25 posts · 18,426 views
Freelance science writer Matt Soniak writes about the behavior and ecology of predatory animals and their prey.
Matt Soniak
25 posts
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- December 15, 2011
- 11:08 AM
- 2,955 views
Slithering through history: Snakes have been primates’ predators, prey and competition
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
In pre-colonial Mexico, the winged serpent Quetzacoatl was worshipped as a god. In modern-day Texas, rattlers are regularly fried and eaten. And in Pennsylvania, the snakes at the Philadelphia Zoo’s reptile house have quietly gone about their business while my girlfriend stood in the corner, eyes squeezed shut, shaking with fear. People’s feelings toward, and [...]... Read more »
Headland TN, & Greene HW. (2011) Hunter-gatherers and other primates as prey, predators, and competitors of snakes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 22160702
- February 28, 2011
- 10:55 AM
- 1,087 views
How is a mantis shrimp like a punching bag? The way it takes a hit.
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
Mantis shrimp are, ounce for ounce, some of the most fearsome predators that you can pull out of the ocean. The marine crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda (neither shrimp nor mantids, they got the name because of their physical resemblance to both) are tiny and unassuming, but can use their front claws to attack with incredible [...]... Read more »
Taylor JR, & Patek SN. (2010) Ritualized fighting and biological armor: the impact mechanics of the mantis shrimp's telson. The Journal of experimental biology, 213(Pt 20), 3496-504. PMID: 20889830
Patek, S., Korff, W., & Caldwell, R. (2004) Biomechanics: Deadly strike mechanism of a mantis shrimp. Nature, 428(6985), 819-820. DOI: 10.1038/428819a
- March 4, 2011
- 09:17 AM
- 1,063 views
Context is King: Squirrels’ bodies react differently to warnings about different predators
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
One if by land, and two if by sea/And I on the opposite shore will be/Ready to ride and spread the alarm/Through every Middlesex village and farm/For the country folk to be up and to arm. On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere told three Boston patriots to hang two lanterns in the steeple of the city’s Old North [...]... Read more »
Mateo JM. (2010) Alarm calls elicit predator-specific physiological responses. Biology letters, 6(5), 623-5. PMID: 20236965
Mateo JM. (1996) Early auditory experience and the ontogeny of alarm-call discrimination in Belding's ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi). Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983), 110(2), 115-24. PMID: 8681525
- February 15, 2011
- 01:12 PM
- 1,007 views
Lying moths use the threat of getting eaten to help their sex lives
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
It’s a love story as old as time itself: boy Asian corn borer moth (Ostrinia furnacalis) meets girl Asian corn borer moth; girl secretes sex pheromones; boy goes through his courtship ritual, a little song-and-dance routine where he rubs his wings against his thorax to produce a soft, whispering sound. It’s a sweet little love [...]... Read more »
Nakano, R., Takanashi, T., Skals, N., Surlykke, A., & Ishikawa, Y. (2010) Ultrasonic courtship songs of male Asian corn borer moths assist copulation attempts by making the females motionless. Physiological Entomology, 35(1), 76-81. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3032.2009.00712.x
Nakano R, Takanashi T, Skals N, Surlykke A, & Ishikawa Y. (2010) To females of a noctuid moth, male courtship songs are nothing more than bat echolocation calls. Biology letters, 6(5), 582-4. PMID: 20219743
- April 25, 2011
- 11:15 AM
- 980 views
Man of Steel: Armor, not weapons, protects harvestmen from certain doom
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
A lot of people mistake harvestmen for spiders, but there are two big differences between the two orders of arachnids. One, harvestmen do not scare the living shit out of me and I do not need to my girlfriend to kill any that wander into our house. Two, the eight-legged freaks commonly called daddy longlegs [...]... Read more »
Souza, E., & Willemart, R. (2011) Harvest-ironman: heavy armature, and not its defensive secretions, protects a harvestman against a spider. Animal Behaviour, 81(1), 127-133. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.09.023
Willemart, R., & Pellegatti-Franco, F. (2006) THE SPIDER ENOPLOCTENUS CYCLOTHORAX (ARANEAE, CTENIDAE) AVOIDS PREYING ON THE HARVESTMAN MISCHONYX CUSPIDATUS (OPILIONES, GONYLEPTIDAE). Journal of Arachnology, 34(3), 649-652. DOI: 10.1636/S05-70.1
- February 8, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 894 views
It’s not lonely at the top, after all: dominant chimps have more parasites
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
It wasn’t more than a few decades ago that stress was seen merely as an unpleasant mental state or a mild irritation. Stanford neurologist Robert Sapolsky recognized early on, though, that it had real, significant impact on one’s health. In a Wired piece from last summer, “Under Pressure,” Jonah Lehrer relates how Sapolsky he first [...]... Read more »
Muehlenbein MP, & Watts DP. (2010) The costs of dominance: testosterone, cortisol and intestinal parasites in wild male chimpanzees. BioPsychoSocial medicine, 4(1), 21. PMID: 21143892
- February 3, 2011
- 10:29 AM
- 808 views
Deathstalker v. Nightstalker: Bats take down highly venomous prey without a care in the world
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
There are some 1,400 described species of scorpion in the world, and while only 25 of those have proven they can take down a human being with their venom, many more of them can easily injure and kill smaller creatures. Given that, you’d expect scorpions to be important predators in desert food webs, but you [...]... Read more »
Holderied M, Korine C, & Moritz T. (2010) Hemprich's long-eared bat (Otonycteris hemprichii) as a predator of scorpions: whispering echolocation, passive gleaning and prey selection. Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology. PMID: 21086132
- October 6, 2010
- 12:57 PM
- 740 views
Acanthaspis petax and the amazing technicolor corpsecoat
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
Ed Yong recently reposted his fantastic 2008 post on assassin bug camouflage to keep us entertained while he’s away. I covered the same paper on an old incarnation of my blog, and can’t resist joining in on the reposting fun. Kevin Zelnio of Deep Sea News also has a post about it.
