Posts

May 15, 2013

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Is this disorder real?read more

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1:46 PM | Male Black Widows Sniff Out Femme Fatales

I am thrilled to announce that this month I am joining a new top-notch science blogging team at Scitable, Nature Education’s award-winning science education website! (But don’t worry, friends. I will continue to post here about animal physiology and behavior every Wednesday). Next week, Scitable will be launching eleven new blogs covering topics like neuroscience, genetics, oceanography, physics and more. I will be co-authoring an evolution blog called Accumulating Glitches together with […]

Johnson, J., Trubl, P., Blackmore, V. & Miles, L. (2011). Male black widows court well-fed females more than starved females: silken cues indicate sexual cannibalism risk, Animal Behaviour, 82 (2) 383-390. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.05.018

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7:00 AM | Well-Nigh Wordless Wednesday: Eggs on Pipevine

In my post on Friday I mentioned that I got to see a pipevine swallowtail laying her eggs on the woolly pipevine at work. Here’s proof! I took this with a point and shoot camera, so you can imagine how … Continue reading →

May 14, 2013

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7:43 AM | Are dolphins conscious?

We currently lack strong evidence for consciousness in dolphins suggests Professor Heidi Harley in her recently published review article appearing in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A. For some (perhaps most) cognitive scientists studying animals minds, this is not a particularly controversial conclusion – a borderline truism. For other scientists – and perhaps for nearly [...]

May 13, 2013

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12:20 PM | True Facts About The Dung Beetle | video

SUMMARY: A lovely blend of science, animals and humour, all rolled up into a short informative video. Dung beetle, probably Neomnematium sevoistra, in dry spiny forest close to Mangily, western Madagascar. Image: Axel Strauß, 2008 (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic licenses). Today's video focuses on the dung beetle, those insects in the taxonomic superfamily Scarabaeoidea. These insects share a fondness for feces, subsisting either […]

May 11, 2013

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4:31 AM | Friday 5: Insects on Milkweed

I finally got Lightroom working on my computer again, so I’ve uploaded about three weeks worth of photos over the last few days. Three weeks of photos in my first ever real spring is a LOT of photos! But it … Continue reading →

May 10, 2013

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4:48 PM | Something To Chew On

Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, and dogs gotta chew. At least, that is my belief, backed up with virtually no research whatsoever. This belief is based on 1) understanding that the impressive teeth and jaw structure of a dog is the Swiss Army knife of dentition, able to tear, rip, shear and crunch without having to switch tools, 2) the inclusion of long chewing bouts in the natural behavior of canids, 3) that an internet search on “chewing in dogs” leads to a multitude ... Read […]

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3:05 AM | Stop to smell the flowers. Especially lavender.

(source)Hi Julie, WOW!Dogs in clothes. Corgis in bikinis at the beach. Greyhounds in onesies. We people do some weird things to our canine friends, no?! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy being dressed up in a padded outfit all day long, so I think I'll pass on sharing that experience with my dogs. As you said, cultural perceptions, ethics and expectations add a whole layer of extra consideration. It's not always easy to work out what dogs want or need. That's why I […]

Wells D.L. (2009). Sensory stimulation as environmental enrichment for captive animals: A review, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 118 (1-2) 1-11. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2009.01.002

Graham L., Wells D.L. & Hepper P.G. (2005). The influence of olfactory stimulation on the behaviour of dogs housed in a rescue shelter, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 91 (1-2) 143-153. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2004.08.024

Wells D.L. (2006). Aromatherapy for travel-induced excitement in dogs, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 229 (6) 964-967. DOI: 10.2460/javma.229.6.964

MOTOMURA N., SAKURAI A. & YOTSUYA Y. (2001). REDUCTION OF MENTAL STRESS WITH LAVENDER ODORANT, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 93 (3) 713-718. DOI: 10.2466/pms.2001.93.3.713

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May 08, 2013

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9:41 PM | Birds arrange eggs in their nests to better detect imposters

Most birds build their own nests and incubate their own eggs. However, some birds like the cuckoo have managed to get around this inconvenience by simply laying their eggs in the nests of other species and letting someone else do the hard work of keeping the eggs warm and protected until the chick hatches. The [...]

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7:06 PM | Research Internship – marine mammals and sea turtles

For those of you interested in marine science and boat-based field research: Fall 2013 Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Research Internship Program Description The IMMS Research Internship Program is designed as a way for students interested in a career in … Continue reading →

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6:00 PM | Alphabet Bird Collection | Book Review

Summary: A delightful book for baby birders that is crammed with poetry, information and gorgeous paintings of birds! Oh yeah, it teaches the letters of the English alphabet, too. Magpie. Image: acrylic painting by Shelli Ogilvy (2008). Do you wish to share your love of birds, art and books with (your) children? If so, then you will really enjoy the Alphabet Bird Collection, a lovely children's book that was written and illustrated by Shelli Ogilvy [Sasquatch Books, 2009; Amazon UK;... Read more

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1:50 PM | Thanks Mom!

