48 posts · 19,219 views

Rats giggle when they’re tickled and flatworms fence with their penises. Who knew? Explore the science behind animal behavior and see where we fit in this quirky world.

Miss Behavior
48 posts

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April 4, 2012
10:28 AM
685 views

Animal Mass Suicide and the Lemming Conspiracy

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

Ticked off Norway lemming doesn't like gossip!Photo from Wikimedia Commons by Frode Inge Helland We all know the story: Every few years, millions of lemmings, driven by a deep-seated urge, run and leap off a cliff only to be dashed on the rocks below and eventually drowned in the raging sea. Stupid lemmings. It’s a story with staying power: short, not-so-sweet, and to the rocky point. But it is a LIE. And who, you may ask, would tell us such a horrendous fabrication? Walt Disney! Well, ........ Read more »

Ramsden E, & Wilson D. (2010) The nature of suicide: science and the self-destructive animal. Endeavour, 34(1), 21-4. PMID: 20144484

May 2, 2012
12:53 PM
648 views

Why This Horde of Idiots is No Genius

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

At first look (in Part 1 of this post), swarm theory seems to predict that the larger the social group, the better the resulting group decisions and behaviors. Then, with over 300 million of us in the U.S., shouldn’t we only be making brilliant decisions? And with over 7 billion worldwide, shouldn’t we have already prevented all international conflicts, cancer, and environmental destruction? And why the heck is Snooki still everywhere we look?! A riot in Vancouver, Canada after the Vancouve........ Read more »

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: 10.1126/science.1210361

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: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0277

April 25, 2012
11:54 AM
628 views

Can a Horde of Idiots be a Genius?

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

Let’s face it: The typical individual is not that bright. Just check out these human specimens: Yet somehow, if you get enough numbskulls together, the group can make some pretty intelligent decisions. We’ve seen this in a wide variety of organisms facing a number of different challenges.In a brilliant series of studies, Jean-Louis Deneubourg, a professor at the Free University of Brussels, and his colleagues tested the abilities of Argentine ants (a common dark-brown ant ........ Read more »

Couzin, I. (2009) Collective cognition in animal groups. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(1), 36-43. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2008.10.002

Goss, S., Aron, S., Deneubourg, J., & Pasteels, J. (1989) Self-organized shortcuts in the Argentine ant. Naturwissenschaften, 76(12), 579-581. DOI: 10.1007/BF00462870

Dussutour, A., Nicolis, S., Deneubourg, J., & Fourcassié, V. (2006) Collective decisions in ants when foraging under crowded conditions. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 61(1), 17-30. DOI: 10.1007/s00265-006-0233-x

List C, Elsholtz C, & Seeley TD. (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 of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 364(1518), 755-62. PMID: 19073474

Dell'Ariccia, G., Dell'Omo, G., Wolfer, D., & Lipp, H. (2008) Flock flying improves pigeons' homing: GPS track analysis of individual flyers versus small groups. Animal Behaviour, 76(4), 1165-1172. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.05.022

March 14, 2012
12:38 PM
597 views

Social butterflies or wallflowers? Two brain regions and a peptide

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

Zebra finches are really social little birds. When conditions are not right for breeding (usually when there’s not enough rain), they hang out in flocks of hundreds. And in the intimate mood the rain brings, groups break up into more manageable sizes of 10-20 birds, which still seems like a lot to me. Although, if you’re the type to have a “quiet night in” with just a dozen or so of your closest friends, you may be able to relate to the gregarious zebra finch. This is a zebra finch ........ Read more »

Kelly, A., Kingsbury, M., Hoffbuhr, K., Schrock, S., Waxman, B., Kabelik, D., Thompson, R., & Goodson, J. (2011) Vasotocin neurons and septal V1a-like receptors potently modulate songbird flocking and responses to novelty. Hormones and Behavior, 60(1), 12-21. DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.01.012

April 18, 2012
10:55 AM
596 views

It Doesn’t Always Pay to Kill Your Siblings

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

A mother reed warbler feeding her "adoptive" murderous cuckoo chick. Does she really think this is her child? Photo by Per Harald Olsen on Wikimedia Commons.A woman, driven to not raise her own child, leaves her baby in another woman’s nursery, killing another baby that is there and replacing it with her own. As soon as the transplanted baby is strong enough, it slowly, methodically kills all the other children in the nursery, hording all of the adoptive mother’s attention for itself. With t........ Read more »

