAAAACpU/iaQbj7Mt3rwPEdjUKh5Um_R7P3igNS-SwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Hermit%2BCrab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fj53zeGTNZc/XYZmYiRPnKI/AAAAAAAACpU/iaQbj7Mt3rwPEdjUKh5Um_R7P3igNS-SwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Hermit%2BCrab.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The resemblance is uncanny! Image by Maximilian Paradiz at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hermit_Crab_(3857739534).jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
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What could this all mean? The researchers think that the cuttlefish may be mimicking another organism, specifically the hermit crab, to confuse the prey fish into thinking that they are another harmless animal. It is thought that the head of the cuttlefish resembles the shell of the hermit crab while the arms resemble the eyes and legs of the hermit crab. Posing as a harmless crab would allow the cuttlefish to get behind enemy lines and ultimately catch more prey. Further research will have to be done in lab as well as the field to see if this behavior is really that of <a href="https://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/search/label/mimicry" target="_blank">mimicry</a>. <a href="https://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-mimic-octopus-master-of-disguise.html" target="_blank">Other cephalopods are notorious for mimicking other animals</a>, so it is not out of the realm of possibility. Studying this behavior would allow scientists to difurtveher into the evolutionary history of <i>S. pharaonis</i>. Until then, the graceful limb-flailing will remain an ever-tantalizing mystery. <br /><br /><br /><b>
References</b><br /><br />
Okamoto, K., Yasumuro, H., Mori, A., & Ikeda, Y., (2017). Unique arm-flapping behavior of the pharaoh cuttlefish, Sepia pharaonic: putative mimicry of a hermit crab. Journal of Ethology, 35(3), 307-311. DOI: <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10164-017-0519-7" target="_blank">10.1007/s10164-017-0519-7</a></span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-40073780815161166092019-09-14T10:45:00.000-07:002019-09-14T10:45:14.870-07:00How To Get Into An Animal Behavior Graduate Program: An Outline<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WjYVjmDT6L8/UUCROVqYgII/AAAAAAAAA3E/RX_ynsBVlck/s1600/Daydreaming+teenager+by+freedigitalphotos+dot+net.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WjYVjmDT6L8/UUCROVqYgII/AAAAAAAAA3E/RX_ynsBVlck/s200/Daydreaming+teenager+by+freedigitalphotos+dot+net.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do you dream about a career of studying animals? <br />
Image by <a href="http://freedigitalphotos.net/">freedigitalphotos.net</a>.</td></tr>
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A repost of an original article from <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-get-into-animal-behavior.html" target="_blank">March 13, 2013</a>.<br /><br />
<em>**NOTE: Although this advice is written for those interested in applying to graduate programs in animal behavior, it applies to most programs in the sciences.**</em><br /><br />
So you want to go to grad school to study animal behavior… Well join the club! It is a competitive world out there and this is an increasingly competitive field. But if every fiber of your being knows this is the path for you, then there is a way for you to follow that path. With hard work, dedication and persistence, you can join the ranks of <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist.html" target="_blank">today's animal biologists</a> to pursue a career of trekking to wild places to study animals in their native habitats, testing questions about the physiology of behavior in a lab, or exploring the genetics of behavioral adaptation.<br /><br />
This is an outline of advice on how to get into a graduate program in animal behavior. More details on the individual steps will follow, so leave a comment below or <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/about.html#Contact" target="_blank">e-mail me</a> if you have any particular questions you would like me to address or if you have any advice you would like to share.</span> <br />
<br />
<ol><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
<li>
<strong><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/08/how-to-get-into-animal-behavior.html" target="_blank">Get good grades</a></strong>, particularly in your science and math courses. And make sure you take all the science and math prerequisites for biology graduate programs.</li>
<li><strong>Prepare well for the GREs</strong>.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-get-into-animal-behavior.html" target="_blank">Get research experience</a></strong>. This can come in many forms (such as volunteering in a lab, working as a field technician, or doing an independent project for credit), but as a general rule, the more involved you are in a project, the more it will impress those making acceptance decisions.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-to-get-into-animal-behavior.html" target="_blank">Choose the labs you are interested in</a></strong>, not just the schools. As a graduate student, you will spend most of your time working with your advisor and the other members of your advisor’s lab. This means that the right fit is imperative. Figure out what researchers you may want to work with, then see if they are at a school you would like to attend.</li>
<li><strong>Be organized</strong> in your application process. There will be a lot of details to keep straight: due dates, recommendation letters, essays, communication with potential advisors… The more organized you are, the less likely you are to miss a deadline or make an embarrassing mistake.</li>
<li><strong>Write compelling essays</strong>. Most schools will ask you to write two short essays: a Statement of Purpose and a Personal History. This is your place to set yourself apart. They need to convey your experience with animal behavior research and passion for working with that particular advisor. They also need to be very well written, so expect to write multiple drafts.</li>
<li><strong>Be organized and prepared when you ask for your <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-get-into-animal-behavior_20.html" target="_blank">recommendation letters</a></strong>. The easier you make it for your references to write a thoughtful recommendation letter for you, the better the letters will be.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-get-into-animal-behavior.html" target="_blank">Apply for funding</a></strong>. This isn’t essential: Most first-year graduate students do not have their own funding. But the ability of a school and a specific researcher to accept a graduate student depends on what funding is available to support them. If you have your own funding, it is more likely you will to be able to write your own ticket. </li>
<li><strong><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2016/01/how-to-get-into-animal-behavior.html">Be prepared for each interview</a></strong> you are invited to.</li>
<li><strong>If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again</strong>. Although heartbraking at the time, it is very common in animal behavior graduate programs to <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-get-into-animal-behavior.html" target="_blank">not be accepted</a> anywhere in your first year of applications. If you are rejected, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are not a good candidate. Often it means there is no funding available to support you in the labs you would like to join. Spend the year participating in research and applying for funding so you can reapply next year.</li>
</span></ol>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">The submission of a successful application takes a lot of planning and preparation. Getting good grades is a continuous effort. Plus, the most successful applicants often have two or more years of research experience. Ideally, you are working on these two things at least by your sophomore year of college. But if you waited too long and you haven’t taken enough science or math prerequisites, your grades are not where they need to be, or you don’t have enough research experience, you can take some extra time after you graduate to take community college courses and volunteer or work in a lab. Persistence and dedication are key to following a challenging path.
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Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-85365352598304333342019-09-08T11:36:00.001-07:002019-09-21T10:56:33.430-07:00Tiny Ninjas, Big Bites (A Guest Post)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
By <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#Brauner" target="_blank">Alexis Brauner</a><br /><br />
Venom isn’t just a weapon for snakes and spiders.<br /><br />
A smaller, more dangerous insect is in existence and falls into the realm of venomous creatures: the assassin bug. This little critter is part of a scientific family called Reduviidae, a group where all the members share the same characteristic of being an ambush predatory bug. They prey on invertebrates (animals that don’t have a spine), such as crickets and mealworms, by injecting venom into them. <br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XpM3vBjvrd4/XXVHJU40XwI/AAAAAAAACoo/be0W6Ej3MnUrow2hmnPFKqoNE3tMemTegCLcBGAs/s1600/Assassin_bug_aug08_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1006" data-original-width="1509" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XpM3vBjvrd4/XXVHJU40XwI/AAAAAAAACoo/be0W6Ej3MnUrow2hmnPFKqoNE3tMemTegCLcBGAs/s400/Assassin_bug_aug08_02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An assasin bug. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Assassin_bug_aug08_02.jpg" target="_blank">Fir0002/Flagstaffotos at Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
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<br />
Assassin bugs are believed to have two versions of venom – one for feeding and one for defense. Both types of venom are made up of more than 100 proteins, but what is unique about it is its ability to paralyze and liquify the inside of the prey. That’s right… liquify. The tissues of the prey turn into a jello-like substance that the assassin bug can then suck through a long tube on its mouth called the proboscis.<br /><br />
How is the venom able to do that?<br /><br />
First, let’s peek at the mechanisms that work to carry the venom through the body of the assassin bug and into its meal.<br /><br />
The venom apparatus of an assassin bug is made up of three main parts: secretory glands, a muscle-driven pump, and a venom channel. The three secretory glands (the anterior main gland, posterior main gland, and accessory gland) are in the thorax and abdomen of the assassin bug. These separate glands release a specific form of assassin bug venom depending on what situation the bug is facing. For example, the anterior main gland releases a form of venom that does not paralyze prey but is thought to be used as a defense mechanism, while the posterior main gland releases the deadly form of venom. <br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mm3cSGIAeK8/XXVHQ_8U2mI/AAAAAAAACos/M9jYJmHW1OY2BLNOE6a5OAwDvSfQd7hjwCLcBGAs/s1600/figure%2B2%2Bvenom%2Bapparatus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="528" height="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mm3cSGIAeK8/XXVHQ_8U2mI/AAAAAAAACos/M9jYJmHW1OY2BLNOE6a5OAwDvSfQd7hjwCLcBGAs/s400/figure%2B2%2Bvenom%2Bapparatus.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The venom apparatus of an assassin bug. Source: <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29472578" target="_blank">Walker, et. al, 2018</a>, modified by Alexis Brauner</td></tr>
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<br />
Once released, the venom then makes its way to a muscle-driven pump within the head of the bug. The pump fills with the available venom when the muscle contracts and is released once the muscle relaxes. Think of the venom pump as a clothes pin: when you push on the prongs, the pin opens, and you can put things in it to hold; once you let go of the prongs, the mouth of the pin closes, but now the prong end is open. In this example, your fingers are the muscle and the clothes pin is the pump with one end open at a time. The muscle relaxation releases the venom into the venom channel in the interlocking maxillary stylets (also known as the fangs) of the assassin bug. And then…<br /><br />
BOOM!<br /><br />
Venom is in the food or the foe.<br /><br />
And if it’s in the food, then the tissues of the prey turn into liquid. This liquification phenomenon is caused by enzymes in assassin bug venom called proteases. All enzymes catalyze, or speed up, chemical reactions; however, proteases are specialized enzymes that catalyze the destruction of proteins. This means that the assassin bug venom goes into the prey and the proteases are like Pac-Men with razor sharp teeth that grind up the primarily protein tissue at such a lightning fast speed that, within seconds, the prey is juice!<br /><br />
Scientists continue to research assassin bug venom to learn more about its components, but one thing is for sure: The extraordinary liquid weapon housed in such a small insect is why assassin bugs are tiny ninjas with big bites.<br /><br /><br /><b>
To learn more:</b> <br /><br />
Walker, A., Madio, B., Jin, J., Undheim, E., Fry, B., King, G. (2017). Melt With This Kiss: Paralyzing and Liquefying Venom of The Assassin Bug Pristhesancus plagipennis (Hemiptera: Reduviidae). Mol Cell Proteomics, 16 (4), 552-566. <a href="http://10.0.4.50/mcp.M116.063321" target="_blank">DOI: 10.1074/mcp.M116.063321</a>.<br /><br />
Walker, A., Mayhew, M., Jin, J., Herzig, V., Undheim, E., Sombke, A., Fry, B., Meritt, D., King, F. (2018). The assassin bug Pristhesancus plagipennis produces two distinct venoms in separate gland lumens. Nat Commun, 9, 755. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29472578" target="_blank">DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03091-5</a></span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-67934193389214526382019-08-30T07:14:00.000-07:002019-08-30T07:14:01.752-07:00A Tiny Surprise in Regards to Regeneration (A Guest Post)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A reposting of an <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-tiny-surprise-in-regards-to.html" target="_blank">original article</a> by <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#Klein">Jessica Klein</a> in <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><i>The Scorpion and the Frog</i></a>.<br /><br />
The <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2016/02/need-hand-just-grow-it-back-how.html">ability to regenerate limbs</a> and tails is nothing new to reptiles and amphibians. Many lizards are able to drop their tails to escape an enemy, whereas salamanders have been known to grow back entire legs with muscle after being attacked by a predator. These regenerative characteristics have been seen to some extent in rabbits and pika before 2012, but were later discovered to occur extensively in, surprisingly enough, small African spiny mice. <br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kLkBWZh5pHQ/V3vqjpgCGwI/AAAAAAAACLk/aXfnzOJGFT8IEDYLGGaR5o-Np_r9aIewgCLcB/s1600/Seifert_Akempi_Compress%2Bsquare.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kLkBWZh5pHQ/V3vqjpgCGwI/AAAAAAAACLk/aXfnzOJGFT8IEDYLGGaR5o-Np_r9aIewgCLcB/s320/Seifert_Akempi_Compress%2Bsquare.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the African spiny mouse species. Photo by Ashley Seifert and Tom Gawriluk.</td></tr>
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In a <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7417/abs/nature11499.html">study</a> done by Ashley W. Seifert and <a href="http://darwin.uky.edu/~erec/ERECPersonnel.html">Megan G. Seifert</a> at <a href="https://bio.as.uky.edu/">the University of Kentucky</a>, Todd M. Palmer and Malcolm Maden at <a href="https://biology.ufl.edu/">the University of Florida</a>, Stephen G. Kiama at the <a href="http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/">University of Nairobi</a>, and Jacob R. Goheen at <a href="http://www.uwyo.edu/zoology/index.html">the University of Wyoming</a>, African spiny mice were studied in order to view the extent of their regenerative properties, why they might occur, and the physiological processes that make it happen. <br /><br />
The rodents were captured in Kenya, where researchers learned that vigorous movement during handling caused the skin of African spiny mice to come apart. One mouse was reported to have an open wound that took up 60% of its back, just from being handled! Therefore, Dr. Seifert measured the amount of strength it took to tear the skin of spiny mice using something called a Hounsfield tensometer. He took the measurements from that tool and graphed them on a plot, creating something called a stress-strain curve which showed how much strength it took to tear the skin of the mouse. <br /><br />
The strength measurements revealed that the skin of these species was 77 times weaker than average mice, explaining why their skin tore so easily during the handling process. In order for the African spiny mice to survive such large injuries due to their extremely fragile skin, it would be beneficial to heal quickly or regenerate the skin. This is exactly what Dr. Seifert discovered.<br /><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LGkG6G8i4Gw/V3vqtBVNZyI/AAAAAAAACLo/qUbF9ljxq6ECEoNVlXfCyFsdG21vhBnnQCLcB/s1600/Image%2Bfrom%2Bfigure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LGkG6G8i4Gw/V3vqtBVNZyI/AAAAAAAACLo/qUbF9ljxq6ECEoNVlXfCyFsdG21vhBnnQCLcB/s400/Image%2Bfrom%2Bfigure.jpg" width="171" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An African spiny mouse shows<br />
the regenerative process with<br />
(1) being before the wound<br />
(2) being after the wound and<br />
(3) showing how the wound was<br />
completely healed after 30 days.<br />
Figure from <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7417/abs/nature11499.html">Seifert, et al., 2012</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After the strength measurements were completed, the rodents were anaesthetized and had 4mm and 1.5cm wounds made on their skin, as well as 4mm holes punched in their ears in order to view the regeneration process. In an average rodent, the repair of a 4mm skin wound takes around 5 to 7 days and is accompanied by a significant amount of scarring. However, in the African spiny mouse it only took 1 to 2 days for scabbing of the skin wound to occur with new cells forming on the outside of the wound to repair it. After just 10 days, the ear of the mouse was fully healed. In the ear punches, there were no signs of scarring that would have been expected in a rodent, and healthy cartilage had formed. By the 21st day of the experiment, African spiny mice had developed new hair follicles and healthy new hair covering the once wounded area. In total, Dr. Seifert discovered that African spiny mice were capable of regenerating their skin, hair follicles, and sweat glands. <br /><br />
