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All tagged animalbehavior
In mammalian social groups males tend to dominate, but among one of our closest relatives – the bonobo – it’s females who have the upper hand. Primatologists believe the ladies get and maintain power with a simple tactic: they work together.
Wild chimpanzees drum with rhythm, according to a new study by primatologists from the University of St Andrews. Not only that, chimps from either side of Africa have their own distinct beats.
A group of chimpanzees in Guinea-Bissau’s Cantanhez National Park was seen recently sharing a huge piece of fruit containing alcohol. Their little party was being monitored by a research team from the University of Exeter.
On April 11, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook Southern California for a few minutes. No big deal, by California standards, but during the tremors the elephants at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance were caught on camera displaying their survival plan, namely by forming a protective circle around their young.
It’s been nearly 40 years since killer whales off the west coast of North America were spotted wearing dead salmon on their heads. No one knows why this whacky trend began or why it ended, but we do know it’s back.
Five years ago a bottlenose dolphin strayed far from his usual habitat and ended up in the chilly waters off the Danish coast. He hung around, the locals named him Delle, and marine biologists at the University of Southern Denmark began studying the 17-year-old loner.
There are plenty of anecdotes about animals getting squiffy on fermented fruits in the wild, but we tend to think of these drunken episodes as rare and accidental. New research, which appears in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, challenges this assumption.
Humans have been kissing each other – for one reason or another – for thousands of years. Evolutionary psychologist Adriano Lameira wants to know why, so he’s been spying on our kissing cousins (other apes) to see if they offer any clues that might reveal the purpose, if any, of a good smooch.
Sphen the gentoo penguin has died in Australia, aged 11. He is mourned by his partner, Magic, along with much of the rest of the world, which had celebrated the unusual union since 2018, when the pair met and fell in love at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium.
Spider-gazing researchers in China say that the orb-weaving spider (Araneus ventricosus) entices male fireflies into its web, then it gets freaky. Somehow the spider manipulates its prey into mimicking a female firefly’s flashing light, which lures more amorous males into the deathtrap.
The smell of human stress affects dogs’ emotions – and their decision-making – according to a study conducted by the University of Bristol, Cardiff University, and the British charity Medical Detection Dogs. Their research appears in Scientific Reports.
There is something about ginger cats. They tend to be more confident, more outgoing, and generally more cheeky – especially the toms. BBC News asked biologist and cat behavior expert Roger Tabor if there was a reason for ginger adventurousness.
The Australian animated series Bluey has pre-school fans all over the world. Plenty of adults love the show too, and so do their dogs for some reason. People magazine consulted with Amanda Farah, the National Training & Behavior Coordinator for Best Friends Animal Society, to break down why the show has become known as “dog entertainment.”
A family-friendly zoo in England has an R-rated problem: five African grey parrots that curse a blue streak. The foul-mouthed birds are spicing up the proceedings at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in Friskney.
In August 2017, a total solar eclipse dazzled and baffled animals across much of the country. Even the US president at the time lost his head (momentarily?), and stared directly at the sun without using ocular protection.
Something funny is going on with our closest relatives – chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas. Like humans, our cousins seem to revel in comedy – slapstick mainly, but comedy nonetheless. The Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior is looking into the fun.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that great apes and chimpanzees can recognize mates they hadn't seen for years — in some cases for more than two decades — evidence of the longest-lasting nonhuman memory ever recorded.
When it comes to power naps, the chinstrap penguin is king. Researchers in Antarctica have determined that the species will doze off for four seconds per nap, up to 10,000 times a day. Their study appears in the journal Science.
In western Thailand just outside Kanchanaburi, an elephant sanctuary is home to a few dozen rescued domestic elephants. They’ve had a difficult time, either born into a brutal life of logging or retirees from the slightly less degrading tourism trade.
The orcas were still at it off the coast of Spain on Halloween when a small but persistent pod of the killer whales harassed a boat for a solid 45 minutes, causing enough damage to sink it.