Gloag, R., Tuero, D., Fiorini, V., Reboreda, J., & Kacelnik, A. (2011) The economics of nestmate killing in avian brood parasites: a provisions trade-off. Behavioral Ecology, 23(1), 132-140. DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arr166

May 23, 2012
02:09 PM
592 views

Snakes Deceive to Get a Little Snuggle

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

A lone red-sided garter snake. Photo by Tracy Langkilde.The red-sided garter snake is a small snake species with the largest and most northern distribution of all reptiles in North America. These northern ranges can get quite cold for any animal, let alone a reptile. Like most reptiles, they are ectotherms, meaning they regulate their body temperature largely by exchanging heat with their environment. If an animal gets almost all of its body heat from a cold environment, its body is also going t........ Read more »

Shine, R., Langkilde, T., & Mason, R. (2012) Facultative pheromonal mimicry in snakes: “she-males” attract courtship only when it is useful. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 66(5), 691-695. DOI: 10.1007/s00265-012-1317-4

Parker, M., & Mason, R. (2012) How to make a sexy snake: estrogen activation of female sex pheromone in male red-sided garter snakes. Journal of Experimental Biology, 215(5), 723-730. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.064923

Parker, M., & Mason, R. (2009) Low Temperature Dormancy Affects the Quantity and Quality of the Female Sexual Attractiveness Pheromone in Red-sided Garter Snakes. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 35(10), 1234-1241. DOI: 10.1007/s10886-009-9699-0

June 13, 2012
01:52 PM
591 views

The Age of Aquariums: Amazing Animal Watching Vacations Part 2

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

Below the ocean’s surface is a world more mysterious than the dark side of the moon and with more animal diversity than the Amazon rainforest. Over 70% of our planet is covered in ocean, yet fully 95% of our oceans remain completely unexplored. But we do know that the habitats animals adapt to are more vast than the open ocean (In fact, many more animals are by the coasts than out in the open ocean). There are shallow sunlit coastal waters and deep dark ocean trenches, coral reefs, estuaries, ........ Read more »

GRAY, J. (1997) Marine biodiversity: patterns, threats and conservation needs. Biodiversity and Conservation, 6(1), 153-175. DOI: 10.1023/a:1018335901847

Orcutt, B., Sylvan, J., Knab, N., & Edwards, K. (2011) Microbial Ecology of the Dark Ocean above, at, and below the Seafloor. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 75(2), 361-422. DOI: 10.1128/MMBR.00039-10

Zeppilli, D., Mea, M., Corinaldesi, C., & Danovaro, R. (2011) Mud volcanoes in the Mediterranean Sea are hot spots of exclusive meiobenthic species. Progress In Oceanography, 91(3), 260-272. DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2011.01.001

April 11, 2012
02:01 PM
583 views

The Social Punishment of Samantha Brick

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

An interesting thing happened this week in the world of collective human behavior. But before we go into that, let me ask you two questions: Have you heard of Samantha Brick? On a scale of 1 to 10, how attractive do you think she is? Samantha Brick, a journalist, wrote an article for the Daily Mail called “'There are downsides to looking this pretty': Why women hate me for being beautiful”. Naturally, the response to hearing a story like this is, “Well, what does she look like?” Luckily ........ Read more »

Tibbetts, E., & Izzo, A. (2010) Social Punishment of Dishonest Signalers Caused by Mismatch between Signal and Behavior. Current Biology, 20(18), 1637-1640. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.07.042

February 29, 2012
09:55 AM
575 views

Playing “Good Cop, Bad Cop” with Octopuses

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

Have you ever seen an octopus in an aquarium, or maybe even in the ocean, and thought, “I know you!”? No? Well, they might think that when they see you!We’ve known for some time that many domestic animals, like dogs, can tell us people apart. It turns out that a lot of animal species can recognize individual people. But how do we humans know that? It’s not like you can walk right up to an animal and say “Hey! Remember me?” ...Well, I guess you could do that, but how would you interpr........ Read more »

Anderson RC, Mather JA, Monette MQ, & Zimsen SR. (2010) Octopuses (Enteroctopus dofleini) recognize individual humans. Journal of applied animal welfare science : JAAWS, 13(3), 261-72. PMID: 20563906