Dr. Seifert suggested the skin of African spiny mice is fragile because it allows them to escape predators. This would require a quick healing time to reduce the chance of infection and ultimately death in the mouse after escaping. This is why they may have gained the ability to regenerate their skin, but how exactly does this happen? Dr. Seifert and his research team <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160425/ncomms11164/full/ncomms11164.html">recently showed</a> that, in these species, it occurs through a process known as <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2016/02/need-hand-just-grow-it-back-how.html"><i>epimorphic regeneration</i></a>. This is when a <i>blastema </i>(a mass of immature, unspecialized cells) forms where the wound once was. These cells are capable of turning into whatever type of tissue was present in that area. This particular method of regeneration is how salamanders are capable of regenerating their limbs. Again, more research would need to be done in order to confirm or deny this. However, one thing is true, and that is that more research into this could prove to be useful in the future of medicine when it comes to healing critical and invasive injuries. By discovering the physiological process behind this, and then being able to replicate it in a lab, researchers may discover ways to heal injuries faster.<br /><br />
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Works Cited</b><br /><br />
Seifert, Ashley W., Stephen G. Kiama, Megan G. Seifert, Jacob R. Goheen, Todd M. Palmer, and Malcolm Maden. "Skin Shedding and Tissue Regeneration in African Spiny Mice (Acomys)." <i>Nature</i> 489 (2012): 561-65. <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7417/abs/nature11499.html">doi:10.1038/nature11499</a><br /><br />
Gawriluk, Thomas R., Jennifer Simkin, Katherine L. Thompson, Shishir K. Biswas, Zak Clare-Salzler, John M. Kimani, Stephen G. Kiama, Jeramiah J. Smith, Vanessa O. Ezenwa & Ashley W. Seifert. "Comparative analysis of ear-hole closure identifies epimorphic regeneration as a discrete trait in mammals" <i>Nature Communications</i> 7.11164 (2016). <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160425/ncomms11164/full/ncomms11164.html">doi:10.1038/ncomms11164</a></span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-62302341790742470672019-04-16T10:51:00.000-07:002019-04-16T10:51:15.572-07:00Does Social Status Change Brains?<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 110%;">
A reposting of an <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/05/does-social-status-change-brains.html" target="_blank">original article</a> in <i><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Scorpion and the Frog</a></i>.</span>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EBVEOW6KDAY/T7PKNH_VxGI/AAAAAAAAAL8/0JDYf1gQtIU/s1600/MMAtraining+by+The+Grappling+Source+Inc+on+Wikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EBVEOW6KDAY/T7PKNH_VxGI/AAAAAAAAAL8/0JDYf1gQtIU/s320/MMAtraining+by+The+Grappling+Source+Inc+on+Wikimedia.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by The Grappling Source Inc. <br />
at Wikimedia Commons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Being subordinated is stressful. The process of one individual lowering the social rank of another often involves physical aggression, aggressive displays, and exclusion. In addition to the obvious possible costs of being subordinated (like getting beat up), subordinated individuals often undergo physiological changes to their hormonal systems and brains. Sounds pretty scary, doesn’t it? But what if some of those changes are beneficial in some ways?<br /><br />
Dominance hierarchies are a fact of life across the animal kingdom. In a social group, everyone can’t be dominant (otherwise, life would always be like an episode of <a href="http://www.nbc.com/the-apprentice/video/" target="_blank">Celebrity Apprentice</a>, and what could possibly be more stressful than that?). Living in a social group is more peaceful and nutritive when a clear dominance hierarchy is established.<br /><br /> Establishing that hierarchy often involves a relatively short aggressive phase of jostling for position, followed by a longer more stable phase once everyone knows where they fall in the social group. Established dominance hierarchies are not always stable (they can change over time or from moment to moment) and they are not always linear (for example, Ben can be dominant over Chris, who is dominant over David, who is dominant over Ben). But they do generally help reduce conflict and the risk of physical injury overall.<br /><br />
Nonetheless, it can be stressful to be on the subordinate end of a dominance hierarchy and these social interactions are known to cause physiological changes. Researchers Christina Sørensen and Göran Nilsson from the <a href="http://www.mn.uio.no/imbv/english/" target="_blank">University of Oslo</a>, Cliff Summers from the <a href="http://www.usd.edu/medical-school/biomedical-sciences/neurogroup/" target="_blank">University of South Dakota</a> and Øyvind Øverli from the <a href="http://www.umb.no/iha-en" target="_blank">Norwegian University of Life Sciences</a> investigated some of these physiological differences among isolated, dominant, and subordinate rainbow trout.</span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LbXpiW72tb4/T7PQfV8h4pI/AAAAAAAAAMU/qSHjVFpsOnc/s1600/Rainbow+Trout+by+Ken+Hammond+at+the+USDA+on+Wikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LbXpiW72tb4/T7PQfV8h4pI/AAAAAAAAAMU/qSHjVFpsOnc/s320/Rainbow+Trout+by+Ken+Hammond+at+the+USDA+on+Wikimedia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A photo of a rainbow trout by Ken Hammond at the USDA. <br />
Photo at Wikimedia Commons.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Like <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/04/animal-mass-suicide-and-lemming.html" target="_blank">other salmonid fish</a>, rainbow trout are aggressive, territorial and develop social hierarchies as juveniles. Dominant trout tend to initiate most of the aggressive acts, hog food resources, grow larger, and reproduce the most, whereas subordinate trout display less aggression, feeding, growth, and reproduction. The researchers recorded the behavior, feeding and growth rates in three groups of fish: trout housed alone, trout housed with a more subordinate trout, and trout housed with a more dominant trout. The researchers also measured <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/02/love-hormone-pageant.html" target="_blank">cortisol</a> (a hormone involved in stress responses), serotonin (a neurotransmitter involved in mood, the perception of food availability, and the perception of social rank, among other things) and the development of new neurons (called neurogenesis) in these same fish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This video of two juvenile rainbow trout was taken by Dr. Erik Höglund. Here is Christina Sørensen’s description of the video: “What you see in the film is two juvenile rainbow trout who have been housed on each side of a dividing wall in a small aquarium. The dividing wall has been removed (for the first time) immediately before filming. You will see that the fish initially show interest for each other, followed by a typical display behaviour, where they circle each other. Finally one of the fish will initiate aggression by biting the other. First the aggression is bidirectional, as they fight for dominance, but after a while, one of the fish withdraws from further aggression and shows only submissive behaviour (escaping from the dominant and in the long run trying to hide... and as is described in the paper, depressed feed intake). The video has been cut to show in quick succession these four stages of development of the dominance hierarchy”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 110%;">The researchers found that as expected, the dominant trout were aggressive when a pair was first placed together, but the aggression subsided after about 3 days. Also as expected, the dominant and isolated trout were bold feeders with low cortisol levels and high growth rates, whereas the subordinate trout did not feed as well, had high cortisol levels and low growth rates. Additionally, the subordinate trout had higher serotonin activity levels and less neurogenesis than the dominant or isolated trout. These results suggest that the subordination experience causes significant changes to trout brain development (Although we can’t rule out the possibility that fish with more serotonin and less neurogenesis are predisposed to be subordinate). In either case, this sounds like bad news for subordinate brains, right? Maybe it is. Or maybe the decrease in neurogenesis just reflects the decrease in overall growth rates (smaller bodies need smaller brains). Or maybe something about the development of these subordinate brains improves the chances that these individuals will survive and reproduce in their subordination.<br /><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_zKsWAEpaMo/T7PNicx0DNI/AAAAAAAAAMI/VIt_SdL-sXA/s1600/Procambarus_clarkii+crayfish+by+Duloup+at+Wikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_zKsWAEpaMo/T7PNicx0DNI/AAAAAAAAAMI/VIt_SdL-sXA/s320/Procambarus_clarkii+crayfish+by+Duloup+at+Wikimedia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A crayfish raising its claws. Image by Duloup at Wikimedia.</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
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Research on dominance in crayfish by <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist_25.html#Issa" target="_blank">Fadi Issa</a>, Joanne Drummond, and <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist_25.html#Edwards" target="_blank">Don Edwards</a> at <a href="http://neuroscience.gsu.edu/" target="_blank">Georgia State University</a> and <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist_25.html#Cattaert" target="_blank">Daniel Cattaert</a> at the <a href="http://www.incia.u-bordeaux1.fr/spip.php?article2" target="_blank">University of Bordeaux</a> helps shed light on this third possibility. Crayfish (which are actually not fish at all, but are freshwater crustaceans that look like small lobsters) form long-lasting and stable social hierarchies. If you poke a crayfish in the side, an isolated or dominant crayfish will turn towards whatever poked it and raise its posture and claws to confront it; A subordinate crayfish will do one of two maneuvers that involves lowering the posture and backing away from whatever poked it. Furthermore, dominant and subordinate crayfish have different neuronal activity patterns in response to being poked, and part of this difference involves differences in the activity of serotonergic neurons.<br /><br />
It appears that the brains of dominant and subordinate individuals function differently and part of this difference involves serotonin. This may help dominant animals to continue to behave in a dominant fashion and subordinate individuals to continue to behave in a subordinate fashion, thereby preserving the peace for the whole social group.<br /><br />
Want to know more? Check these out:<br /><br />
1. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Behavioural+Brain+Research&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1016%2Fj.bbr.2011.01.041&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Social+stress+reduces+forebrain+cell+proliferation+in+rainbow+trout+%28Oncorhynchus+mykiss%29&rft.issn=01664328&rft.date=2012&rft.volume=227&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=311&rft.epage=318&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0166432811000817&rft.au=S%C3%B8rensen%2C+C.&rft.au=Nilsson%2C+G.&rft.au=Summers%2C+C.&rft.au=%C3%98verli%2C+%EF%BF%BD.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CNeuroscience%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation%2CBehavioral+Biology%2C+Marine+Biology%2C+Systems+Biology%2C+Zoology%2C+Ecology%2C+Affective+Neuroscience%2C+Behavioral+Neuroscience%2C+Molecular+Neuroscience%2C+Affective+Psychology%2C+Behavioral+Economic">Sørensen, C., Nilsson, G., Summers, C., & Øverli, �. (2012). Social stress reduces forebrain cell proliferation in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) <span style="font-style: italic;">Behavioural Brain Research, 227</span> (2), 311-318 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2011.01.041" rev="review">10.1016/j.bbr.2011.01.041</a></span>
<br /><br />
2. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Journal+of+Neuroscience&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1523%2FJNEUROSCI.5668-11.2012&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Neural+Circuit+Reconfiguration+by+Social+Status&rft.issn=0270-6474&rft.date=2012&rft.volume=32&rft.issue=16&rft.spage=5638&rft.epage=5645&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jneurosci.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1523%2FJNEUROSCI.5668-11.2012&rft.au=Issa%2C+F.&rft.au=Drummond%2C+J.&rft.au=Cattaert%2C+D.&rft.au=Edwards%2C+D.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Anthropology%2CBiology%2CComputer+Science+%2F+Engineering%2CMathematics%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CNeuroscience%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Issa, F., Drummond, J., Cattaert, D., & Edwards, D. (2012). Neural Circuit Reconfiguration by Social Status <span style="font-style: italic;">Journal of Neuroscience, 32</span> (16), 5638-5645 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5668-11.2012" rev="review">10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5668-11.2012</a></span>
<br /><br />
3. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Science&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1126%2Fscience.271.5247.366&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=The+Effect+of+Social+Experience+on+Serotonergic+Modulation+of+the+Escape+Circuit+of+Crayfish&rft.issn=0036-8075&rft.date=1996&rft.volume=271&rft.issue=5247&rft.spage=366&rft.epage=369&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencemag.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1126%2Fscience.271.5247.366&rft.au=Yeh%2C+S.&rft.au=Fricke%2C+R.&rft.au=Edwards%2C+D.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CComputer+Science+%2F+Engineering%2CMathematics%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CNeuroscience">Yeh, S., Fricke, R., & Edwards, D. (1996). The Effect of Social Experience on Serotonergic Modulation of the Escape Circuit of Crayfish <span style="font-style: italic;">Science, 271</span> (5247), 366-369 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.271.5247.366" rev="review">10.1126/science.271.5247.366</a></span>
<br /><br />
4. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Current+Biology&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1016%2Fj.cub.2006.08.065&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Ritualized+Submission+and+the+Reduction+of+Aggression+in+an+Invertebrate&rft.issn=09609822&rft.date=2006&rft.volume=16&rft.issue=22&rft.spage=2217&rft.epage=2221&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982206021324&rft.au=Issa%2C+F.&rft.au=Edwards%2C+D.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Issa, F., & Edwards, D. (2006). Ritualized Submission and the Reduction of Aggression in an Invertebrate <span style="font-style: italic;">Current Biology, 16</span> (22), 2217-2221 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.08.065" rev="review">10.1016/j.cub.2006.08.065</a></span>
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</span>Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-14597508507511258462019-04-09T07:55:00.000-07:002019-04-09T07:55:12.626-07:00What To Do If You Find Orphaned Wildlife<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A repost of an <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2016/04/what-to-do-if-you-find-orphaned-wildlife.html" target="_blank">original article</a> from <i><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Scorpion and the Frog</a></i>. <br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wsLJuToSmg4/Vwvl2ZE31zI/AAAAAAAACD4/j_Kz5o5TjzE-FOMh7uAE42eNQ9no5x1PQ/s1600/Eastern_Cottontail_rabbit_nest%2Bby%2BJhansonxi%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wsLJuToSmg4/Vwvl2ZE31zI/AAAAAAAACD4/j_Kz5o5TjzE-FOMh7uAE42eNQ9no5x1PQ/s320/Eastern_Cottontail_rabbit_nest%2Bby%2BJhansonxi%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nest of baby cottontails waiting for sunset when their<br />
mom will return. Image by Jhansonxi at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Spring is finally in the air, and with Spring come babies! Finding baby animals in the wild is thrilling, but also concerning. Does this animal need your help? Where is its mom? What do you do?<br /><br />
Whenever possible, baby animals will do best when we leave them in the care of their mom. Even a well-meaning human is seen by a wild animal as a threat. Our interactions with them cause them extreme stress that can cause serious health problems and even death. Furthermore, if we take a baby animal home, it will not be able to learn its species-specific behaviors and skills and it can lose its natural and healthy fear of humans. It is also very hard to meet the specialized dietary needs of a wild animal in a captive setting. Taking a wild animal home can cause problems for us as well: many carry diseases that can be transmitted to our pets or even ourselves. And most wild animals are protected by state and federal laws that prohibit unlicensed citizens from possessing or raising them.<br /><br />
Luckily, most baby animals that seem alone actually have a mom that is not far away, either looking for food to feed herself and her babies or simply hiding from you. For example, rabbit mothers actively avoid their nests most of the time so as to not attract predators to the nest. Cottontail moms visit their babies only briefly at dawn and dusk for quick feedings. If you find a bunny nest, you can test to see if the mom is visiting by placing a few blades of grass or thin twigs in an X-shape over the babies. If you come back the next day and the pattern has been disturbed, then their mom is still caring for them and you should leave them be.<br /><br />
Many animal moms are prevented from taking care of their young when concerned people are hovering. Deer moms, for example, also actively avoid their babies (called fawns) so as to not attract predators to it. They generally return to nurse the fawns every few hours, but they won’t return to nurse if people or pets are around. If you find a fawn and it is not wandering and crying non-stop all day, then leave it alone so its mom will come back.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4nUsd9fIpgI/Vwvl89YXZfI/AAAAAAAACEA/Xca9KigNuM4rZ8iYxXj_j4QK2d6PRpg1w/s1600/Two%2Bred%2Bfoxes%2Bby%2BNicke%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4nUsd9fIpgI/Vwvl89YXZfI/AAAAAAAACEA/Xca9KigNuM4rZ8iYxXj_j4QK2d6PRpg1w/s400/Two%2Bred%2Bfoxes%2Bby%2BNicke%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A red fox mom and baby. Photo by Nicke at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Even if you find a baby all by itself in the open, the best course of action is often still to leave it alone. Many mammal moms, like squirrels, raccoons, mice, rats, foxes, and coyotes, will retrieve their young if they fall out of their nest or wander away from their den. Although it is a myth that most animal moms will abandon their babies if you get your smell on them, your odor can attract predators. It is best not to touch wildlife babies if you can avoid it.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-De14e9kupU8/Vwvl6HADgGI/AAAAAAAACD8/ObQK-RKAySQybpEKX8v5xo0Hjcq0AALoA/s1600/Baby_skunk%2Bby%2BAnimalPhotos%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-De14e9kupU8/Vwvl6HADgGI/AAAAAAAACD8/ObQK-RKAySQybpEKX8v5xo0Hjcq0AALoA/s400/Baby_skunk%2Bby%2BAnimalPhotos%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awww... as tempting as it is to pick up an adorable baby skunk, don't do it<br />