Like Mother, like baby! Photo from freedigitalphotos.net.Moms give us so much more than we ever give them credit for. Biologically speaking, we all have a mom and a dad (unless you’re a flatworm or some other species that can reproduce without sex) that provide us with one of each chromosome type (our chromosomes contain our genes, commonly thought of as our “biological blueprints”). So it makes sense that we tend to think of ourselves as being half-our-mom and half-our-dad. But not so! […]

BERNARDO, J. (1996). Maternal Effects in Animal Ecology, Integrative and Comparative Biology, 36 (2) 83-105. DOI: 10.1093/icb/36.2.83

Wolf, J. & Wade, M.J. (2009). What are maternal effects (and what are they not)?, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 364 1107-1115.

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1:49 PM | A Brain that Works Like a Child's Game

How my brain differs from yoursread more

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7:59 AM | Christina Huff Mental Health Hero #MentalHealthMonth

Please NOTE: This blog is participation in a MENTAL HEALTH MONTH event sharing mental health heroes in connection to Mental Health Humors Cartoon-a-thon. Please help us bring mental illness awareness and eduction all month long by sharing this post with your social network, friend and family. Thank You. Christina “Christi” Huff 2013 Mental Health Hero [...]

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7:00 AM | Well-Nigh Wordless Wednesday: Pests on Green Background

I’ve had massive problems getting photos uploaded from my camera’s memory card to my computer (think the card is on its last legs…), so I haven’t been able to do the last few posts I’ve wanted to do. Hopefully I’ll … Continue reading →

May 07, 2013

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10:37 PM | David Speicher Mental Health Hero #MentalHealthMonth

Please NOTE: This blog is participation in a MENTAL HEALTH MONTH event sharing mental health heroes in connection to Mental Health Humors Cartoon-a-thon. Please help us bring mental illness awareness and eduction all month long by sharing this post with your social network, friend and family. Thank You. David Speicher 2013 Mental Health Hero Cartoon-A-Thon [...]

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4:16 AM | Kathi Stringer Mental Health Hero #MentalHealthMonth

Please NOTE: This blog is participation in a MENTAL HEALTH MONTH event sharing mental health heroes in connection to Mental Health Humors Cartoon-a-thon. Please help us bring mental illness awareness and eduction all month long by sharing this post with your social network, friend and family. Thank You. Kathi Stringer2013 Mental Health Hero Cartoon-A-Thon Drawing [...]

May 05, 2013

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2:16 PM | My Second Appearance on Dom’s SketchCast

Dom invited me back on his podcast. Listen for more meandering conversation about human and animal psychology!

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4:48 AM | Linda and Charlie Bloom Mental Health Hero #MentalHealthMonth

Please NOTE: This blog is participation in a MENTAL HEALTH MONTH event sharing mental health heroes in connection to Mental Health Humors Cartoon-a-thon. Please help us bring mental illness awareness and eduction all month long by sharing this post with your social network, friend and family. Thank You. Psych Central’s own Linda and Charlie Bloom [...]

May 04, 2013

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2:37 PM | Five books for evolutionary biologists

Whenever I visit someone’s house, particularly the house of a fellow scientist, I like to browse their bookshelves, partly because I’m curious about what other people are reading and partly [...]

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1:57 AM | Dese Rae L. Stage Mental Health Hero #MentalHealthMonth

Please NOTE: This blog is participation in a MENTAL HEALTH MONTH event sharing mental health heroes in connection to Mental Health Humors Cartoon-a-thon. Please help us bring mental illness awareness and eduction all month long by sharing this post with your social network, friend and family. Thank You. Dese Rae L. Stage 2013 Mental Health [...]

May 03, 2013

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10:02 PM | Resource Guarding: Treatment and Prevention

Years ago, I took care of a gooey-sweet adolescent Border collie, (Tilly, I’ll call her) who flattened her ears and folded like a bird’s wing every time you said her name. She was responsive and polite, and the other dogs seemed to like her as much as I did. It was especially rainy when she visited, so I appreciated that she never objected to endless paw wiping and toweling off, not to mention body checks for ticks and dental inspections. One morning I saw that ... Read the Rest

May 02, 2013

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6:58 PM | How to survive soul-crushingly long experiments

It has been quite some time since I posted anything on my blog, but rather than providing a long whinge about why this is so (and because ‘I’ve been busy’ doesn’t really cut it at any stage once you’ve decided to plough into the academic lifestyle), I thought I would use the experience of the [...]

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5:34 PM | Null Hypothesis: Y U NO good enough for scientific articles?

If you've ever been involved in a scientific endeavour, there is a good chance you are familiar with the null hypothesis. I'd like to discuss a little bit the overwhelming discrimination against unrejected H0s in the scientific literature. Indeed, most scientific journals accept almost only articles that contain significant effects. This attitude suggests that unrejected H0s somehow signify a lack of (convenient?) information. But don't they say that absence of evidence is not evidence of […]

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3:21 PM | 26 Things Corgis Are Wearing & What Dogs Want

Dog - wants - playtime (Source)Hi Mia,I agree. I am constantly asking the question: What do dogs want?Research This question is particularly apt in the “Land of Research." When crafting an experiment we’re considering how dogs might perceive or interact with an experimental design. Most importantly, whether what dogs might do -- or want to do -- is inline with our research question or is instead revealing something else. And, if what we are trying to investigate and what dogs want to do […]

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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 →

May 15, 2013

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