July 25, 2012
03:30 PM
543 views

Red-Eyed Rump Shaker

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

A photo of a red-eyed treefrog taken by Carey James Balboa at Wikimedia.At night, male red-eyed treefrogs gather on saplings over Central American forest ponds to show off their stuff for the ladies, producing self-advertising “chack” calls. Despite the fact that they gather in groups, they defend their calling territories from flirtatious male competition. Females assess the available males and usually mate with a single male, who mounts her and clings on for dear life in a behavior called........ Read more »

Caldwell MS, Johnston GR, McDaniel JG, & Warkentin KM. (2010) Vibrational signaling in the agonistic interactions of red-eyed treefrogs. Current biology : CB, 20(11), 1012-7. PMID: 20493702

February 8, 2012
10:56 AM
542 views

Friends with Benefits

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

"It is not so much our friends' help that helps usas the confident knowledge that they will help us."-Epicurus, Greek philosopher (341 - 270 BC)“Silences make the real conversations between friends.Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts.”-Margaret Lee Runbeck, American author (1905 - 1956)photo by Jérôme Micheletta, Macaca Nigra ProjectWhere would we be without our friends? Friends lend a hand in bad times and cheer uson in good times. They make us laugh, share their fo........ Read more »

Micheletta, J., & Waller, B. (2012) Friendship affects gaze following in a tolerant species of macaque, Macaca nigra. Animal Behaviour, 83(2), 459-467. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.11.018

March 7, 2012
12:10 PM
532 views

Interrupting Insects

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

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 th........ Read more »

COCROFT, R., & RODRÍGUEZ, R. (2005) The Behavioral Ecology of Insect Vibrational Communication. BioScience, 55(4), 323. DOI: 10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0323:TBEOIV]2.0.CO;2

Legendre, F., Marting, P., & Cocroft, R. (2012) Competitive masking of vibrational signals during mate searching in a treehopper. Animal Behaviour, 83(2), 361-368. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.11.003

February 22, 2012
12:56 PM
528 views

The "Love Hormone" of 2012

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

Hello and welcome to the Love Hormone Pageant ResultsShow! You have cast your votes, theresults are in, and the “Love Hormone” of 2012 is… (dramatic pause)… Dopamine!Dopamine is arguably the most exciting of love hormones.A neurotransmitter produced in the brain, dopamine plays a key role in manymotivated behaviors (and love, especiallyfalling in love, involves a lot ofmotivated behavior). It does this mostly through the mesolimbic reward system,which largely consists of dopamine-p........ Read more »

Young, K., Gobrogge, K., Liu, Y., & Wang, Z. (2011) The neurobiology of pair bonding: Insights from a socially monogamous rodent. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 32(1), 53-69. DOI: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2010.07.006

Young, K., Gobrogge, K., & Wang, Z. (2011) The role of mesocorticolimbic dopamine in regulating interactions between drugs of abuse and social behavior. Neuroscience , 35(3), 498-515. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.06.004

May 16, 2012
12:33 PM
525 views

Does Social Status Change Brains?

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

Photo by The Grappling Source Inc. at Wikimedia CommonsBeing 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 ........ Read more »

Sørensen, C., Nilsson, G., Summers, C., & Øverli, �. (2012) Social stress reduces forebrain cell proliferation in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Behavioural Brain Research, 227(2), 311-318. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.01.041

Issa, F., Drummond, J., Cattaert, D., & Edwards, D. (2012) Neural Circuit Reconfiguration by Social Status. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(16), 5638-5645. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5668-11.2012

Yeh, S., Fricke, R., & Edwards, D. (1996) The Effect of Social Experience on Serotonergic Modulation of the Escape Circuit of Crayfish. Science, 271(5247), 366-369. DOI: 10.1126/science.271.5247.366

Issa, F., & Edwards, D. (2006) Ritualized Submission and the Reduction of Aggression in an Invertebrate. Current Biology, 16(22), 2217-2221. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.08.065

June 6, 2012
11:38 AM
524 views

Decisions, Decisions

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

It doesn't take much to notice how different animalscan be... But look closer and you'll see how similarthey are too. Figure from O'Connell and Hofmann2011 Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology paper.Animals live in social environments that repeatedly present both challenges (like an aggressive neighbor) and opportunities (like a flirtatious neighbor). Although animals can usually respond to such challenges and opportunities in a number of different ways, t........ Read more »