unless you are a trained and licensed wildlife rehabilitator (like this woman is).<br />
Image by AnimalPhotos at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So when <i>should </i>you get involved? If an animal is in a dangerous location (like a busy street), then it may need to be moved. You can slowly, quietly and gently try to guide a mobile baby animal away from hazards and to a safer location. If the animal is not yet mobile, in most cases, you can use clean gloves to pick up the animal and move it to a safer location, placing it as close as possible to where you found it.<br /> <br />
If you know that the mom is dead or has been relocated, then you are dealing with a truly orphaned baby animal. Likewise, if an animal has been attacked (or brought to you by your “helpful” cat), or is bleeding, injured, wet and emaciated, weak, infested with parasites, or has diarrhea, then it may need medical attention. In these cases, contact <a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/find-a-wildlife-rehabilitator.html?credit=web_id137246437">a licensed wildlife rehabilitator</a>. Wildlife rehabilitators have been trained and have the necessary equipment to temporarily care for and treat injured, sick and orphaned wild animals so they can be released back into the wild. If you can’t find a wildlife rehabilitator, contact the Department of Natural Resources, a state wildlife agency, animal shelter, humane society, animal control agency, nature center, or veterinarian. Ideally, they will come to pick up the animal themselves. If they can’t, then they should give you detailed instructions for your situation on how to catch and transport the animal.<br /><br />
For more information, check here:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/injured_orphaned_wildlife.html">The Humane Society of the United States</a><br /><br /><a href="http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/wildlifehabitat/orphan.html?utm_source=Banner&utm_medium=Homepage&utm_campaign=20130501_OrphanedWildlife">The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/injured/">The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries</a><br /><br />
</span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-89988117818595845252019-04-02T09:42:00.000-07:002019-04-02T09:42:55.348-07:005 Animal Species With Surprising Memories<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A repost of an <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2015/09/5-animal-species-with-surprising.html" target="_blank">original article</a> from <i><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Scorpion and the Frog</a></i>.<br /><br />
We often think of animals as having hilariously short memories – the “memory of a goldfish”, if you will. But many animals have memories that can put yours to shame.<br /><br />
There are many different kinds of memory and each of them is controlled differently by different parts of the brain. <i>Short-term memory</i> can be thought of as the brain’s scratch pad: It holds a small amount of information for a short period of time while your brain decides whether it is worth retaining in <i>long-term memory</i> or if it can just fade away. When a short-term memory becomes a long-term memory, this process is called <i>consolidation </i>and involves physiological changes in the brain. <br /><br />
Long-term memory can be further divided into two main types: procedural memory and declarative memory. <i>Procedural memory</i> is used to remember how to do things and what objects are needed to do those things. <i>Declarative memory</i> is used for recall and can be further divided into memory used to recall facts (<i>semantic memory</i>) and events (<i>episodic memory</i>).Each of these different types of memories are stored in different parts of the brain. Furthermore, different types of facts (remembering faces versus numbers, for example) and different types of events (depending on if they have an emotional component or not, for example) are also stored in the brain differently. Because species differ in <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/06/decisions-decisions.html" target="_blank">how we rely on our brains</a>, it makes sense that this might be reflected in our abilities to remember in different ways. <br /><br />
So let’s check out some of the most amazing memories in the animal kingdom:<br /><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_4QnLHW9aRE/Vfbr_WPYMpI/AAAAAAAAB1w/G-IJIzFAZco/s1600/ElephantHerd%2Bby%2BPJ%2BKAPDostie%2Bon%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_4QnLHW9aRE/Vfbr_WPYMpI/AAAAAAAAB1w/G-IJIzFAZco/s320/ElephantHerd%2Bby%2BPJ%2BKAPDostie%2Bon%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do you know what all your kids and nieces and nephews are<br />
doing right now? These elephants do. Photo by PJ KAPDostie<br />
at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
1) <b>They say an elephant never forgets</b>. Elephants are very social animals that live in large stable herds. This has led to some incredible feats of social memory. They can keep track of the whereabouts of 30 group members at once and they can <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/elephants-never-forget/" target="_blank">remember an animal they briefly met over 20 years ago</a>. For an animal that lives about 50 or 60 years, this is very impressive. Elephants also have outstanding <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-08/wcs-sfe081108.php" target="_blank">episodic memory</a>: In 1993, Tarangire National Park in Tanzania suffered the worst drought that it had seen in 35 years. It was so severe that it killed 20% of elephant calves, compared to the average loss of about 2%. Of three herds that lived in the park in 1993, two of them were led by females that had lived during the severe droughts of 1958-61 and those herds left the park and were more successful at finding food and water. The herd that stayed was led by a younger female that had never experienced such a severe drought and that herd suffered 63% of the total mortality.<br /><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SEvz7FLLQqw/VfbsIbm9tUI/AAAAAAAAB14/-QQ5HptOOgY/s1600/bottlenose%2Bdolphins%2Bfrom%2BNOAA_Photo_Library%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SEvz7FLLQqw/VfbsIbm9tUI/AAAAAAAAB14/-QQ5HptOOgY/s320/bottlenose%2Bdolphins%2Bfrom%2BNOAA_Photo_Library%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dolphins never forget a name. Photo from the<br />
NOAA Photo Library available at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
2) <b>Bottlenose dolphins have even more incredible social memories</b>. They, like elephants, live in complex social groups. Each dolphin has a unique <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/110/32/13216.abstract" target="_blank">whistle that it uses like a name</a>. When they are played recordings of whistles of companions they lived with years or even decades earlier, they approach the speakers for longer than when they are played the whistles of dolphins they never met. The fact that they, like elephants, <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1768/20131726" target="_blank">remember companions for over 20 years</a> is much more impressive because their lifespan is only 40-50 years!<br /><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IXMhosiM6Qc/VfbsRs3no9I/AAAAAAAAB2A/aaPE78somfI/s1600/sea%2Blion%2Btrick%2Bby%2B1sa2886%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IXMhosiM6Qc/VfbsRs3no9I/AAAAAAAAB2A/aaPE78somfI/s320/sea%2Blion%2Btrick%2Bby%2B1sa2886%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="185" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sea lions can remember<br />
meaningless tricks for years.<br />
Photo by LSA2886 at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
3) <b>Sea lions have amazing procedural memory</b>. In 1991, marine biologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, taught a California sea lion named Rio a card trick. They held up one card with a letter or number on it and another set of two cards: one that matched the first card and one that did not. Rio learned to pick the matching card to be rewarded with a fish. Everyone was impressed and she didn't do the trick again... until <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10071-002-0153-8#page-1" target="_blank">10 years later</a>, when researchers pulled out the cards and asked her to do it again. Rio had the same score in 2001 with no practice that she did in 1991 when she originally learned the trick!<br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JpdUxRL3p0Q/VfbsWjiSJNI/AAAAAAAAB2I/WxYOglerUGI/s1600/Clark%2527s_Nutcracker%2Bby%2BGunnsteinn%2BJonsson%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JpdUxRL3p0Q/VfbsWjiSJNI/AAAAAAAAB2I/WxYOglerUGI/s320/Clark%2527s_Nutcracker%2Bby%2BGunnsteinn%2BJonsson%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clark's nutcrackers can remember where they stashed<br />
30,000 pine nuts.I can't even keep track of my keys.<br />
Photo by Gunnsteinn Jonsson at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
4) <b>Clark’s nutcrackers can remember the exact location of 30,000 pine nuts</b>. This kind of superhero ability is born out of necessity: nutcrackers completely rely on their caches of food to get them through the winter. However, despite their <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061012094818.htm" target="_blank">amazing long-term spatial memory</a>, their short-term memory is below average: they can’t even remember the color of a light for 30 seconds.<br /><br />
5) <b>Chimpanzees can put your working memory to shame</b>. <i>Working memory</i> is a form of short-term memory that is applied to a task. A group of researchers taught chimpanzees to do a task in which they were shown the numbers from 1-9 in random locations on a computer screen. When the numbers are covered, chimps can remember where each number was. Furthermore, they only need to see these randomly placed number for a few seconds to get this task correct. In comparison, only people that are considered savants have comparable abilities.
</span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;"><br /></span>Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-14028872330644249042019-03-26T09:39:00.000-07:002019-03-26T09:39:12.847-07:00Interrupting Insects<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A reposting of an original article from <i><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/03/interrupting-insects.html" target="_blank">The Scorpion and the Frog</a></i>.<br /><br />
What do you think of when I say “communicate”? Most likely, you are imagining people communicating by an auditory mode (talking and listening, making expressive sounds) or by a visual mode (observing body language, reading and writing). As a species, humans inherently rely heavily on our hearing and vision to perceive the world around us and so it makes sense that we communicate with one another using these modalities. But animal species are incredibly diverse in their means of perceiving their worlds and their modes of communication. Because we have been so focused on studying animal signals that we can perceive, we have only recently begun to more actively explore animal communication in these other modes. One of these modes is soundless surface vibrations.
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1bozysd4ZZk/T1eB2fPFwXI/AAAAAAAAAH8/9Fcjr9oDQrI/s1600/Tylopelta_adult_Cocroft.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1bozysd4ZZk/T1eB2fPFwXI/AAAAAAAAAH8/9Fcjr9oDQrI/s400/Tylopelta_adult_Cocroft.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The photo is of an adult Tylopelta gibbera on a host plant stem <br />
(photo (c) Rex Cocroft).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">Despite the fact that we do not perceive most animal surface vibration signals around us, vibrational communication is very common, especially among insects and spiders. Rex Cocroft at the <a href="http://www.biology.missouri.edu/index.shtml" target="_blank">University of Missouri at Columbia</a> and <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist_25.html#Rodriguez" target="_blank">Rafa Rodríguez</a> at the <a href="http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/biologicalsciences/" target="_blank">University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee</a> point out in a <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1641/0006-3568%282005%29055%5B0323%3ATBEOIV%5D2.0.CO%3B2?uid=3739976&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=55850641953" target="_blank">review</a> of vibrational communication that over 195,000 species of insects communicate using soundless surface vibrations. We can experience many of these substrate vibration signals by broadcasting them through a speaker as an airborne vibration (which we perceive as sound).
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">Vibrational signals serve a number of functions in the insect worlds. Social insects, like ants, termites, and bees, often use vibrational signals to coordinate foraging. Groups of juvenile thornbug treehoppers vibrate when a predator approaches, calling in the mother to defend them. Males of many species have been found to use vibrational signals to attract females and the females often use these signals to choose a mate.
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">Vibrational signals are carried through a solid substrate, so they can only travel as far as the substrate is continuous and they are affected by attributes of the substrate (like changes in density). Because of these constraints, most vibrational signals can only travel about the length of a human arm. Many insects that use vibrational communication live on host plants, and it is these host plants that transmit the vibration signals. These animals face many challenges in transmitting their signals to the intended recipient. For example, wind, rain, and environmental sounds can create competing vibrations (background noise). In addition to environmental background noise, the vibrational soundscape of a given plant stem will likely include many signaling individuals, often of many species. Not only are there difficulties in getting your signal to your intended audience, but there are also risks of eavesdropping predators and competitors.
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">Frédéric Legendre, Peter Marting and Rex Cocroft at the University of Missouri at Columbia, demonstrate the social complexities of vibrational communication in <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347211004891" target="_blank">a new study</a> of competitive signaling in a treehopper species, <em>Tylopelta gibbera</em>. <em>Tylopelta gibbera </em>is a small treehopper in the southern United States, Mexico and Guatemala, that only lives on plants from the <em>Desmodium</em> genus. Males will attract and court females with vibrational signals and interested females will respond to the male with vibrational signals of their own. However, many individuals can often be found on a single plant and if two signaling males are present, the receptive female will typically respond to both of them and only mate with one (generally the first one she encounters). What is a competing male to do?
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span> <br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Listen to a male <em>Tylopelta gibbera</em> advertisement signal <a href="http://treehoppers.insectmuseum.org/site/treehoppers/sounds/Tylopelta_Cocroft.wav" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">The researchers performed a series of experiments, in which they observed treehoppers on potted host plants in the lab. With this set-up, they could control the environmental conditions, decide the number of males and females on the plant, record vibrational signals and play them back. They found that once a male signals and detects a female response, he will actively search for her along the plant, alternating signals and steps in a “Marco Polo” mating game until he finds her. Males found the females almost twice as fast if they were the only male on the plant, indicating that the presence of a second male on the plant somehow interferes with their ability to locate the female. Also, when two males were on the plant, they produced a new signal type that was never produced by a lone male on a plant. Males that had no male competition only produced signals that had a whine sound, followed by a series of pulses (and the female would then immediately respond with a harmonic sound of her own). This male signal is called the advertisement signal. Males that had a competing male on the plant would produce an additional signal that was a short tonal note. Interestingly, these males often produced this second signal at the same time that their competitor was advertising himself. Hmmm… could this be a masking signal used to interrupt the competitor? How could you figure that out?
</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eEUhaK_5UkM/T1eO3NeAq3I/AAAAAAAAAIM/S2zM6ofEKHM/s1600/1-s2.0-S0003347211004891-gr4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eEUhaK_5UkM/T1eO3NeAq3I/AAAAAAAAAIM/S2zM6ofEKHM/s400/1-s2.0-S0003347211004891-gr4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This figure from Legendre, Marting and Cocroft's 2012 <em>Animal Behaviour</em> paper shows<br />
the whine and pulses of a male advertisement signal (top) and a histogram of when the <br />
masking signal occurs in relation to the timing of the advertisement signal (bottom).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">First, the researchers asked, “When do males produce this second signal?” The researchers put two males on a plant with one female and recorded their vibrations. They found that in this situation, males typically produced this second signal while his competitor was just beginning the pulse section of his advertisement signal. Next, the researchers played back recordings of male advertisement signals followed by female responses to a lone male on a plant. All of the males tested produced the masking signal during the pulse section of the male advertisement signal on the recording.
</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Don't you hate it when someone does this?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">Next, the researchers asked, “How do females respond to this second signal?” On plants with one female and two males, females didn’t respond as much to advertisement signals overlapped by a second signal as they did to advertisement signals alone. The researchers then played recordings of male advertisement signals to lone females on the plants. Females responded significantly more often if the advertisement signal was not overlapped by a masking signal.
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">So, male treehoppers get an edge up on getting the girl by interrupting the other competing males. Sneaky buggers!