Remember that scene [...]... Read more »
Jackson, R., & Pollard, S. (2007) Bugs with backpacks deter vision-guided predation by jumping spiders. Journal of Zoology, 273(4), 358-363. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2007.00335.x
- July 30, 2010
- 06:04 PM
- 738 views
Fish Market: Competition gets clients better treatment from cleaner fish
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
Game theory models based on repeated interactions between two individuals have often been the framework for understanding cooperative interactions in humans, but these models rarely apply in nature. Non-human animals, after all, rarely find themselves in situations like the “prisoner’s dilemma.”
Instead, partner choice and competition are emerging as the framework for understanding cooperation in the [...]... Read more »
Adam, T. (2010) Competition encourages cooperation: client fish receive higher-quality service when cleaner fish compete. Animal Behaviour, 79(6), 1183-1189. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.02.023
- October 20, 2010
- 09:58 AM
- 734 views
The werewolf is dead, long live the werewolf, or: The co-existence of lycanthropy and Cotard’s syndrome
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
“I speak, breathe and eat but I am dead,” said the patient. The man, a 32-year-old high school dropout, laborer and family man, had been brought to Kerman Psychiatric Hospital in southern Iran by his relatives after he refused to go to work for two straight weeks. Two years before that, the symptoms started. At [...]... Read more »
Nejad AG, & Toofani K. (2005) Co-existence of lycanthropy and Cotard's syndrome in a single case. Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica, 111(3), 250. PMID: 15701110
- August 10, 2010
- 09:14 AM
- 721 views
Eavesdropping ungulates use baboon alarms to avoid predators
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
To borrow from Jonah Lehrer (in turn, giving a nod to Hobbes), “baboons are nasty, brutish and short.” They’re noisy little brutes, at that. When they encounter predators, females and juveniles produce harsh single-syllable barks (turn your volume up a little). During baboon-on-baboon fights or dominance contests, the women and children scream. In both situations, males [...]... Read more »
Kitchen DM, Bergman TJ, Cheney DL, Nicholson JR, & Seyfarth RM. (2010) Comparing responses of four ungulate species to playbacks of baboon alarm calls. Animal cognition. PMID: 20607576
- September 22, 2010
- 12:00 PM
- 684 views
To gape or not to gape? Some mussels’ choices influence their place in a habitat
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
The segregation of habitat between native and invasive species often comes down to a competition between their physiological and behavioral abilities. This is especially true in habitats prone to frequent change; as both indigenous and invasive species respond to environmental variations in a habitat, it’s the difference in their responses that can determine their success [...]... Read more »
Nicastro KR, Zardi GI, McQuaid CD, Stephens L, Radloff S, & Blatch GL. (2010) The role of gaping behaviour in habitat partitioning between coexisting intertidal mussels. BMC ecology, 17. PMID: 20624310
- July 9, 2010
- 08:42 AM
- 651 views
Watch where you sit, the things you touch affect your decisions and judgment
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
How you think you assess and explore new things? You might assume that you do it primarily through sight, right? If I have a cool new gadget, the first words out of your mouth would likely be, “Can I see it?” Chances are, though, that when you say that, you’ll also extend your arm and open your hand. Seeing isn’t all there is. You want to touch, feel, hold and manipulate unfamiliar things.... Read more »
Ackerman JM, Nocera CC, & Bargh JA. (2010) Incidental haptic sensations influence social judgments and decisions. Science (New York, N.Y.), 328(5986), 1712-5. PMID: 20576894
- May 5, 2011
- 02:08 PM
- 640 views
From my cold, dead paws: Sneaky kidnappings and daring rescues among baboons
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
For baboons, running away from home is something a boy is expected to do. Most baboon species rely on young males leaving the social group they’re born into and starting or joining another group to disperse genes and ensure diversity. In one species, though, the hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas) of northeast Africa, genetic evidence suggests [...]... Read more »
Pines M, & Swedell L. (2011) Not without a fair fight: failed abductions of females in wild hamadryas baboons. Primates; journal of primatology. PMID: 21359653
- March 11, 2011
- 09:00 AM
- 596 views
Stop, Hey What’s That Sound?: Chimps Know Social Upheaval When they Hear it.