O'Connell, L., & Hofmann, H. (2012) Evolution of a Vertebrate Social Decision-Making Network. Science, 336(6085), 1154-1157. DOI: 10.1126/science.1218889

O'Connell, L., & Hofmann, H. (2011) The Vertebrate mesolimbic reward system and social behavior network: A comparative synthesis. The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 519(18), 3599-3639. DOI: 10.1002/cne.22735

O’Connell, L., & Hofmann, H. (2011) Genes, hormones, and circuits: An integrative approach to study the evolution of social behavior. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 32(3), 320-335. DOI: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2010.12.004

August 1, 2012
02:56 PM
512 views

Uncontrollable Love: A Guest Post

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

By Yunhan ZhaoImage from Freedigitalphotos.netWhat is love? Under Shakespeare’s leather pen, love is the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In the poet’s eyes, love is the courage of Paris to elope with Helen and stand against the world. In Pretty Woman love doesn’t care about social status or wealth. When people fall in love the whole world feels brighter and more vibrant. Orpheus and Eurydice, Jane Eyre and Rochester, Darcy and Elizabeth…thousands of romantic stories, poems and songs illustr........ Read more »

Cho, M., DeVries, A., Williams, J., & Carter, C. (1999) The effects of oxytocin and vasopressin on partner preferences in male and female prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Behavioral Neuroscience, 113(5), 1071-1079. DOI: 10.1037//0735-7044.113.5.1071

Taylor, S.E., Saphire-Bernstein, S., & Seeman, T.E. (2009) Are Plasma Oxytocin in Women and Plasma Vasopressin in Men Biomarkers of Distressed Pair-Bond Relationships?. Psychological Science, 2010(21), 3-7. DOI: 10.1177/0956797609356507

August 22, 2012
10:27 AM
512 views

A Sixth Sense

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

Birds have long been known for their incredible navigational abilities. More than 4000 years ago, ancient Egyptians used carrier pigeons, the domesticated descendants of wild rock doves, to carry urgent messages to distant lands. They proved to be cheaper, faster and more efficient than human messengers and their use spread throughout the Mediterranean, central and northern Europe, and then throughout the world. Yet it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that scientists began to ask how they do it. To ........ Read more »

Mora, C.V., & Walker, M.M. (2012) Consistent effect of an attached magnet on the initial orientation of homing pigeons, Columbia livia. Animal Behaviour, 377-383. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.05.005

Wiltschko, R., & Wiltschko, W. (2003) Avian navigation: from historical to modern concepts. Animal Behaviour, 257-272. DOI: 10.1006/anbe.2003.2054

Bingman, V. P., & Cheng, K. (2005) Mechanisms of animal global navigation: comparative perspectives and enduring challenges. Ethology Ecology , 295-318. DOI: 10.1080/08927014.2005.9522584

June 27, 2012
03:35 PM
500 views

Steroids Won't Help If You're a Loser

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

The more we study physiology and behavior across groups of animals, the more we find we have in common in the types of behaviors we express and the biological machinery of how our bodies influence what behaviors are expressed and when. But similarity does not mean the same. Sometimes seemingly small physiological differences can have big behavioral consequences. A snuggly California mouse pair. Photo from the Marler lab.A lone wire-walking white-footed mouse. Photo by the National Park Service.T........ Read more »

Fuxjager MJ, Montgomery JL, & Marler CA. (2011) Species differences in the winner effect disappear in response to post-victory testosterone manipulations. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, 278(1724), 3497-503. PMID: 21490015

Oyegbile TO, & Marler CA. (2005) Winning fights elevates testosterone levels in California mice and enhances future ability to win fights. Hormones and behavior, 48(3), 259-67. PMID: 15979073

August 8, 2012
02:57 PM
493 views

Baby, You Light Up My World Like Nobody Else: A Guest Post

by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog

One Direction was inspired by the brightly shining love of the bioluminescent ostracod. Photo by Fiona McKinlay at Wikimedia.by Rachel WangYou might not have guessed that the song lyrics of the band One Direction could apply to the courtship of bioluminescent marine animals, but the female ostracod crustacean (relatives of crabs and shrimp) might want to sing her heart out when she finds a bright guy to light up her world. This month's cover of the Journal of Experimental Biology feature........ Read more »

Rivers, T.J., & Morin, J.G. (2009) Plasticity of male mating behavior in a marine bioluminescent ostracod in both time and space. Animal Behavior, 78(3), 723-734. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.06.020

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