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">Want to know more? Check these out:
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">1.
<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=BioScience&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1641%2F0006-3568%282005%29055%5B0323%3ATBEOIV%5D2.0.CO%3B2&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=The+Behavioral+Ecology+of+Insect+Vibrational+Communication&rft.issn=0006-3568&rft.date=2005&rft.volume=55&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=323&rft.epage=&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F3334092&rft.au=COCROFT%2C+R.&rft.au=RODR%C3%8DGUEZ%2C+R.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPhysics%2CSocial+Science%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation%2CBehavioral+Biology%2C+Reproduction%2C+Systems+Biology%2C+Zoology%2C+Ecology%2C+Sociology%2C+Linguistics%2C+Applied+Physics%2C+Biophysics">COCROFT, R., & RODRÍGUEZ, R. (2005). The Behavioral Ecology of Insect Vibrational Communication <span style="font-style: italic;">BioScience, 55</span> (4) DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0323:TBEOIV]2.0.CO;2" rev="review">10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0323:TBEOIV]2.0.CO;2</a></span>
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<br />
2.
<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Animal+Behaviour&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1016%2Fj.anbehav.2011.11.003&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Competitive+masking+of+vibrational+signals+during+mate+searching+in+a+treehopper&rft.issn=00033472&rft.date=2012&rft.volume=83&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=361&rft.epage=368&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0003347211004891&rft.au=Legendre%2C+F.&rft.au=Marting%2C+P.&rft.au=Cocroft%2C+R.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology">Legendre, F., Marting, P., & Cocroft, R. (2012). Competitive masking of vibrational signals during mate searching in a treehopper <span style="font-style: italic;">Animal Behaviour, 83</span> (2), 361-368 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.11.003" rev="review">10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.11.003</a></span>
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">3. A Japanese research team has harnessed this phenomenon to create a remote-control that makes annoying people stop talking. Find out more at the blog <a href="http://www.gainesonbrains.com/2012/03/using-psychology-to-silence-your.html" target="_blank">Gaines on Brains</a>!
</span>Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-84808598012559030942019-03-12T08:05:00.000-07:002019-03-12T08:05:17.308-07:00Reduce Stress with this Animal Behavior Meditation<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A reposting of an original article from <i><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/03/reduce-stress-with-this-animal-behavior.html" target="_blank">The Scorpion and the Frog</a></i>.<br /> <br />
In a search for the promised inner peace and tranquility of meditation, I attended a meditation class at a local yoga studio. In a room with dim fluorescent lights and an artificial wood floor I laid on my back on my yoga mat, sandwiched between a fidgety woman who kept her smartphone on the edge of her mat and a man whose stress had apparently resulted in a flatulence problem. I was told to close my eyes, breathe deeply, and think about nothing. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and thought: “<em>How do I think about nothing?</em>” I thought about black. “<em>Does black count as nothing? Wondering if I’m thinking about nothing is definitely not nothing. Am I doing this wrong? Is this going to work? If this isn’t going to work, I’m just wasting my time. I could be working through my to-do list right now. Oh! I forgot to put laundry on my to-do list. Oh, right… think about nothing. Black?</em>”<br />
</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1_MJa8OA2nk/T2nPmD3DuJI/AAAAAAAAAJI/ttBY14qe1WA/s1600/Lemur+meditates+by+Margret+at+Wikimedia+commons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1_MJa8OA2nk/T2nPmD3DuJI/AAAAAAAAAJI/ttBY14qe1WA/s400/Lemur+meditates+by+Margret+at+Wikimedia+commons.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This ring-tailed lemur has found her inner peace - Can you find yours? <br />
Photo by Margaret at Wikimedia Commons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It was years later that I realized that meditation doesn’t have to be so painfully contrived. I do it all the time naturally. Maybe you do too. We just have to nurture those moments. Here’s one way to do it:<br /> <br />
1) Go to a place where you have seen at least one animal in the recent past. Maybe you saw a squirrel or a songbird in that tree in your yard. Maybe you saw fish in the creek you pass over on your way to school. Maybe there’s an occupied spider web in the corner. Maybe you have a favorite spot at the local zoo or aquarium. Go there. Don’t worry if there is an animal there now or not. <br /> <br />
2) Sit down in a comfortable position and take a deep breath. Look around and take in your surroundings. Feel the environmental conditions. Listen to the sounds around you. Wait and observe. If you’re quiet, they will come.<br /> <br />
3) When an animal shows up, focus on it. If multiple animals show up, pick one to be your focal animal. Observe every possible detail of your focal animal: What does it look like? Does it have any markings? What is it doing? How does it position itself with respect to its surroundings? What is its posture? How does it respond to changes in its surroundings?<br /> <br />
4) Allow your mind to wander into your focal animal’s world (or <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jakob_von_Uexk%C3%BCll" target="_blank">umwelt</a>). How do you think your focal animal perceives its surroundings?<br /> <br />
5) Allow your mind to ponder explanations and consequences of your focal animal’s behavior.<br /> </span><br />
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6) Continue for as long as you can keep your mind focused on your animal, or until you have somewhere else you are supposed to be.<br /><br />
Try this out for yourself, and then let us know what you experienced!</span>Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-31753494521691472982019-03-05T07:18:00.000-08:002019-03-05T07:18:09.982-08:00Hey Hey! We’re The Monkeys!<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
Updated and reposted from <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/03/hey-hey-were-monkeys.html" target="_blank">March 6, 2013</a>.<br /><br />
</span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JTY2o5LlmvY/UTdXUh4vrMI/AAAAAAAAA2s/Qupyb01UJQY/s1600/tamarin+calm+by+Ltshears+at+wikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JTY2o5LlmvY/UTdXUh4vrMI/AAAAAAAAA2s/Qupyb01UJQY/s320/tamarin+calm+by+Ltshears+at+wikimedia.jpg" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A tamarin rock star <br />
(photographed by Ltshears at Wikimedia)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">Our moods change when we hear music, but not all music affects us the same way. Slow, soft, higher-pitched, melodic songs soothe us; upbeat classical music makes us more alert and active; and fast, harsh, lower-pitched, dissonant music can rev us up and stress us out. Why would certain sounds affect us in specific emotional ways? One possibility is because of an overlap between how we perceive music and how we perceive human voice. Across human languages, people talk to their babies in slower, softer, higher-pitched voices than they speak to adults. And when we’re angry, we belt out low-pitched growly tones. The specific vocal attributes that we use in different emotional contexts are specific to our species… So what makes us so egocentric to think that <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/02/do-non-human-animals-like-human-music.html" target="_blank">other species might respond to our music</a> in the same ways that we do?</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QN-C0ZvyxfE/UTdZYANLkaI/AAAAAAAAA20/cq9C7-xQzcc/s1600/tamarin+rock+star+by+michael+gabler+at+wikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QN-C0ZvyxfE/UTdZYANLkaI/AAAAAAAAA20/cq9C7-xQzcc/s320/tamarin+rock+star+by+michael+gabler+at+wikimedia.jpg" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A serene tamarin ponders where he placed <br />
his smoking jacket
(photographed by <br />
Michael Gäbler at Wikimedia)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist.html#Snowdon" target="_blank">Chuck Snowdon</a>, a psychologist and animal behaviorist at the <a href="http://psych.wisc.edu/" target="_blank">University of Wisconsin in Madison</a>, and David Teie, a musician at the <a href="http://www.music.umd.edu/" target="_blank">University of Maryland in College Park</a>, teamed up to ask whether animals might respond more strongly to music if it were made specifically for them. <br /><br />
Cotton-top tamarins are squirrel-sized monkeys from northern Colombia that are highly social and vocal. As in humans (and pretty much every other vocalizing species studied), they tend to make higher-pitched tonal sounds when in friendly states and lower-pitched growly sounds when in aggressive states. But tamarin vocalizations have different tempos and pitch ranges than our tempos and pitch ranges.<br /><br />
Chuck and David musically analyzed recorded tamarin calls to determine the common attributes of the sounds they make when they are feeling friendly or when they are aggressive or fearful. Then they composed music based on these attributes, essentially creating tamarin happy-music and tamarin death metal. They also composed original music based on human vocal attributes. They played 30-second clips of these different music types to pairs of tamarins and measured their behavior while the song was being played and for the first 5 minutes after it had finished. They compared these behavioral measures to the tamarins’ behavior during baseline periods (time periods not associated with the music sessions).<br /><br />
As the researchers had predicted, tamarins were much more affected by tamarin music than by human music. Happy tamarin music seemed to calm them, causing the tamarins to move less and eat and drink more in the 5 minutes after the music stopped. Compared to the happy tamarin music, the aggressive tamarin music seemed to stress them out, causing the tamarins to move more and show more anxious behaviors (like bristling their fur and peeing) after the music stopped. <br /><br />
The tamarins also showed lesser reactions to the human music. They showed less anxious behavior after the happy human music played and moved less after the aggressive human music played. So, human voice-based music also affected the tamarins to some degree, but not as strongly. This may be because there are some aspects of how we communicate emotions with our voice that are the same in tamarins.<br /><br />
Can you imagine what we could do with this idea of species-specific music? Well, David and Chuck did! They have since developed <a href="http://musicforcats.com/" target="_blank">music for cats</a> using similar techniques.<br /><br />
We often think of vocal signals conveying messages in particular sounds, like words and sentences. But calls seem to do much more than that, making the emotions and behaviors of those listening resemble the emotions of those calling.<br /><br /><br />
</span><div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;"><b>Want to know more? Check these out:</b><br /><br />
<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Biology+Letters&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1098%2Frsbl.2009.0593&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Affective+responses+in+tamarins+elicited+by+species-specific+music&rft.issn=1744-9561&rft.date=2009&rft.volume=6&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=30&rft.epage=32&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Frsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1098%2Frsbl.2009.0593&rft.au=Snowdon%2C+C.&rft.au=Teie%2C+D.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Anthropology%2CBiology%2CMathematics%2CPhilosophy%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CNeuroscience%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Snowdon, C., & Teie, D. (2009). Affective responses in tamarins elicited by species-specific music <span style="font-style: italic;">Biology Letters, 6</span> (1), 30-32 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0593" rev="review">10.1098/rsbl.2009.0593</a><br /><br />
Snowdon, C., Teie, D. and Savage, M. (2015). Cats prefer species-appropriate music. <i>Applied Animal Behaviour Science</i>, 166, 106-111.
</span>
</span>
</div>
Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-85718757122939794382019-02-26T11:21:00.000-08:002019-02-26T11:21:36.489-08:00The Contagious Cancer (A Guest Post)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
By <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#Stanton" target="_blank">Stephanie Stanton</a><br /><br />
The Tasmanian devil, perhaps more popularly known by its animated counterpart <a href="https://looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Tasmanian_Devil" target="_blank">Taz </a>in Warner Bros.’ “Looney Toons,” is a carnivorous marsupial native to Tasmania, an island off the southern coast of Australia. Similar to Taz, the Tasmanian devil lives a violent lifestyle. While a good portion of fights don’t go beyond screaming matches, sometimes (especially during the mating season) fights escalate to full-on biting matches. Unfortunately, it is this aggressive nature that has been linked to the alarming drop in Tasmanian devils’ numbers over the last decade. However, it is not violent wounds acquired during fights that are causing this rapid decline, but rather the Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD), a contagious cancer. <br /><br />
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DFTD is a transmissible cancer that operates as its own living entity- it is genetically distinct from its host and lives on its host’s face. Most of these tumors appear on their faces. Coincidentally, this also happens to be where a majority of open wounds are acquired in this species. Because of this, it is believed that DFTD is transferred through open wounds on the skin.<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FmHs_KN8uys/XHWM67BkLWI/AAAAAAAACkw/pO4TOAtUwaY6Ym8pS8w7Zbaw2aGIbDdbgCLcBGAs/s1600/Taz%2Bpic%2Bby%2BChen%2BWu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FmHs_KN8uys/XHWM67BkLWI/AAAAAAAACkw/pO4TOAtUwaY6Ym8pS8w7Zbaw2aGIbDdbgCLcBGAs/s400/Taz%2Bpic%2Bby%2BChen%2BWu.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A healthy Tasmanian devil in all his glory. Photo by Chen Wu at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarcophilus_harrisii_-Cleland_Wildlife_Park-8a.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
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This cancer has been so successful in spreading throughout the population because of the devils’ small population size and low genetic diversity. Among the genes with low genetic diversity in the population is the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), a collection of genes responsible for a strong immune response in vertebrates. Without a strong immune response, it is difficult to fight off serious threats such as DFTD. Unfortunately for the devils, the tumors growing on their faces do not even register on their limited immune system’s radar- so their bodies don’t even fight back! Because of this, DFTD is in most cases fatal within six to nine months of showing clinical symptoms. <br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u6ZTe533wI4/XHWM_2bJgYI/AAAAAAAACk0/6T_fjJyReAY97cYcBRW0ynHm-ZsGDwxywCLcBGAs/s1600/Tasmanian_Devil_Facial_Tumour_Disease-wiki.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="1011" height="258" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u6ZTe533wI4/XHWM_2bJgYI/AAAAAAAACk0/6T_fjJyReAY97cYcBRW0ynHm-ZsGDwxywCLcBGAs/s400/Tasmanian_Devil_Facial_Tumour_Disease-wiki.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Tasmanian devil afflicted with DFTD. Photo courtesy of Menna Jones, available at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tasmanian_Devil_Facial_Tumour_Disease.png" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Three Australian scientists by the names of Rodrigo Hamede, Hamish McCullum, and Menna Jones from the <a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/zoology" target="_blank">University of Tasmania</a> and <a href="https://www.griffith.edu.au/griffith-sciences/school-environment-science" target="_blank">Griffith University</a> recognized the alarming decline in the Tasmanian devil population and sought to find a way to better understand and control the spread of the disease. They looked at two separate populations over four seasons, collecting data once every three months by taking counts of bites on individual devils and tracking who got DFTD, when, and on what part of their bodies. They hypothesized that because the tumor was transmissible through open wounds, then the number of open wounds could be used as an early predictor for the onset of DFTD. <br /><br />
And they were right…although perhaps not in the ways they thought they would be. Contrary to what common sense would have everyone believe, devils with the least amount of facial wounds were the most likely to develop the fatal cancer. How could this be? <br /><br />
Simply put, it appears that the disease is getting transferred from devil to devil not because their bodies are exposed to a bite from an infected individual, but because devils are biting the tumors of infected individuals, thereby creating a direct path for the tumor to enter the new host. <br /><br />
The scientists argued that the devils that have the fewest open wounds were better at fighting and also the most aggressive (A side effect of the cancer? Perhaps.) Tasmanian devils are likely to have cuts or scrapes in their mouths because of their aggressive eating style, providing a port for the cancer cells to invade. It was because they were biting the tumors of the infected devils that they were contracting the disease, which also explains the higher occurrence of tumors in the mouth. Less aggressive devils accumulated more injuries to the face, but as long as the cancer cells did not come into contact with open wounds, their likelihood of contracting the disease was slim. <br /><br />
Rodrigo, Hamish and Menna hope that their results along with further research can help reduce the effects of the disease on the shrinking Tasmanian devil population by offering potential solutions to better control its spread. Exciting research published in 2016 is also already offering hope in keeping Taz and his furry counterparts alive for future generations to enjoy. <br /><br /><br /><b>
Want to know more? Check out the original article below:</b> <br /><br />
Hamede, Rodrigo K., McCullum, H., Jones, M. (2013). “Biting injuries and transmission of Tasmanian Devil facial tumour disease. Journal of Animal Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2012.02025.x.
