I want the ape on my team

Charades is typically a word guessing game, it's a simple game of getting the point across without using spoken words. Charades is a very simple, and at times very frustrating game. When trying to communicate without using words one has to think about a gesture that will relate to the thought, but in real life we humans find ourselves acting out our words to aid with communication in every day life. And it's just us humans that act out their emotions by using our awesome, sick, crazy pantomiming skills right...right?
To say that humans are the only ones that can use charades is a false statement. Recent studies have found that orangutans can use pantomiming skills to get across their point. The test that the scientist held were simple ones. They gave the orangutans a treat and if they wanted another they would have to ask. As the scientist purposefully acted like they had no idea what the orangutan was trying to ask for the scientist noticed something shocking. As the signs that the apes were trying to use failed they would change their approach. They showed signs of intelligence by sticking with the signs that worked and fixing the ones that didn't until the orangutans got what they wanted. But even if a signal worked, sometimes the scientist would give them half a treat and it was up to the orangutan to ask for the full treat.
In a follow up article by discovery I found that they expressed more detailed means of expression. An orangutan Siti grabbed a coconut and a stick, now seeing humans break a coconut with a machete Siti did the same, but with a stick. She got a scientist attention and used a stick to act like she was breaking a coconut.
These articles were really something else, and in all honesty adorable just picturing myself playing charades with an orangutan. But as cute and surreal as it seems; this finding shows advancements in trying to find common grounds of communication with our ancestors and breaks the thought that apes cannot communicate on a human to ape capability level.

-Peter A. Lucas

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

The Symbiotic Relationship Between the Albatross and Killer Whale


When considering symbiotic relationships, you may think about the mutualistic relationship between a Clown fish and a sea anemone or the parasitic relationship between a tick and a deer. However, thinking about a symbiotic relationship between a bird and a large marine mammal may be hard to wrap your head around.

Scientists from the National Institute of Polar Research have discovered that the Black-browed Albatross (Thalassarche melanophrys) and the Killer whale (Orcinus orca) share a special connection. They have a commensalistic relationship, which means that one of the organisms is benefiting from the interaction, while the other is not affected in any manner. In this case, the albatross is benefitting from the feeding routine of the killer whale. At sea, the black-browed albatross will follow it’s whale friend and take advantage of the schools of fish it’s friend gathers up to the surface of the water.

In order to capture this peculiar behavior, scientists attached a small camera weighing 82g to the backs of four black-browed albatrosses. The video footage revealed that while albatrosses left their nest and young to forage for food in groups, they turned to killer whales to help them be more efficient while catching prey during a single foraging period. The albatross benefits greatly from its interaction with the killer whale and this just goes to show that some relationships between different species, no matter how farfetched they may seem, can be a determining factor in the way that species behaves and survives.

The topic of symbiotic relationships causes me to wonder about the Earth as a whole. It reminds me that every entity is connected in one way or another. Two different species may not even interact at all or have any special relationship, but the absence of one could greatly impact the existence of another. This is why the Earth and all it’s living things are so beautiful and complex.

Journal Reference:
Sakamoto KQ, Takahashi A, Iwata T, Trathan PN. From the Eye of the Albatrosses: A Bird-Borne Camera Shows an Association between Albatrosses and a Killer Whale in the Southern Ocean. PLoS ONE, 2009; 4(10): e7322

Click here for original article

-Stefanie Marotte

Nosy Rodents?

Nearly everybody is guilty of eavesdropping once in a while; it often comes naturally to listen in on the conversations of people around you- especially if the subject matter is something that affects you. According to Joseph Felts and Kenneth A. Schmidt, other animals also pick up on signals that are not meant for them to hear. In the paper "Multitasking and eavesdropping in cotton rats foraging under predation risk," Felts and Schmidt describe the way that cotton rats use signals from other animals to determine when predators are nearby.

Red-tailed hawks are a common predator of cotton rats. They also hunt small birds living in the area including blue jays and robins. Felts and Schmidt predicted that cotton rats would use signals from these birds to determine whether there was danger of a hawk attack. They tested the response of cotton rats to the alarm call of the blue jay, the nonalarm vocalization of the blue jay, Robin song and the call of the red-tailed hawk itself. To test the rats' perception of danger, they used the concept of giving up densities (GUDs). Cotton rats (and other foraging animals) maximize their energy intake by balancing the amount of time they spend foraging in an area with the costs and risks of foraging. When food becomes scarce enough that the energy gained from foraging is equal to the costs and risks associated with foraging, the behavior stops. GUDs were measured by providing the rats with seeds mixed in sand and measuring the amount of seed that was left by the rats. Felts and Schmidt predicted that the GUDs of cotton rats would increase when they heard the alarm call of the blue jay or the call of the hawk itself and that GUDs would decrease when they heard the nonalarm song of the blue jay or the robin song because these songs indicate that there are no predators present.

Felts and Schmidt found that while cotton rats did not respond change their behavior(significantly) in response to the nonalarm calls of the blue jays or robins or the call of the red-tailed hawk, they did respond to the alarm call of the blue jay. When they heard the blue-jay alarm call, the GUDs of cotton rats increased and they spent less time foraging. I thought it was really interesting that animals not only develop signals to communicate with each other, but can also evolve to respond to other signals that benefit them.

PERSONALITY AND COMMUNICATION IN SIAMESE FIGHTING FISH

Personality is not a concept often discussed in reference to fish. It is much easier for us to recognize and distinguish a variety of personalities in animals such as dogs, horses, or even birds. There isn't currently very much scientific information on animal personality at all. However, recent research focused on personality, communication, and behavior in fish.

