Posts

May 02, 2013

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12:59 PM | Buried Alive: Dwarf Lemurs Hibernate Underground

Of all the things you wouldn’t expect to find in a tropical rainforest, hibernating primates may be the cutest. It was less than 10 years ago that scientists first discovered dwarf lemurs in western Madagascar hibernate the dry season away in hollow trees. Now, they report the hibernation habits of the island’s eastern dwarf lemurs: [...]

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3:22 AM | Well-Nigh Wordless Wednesday: Enormous

You know an insect is BIG when you can get it to fill most of the frame of an iPhone shot without any sort of macro lens attachments. Check this crane fly out! That’s enormous for a crane fly. I … Continue reading →

May 01, 2013

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3:00 PM | Up in the Air

A unique reason to hate flying.read more

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1:27 PM | The Craptastic Conversations of the Black Rhinoceros

What are you saying with your smells? Image by freedigitalphotos.net.Animals communicate in all kinds of ways: with vocalizations, body language, vibrations, and even odors. In fact, compared to most species, we are pathetic in our abilities to communicate with body odor. With just a whiff of eau de crotch, many animals can decipher that individual’s species, sex, age, health status, reproductive status, emotional state, and dietary history. Some species can go so far as to make out that […]

Linklater, W., Mayer, K. & Swaisgood, R. (2013). Chemical signals of age, sex and identity in black rhinoceros, Animal Behaviour, 85 (3) 671-677. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.12.034

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5:11 AM | Spring on the Prairie

It’s finally spring! Everything is turning green and there are insects everywhere again. Needless to say, I’m super excited! It’s still early in the green part of the year, so there are even better things to come, but I have … Continue reading →

April 29, 2013

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10:30 AM | Dolphin brains and the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis: a dubious link

Did dolphins evolve large brains because they ate seafood? This was a suggestion put forth by a proponent of the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis (AAH) in a recent article in the Guardian. The AAH attempts to explain the origins of unique human characteristics (e.g., hairlessness) by suggesting that we evolved in an aquatic environment. The recent [...]

April 28, 2013

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12:30 AM | Animal culture: insights from whales

This article is the second part of a two-part series on animal culture. The first part discusses some new findings of adopting local food preferences in vervet monkeys. In a double-whammy of animal culture in the most recent issue of Science, Jenny Allen, Mason Weinrich, Will Hoppitt & Luke Rendell report a study based on [...]

April 27, 2013

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3:22 AM | Friday 5: Things I Taught 6th and 7th Graders

Last week was the busy week from hell for me at work. It was program after program after program all week, including Saturday. In spite of my exhaustion and the fact that I’d already taught hundreds of people many different … Continue reading →

April 26, 2013

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12:00 AM | Steve Maxson’s Photos

Guess what? After I shared my aquatic insect photo setup on Monday, the wonderful photographer I learned it from, Steve Maxson, got in touch with me and said I could share a few of his photos with you! So, I wanted … Continue reading →

April 25, 2013

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11:15 PM | Animal culture: insights from vervet monkeys

Something I get asked occasionally as someone who works on animal cognition is ‘what makes humans different from other animals?’ This is a tough one, because, as humans are of course animals, it is much easier to list the similarities between us and other animals in our behaviour and how our brains process things than [...]

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1:12 PM | Coming Out of a New Closet

Our family's big secret.read more

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4:38 AM | A room with a view: what do dogs want?

Putting the woof in tweet! (source)Hi Julie,Wow! Thanks for sharing the amazing fun tweet-week we had posting for @realscientists on Twitter. It was great to engage with so many people about so many areas of dog (and other animal!) behaviour and research. And poo. So many questions about dog poo! Some things can be relied upon in life; it’s good to know people are always curious about dog poo.If you want to revisit any of those posts or links we exchanged as part of the Real […]

Wells D.L. & Hepper P.G. (1998). A note on the influence of visual conspecific contact on the behaviour of sheltered dogs, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 60 (1) 83-88. DOI: 10.1016/S0168-1591(98)00146-4

Taylor K. & Mills D. (2007). The effect of the kennel environment on canine welfare: a critical review of experimental studies, Animal Welfare, 16 (4) 435-447. Other: Link

Sop Shin W. (2007). The influence of forest view through a window on job satisfaction and job stress, Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 22 (3) 248-253. DOI: 10.1080/02827580701262733

Verderber S. & Reuman D. (1987). Windows, views, and health status in hospital therapeutic environments, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 4 (2) 120-133. Other: Link

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2:15 AM | Well-Nigh Wordless Wednesday: Escapee

One of the hazards of bringing dragonfly and damselfly nymphs into your house overnight is that they sometimes molt into adults and fly away when you’re not looking. That’s what happened with this one: Found it sitting on the wall … Continue reading →

April 24, 2013

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2:12 PM | The Science Life

Grad school is not like anything else you will ever experience. But don’t take my word for it: "I’m a Grad Student" by Adam Ruben: "Grad School, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down" (LCD Soundsystem Parody) by Nathaniel Krefman at UC-Berkeley: "The Lab Song" (Bruno Mars Parody) by the Cohenford Lab at Marshall University: Vote for your favorite in the comments section below. And if you feel so inspired, make a video of your own, upload it on YouTube and send me a link to include in […]

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1:51 PM | Listen To Me on Dom’s Sketch Cast!