</span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-36481250733365704022019-02-19T14:26:00.001-08:002019-02-19T14:26:48.727-08:00One of These Sharks is Not Like the Others (A Guest Post)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
By <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#Masterton" target="_blank">Emily Masterton</a><br /><br />
When you think of a shark, what usually comes to your mind? Big teeth and the beach, right? Well, that’s not how the Greenland shark likes to live at all. Like the name denotes, this shark prefers cold waters and depths that would kill most sharks and people. The Greenland shark is mostly restricted to the waters of the far North Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean, which range from 34 – 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The Greenland shark has also been recorded diving down to depths ranging from 0 – 4000 feet. To put that in perspective, that’s equal to 3.2 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other! <br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8mC-Vth36IQ/XGx9ZJSa2wI/AAAAAAAACkM/ChvHCNEx9dw0KsTFatd8Xid7STDqGtVFACLcBGAs/s1600/Greenland_shark_profile%2Bby%2BHemming%2B1952%2Bon%2BWikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1001" data-original-width="1500" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8mC-Vth36IQ/XGx9ZJSa2wI/AAAAAAAACkM/ChvHCNEx9dw0KsTFatd8Xid7STDqGtVFACLcBGAs/s400/Greenland_shark_profile%2Bby%2BHemming%2B1952%2Bon%2BWikimedia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture of a Greenland shark in the Admiralty Inlet, Nunavut. <br />
Image by <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greenland_shark_profile.jpg" target="_blank">Hemming 1952 at Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The Greenland shark is able to survive in this harsh environment because of the shark's high levels of <i>nitrogenous waste products</i> (any metabolic waste product that contains nitrogen) in their tissues. The nitrogenous waste products that are found in the Greenland shark are urea and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). These chemicals help the shark maintain their <i>osmotic balance</i> (the movement of water across cells) in this very salty environment. This osmotic balance is important for the body to function and keep water and salt in balance in the cells. <br /><br />
TMAO and urea act as a type of anti-freeze that keeps the cells from freezing and developing ice crystals. The TMAO and urea work by preventing ice crystals from forming in the shark’s cells. They work by lowering the freezing point of water in the cells and by binding to ice crystals and preventing them from forming or growing. This protects the cells from denaturing due to the extreme pressure from the depths the shark dives at. If there were no TMAO and urea in the shark, then ice crystals could form and break cell walls, which could result in tissue and organ damage, then death.<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T9olmFhAetA/XGyCFktoLVI/AAAAAAAACkY/TKWS6SPm1hMo20E1Mv-YPvhF0wq9cnnfQCLcBGAs/s1600/TMAO%2Bdiagram%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1344" height="171" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T9olmFhAetA/XGyCFktoLVI/AAAAAAAACkY/TKWS6SPm1hMo20E1Mv-YPvhF0wq9cnnfQCLcBGAs/s400/TMAO%2Bdiagram%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This figure shows how TMAO and urea bind to the shark's protein and keep ice crystals from growing and forming. This prevents the protein from denaturing and ultimately killing the shark. Image by <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#Masterton" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Emily Masterton</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">.</span></td></tr>
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While these chemicals are great for the Greenland shark, they are bad news for anyone or thing who decides to eat them. TMAO and urea are very toxic. The Greenland shark has the most toxic skin among all sharks and even made it to the Guinness World Records in 2013 for this level of toxicity. If you were to eat the skin of a Greenland shark without preparing it right, you will have symptoms similar to being extremely drunk. <br /><br />
Greenland shark meat is eaten in Iceland in a dish called Hákarl. The shark’s meat must be prepared a certain way so that the TMAO and urea are no longer present in the meat. This is done by fermenting the meat and then drying it for 4-5 months. Once it has been dried and is ready to eat, it is often served in cubes on toothpicks in small servings. <br /><br />
Although these extreme conditions would kill any human being or another shark, the Greenland shark is able to survive and thrive in these conditions, thanks to the chemicals TMAO and urea. These chemicals keep ice crystals from forming in the cells of the shark and ultimately keep the shark alive. There are 465 species of sharks in the ocean, but only one can call the harsh North Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean its home.<br /><br /><br /><b>
References</b><br />
• Farrell, Anthony Peter, et al. Physiology of elasmobranch fishes: internal processes. Academic Press/Elsevier, 2016<br />
• Strøksnes, Morten. <a href="http://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywz8eg/my-hunt-for-the-400-year-old-shark-whose-flesh-gets-you-high" target="_blank">“My Hunt for the 400-Year-Old Shark Whose Flesh Gets You High.”</a> Vice, 30 June 2017<br />
• O’Connor, M. R. <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-strange-and-gruesome-story-of-the-greenland-shark-the-longest-living-vertebrate-on-earth" target="_blank">“The Strange and Gruesome Story of the Greenland Shark, the Longest-Living Vertebrate on Earth.”</a> The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 15 Feb. 2018<br />
• “The Greenland Shark: An Icy Mystery.” Greenland Shark | Sharkopedia Sharkopedia<br />
• <a href="http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/ecology/polar-greenland.htm" target="_blank">Polar Seas: Greenland Shark</a></span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-59398374479483750312019-02-13T09:18:00.000-08:002019-02-13T09:18:00.881-08:00A Snail’s Dart of Love (A Guest Post)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
By <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#Miskowic" target="_blank">Jenna Miskowic</a><br /><br />
Snails that shoot darts. Who would have thought? Turns out, snails have a lot of competition for mates. Females of some snail species have evolved ways to select which males they want to be the father of their eggs. One of these strategies is a female can mate with multiple males and store their sperm. The female can then “choose” which sperm she wants to fertilize her eggs. This affects how males compete for mates. Males want to make sure they are the father to the offspring because they want their genes to be passed on. So male snails have developed ways to increase their chances of paternity.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1GcZM0yqAEY/XGROSb19iTI/AAAAAAAACjI/Mhav0imM3lIkaZj6yc8LBBA_9RyDgeQhwCLcBGAs/s1600/Euhadra_quaesita%2Bby%2BChiba%2Band%2BClarke%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="679" height="251" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1GcZM0yqAEY/XGROSb19iTI/AAAAAAAACjI/Mhav0imM3lIkaZj6yc8LBBA_9RyDgeQhwCLcBGAs/s400/Euhadra_quaesita%2Bby%2BChiba%2Band%2BClarke%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Euhadra quaesita</i> gliding through foliage. Image by Angus Davison<br />
and Satoshi Chiba posted at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Euhadra_quaesita.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Enter the dart-bearing land snail, <i>Euhadra quaesita</i>. Snails of this species are simultaneous hermaphrodites that use cross-fertilization. <i>Simultaneous hermaphrodites</i> are animals that have both female and male reproductive tissues and systems. <i>Cross-fertilization</i> means that the snails require a mate. So, when two dart-bearing land snails cross paths and decide they want to mate, they will take their love-dart and pierce it into their mating partner. Because the snails are simultaneous hermaphrodites, they both perform this behavior before exchanging their sperm. <br /><br />
Love darts are composed of a crystalline form of calcium carbonite, which is what sea shells are made of, called aragonite. They are very sharp and pointed so that they are able to pierce the other snail. The dart is covered with a secretion from its mucous glands. When the dart pierces into the other snail, mucus is transported from the dart’s glands into the pierced snail’s blood. This mucus helps increase the amount of sperm being stored in the recipient snail and increases the likelihood of the donor snail being the father to the offspring of the recipient snail. Researchers Kazuki Kimura, Kaito Shibuya, and Satoshi Chiba from <a href="https://www.lifesci.tohoku.ac.jp/en/" target="_blank">Tohoku University</a> in Japan hypothesized that the dart’s mucus would also reduce future matings and promote laying eggs, also called <i>oviposition</i>. <br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FEvhWI17wBI/XGROuWj45WI/AAAAAAAACjQ/k5EVPI0Dew0lnkjT6hPGIUIuAtwnCXjRgCLcBGAs/s1600/Euhadra_quaesita_dart%2Bby%2BKoene%2Band%2BSchulenburg%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="100" data-original-width="600" height="66" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FEvhWI17wBI/XGROuWj45WI/AAAAAAAACjQ/k5EVPI0Dew0lnkjT6hPGIUIuAtwnCXjRgCLcBGAs/s400/Euhadra_quaesita_dart%2Bby%2BKoene%2Band%2BSchulenburg%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drawing of <i>Euhadra quaesita</i>’s love-dart. Cross-section on the left and lateral view on the right.<br />
Image by Joris M. Koene and Hinrich Schulenburg posted at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Euhadra_quaesita_dart.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
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<br />
To test these hypotheses, the researchers conducted two separate experiments. The first experiment focused on the effects of dart shooting and future matings of the recipient snail. Individually, non-virgin adult snails were presented with a non-virgin or virgin adult for their initial mating. In this species, non-virgin adults shoot their darts and virgin snails do not shoot their darts while performing the mating behavior. Thus, the subjects paired with a non-virgin adult were pierced with their partner’s love-dart, and the subjects paired with a virgin adult were not pierced with their partner’s love-dart. Then the subjects were offered to mate again with an unfamiliar non-virgin snail with a high mating motivation caused by individual rearing. They recorded how long the snail subject went, in days, before mating again with another individual of the same species. The researchers found that the amount of time between matings was longer in pierced snails than in ones not pierced. <br /><br />
The second experiment focused on the effect of injected artificial mucus on future matings and promotion of oviposition behavior. Researchers dissected an extract of the mucous glands out of adult snails and combined it with saline solution to create the artificial mucus. There were two groups used in this experiment: (1) adult snails injected with the artificial mucus, also known as the treatment group and (2) adult snails injected with only the saline solution, also known as the control group. They recorded the number of hatched eggs and their parentage. They found that artificial mucus-injected snail pairs mated less often than the control pairs. Additionally, they found that the amount of the snails that laid eggs was larger in the snails injected with artificial mucus. These findings support the researchers’ hypotheses that dart mucus can subdue future matings in its recipients.<br /><br />
So what are the benefits to stabbing your partner with a love dart? Well, if an animal has multiple partners, then it is quite advantageous for the partner to make sure that they are the parent. Mating suppression after being injected with the love dart is one way to fight off the competition. So, beware to all who search for Cupid’s arrow this Valentine’s Day. There may be more to an arrow of love than you realize. <br /><br /><br /><b>
References</b><br /><br />
Kimura, Shibuya, & Chiba. (2013). The mucus of a land snail love-dart suppresses subsequent matings in darted individuals. <i>Animal Behaviour</i>, 85(3), 631-635.
</span>Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-21354732696243796542019-01-29T13:14:00.000-08:002019-01-29T13:14:13.177-08:00Why You Can’t Hibernate the Winter Away<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A reposting of <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2015/01/why-you-cant-hibernate-winter-away.html" target="_blank">an original article</a> from January, 2015.<br /><br />
You open your eyes, slap the alarm, and pull the covers a little tighter around your shoulders. It’s still dark outside and you dread the moment that you step out from under the warm comforter and the cold sucks your breath out. Can’t you just hibernate and sleep the winter away?<br /><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-59Dgb7k78iM/VL04p9C0HOI/AAAAAAAABP0/6d8rACTyuM4/s1600/Dormouse%2Bhibernation%2Bby%2BKrysztof%2BDreszer%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-59Dgb7k78iM/VL04p9C0HOI/AAAAAAAABP0/6d8rACTyuM4/s1600/Dormouse%2Bhibernation%2Bby%2BKrysztof%2BDreszer%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A dormouse in his snuggly hibernation state. <br />
Image by Krysztof Dreszer at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Actually, no. Hibernation and sleep are two completely different physiological processes (shown by studies of brain function). And chances are, you don’t have the physiological bits needed to hibernate safely.<br /><br />
Hibernation has more to do with energy and body temperature than it does with sleep. <em>Hibernation</em> is defined as a process in which an animal allows its body temperature to approximate the environmental temperature for several days or longer. It is a strategy that some animals use during periods of food shortage to conserve the energy that would normally be used to generate body heat. When food is scarce in the winter, the animal will lower its <em>metabolism</em> (the burning of food molecules to create energy and heat), which will result in the animal having less energy (and entering a sleep-like state) and less heat (until the body approaches the environmental temperature). So really, hibernation is the reduction of metabolism when food is scarce. Lack of activity and cold body temperatures are just the by-products.<br /><br />
Almost all species that hibernate are small mammals, including some hamsters, dormice, jumping mice, ground squirrels, marmots, woodchucks, bats, marsupials and monotremes. <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-truth-behind-those-sleeping-bears.html" target="_blank">Bears</a>, common examples of hibernating species, are actually debated by scientists as to whether they should even be considered hibernators due to the fact that their metabolisms and body temperatures do not decline as much as those of other hibernating species. The only bird species known to hibernate is the poorwill.<br /><br />
Each hibernating species has a specific range of body temperatures that their body can endure. Their first line of defense is to find a <em>hibernaculum</em> (a chamber or cavity in which to hibernate that is more insulated than the exposed environment). If the hibernaculum becomes so cold that the animal’s body temperature drops below its minimum endured range, it will either increase its metabolism slightly to raise its body temperature or it will <em>arouse</em> (wake up). Arousal is the process of increasing metabolic heat production to near-normal levels. All hibernating species seem to undergo multiple periods of temporary arousals during hibernation and scientists are still unsure why. Increasing the metabolism and body temperature from lower levels is an energetically costly process (similar to how your car uses more gas to accelerate than to maintain a higher speed). In most hibernating species, the process of increasing the metabolism uses a specialized tissue called <em>brown fat</em>.<br /><br />
Fat cells come in two main types: white fat and brown fat. White fat, the squishy stuff that we constantly try to diet and exercise away, is filled with <em>lipids</em> (fats) that we store to generate energy in the future. Brown fat cells also contains lipids, but they are specialized to break them down faster. Brown fat is found in newborn mammals and adult hibernators and is commonly located on the upper back, neck, chest and belly (like a vest) and around major arteries. Brown fat cells have lots of <em>mitochondria</em> (the metabolic parts of the cell that break down food molecules like lipids to generate energy). Brown fat mitochondria is specialized in that they have a protein called <em>uncoupling protein 1</em> that causes them to generate heat rather than energy when they break down lipids. When the body becomes stressed, it releases norepinephrine, a stress hormone, which causes brown fat cells to increase the rate at which they break down lipids to generate heat. This heat warms the major arteries and increases blood flow, which then distributes the heat throughout the body. <br /><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hWjGMS9Yu58/VL04xn5QUMI/AAAAAAAABP8/7uIXyqbkIP8/s1600/Brown%2Bfat%2Bin%2Ba%2Bhuman%2Bby%2BHellerhoff%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hWjGMS9Yu58/VL04xn5QUMI/AAAAAAAABP8/7uIXyqbkIP8/s1600/Brown%2Bfat%2Bin%2Ba%2Bhuman%2Bby%2BHellerhoff%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" width="175" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A PET scan shows brown fat in a human. <br />
Image by Hellerhoff at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Although humans are born with a fair amount of brown fat, we lose it as we age. More specifically, it converts to white fat. We used to think that we lost it completely, but in recent years we have learned that some lean adults maintain a few pockets of brown fat in their necks and chests that obese people are more likely to lose. Researchers are currently exploring if and how we can convert some of our adult white fat to brown fat in order to increase our metabolisms and potentially combat obesity and diabetes.<br /><br />
So for now, we can’t hibernate the winter away. But continuing research into hibernating animals may hold an important secret to our own health.