Matessi et al. (2010) investigated how social changes in the environment as well as different personality types affected the communication of male Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens. They noted that these temperamental differences may affect the fitness of both individuals and populations, but there has been little research on personalities in animals.

In this study 49 fish were categorized into one of two "personality" types, either persistent or sporadic, and their behavior observed interacting visually with a variety of different neighbors (other fish). The persistent fish tended to patrol their borders and send aggressive signals to neighbors the majority of the time, while those deemed sporadic fluctuated between interaction patterns similar to those of the persistent fish and less active spells where they stayed away from the neighbors. Over the course of the experiment, all of the fish were exposed to a variety of social environments in terms of number and type of neighbors. It was found that the different environments did indeed have an effect on fish behavior and signaling. While persistent fish did not appear to demonstrate much change, sporadic fish behaved in some respects more like persistent fish, although they tended to remain in areas where they could obtain information about neighbors while avoiding any actual interaction with them.

One interesting aspect of this research was several comparisons the authors made between fish behavior and bird behavior. They compared the different reactions of the fish to those of songbirds in playback trials, particularly in reference to differentiating between strangers and neighbors. The comparison was initially surprising - it hadn't occurred to me to compare fish to birds, but this was certainly an interesting way to do so. The authors also noted that these are extremely inconclusive results - further testing with much larger sample sizes would be required for more definitive resolution. If we think about the many ways personality can affect communication and behavior, we can see that there is still a lot to investigate. Hopefully we will see further research into this fascinating subject.

Anyone interested in reading the original article can find it here.

Dana Mirsky (2)

THE ADVANTAGE OF STARVING: SUCCESS IN CANNIBALISTIC ENCOUNTERS AMONG WOLF SPIDERS

As we all know, cannibalism is often observed among various species in the animal kingdom. Although I don't have too much knowledge about insects, I do know that in some species of insects, cannibalism is normal and can be used as a reproductive strategy or can be used in situations in which the insect is extremely hungry and can't find other means of nutrition. However, I did not know that there is actually an advantage to being one of these cannibalistic species and being extremely hungry.

Peterson et al. (2010) found that hunger and body size differences in wolf spiders increase the likelihood that a cannibalistic event will take place. They performed various experiments that tested whether a cannibalistic event took place for three different groups of spiders: 1) spiders of the same size, 2) spiders of different levels of hunger, and 3) a control group of spiders that were just fed. Spiders from each of these groups were placed in different orders in separate petri dishes and observed over a period of time. After performing these experiments, they found that during an encounter of a hungry spider and a satiated spider of the same mass, the hungry spider was more likely the cannibalistic predator. They also found that a hungry spider is more likely to attack a smaller spider of equal hunger than a smaller spider that was satiated. They even found that in some cases, a smaller, hugry spider launched an attack on a bigger spider. This research supports the fact that when a spider is hungry, it will have increased aggression and will take greater risks than a spider that is not hungry.

Although data suggests starvation to be an advantage to hungry spiders, after being starved for a certain number of days, it was found that spiders actually fall prey to cannibalistic spiders because they are too weak to fight. I found it extremely interesting that spiders have evolved to be very adapted to starvation, however the level at which starvation turns from advantage to disadvantage is unknown. If you would like to read more about this study click here!



posted by Abbie Lamarre-DeJesus (2)

Graceful Emergence

Whether on the Discovery channel or Youtube, we have probably all seen a clip of thousands of bats rushing from the entrance of a cave. But have you ever wondered how they coordinate such a large event? To orchestrate so many bodies passing through one space simultaneously seems an arduous task.

Researcher Erin H. Gillam and colleagues have recently explored this question. They found that Brazillian free-tailed bats, when emerging from a cave, emit two distinct types of calls, frequency-modulated (FM) and constant frequency (CF). These two types of calls significantly differ from the echolocation calls used while foraging. It is suggested that the emergence calls encode for more spatial information and are direction-related, allowing for more efficient navigation and hazard assessment.

For the detailed findings you can view the article here: http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1644/09-MAMM-A-302.1

It seems appropriate that such a coordinated task would require a more extensive set of signals for communication.


Jen Kodela (2)

America's Food Waste Equates to Wasted Energy

http://www.enn.com/agriculture/article/41848

In an article from ENN.com new studies have shown that the percentage of energy waste generated from from food waste is no small amount. Researchers Amanda D. Cuellar and Michael E. Webber of the University of Texas at Austin estimate that every year the amount of food thrown away by the united states is equivalent to 325 million barrels of oil wasted.

There are two main reasons why so much food waste is being generated. One is the amount of time it takes to get a product from the place of growth or production to the customer before it goes bad. The second reason provided is in consumption itself. Often restaurants are seen throwing bulging bags of discarded food into their dumpsters. The blame can't be placed entirely on commercial areas however when residences are throwing away food as well.

Cuellar and Webber also try to make people see the connection between food waste and energy. The food production industry has recently benefited from the use of new technologies, unfortunately they're based on fossil fules which makes the food production industry dependent on fossil fuels.

In a time when people are so focused on alternative energy sources, it is important to take all areas that use the energy into consideration. Cuellar and Webber emphasize this point by citing new research which says that food production and waste make up 18% of this country's energy usage (16% and and 2% respectively).

This article certainly provides some food for thought and will hopefully make more people think when they set out to make dinner or go out to a restaurant: "How much am I wasting?"

Lora Mathers