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
The “Ooooooohhhh!” a human being cries out when they stub their toe might sound a pretty similar to the “Ooooooohhhh!” they cry out at the end of their mating ritual, but they two calls are different. An important part of human-to-human communication is our ability to extract information from context-specific calls and integrate it with [...]... Read more »
Slocombe KE, Kaller T, Call J, & Zuberbühler K. (2010) Chimpanzees extract social information from agonistic screams. PloS one, 5(7). PMID: 20644722
Slocombe, K., Townsend, S., & Zuberbühler, K. (2008) Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) distinguish between different scream types: evidence from a playback study. Animal Cognition, 12(3), 441-449. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-008-0204-x
- July 12, 2010
- 06:58 PM
- 518 views
Shell Games: The social and behavioral aspects of hermit crab real estate
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
I recently took part in what social scientists call a “vacancy chain” (a social structure through which vacancies in discrete, reusable, and limited resources propagate through a population) and all I needed was a moving truck, a few helpful relatives, a case of beer and a few pizzas. You see, when my girlfriend and I [...]... Read more »
Rotjan, R., Chabot, J., & Lewis, S. (2010) Social context of shell acquisition in Coenobita clypeatus hermit crabs. Behavioral Ecology, 21(3), 639-646. DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arq027
- June 15, 2011
- 11:05 AM
- 507 views
Cannibal Crickets Can Control a Crowd: How Eating Your Friends Aids Collective Motion
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
On the wide, open plains of the American West, it’s more than the buffalo and the antelope that roam. Mormon crickets (Anabrus simplex) also sweep across the land in huge migratory swarms that can stretch six miles long and three miles wide. The crickets (a misnomer, they’re actually flightless katydids) can march up to a [...]... Read more »
Bazazi S, Ioannou CC, Simpson SJ, Sword GA, Torney CJ, Lorch PD, & Couzin ID. (2010) The social context of cannibalism in migratory bands of the Mormon cricket. PloS one, 5(12). PMID: 21179402
Bazazi S, Buhl J, Hale JJ, Anstey ML, Sword GA, Simpson SJ, & Couzin ID. (2008) Collective motion and cannibalism in locust migratory bands. Current biology : CB, 18(10), 735-9. PMID: 18472424
Sword GA, Lorch PD, & Gwynne DT. (2005) Insect behaviour: migratory bands give crickets protection. Nature, 433(7027), 703. PMID: 15716941
- June 9, 2011
- 09:51 AM
- 495 views
Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Some animals’ lifestyles let them get away with weird necks
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
As a rule, all mammals have the same number of vertebrae in their necks, regardless of their necks’ length. Among other animals, like birds, reptiles and amphibians, there’s a little more variety: the long, slender necks of swans have 22-25 vertebrae, while bullfrogs’ necks have just one. Mammals, though – whether they’re a Kitti’s Hog-nosed [...]... Read more »
Varela-Lasheras I, Bakker AJ, van der Mije SD, Metz JA, van Alphen J, & Galis F. (2011) Breaking evolutionary and pleiotropic constraints in mammals. On sloths, manatees and homeotic mutations. EvoDevo, 2(1), 11. PMID: 21548920
- April 13, 2012
- 04:07 PM
- 445 views
For snakes, hunting bats in a cave is like shooting fish in a barrel
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
When the sun goes down in the subtropical forests of Puerto Rico, hundreds of thousands of bats emerge from the caves that stud the island’s northern end. After a day of sleeping, the animals are ready for a hard day’s night of hunting insects. For some of them, though, there will be no feast of [...]... Read more »
Rodriguez-Duran, A. (1996) Foraging Ecology of the Puerto Rican Boa (Epicrates inornatus): Bat Predation, Carrion Feeding, and Piracy. Journal of Herpetology, 30(4), 533. DOI: 10.2307/1565698
- November 2, 2011
- 04:03 PM
- 407 views
Night of the Bargain Hunter: some bats pick prey based on the cost of the hunt
by Matt Soniak in mattsoniak.com
While they’re less likely to Wall Street than a barn upstate, bats are as concerned as we are about the economy. Their economy revolves around energy instead of money, though, and a problem on the balance sheet can be a matter of life and death. If they spend more energy catching a meal than that [...]... Read more »
Koselj K, Schnitzler HU, & Siemers BM. (2011) Horseshoe bats make adaptive prey-selection decisions, informed by echo cues. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, 278(1721), 3034-41. PMID: 21367788
Jones, G. (1990) Prey Selection by the Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum): Optimal Foraging by Echolocation?. The Journal of Animal Ecology, 59(2), 587. DOI: 10.2307/4882
Salvatore J. Agosta, David Morton, & Kellie M. Kuhn. (2003) Feeding ecology of the bat Eptesicus fuscus: ‘preferred’ prey abundance as one factor influencing prey selection and diet breadth . Journal of Zoology , 260(2), 169-177. info:/10.1017/S0952836903003601
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