</span>
Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-51613453845231206412019-01-22T08:31:00.000-08:002019-01-22T08:31:05.949-08:00Nature Shapes Faithful and Unfaithful Brains<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A reposting of an original article from <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2017/01/nature-shapes-faithful-and-unfaithful.html" target="_blank">January 22, 2017</a>.<br /><br />
Among monogamous animals, some individuals are more faithful than others. Could these differences in fidelity be, in part, because of differences in our brains? And if so, why does this diversity in brain and behavior exist?<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G1rtYhog6jk/WIUhy_wgPdI/AAAAAAAACOs/v1CQ3Pg-25EjXOKQZaq1i3YrpboAiWIOQCLcB/s1600/Prairie_vole%2Bfamily%2Bby%2BtheNerdPatrol%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G1rtYhog6jk/WIUhy_wgPdI/AAAAAAAACOs/v1CQ3Pg-25EjXOKQZaq1i3YrpboAiWIOQCLcB/s320/Prairie_vole%2Bfamily%2Bby%2BtheNerdPatrol%2Bat%2BWikimedia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A snuggly prairie vole family. Photo from theNerdPatrol at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prairie_voles.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Prairie voles are small North American rodents that form monogamous pair bonds, share parental duties, and defend their homes. Although prairie voles form monogamous pairs, that does not mean they are sexually exclusive. About a quarter of prairie vole pups are conceived outside of their parents’ union.<br /><br />
Not all male prairie voles cheat on their partners at the same rates. In fact, some males are very sexually faithful. It turns out, there are both costs and benefits to being faithful and to cheating. <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist.html#Okhovat" target="_blank">Mariam Okhovat</a>, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist.html#Berrio" target="_blank">Alejandro Berrio</a>, Gerard Wallace, and Steve Phelps from <a href="https://integrativebio.utexas.edu/" target="_blank">the University of Texas at Austin</a>, and Alex Ophir from <a href="http://www.psych.cornell.edu/" target="_blank">Cornell University</a> used radio-telemetry to track male prairie voles for several weeks to explore what some of these costs and benefits might be. Compared to males that only sired offspring with their own partner, unfaithful males had larger home ranges, intruded on more territories of other individuals, and encountered females more often. However, these unfaithful males were also more likely to be cheated on when they were away (probably because they were away more). I guess even rodents live by The Golden Rule.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--YuT35Y9fOU/WIUiOtl2taI/AAAAAAAACOw/suEhZ37ZRMkbCzTwm1HELD7_KEoXyNiegCLcB/s1600/vole%2Bterritories.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--YuT35Y9fOU/WIUiOtl2taI/AAAAAAAACOw/suEhZ37ZRMkbCzTwm1HELD7_KEoXyNiegCLcB/s400/vole%2Bterritories.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maps of how paired male voles in this study used space. The solid red/orange/yellow peaks show where a faithful male (in the left map) and unfaithful male (in the right map) spent their time in relation to where other paired males spent their time (showed by open blue peaks). Image from the <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/350/6266/1371" target="_blank">Okhovat <i>et al</i>. <i>Science</i> paper (2015)</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/08/uncontrollable-love-guest-post.html" target="_blank">Vasopressin</a> is a hormone that has been found to affect social behaviors such as aggression and pair bonding when it acts in the brain. Mariam, Alejandro, Gerard, Alex, and Steve all set out to determine how vasopressin in the brain may relate to sexual fidelity in prairie voles. They found that faithful males had lots of a particular type of vasopressin receptor (called V1aR) in certain brain areas involved in spatial memory. Surprisingly, faithful males did not have more V1aR in brain regions typically associated with pair bonding and aggression. A male that has more V1aR in spatial memory regions might better remember where his own mate is and where other males have been aggressive, which would decrease the chances that he would intrude on other territories in search of other females and increase the time that he spends home with his own mate. A male that has less V1aR in spatial memory regions might be less likely to learn from his negative experiences and more likely to sleep around.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T08cxxIWgrM/WIUiUhL-xPI/AAAAAAAACO0/Lm45EGxQDRIpA__Qp4Dzk4-MuX3zX5XHACLcB/s1600/brains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T08cxxIWgrM/WIUiUhL-xPI/AAAAAAAACO0/Lm45EGxQDRIpA__Qp4Dzk4-MuX3zX5XHACLcB/s320/brains.jpg" width="384" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photos of a brain section from a faithful male (left) and unfaithful male (right). The dark shading shows the density of V1aR vasopressin receptors. The arrows show the location of the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), a brain area involved in spatial memory. Faithful males had significantly more V1aR receptors in the RSC compared to unfaithful males. Image from the <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/350/6266/1371" target="_blank">Okhovat <i>et al. Science</i> paper (2015)</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The research team then found genotype variations that related to having lots or not much V1aR in one of these spatial memory regions (called retrosplenial cortex … but we’ll just call it RSC). They confirmed these findings with a breeding study, in which they reared siblings that were genetically similar, but some had the genotype they predicted would result in lots of V1aR in RSC and some had the genotype they predicted would result in very little V1aR in RSC. They confirmed that these genetic variations correspond with the amount of vasopressin receptor in this specific spatial memory area.<br /><br />
The researchers then looked closer at the different versions of this vasopressin receptor gene in the RSC brain region to see if differences in the amount of vasopressin receptors in RSC may be caused by the <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/08/epigenetics-fusion-of-nature-and.html" target="_blank">epigenetic state</a> of the gene (i.e. how active the gene is). They found that the genotype that results in very little V1aR in RSC had many more potential methylation sites, which can repress gene activity.<br /><br />
All of this data together tells a very interesting story. Male prairie voles that have the genotype for more V1aR vasopressin receptors in their RSC part of their brain are more likely to remember where their home and mate are and to remember where other aggressive prairie voles are, which will make them more likely to spend more time with their partner, to be sexually faithful and to have sexually faithful partners. Male prairie voles that have the genotype for less V1aR in their RSC are more likely to forget where their home and mate are and where other aggressive prairie voles are, which will make them more likely to cheat and to be cheated on. Overall, faithful and unfaithful male prairie voles have roughly the same number of offspring, but advantages may emerge with changes in population density. Prairie vole populations vary anywhere from 25 to 600 voles per hectare from year to year. When population densities are high, you (and your partner) are more likely to encounter more potential mates and it may benefit you to cheat (and have a “cheater’s brain”). When population densities are low, you (and your partner) are less likely to encounter more potential mates and it may benefit you to be faithful (and have a “faithful brain”). But when populations fluctuate between high and low densities, both faithful and unfaithful genotypes will get passed along from generation to generation.<br /><br /><br />
Want to know more? Check this out:<br /><br />
<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Science&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1126%2Fscience.aac5791&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Sexual+fidelity+trade-offs+promote+regulatory+variation+in+the+prairie+vole+brain&rft.issn=0036-8075&rft.date=2015&rft.volume=350&rft.issue=6266&rft.spage=1371&rft.epage=1374&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencemag.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1126%2Fscience.aac5791&rft.au=Okhovat%2C+M.&rft.au=Berrio%2C+A.&rft.au=Wallace%2C+G.&rft.au=Ophir%2C+A.&rft.au=Phelps%2C+S.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CMedicine%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CNeuroscience%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Okhovat, M., Berrio, A., Wallace, G., Ophir, A., & Phelps, S. (2015). Sexual fidelity trade-offs promote regulatory variation in the prairie vole brain <span style="font-style: italic;">Science, 350</span> (6266), 1371-1374 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aac5791" rev="review">10.1126/science.aac5791</a></span>
</span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-17688563971371991302018-12-18T07:08:00.000-08:002018-12-18T07:08:25.335-08:00Reindeer Games: 8 Surprising Facts About Reindeer<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A reposting of an original article from <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2017/12/reindeer-games-8-surprising-facts-about.html" target="_blank">December, 2017</a>.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ztJmFnL_b-4/Wjl93mR5vII/AAAAAAAACdg/tvIATHqsRNwLk-YRjWKXXEe875eUizeQgCLcBGAs/s1600/Swedish%2Breindeer%2Bby%2BAlexandre%2BBuisse%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="798" data-original-width="1200" height="265" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ztJmFnL_b-4/Wjl93mR5vII/AAAAAAAACdg/tvIATHqsRNwLk-YRjWKXXEe875eUizeQgCLcBGAs/s400/Swedish%2Breindeer%2Bby%2BAlexandre%2BBuisse%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Swedish reindeer watches you. Photo by Alexandre Buisse at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reindeer_in_Kebnekaise.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
1. <b>Reindeer are caribou (kinda):</b> Reindeer are the same species as caribou (with the scientific name <i>Rangifer tarandus</i>), but the terms are not completely interchangeable. <i>Rangifer tarandus</i> is a species of deer that is native to Northern regions of Europe, Siberia and North America, which includes many different habitat types, like arctic, subarctic, tundra, snow forest and mountains. These variations in harsh environments have led to variations among populations, resulting in multiple subspecies. The <i>Rangifer tarandus</i> subspecies that live in North America are commonly called caribou and the subspecies that live in Europe and Siberia are commonly called reindeer. We also often refer to domesticated populations as reindeer, regardless of where they are.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qoyxs-RYrz0/Wjl99ckrkCI/AAAAAAAACdk/UzLsQiukMMIi-MRcv0HiqKrXDCbNeHH0QCLcBGAs/s1600/Rangifer_tarandus_map%2Bby%2BTBjornstad%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1600" height="197" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qoyxs-RYrz0/Wjl99ckrkCI/AAAAAAAACdk/UzLsQiukMMIi-MRcv0HiqKrXDCbNeHH0QCLcBGAs/s400/Rangifer_tarandus_map%2Bby%2BTBjornstad%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A map of reindeer and caribou distributions. Image by TBjornstad at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rangifer_tarandus_map.png" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
2. <b>Rudolf’s red nose was an adaptation:</b> Technically, reindeer don’t have red noses, but they do have lots extra blood flow in them. The inside of their noses are twisted and vascularized so the warm blood can heat up the frigid Arctic air before it gets into the lungs.<br /><br />
3. <b>Santa’s reindeer were probably girls:</b> Not only do reindeer have the biggest antlers of all deer species (relative to body size), but they are the only deer species in which both males and females grow antlers. Both males and females use their antlers to scrape through the snow and look for food, but males also use their antlers to compete with one another and impress the ladies during the breeding season. Unlike horns, antlers shed and regrow every year, and this process is regulated by sex hormones. When the new antlers grow in spring, they are made up of cartilage and lots of blood vessels and are covered in a furry skin called velvet. The blood carries lots of calcium into the antlers, which helps them to grow and harden into bone. When testosterone levels drop in males at the end of their breeding season in early December, their antlers fall off. Females, however, generally keep their antlers until March or April. So, if Santa’s reindeer had antlers at the end of December, they were probably female!<br /><br />
4. <b>If you’re going to pick an animal to travel the world in one night, reindeer are a good choice:</b> Some North American caribou migrate over 3,000 miles a year (more than any other land mammal). They can run up to 50 miles per hour and swim over 6 miles per hour. Migration herds can be up to 500,000 animals and baby reindeer learn to run within two hours of birth!<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I0naYMosrHk/Wjl-DhEpG8I/AAAAAAAACdo/hMmdmaFUwq07w7vPR2fapiTTOXHDsf7eQCLcBGAs/s1600/Swimming%2BCaribou%2Bby%2BLestar%2BKovac%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I0naYMosrHk/Wjl-DhEpG8I/AAAAAAAACdo/hMmdmaFUwq07w7vPR2fapiTTOXHDsf7eQCLcBGAs/s400/Swimming%2BCaribou%2Bby%2BLestar%2BKovac%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A swimming caribou herd. Photo by Lestar Kovac at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caribou_traversant_la_rivi%C3%A8re_aux_Feuilles.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
5. <b>Reindeer eat weird stuff:</b> Like cows, reindeer are ruminants, which means their stomachs have multiple compartments, some of which specialize in maintaining microbial communities to help them digest. Unlike cows, reindeer predominantly eat lichen, which are combinations of algae and fungi that are typically high in carbohydrates and low in proteins. To make up for this low amount of protein in their diet, reindeer may occasionally eat rodents and bird eggs.<br /><br />
6. <b>They have the coolest feet:</b> Their hooves have four toes: two that splay out like snow shoes and two dew claws. Their hooves have sharp edges to dig for food and are paddle-shaped for swimming. Their hooves even change with the seasons to provide the best traction, being softer in the summer when the ground is soft and hard in the winter to walk on slippery snow and ice.<br /><br />
7. <b>Some reindeer use clicking knees to communicate:</b> Some subspecies have knees that click when tendons slip over bone extensions in their feet. They use this sound to stay with their herd, even when weather conditions limit visibility. But because larger reindeer have larger legs and therefore make louder knee-clicks, they also use these sounds to establish dominance. <br /><br />
8. <b>Reindeer are the only mammals that can see UV light:</b> They have a reflective layer in the back of their eyes that is golden in summer and blue in winter. When it is blue, this allows reindeer to see contrasts in UV light, such as lichen (which absorbs UV) versus snow (which reflects UV).
</span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-46295361005204333612018-12-11T09:16:00.004-08:002018-12-11T09:16:56.398-08:00Not Fair! Even Dogs Know the Importance of Gift-Equity<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A repost of an original article from <a href="https://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/12/not-fair-even-dogs-know-importance-of.html" target="_blank">December 2012</a>. <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r_5JDPfKmGs/UNHS-x2H9CI/AAAAAAAAArw/Y81UARiZggA/s1600/dog+with+bone+by+Ohsaywhat+at+Wikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r_5JDPfKmGs/UNHS-x2H9CI/AAAAAAAAArw/Y81UARiZggA/s320/dog+with+bone+by+Ohsaywhat+at+Wikimedia.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't leave out your best friend when<br />
gift-giving this holiday season! <br />
Photo by Ohsaywhat at Wikimedia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When I was a child, I think one of the things that stressed my mom out most about the holidays was making sure that all of us kids got Christmas gifts worth the exact same amount. Why all the fuss? Because if the value of the gifts wasn’t equal, we were guaranteed to spend our holidays in a chorus of “Not fair!” cries rather than appreciating the holiday bounty and cheer around us. <br /><br />
As a species, we have a pretty developed sense of fairness. This sense of fairness is central to our ability to cooperate to achieve goals that are too difficult for one person to accomplish alone. But we’re not the only social species that cooperates… and it turns out, we’re not the only ones with a sense of fairness, either.<br /><br />
Domestic dogs and their wild relatives, like wolves and African wild dogs, are very social and have cooperative hunting, territory defense, and parental care. Friederike Range, Lisa Horn, Zsófia Viranyi, and <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist.html#Huber" target="_blank">Ludwig Huber</a> from the <a href="http://cogbio.univie.ac.at/" target="_blank">University of Vienna</a>, <a href="http://www.kli.ac.at/institute/introduction" target="_blank">Konrad Lorenz Institute</a>, and <a href="http://www.wolfscience.at/english/research/" target="_blank">Wolf Science Center</a>, all in Austria, sought out to test whether domesticated dogs have a sense of fairness.<br /><br />
The researchers tested pairs of dogs who had lived together in the same household for at least a year. All of these dogs had been previously trained to give their paw on command, as if giving a handshake. Each pair of dogs was asked to sit in front of an experimenter (one dog was designated the “subject” and the other was the “partner”). In this position, the willingness of the subject dog to shake paws with the experimenter was tested under six different situations.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rYnpHOTnE4I/UNHUi8czJ_I/AAAAAAAAAr8/hPDomkA86Dw/s1600/dog+methods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rYnpHOTnE4I/UNHUi8czJ_I/AAAAAAAAAr8/hPDomkA86Dw/s400/dog+methods.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An experimenter asks two dog-buddies to each give her a paw and they wait <br />
to see who gets rewarded.