My blog recently caught the eye of Dominick Rabrun, an artist living in Silver Spring, MD. He invited me to be a guest on his podcast where he draws interesting things and has conversations with interesting people. It’s called Dom’s Sketch Cast, and you can find it here. I had a great time talking with [...]

April 23, 2013

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10:53 PM | Dragons, Devils & Dinosaurs: A Symbiologist’s Guide to St George’s Day

It’s St George’s Day today; here in England, this is the feast day of our Patron Saint. We share him with a number of other countries including Moldova, Palestine and (perhaps unsurprisingly) Georgia, but we are particularly ‘into’ patron saints in the UK; our Union Flag is a mishmash of the flags of Saints George, [...]

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5:12 PM | Morning at Triton

War was brewing in Yugoslavia back in early 1991. I hopped on one of the last trains from Belgrade to London, then a plane to JFK in New York City, then next day down to Asheville, NC. A week later, … Continue reading →

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4:59 AM | My Aquatic Insect Photography Setup

Over the past few years I’ve had several people ask me how I photograph aquatic insects. I think it’s time I share my method! Hope this will help some of you take some amazing aquatic insect shots – and I … Continue reading →

April 22, 2013

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5:25 PM | Can you identify dogs’ emotions from their facial expressions?

Have you ever wondered what our canine friends think, or rather, feel? Being capable to recognise dogs' emotions would surely be a useful ability, whether you are an owner concerned with you pet's well-being or have an interest in avoiding being bitten by dogs in general. Do you believe to possess such an ability? Continue reading →

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7:41 AM | Dolphins sensitive to Ebbinghaus illusion, just like humans

Pop Quiz: which of the two orange circles is larger? If you think that the circle on the right (the one surrounded by the smaller blue circles) is larger, then you are either a human or a dolphin, but not a pigeon. As it turns out, both [...]

April 19, 2013

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9:33 PM | Lambs, Rain, Papers, Lambs, Rain, Papers, Lambs. . .

I’m in the tunnel. You know the one I mean, the one where you are so engrossed, overwhelmed and logistically enclosed by what you are doing that life seems narrow but not small, confined but not constrained. I am full up with my life right now, which I summed up as well as possible in the title: Lambs, Rain, Papers, Lambs, Rain, Papers. If there is life outside of this small but saturated universe, would it do my laundry? This is not a small thing ... Read the Rest

April 18, 2013

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9:44 PM | Not so unlike after all…?

Although I’ve been hiding in my cave for the last month, I promise I haven’t gone away altogether. Just been attending to duties and teaching the Masked Bandits to high-five – proof may be posted here at a later date. Our Anthrozoology facebook page (because we’re cool) is often updated with interesting stories and links [...]

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12:42 PM | I Don't Like the Sound of That

A mortifying condition for which there is no cure.read more

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12:00 AM | Well-Nigh Wordless Wednesday: Pollinator

The cherry laurels at work are blooming and I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite as many pollinators on a single shrub before! It’s crazy! We unfortunately have a ton of wind whipping across the prairie nearly all the time, … Continue reading →

April 17, 2013

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2:34 PM | How To Get Into An Animal Behavior Graduate Program: Getting Research Experience

You grew up watching nature documentary scientists travelling the world, covertly following and filming wild animals, learning all the secrets of the animal world first-hand with bewildering technology, and you have thought that should be me. This could be you! Photo by Genny Kozak.Conducting animal behavior research is incredibly satisfying and exciting, but it is also tedious and frustrating. It’s not for everyone… So how do you know if it’s for you unless you’ve tried it? And how […]

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5:06 AM | Let's Tweet Up!

Do You Believe in Dog? Tweeting @realscientists -- in a shellMia! I am loving our time tweeting at @realscientists What a great idea to showcase, “scientists, science communicators, writers and artists to talk about their lives and their work.”Apparently, people who engage in the sciences are "real people" too.... ;)Our @realscientists Introductory Post, STOP. PUPPY TIME, kind of had me in stitches. Yes, I did/do like MC Hammer, and apparently he's even big on Twitter.Live […]

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3:45 AM | Searching for Lost Ladybugs

I do a ton of citizen science outreach programs in my job. I like different citizen science projects for a variety of reasons, but when I’m working with kids, you can’t beat the Lost Ladybug Project. Lost Ladybug is great! It … Continue reading →

April 15, 2013

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9:31 AM | Is that a dolphin whistle I hear? No, it’s either a submarine or Harland Williams.

claimtoken-516ec066cd42e As we all know from watching The Hunt for Red October, submarine sonar operators have an almost super-human ability to identify underwater sounds. They can tell the difference between different types of military ships based solely on the sound produced by the engine, and it would be almost impossible to transmit man-made communication signals [...]

April 13, 2013

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10:10 PM | The Influence of Colour and its Intensity on the Enjoyment of Flavour

A slightly updated (and translated (and blurry, apparently)) version of a research project I co-conducted for a college course a while back. We had to follow some strict guidelines, which is why this video isn’t entertaining in nature. It’s more … Continue reading →

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3:58 AM | Friday 5: 5 Views of Euphoria

Spring is definitely here in North Carolina! Actually, we went from cold, rainy, chilly weather straight into warm, summery weather with nothing in between, but there’s been a sudden explosion of leaves and flowers and insects and birds and who … Continue reading →