Oh, behave!

Awesome octopi III

jakst — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:50:16 +0000

Once again, I am amazed at the crazy (crazy weird and crazy intelligent) things that octopi do. First, they’re carrying around coconut half shelves to use as shelters. Then, they’re stealing underwater video cameras. Now, they’re impersonating toxic fish to avoid predation!

Appropriately named the Indonesia mimic octopus, this video depicts the cephalopod making itself the color and shape of a toxic flatfish, a trick believed to scare off predators. Apparently this octopus can mimic a wide range of species, including a variety of other toxic fishes and sea snakes.

Is there anything octopi can’t do?

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Everybody needs a friend

jakst — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:24:06 +0000

As The Thoughtful Animal blog points out, we don’t know much about the circumstances surrounding this seemingly selfless act of kindess, but it sure is heart warming to see. Everybody needs a little help sometimes.

Piscine gardners

jakst — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:11:28 +0000

As someone who is lucky to keep the dandelions flourishing in my backyard, this story impressed me. In addition to being good gardeners, damselfish are apparently effective weeders as well. According to a new study in BMC Evolutionary Biology, damselfish throughout the Indo-West Pacific selectively weed out less palatable species from their algal gardens to promote the growth of their preferred floral menu, which stands little chance in the competition for space and resources without this gardener intervention. It’s an amazing example of mutualism across kingdom boundaries, and a humbling example of how much we can learn from the animal world about maintaining a well-kept garden.

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Shiesty sex

jakst — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:03:03 +0000

As if telling small fibs about your music or literature interests to get a girl in bed isn’t bad enough, male antelopes pretend to be scared just to get females in heat to stick around long enough for a little romp in the sack! According to a new study in The American Naturalist, these horned Kenyan beasts release an unwarranted alarm snort that indicates there is a predator in the area. As a result, females stays in male territories longer, giving them more time to sew their seeds.

This type of intentional deception is not commonly observed in non-human animals, and its motivation is often controversial. But I’m convinced. Last year I wrote about monkeys who used a similar tactic to scare competitors away from their dinner. Now, it turns out, these male antelopes are snorting to keep females around. They’re targeting females in heat and making the false alarms when the females are trying to leave their territories. They were even looking in the direction the females were headed, indicating the predator was that-a-way. The females stayed because they thought if they didn’t, they would die!

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to think that humans are a relatively trustworthy bunch.

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Awesome octopi II

jakst — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:58:50 +0000

I never would have guessed when I started this blog that I would write more than one post worthy of the title “Awesome Octopi,” but here you have it. Arguably the most intelligent invertebrate on earth, here is a fascinating video of an octopus who steals a photographer’s video camera…while it’s recording! The video itself, I might add, is very well done, with interesting pop-ups to let you know what’s going on, and exciting music to keep you at the edge of your seat.

The first ‘Awesome octopi’ post links to a video of octopi carrying around coconut half shelves to use as shelters.

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Writing about science writing

jakst — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:53:15 +0000

It’s been almost exactly one year since I made the switch from science to science writing — a transition I could not have done without my science writing professor at Indiana University and personal career mentor, Holly Stocking. I was extremely fortunate to be able to study science writing with Holly, as she retired the following semester, making a transition of her own. Once a journalist herself, writing for the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, and the Minneapolis Tribune, among others, Holly is now writing about writing.

Her new book, which I happily helped research during my final days in Indiana, is called The New York Times Reader: Science & Technology, and is now available to help guide writers through the nuances, complexities, and controversies that come with covering science in the media. It’s a great resource for aspiring science writers, but also for established journalists as well — it’s never too late to hone one’s reporting and writing skills.

(A companion book on health and medical reporting is also available.)

Sore losers

jakst — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:54:55 +0000

Males of many species, including humans, can be fiercely competitive. And like most competitions, there are winners and there are losers — some of whom do not take losing gracefully. Beetles, it turns out, are no exception, and they have taken the term “sore loser” to a whole new level.

In addition to showing reduced aggression for up to 4 days after losing a fight, male beetles (sp. Gnatocerus cornutus) put more resources into their ejaculates, according to a new study in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters. These results suggest that males may increase their investment in sperm competition when they lose physical competition. Talk about trying to compensate…

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Don’t spit on me

jakst — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:55:16 +0000

So this isn’t new to the scientific community, but it’s new to me, and I was fascinated. A certain species of fish, known as archerfish, hunt at the water’s edge, preying on insects that flutter about the shore. And here’s the interesting part: they do so by spitting water droplets from their water-gun-like mouths! The water knocks down their terrestrial prey to the water’s surface, where the fish can gobble it up. Reminds me a little of the dolphin hunting strategy, in which they use their large bodies and incredible speed to beach their fish prey, which flap around helplessly on the sand as an easy meal.

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Stress

jakst — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:48:08 +0000

Dating can be stressful — no doubt about that. And now a new study suggests that stress itself may change our dating preferences. How confusing!

Normally, humans prefer mates that resemble themselves. Indeed, men in the new study preferred images of women whose faces had been manipulated to look more similar to their own. Stressed men, on the other hand, preferred women who had been manipulated to look more dissimilar, or had not been manipulated at all. Of course, this is just one study, using just one stress-inducing paradigm and one type of preference test. But like most scientific studies, it raises the interesting question of why. Have we evolved to prefer dissimilar mates in times of stress because genetic diversity is advantageous in times of environmental uncertainty? And if so, how is the stress of 21st century dating messing with this system?

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Pipefish pregnancy — good or evil?

jakst — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:49:53 +0000

Male pipefish and seahorses are commended for being some of the only fathers in the world that take the burden of pregnancy from their ladies. Many pipefish and seahorse species have highly evolved pouches that carry the eggs for the weeks until the young are fully developed and ready to face to ocean alone. But a new report (in Nature, no less) suggests that this seemingly unprecedented act of generosity may be riddled with a much darker motive — selective abortion.

Performing controlled breeding experiments in a species of pipefish, researchers have discovered a positive relationship between female attractiveness and offspring survivorship. In other words, males may increase the rate of offspring abortion in a given brood if it is the product of a relatively unattractive female, thereby retaining resources for a future brood that might be mothered by a more attractive mate, if he should be so lucky.

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