Photo from Range et al., <em>PNAS</em>, 2009.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the basic situation, both dogs were asked to give a paw, and both dogs were rewarded with a “low-value” reward (a piece of bread). This happened repeatedly and the researchers measured how many times the subject dogs would give their paw.<br /><br />
In another situation, both dogs were asked to give a paw, but the subject dog was rewarded with a “low-value” reward (a piece of bread) while its buddy was rewarded with a “high-value” reward (a piece of sausage). <br /><br />
In a third situation, both dogs were asked to give a paw, but only the partner dog was rewarded with a piece of bread (the subject dog got nothing).<br /><br />
In the fourth situation, only the subject dog was asked to give a paw, but both dogs were rewarded with a piece of bread.<br /><br />
In the fifth situation, the experimenter measured how many times the subject dog would give its paw for a piece of bread if his doggy-buddy wasn’t around.<br /><br />
In the last situation, the experimenter measured how many times the subject dog would give its paw for no reward if his doggy-buddy wasn’t around.<br /><br />
When both dogs received bread, they were happy to keep giving the experimenter their paw for as long as they were asked to. But when dogs saw their buddy get a piece of bread when they got nothing, they soon refused to give their paw to the experimenter (and started showing signs of stress). You may think this is just what happens when you stop rewarding a dog for doing what you ask, but something different was going on here. The dogs that never got a reward gave their paw to the experimenter for longer when their buddy wasn’t around than if their buddy was around and getting bread treats. Clearly, even dogs know that equal work for unequal pay is not fair.<br /><br />
But the doggy-sense-of-fairness is limited. As long as they got their bread when they gave their paw, they really didn’t seem to care (or notice) if their buddy got bread or sausage, or even whether their buddy had to perform the same trick or not.<br /><br />
So this holiday season, don’t forget to get a present for your four-legged friend so he doesn’t feel left out. But don’t worry about getting something expensive – He doesn’t care anyway. For him, it’s the gesture that counts.<br /> <br />
Want to know more? Check these out:<br /><br />
1. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Proceedings+of+the+National+Academy+of+Sciences+of+the+United+States+of+America&rft_id=info%3Apmid%2F19064923&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=The+absence+of+reward+induces+inequity+aversion+in+dogs.&rft.issn=0027-8424&rft.date=2009&rft.volume=106&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=340&rft.epage=5&rft.artnum=&rft.au=Range+F&rft.au=Horn+L&rft.au=Viranyi+Z&rft.au=Huber+L&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Anthropology%2CBiology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CNeuroscience">Range F, Horn L, Viranyi Z, & Huber L (2009). The absence of reward induces inequity aversion in dogs. <span style="font-style: italic;">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106</span> (1), 340-5 PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19064923" rev="review">19064923</a></span><br /><br />
2. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Social+Justice+Research&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1007%2Fs11211-012-0155-x&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=The+Influence+of+the+Relationship+and+Motivation+on+Inequity+Aversion+in+Dogs&rft.issn=0885-7466&rft.date=2012&rft.volume=25&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=170&rft.epage=194&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.springerlink.com%2Findex%2F10.1007%2Fs11211-012-0155-x&rft.au=Range%2C+F.&rft.au=Leitner%2C+K.&rft.au=Vir%C3%A1nyi%2C+Z.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Anthropology%2CBiology%2CPhilosophy%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CNeuroscience">Range, F., Leitner, K., & Virányi, Z. (2012). The Influence of the Relationship and Motivation on Inequity Aversion in Dogs <span style="font-style: italic;">Social Justice Research, 25</span> (2), 170-194 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11211-012-0155-x" rev="review">10.1007/s11211-012-0155-x</a></span>
</span>
Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-7970551090806930382018-12-04T11:48:00.000-08:002018-12-04T11:48:28.454-08:00The Beginnings of Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Blood Discovered? (A Guest Post)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A reposting of <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-beginnings-of-jurassic-park.html" target="_blank">an original article</a> by <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#Vold" target="_blank">Samantha Vold</a><br /><br />
The classic tale of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jurassic-Park-Novel-Michael-Crichton/dp/0345538986" target="_blank">Jurassic Park</a>, where dinosaurs once again walked the earth has tickled the fancy of many a reader. Dinosaur DNA preserved in a fossilized mosquito was used to bring these giants back to life. But in real life, it was previously thought that there was no possible way for organic materials to be preserved, that they often degraded within 1 million years if not rapidly attacked by bacteria and other organisms specialized in decomposition. Skin and other soft tissues, such as blood vessels, would never withstand the test of time. Or would they…? <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAhIIXHhjRA/VNjb_uDt28I/AAAAAAAABRo/JwmNN3DpU_Q/s1600/T%2Brex%2Bskeleton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAhIIXHhjRA/VNjb_uDt28I/AAAAAAAABRo/JwmNN3DpU_Q/s1600/T%2Brex%2Bskeleton.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T. rex skeleton at Palais de la découverte. Image by David Monniaux at Wikimedia
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In 1992, Mary Schweitzer was staring through a microscope at a thin slice of fossilized bone, but this bone had something unusual. There were small red disks located in this tissue and each had a small dark circle in the middle resembling a cell nucleus, the command center of the cell. And these little disks very much resembled the red blood cells of reptiles, birds, and other modern-day vertebrates (excluding mammals). But it wasn’t possible, was it? These cells came from a 67 million-year old T. rex. And it was commonly accepted that organic material never lasted that long.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1eeHAQJgQE/VNjcGMmOHqI/AAAAAAAABRw/MB_PfsjWM9w/s1600/Newbloodm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1eeHAQJgQE/VNjcGMmOHqI/AAAAAAAABRw/MB_PfsjWM9w/s1600/Newbloodm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Comparison of red blood cells. Image by John Alan Elson at Wikimedia
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This opened a huge controversy in the scientific community, but Schweitzer persisted. She consulted with her mentor, Jack Horner, a leading scientist in the paleontology field, and he told her to prove to him that they weren’t red blood cells. Schweitzer took the challenge and began to run some tests.<br /><br />
The first clue to these mysterious scarlet-colored cells potentially being red blood cells was the fact that they were located within blood vessel channels of the dense bone that were not filled with mineral deposits. And these microscopic structures only appeared inside the vessel channels, as would be true of blood cells.<br /><br />
Schweitzer then began to focus on the chemical composition of these puzzling structures. Tests showed that these “little red round things” were rich in iron, and that the iron was specific to them. Iron is important in red blood cells as it helps to transport oxygen throughout the body. And the elemental make-up of these little red round things differed greatly from the surrounding bone and sediment around them. <br /><br />
The next test was looking for heme, a small iron-containing molecule that gives blood its characteristic color and allows hemoglobin proteins to transport oxygen throughout the body. Schweitzer tested for this through spectroscopy tests, which measure the light that a given material emits, absorbs, and scatters. Her results from these tests were consistent with what one would find in heme, suggesting that this molecule existed in the dinosaur bone she was analyzing. <br /><br />
Schweitzer then conducted a few immunology tests to see if she indeed had found hemoglobin in these ancient bones. Antibodies are produced when the body detects a foreign substance that could potentially be harmful. Extracts from the dinosaur bone were injected into mice to see if antibodies were produced to ward against this new organic compound. When these antibodies were then exposed to hemoglobin from turkeys and rats, they bound to the hemoglobin. This suggested that the extracts that caused an antibody response in the mice included hemoglobin. This in turn suggested the T. rex bone contained hemoglobin, or something very similar.<br /><br />
Through years of research, Schweitzer has shown that what was once believed to be impossible is indeed true. Soft tissues, blood cells, and proteins can withstand the test of time. This process is possibly done through iron binding to amino acids (the molecules that make up proteins) and thereby preserve them. Research is advancing in this area, but as of yet, no DNA has been found to bring Jurassic Park to life. But for the avid believer, don’t get up hope yet. Perhaps one day we truly could walk amongst dinosaurs.<br /><br /><br />
References:<br /><br />
Fields, Helen. (May 2006). <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur-shocker-115306469/?page=1&no-ist" target="_blank">Dinosaur Shocker.</a> Smithsonian. <em>Smithsonian Magazine</em>.<br /><br />
Pappas, Stephanie. (13 Nov. 2013). <a href="http://news.discovery.com/animals/dinosaurs/mysteriously-intact-t-rex-tissue-finally-explained-131127.htm" target="_blank">Mysteriously Intact T. Rex Tissue Finally Explained : DNews.</a> DNews. <em>Live Science</em>. <br /><br />
<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Scientific+American&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1038%2Fscientificamerican1210-62&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Blood+from+Stone&rft.issn=0036-8733&rft.date=2010&rft.volume=303&rft.issue=6&rft.spage=62&rft.epage=69&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Fdoifinder%2F10.1038%2Fscientificamerican1210-62&rft.au=Schweitzer%2C+M.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Anthropology%2CBiology%2CMedicine%2CPhilosophy%2CSocial+Science%2CHealth%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Schweitzer, M. (2010). Blood from Stone <span style="font-style: italic;">Scientific American, 303</span> (6), 62-69 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1210-62" rev="review">10.1038/scientificamerican1210-62</a></span>
</span>
Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-29087799077917161642018-11-27T08:14:00.000-08:002018-11-27T08:14:22.128-08:00Birds, Vitamin E, and the Race Against Time: A Guest Post<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A reposting of <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/02/birds-vitamin-e-and-race-against-time.html" target="_blank">an original article</a> by <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/guest-science-writers.html#DeRubeis" target="_blank">Alyssa DeRubeis</a><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zg15ZHDJXEc/URJuZK9NXuI/AAAAAAAAAyM/RuTcbqWmmio/s1600/090.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zg15ZHDJXEc/URJuZK9NXuI/AAAAAAAAAyM/RuTcbqWmmio/s320/090.JPG" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The long and tapered wings on this young <br />
Peregrine Falcon means it was built for some <br />
serious speed! Photo by Alyssa DeRubeis.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Maybe you’ve been put under the false assumption that humans are cool. Don’t get me wrong; our bodies can do some pretty neat physiological stuff. But I’m gonna burst your bubble: humans are lame. Just think of how fast we can run compared to a Peregrine Falcon in a full stoop: 27 MPH versus 242 MPH. <br /><br />
Keep thinking about all the cool things birds can do. It doesn’t take us long to realize that our feathered friends are vastly more fascinating compared to humans. Now that you’re finally admitting defeat, I ask that you read on. <br /><br />
The most amazing avian physiological feat is the ability to travel long distances seasonally (a.k.a migrate). Between poor weather conditions, preventing fat loss, and staying alert, migration is not easy by any means. However, birds can cope with all of these things by assimilating and using antioxidants like vitamin E. <br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cljziM8irBA/URJwD7lyMdI/AAAAAAAAAyU/nRnTzc-1bo8/s1600/015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cljziM8irBA/URJwD7lyMdI/AAAAAAAAAyU/nRnTzc-1bo8/s320/015.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here’s a classic bird migration scene: thousands of Tundra Swans, geese, and ducks congregate on the Mississippi River in Minnesota. Here, they rest and refuel before continuing their journey south. Photo by Alyssa DeRubeis.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Let’s talk a little bit about bird migration. It’s a two-way street, where a migratory bird will (usually) fly north as soon as possible to rear its young, and then fly south where it can stay warm and eat all sorts of goodies. During these two bouts of intense exercise, the birds produce free radicals, which are types of atoms, molecules, and ions that can harm DNA and other important stuff inside the body. This is where vitamin E comes in to save the day, because this vitamin, along with vitamin A and carotenoids, are antioxidants. They drive away bad things like free radicals from birds’ bodies; some scientists suggest that they may even reduce risks of cancer! In the case of migrating birds, antioxidants can make this migration headache a lot more bearable. <br /><br />
Well, that’s great. But where do these antioxidants come from? The short answer is avian nom-noms, but it’s one thing to eat something with an antioxidant in it. It’s quite another to actually be able to assimilate and use this antioxidant. Okay…so where do the birds get this ability from? It’s parentals!<br /><br />
Anders Møller from the <a href="http://www.ese.u-psud.fr/?lang=fr" target="_blank">University of Paris-Sud</a>, along with his international team including Clotilde Biard (France), Filiz Karadas (Turkey), Diego Rubolini (Italy), Nicola Saino (Italy), and Peter Surai (Scotland), pointed out that there is little research looking at maternal effects on our feathered friends. Møller hypothesized that maternal effects (the direct effects a mother has on her offspring) play a critical role in migration: If mothers put a lot of antioxidants in their eggs, the chicks will be able to absorb antioxidants better later in life. This would give these birds a competitive edge because they will migrate in a healthier condition and arrive to breeding grounds earlier.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CkS-2wnC5zE/URJwl-_glDI/AAAAAAAAAyc/P6qjfWabg1U/s1600/231.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CkS-2wnC5zE/URJwl-_glDI/AAAAAAAAAyc/P6qjfWabg1U/s320/231.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This male Barn Swallow on the left must’ve gotten back pretty early for him to have landed himself such a beautiful female. Thank you, Vitamin E! Photo by Alyssa DeRubeis.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
In the early 2000s, Møller and his five colleagues collected 93 bird species’ eggs. The crew was able to analyze how the natural differences in antioxidant concentrations (put in by the mother) related to the birds’ spring arrival dates in 14 of them. They found that vitamin E concentration, but not vitamin A concentration, was a reliable predictor of earlier arrival dates. <br /><br />
This European posse took it a step further by injecting over 700 barn swallow eggs with either a large dose of vitamin E or a dose of corn oil (which contains a small amount of vitamin E). It was soon evident that the chicks with more vitamin E were bigger than chicks that received less vitamin E, thus already giving the big chicks a competitive edge over their less vitamin E-affiliated brethren. The researchers kept track of the eggs that hatched out as males in the following spring via frequent mist-netting sessions (a bird-capturing technique). Guess what? The fellas with higher vitamin E concentrations arrived earlier on average by ten days than those with lower concentrations! <br /><br />
Sweet. But what does it all mean? First off, vitamin E is crucial for migratory birds because it allows them to process antioxidants more efficiently. In fact, another study done by Møller, Filiz Karadas, and Johannes Emitzoe out of University of Paris-Sud suggested that birds killed by feral cats had less vitamin E than birds that died of other reasons. Furthermore, the early birds get the worm. Events such as insect hatches—vital for baby birds—now occur earlier in the spring as temperatures rise (read: climate change). Plus, if you’re a male arriving at the breeding grounds early, you get to pick the best spots to raise your offspring. <br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j0Tg147p_V0/URJw3QLTNfI/AAAAAAAAAyk/6VjIH2DzK-E/s1600/040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j0Tg147p_V0/URJw3QLTNfI/AAAAAAAAAyk/6VjIH2DzK-E/s320/040.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wood-warblers, such as this Palm Warbler, must get back to their northerly breeding grounds in a timely fashion in order to hit the insect hatch for da babies. Photo by Alyssa DeRubeis.</td></tr>
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Obviously, there’s an advantage to up the vitamin E intake and get a head start as a developing embryo. In an egg, most nutrients come from the yolk…which comes from the mother. The healthier the mother, the more vitamin E she will put in her eggs. And vitamin E isn’t produced internally; birds must consume it. While Møller’s paper on maternal effects states that vitamin E can be found widely in nature, a separate study found no apparent association between vitamin E and avian diet. Hmm. So then where DO birds get vitamin E from? Is it a limiting resource? Is there competition for it?<br /><br />
Clearly, we’ve got some questions and answers. As the field of “birdology,” advances, we will learn more and keep humans jealous of birds for years to come. <br /><br />
<br />
REFERENCES<br /><br />
1. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Climate+Research&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.3354%2Fcr01030&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Maternal+effects+and+changing+phenology+of+bird+migration&rft.issn=0936-577X&rft.date=2011&rft.volume=49&rft.issue=3&rft.spage=201&rft.epage=210&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.int-res.com%2Fabstracts%2Fcr%2Fv49%2Fn3%2Fp201-210%2F&rft.au=M%C3%B8ller%2C+A.&rft.au=Biard%2C+C.&rft.au=Karadas%2C+F.&rft.au=Rubolini%2C+D.&rft.au=Saino%2C+N.&rft.au=Surai%2C+P.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CMedicine%2CSocial+Science%2CHealth%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Møller, A., Biard, C., Karadas, F., Rubolini, D., Saino, N., & Surai, P. (2011). Maternal effects and changing phenology of bird migration <span style="font-style: italic;">Climate Research, 49</span> (3), 201-210 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/cr01030" rev="review">10.3354/cr01030</a></span><br /><br />
2. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Oecologia&rft_id=info%3Apmid%2F20012100&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Levels+of+antioxidants+in+rural+and+urban+birds+and+their+consequences.&rft.issn=0029-8549&rft.date=2010&rft.volume=163&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=35&rft.epage=45&rft.artnum=&rft.au=M%C3%B8ller+AP&rft.au=Erritz%C3%B8e+J&rft.au=Karadas+F&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CChemistry%2CMedicine%2CGeosciences%2CSocial+Science%2CHealth%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Møller AP, Erritzøe J, & Karadas F (2010). Levels of antioxidants in rural and urban birds and their consequences. <span style="font-style: italic;">Oecologia, 163</span> (1), 35-45 PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20012100" rev="review">20012100</a></span><br /><br />
3. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Oecologia&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1007%2Fs00442-009-1423-9&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Serum+antioxidant+levels+in+wild+birds+vary+in+relation+to+diet%2C+season%2C+life+history+strategy%2C+and+species&rft.issn=0029-8549&rft.date=2009&rft.volume=161&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=673&rft.epage=683&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.springerlink.com%2Findex%2F10.1007%2Fs00442-009-1423-9&rft.au=Cohen%2C+A.&rft.au=McGraw%2C+K.&rft.au=Robinson%2C+W.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CChemistry%2CMedicine%2CSocial+Science%2CHealth%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Cohen, A., McGraw, K., & Robinson, W. (2009). Serum antioxidant levels in wild birds vary in relation to diet, season, life history strategy, and species <span style="font-style: italic;">Oecologia, 161</span> (4), 673-683 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1423-9" rev="review">10.1007/s00442-009-1423-9</a></span><br /><br />
</span>
Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-83430729121710866482018-11-20T06:55:00.000-08:002018-11-20T06:55:22.314-08:00Science Beat: Round 9<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
If you're stressing out over midterms and you learn science better with a beat, take an educational break:</span><br />
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Chemistry:</span></h3><br />
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Cellular Biology:</span></h3><br />
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Genetics:</span></h3><br />
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Which was your favorite? If you liked these, check out other science songs worth learning at <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/01/science-beat.html" target="_blank">Science Beat</a>, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/11/science-beat-round-2.html" target="_blank">Science Beat: Round 2</a>, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2014/12/science-beat-round-3.html" target="_blank">Science Beat: Round 3</a>, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2015/02/science-beat-round-4.html" target="_blank">Science Beat: Round 4</a>, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2015/09/science-beat-round-5.html" target="_blank">Science Beat: Round 5</a>, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2016/03/science-beat-round-6.html" target="_blank">Science Beat: Round 6</a>, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2016/05/science-beat-round-7_2.html" target="_blank">Science Beat: Round 7</a>, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2017/11/science-beat-round-8.html" target="_blank">Science Beat: Round 8</a>, and <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/06/science-song-playlist.html" target="_blank">Science Song Playlist</a>. Check out some song battles about the life of scientists at <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-science-life.html" target="_blank">The Science Life</a>, <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/12/scientist-swagger.html" target="_blank">Scientist Swagger</a> and <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2012/11/battle-of-grad-programs.html" target="_blank">Battle of The Grad Programs</a>! And if you feel so inspired, make a video of your own, upload it on YouTube and <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/about.html" target="_blank">send me a link</a> to include in a future post!
</span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-66356187497164147442018-11-13T10:49:00.001-08:002018-11-13T10:49:47.504-08:00Can Animals Sense Each Other’s Wants and Hopes?<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A repost of an <a href="https://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2013/11/can-animals-sense-each-others-wants-and.html" target="_blank">original article</a> from November 13, 2013.<br /><br />
Is the ability to empathize uniquely human? This question has long been pondered by philosophers and animal behaviorists alike. Empathy depends in part on the ability to recognize the wants and hopes of others. A study by researchers at the <a href="http://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank">University of Cambridge</a> suggests that we may not be alone with this ability.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DzhVIcTLPcY/UoPKRXyqdWI/AAAAAAAABHk/q55gSzbAFuE/s1600/Eurasian+jay+feeding+by+Ljerka+Ostojic+CROPPED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DzhVIcTLPcY/UoPKRXyqdWI/AAAAAAAABHk/q55gSzbAFuE/s320/Eurasian+jay+feeding+by+Ljerka+Ostojic+CROPPED.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A male Eurasian jay feeds his female mate. Photo provided by Ljerka Ostojić.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist.html#Ostojic" target="_blank">Ljerka Ostojić</a>, Rachael Shaw, Lucy Cheke, and Nicky Clayton conducted a series of studies on Eurasian jays to explore whether male jays could perceive changes in what their female partners desired. Eurasian jays are a good species with which to explore this phenomenon because males routinely provide food to their female mates as a part of their courtship. The researchers wanted to know if males would adjust what food items males offered their mates depending on what food type the females wanted more.<br /><br />
In order to make a female prefer one food type over another, the researchers fed each female one of two food types (wax moth larvae and mealworm larvae) until they were full. But being full of one type of food doesn’t mean you can’t find room for desert, right? So when the researchers then offered the females access to both wax moth larvae and mealworm larvae, those that had previously eaten wax moth larvae now preferred mealworm larvae and those that had previously eaten mealworm larvae now preferred wax moth larvae. But could their male partners tell what they preferred at that moment?<br /><br />
In order to test whether male jays were sensitive to their partners’ desires, the researchers fed the females either wax moth larvae or mealworm larvae until they were full. They did this while their male partners watched from behind a transparent screen. They then removed the screen and gave the males 20 opportunities to choose between a single wax moth larvae or mealworm larvae to feed their partner. In this context, males usually chose to share with their mates the food that their partners preferred rather than the food their partners had already been fed! But are the males responding to their mate’s behavior or are they responding to what they saw when the females were eating earlier?<br /> <br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyaSI1lkoS4UeC29iG-TIXB3IyL2y9Iyu8mnGetEY9GwNdzk3jwevOQEaQzEzUMnWiXOY5YycHth47O-S3WoQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This video (provided by Ljerka Ostojić) shows the experimental process <br />in which the male chooses a food type and then shares it with his mate.</span></span></span></div>
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The researchers repeated the study with an opaque screen so the males could not see their mates while the females gorged on one particular food type. Without the ability to see the mate eating beforehand, males chose both food types equally and did not attend to their mate’s preferences. Because the females still had a preference for the opposite food type but the males were not adjusting for that preference, this means that the males are not responding to their mate’s behavior in this experiment or the previous one. This suggests that if male Eurasian jays see what their mates are eating, then somehow they have the ability to know to give their mate the opposite food type! <br /><br />
Whether this process involves the males having an understanding of their mate’s desires or some other mechanism is not fully known. But male Eurasian jays are certainly adjusting what they give their mates according to what she wants. Now if we can only teach human males to do that!<br /><br />
Want to know more? Check this out:<br /><br />
<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=PNAS&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1073%2Fpnas.1209926110&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Evidence+suggesting+that+desire-state+attribution+may+govern+food+sharing+in+Eurasian+jays&rft.issn=&rft.date=2013&rft.volume=110&rft.issue=10&rft.spage=4123&rft.epage=4128&rft.artnum=&rft.au=Ostoji%C4%87%2C+L.&rft.au=Shaw%2C+R.C.&rft.au=Cheke%2C+L.G.&rft.au=Clayton%2C+N.S.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Ostojić, L., Shaw, R.C., Cheke, L.G., & Clayton, N.S. (2013). Evidence suggesting that desire-state attribution may govern food sharing in Eurasian jays <span style="font-style: italic;">PNAS, 110</span> (10), 4123-4128 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1209926110" rev="review">10.1073/pnas.1209926110</a></span>
</span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-12340678674685275062018-11-06T07:38:00.001-08:002018-11-06T07:38:24.410-08:00Striving for a Honeybee Democracy<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
A revision of <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/2017/08/striving-for-honeybee-democracy.html" target="_blank">an article</a> from August 14, 2017. <br /><br />
Democracy is hard. And slow. And complicated. But if it is done well, it can result consistently in the best decisions and courses of action for a group. Just ask honeybees.<br /><br />
When a honeybee hive becomes overcrowded, the colony (which can have membership in the tens of thousands) divides in what will be one of the riskiest and potentially deadliest decisions of their lives. About a third of the worker bees will stay home to rear a new queen while the old queen and the rest of the hive will leave to establish a new hive. The newly homeless colony will coalesce on a nearby branch while they search out and decide among new home options. This process can take anywhere from hours to days, during which the colony is vulnerable and exposed. But they can’t be too hasty: choosing a new home that is too small or too exposed could be equally deadly.<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_W5711sValY/T6FbuaM-AgI/AAAAAAAAALM/V6-z8utMGSYiRbJAT-Z7t3mYkxHTzSz8wCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/bee%2Bswarm%2Bon%2Ba%2Bbike%2Bby%2Bnino%2Bbarbieri%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_W5711sValY/T6FbuaM-AgI/AAAAAAAAALM/V6-z8utMGSYiRbJAT-Z7t3mYkxHTzSz8wCPcBGAYYCw/s400/bee%2Bswarm%2Bon%2Ba%2Bbike%2Bby%2Bnino%2Bbarbieri%2Bat%2Bwikimedia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our homeless honeybee swarm found an unconventional "branch". We'd better <br />
decide on a new home soon! Photo by Nino Barbieri at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikimedia.</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Although each swarm has a queen, she plays no role in making this life-or-death decision. Rather, this decision is made by a consensus among 300-500 scout bees after an intense “dance-debate”. Then, as a single united swarm, they leave their branch and move into their new home. At this point, it’s critical that the swarm is unified in their choice of home site, because a split-decision runs the risk of creating a chaos in which the one and only queen can be lost and the entire hive will perish. This is a high-stakes decision that honeybees make democratically, efficiently, and amazingly, they almost always make the best possible choice! How do they do that? And how can we do that?<br /><br />
The honeybee house-hunting process has several features that allow them, as a group, to hone in on the best possible solution. The process begins when a scout discovers a site that has the potential to be a new home. She returns to her swarm and reports on this site, using a waggle dance that encodes the direction and distance to the site and her estimate of its quality. The longer she dances, the more suitable she perceived the site to be. Other scouts do the same, perhaps visiting the same site or maybe a new one, and they report their findings in dance when they return. (Importantly, scouts only dance for sites that they have seen themselves). As more scouts are recruited, the swarm breaks into a dancing frenzy with many scouts dancing for multiple possible sites. Over time, scouts that are less enthusiastic about their discovered site stop dancing, in part discouraged by dancers for other sites that head-bump them while beeping. Eventually, the remaining dancing scouts are unified in their dance for what is almost always the best site. The swarm warms up their flight muscles and off they go, in unison, to their new home.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rLxVCCNA9F8/T6FdLY7UKTI/AAAAAAAAALU/MP1Lw8zyUtUK6qQeryhEvFby6HE44Ve4ACPcBGAYYCw/s1600/bee%2Bbeep%2Bfrom%2Bstop%2Bsignal%2Bpaper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1320" height="272" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rLxVCCNA9F8/T6FdLY7UKTI/AAAAAAAAALU/MP1Lw8zyUtUK6qQeryhEvFby6HE44Ve4ACPcBGAYYCw/s400/bee%2Bbeep%2Bfrom%2Bstop%2Bsignal%2Bpaper.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Each dot represents where on the body this dancer
was head-bumped by a dancer for a <br />
competing site.
Each time she's bumped, she's a little less
enthusiastic about her own dance. <br />
Figure from
<a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/335/6064/108" target="_blank">Seeley, et al. 2012 paper in Science</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
What can we learn from these democratic experts? As much as I would love to see Congress in a vigorous dance-debate head-butting one another, I don't think that is the take-home message of choice. <a href="http://the-scorpion-and-the-frog.blogspot.com/p/get-to-know-scientist.html#Seeley" target="_blank">Tom Seeley</a> at <a href="http://nbb.cornell.edu/" target="_blank">Cornell University </a>has gained tremendous insight into effective group decision-making from his years observing honeybees, which he shares with us in his book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Honeybee-Democracy-Thomas-D-Seeley/dp/0691147213" target="_blank"><b>Honeybee Democracy</b></a>. Tom has summarized his wisdom gained from observing honeybees in the following:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b style="font-size: x-large;">Members of Highly Effective Hives:</b><br /><br /><b>1. share a goal</b><br /><br /><b>2. search broadly to find possible solutions to the problem</b><br /><br /><b>3. contribute their information freely and honestly</b><br /><br /><b>4. evaluate the options independently and vote independently</b><br /><br /><b>5. aggregate their votes fairly</b></span>
</blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; line-height: 110%;">
All of these critical guidelines can be encapsulated with a single objective: The decision-making body needs to objectively consider a range of information from individuals with diverse backgrounds, expertise, and knowledge. We can apply this to our own human decision-making: It means that we all need to vote objectively and honestly and independently. This means casting votes that are consistent with our own information and judgements, even when they are not consistent with the policical party we may align ourselves with. It also means that if you don't agree with the decisions of your School Board, Town Board, City Council, County Legislature, State Legislature, or National Legislature, then <i>your </i>background, expertise and knowledge are likely missing from the deciding body. Yes, you can write and call your representatives and provide them with part of your knowledge, or <i>you </i>can run for office <i>yourself </i>and make people with your background truly included in the decision-making process.<br /><br />
Many feel that our hive has been homelessly clinging to our exposed branch for too long. If we are going to make good, well-informed, effective, and efficient decisions, we need open and respectful communication across diverse backgrounds. Independent thinking and diversity improves the quality of the decisions that affect us all. If honeybees can do it, so can we.<br /><br /><br />
Want to know more? Check these out:<br /><br />
1. <b><u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Honeybee-Democracy-Thomas-D-Seeley/dp/0691147213" target="_blank">Honeybee Democracy</a></u></b> by Thomas Seeley <br /><br />
2. Seeley, T., Visscher, P., Schlegel, T., Hogan, P., Franks, N., & Marshall, J. (2011). Stop Signals Provide Cross Inhibition in Collective Decision-Making by Honeybee Swarms Science, 335 (6064), 108-111 DOI: <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/335/6064/108" target="_blank">10.1126/science.1210361</a><br /><br />
3. List, C., Elsholtz, C., & Seeley, T. (2009). Independence and interdependence in collective decision making: an agent-based model of nest-site choice by honeybee swarms Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364 (1518), 755-762 DOI: <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/364/1518/755" target="_blank">10.1098/rstb.2008.0277</a><br /><br />
</span> Miss Behaviorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828187141307982911noreply@blogger.com1