#animal-behavior

#animal-behavior

When faced with a choice between a box with eyes painted on it and a plain box, the gulls were slower to approach the box with eyes and less likely to peck at it.

Yuko Hattori described the findings as 'fascinating', noting how the chimpanzee used tools to produce various sounds while expressing a vocal display.

A bird whisperer known as 'Fresno's Pigeon Man' can call his feathered friends at any time with just a whistle. The winged visitors descend into downtown Fresno like a scene from a Disney movie. The birds are so comfortable around the Pigeon Pied Piper, one even lands on his head.

Newborn mammals find comfort in contact, and rescue animals sometimes seek solace from fuzzy toys in the absence of their families, said Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Some adult animals might also look to toys for safety and companionship, according to Bekoff. 'It brings them joy, and it makes them feel good,' he said.

I expect Punch will be under careful observation by the keepers, and it sounds like they are trying various approaches to find a way to keep Punch in the group, which is best practice. If it looks like he is at risk of physical harm he would be removed from the group. As macaques are highly social intelligent primates this would be the last resort, only if he were deemed to be at risk of physical harm.

He has been filmed multiple times being dragged and chased by older Japanese macaques inside the enclosure. Early clips showed him wandering alone with the toy after being pushed away by other monkeys, and clutching it tightly while being harassed. Viewers were briefly relieved when later videos emerged of another monkey grooming and comforting him. However, just days later, new footage showed Punch once again being targeted this time dragged aggressively in a circle by a much larger monkey.

Jane Goodall, the late primatologist, was known for her imitations of chimpanzee greetings. When she met with Prince Harry, in 2019, she approached him slowly, making panting noises through circular lips. She prompted him to pat her lightly on the head, then reached up for an embrace, making soft hooting sounds. During her career, Goodall observed chimps engaging in more than a thousand such greetings. They sometimes touched their lips together, breathed into one another's open mouths, or stood on two legs and hugged.

Since at least 1886, a groundhog now named Punxsutawney Phil has emerged from his burrow every Groundhog Day to predict when winter weather will end. Other groundhogs (Marmota monax) around the country have joined him in this climatological soothsaying. Folklore, likely stemming from Celtic mid-season festivals, dictates that if Phil sees his shadow, winter will continue for six more weeks, whereas if he doesn't, spring will come early. (Many people around the country are probably hoping that shadow doesn't appear after recent winter weather.)

Horses can smell fear, or at least whether you have scared yourself witless watching a horror movie, according to researchers who say the effect has consequences for riders, trainers and others who work with the animals. In a series of tests, horses that smelled body odour from people watching scary films startled more easily, had higher heart rates and approached their handlers less often than when the odour came from people watching more joyful scenes.

Most dog owners are aware that their pooch is smart enough to know a few choice phraseswalkies, for instance, or, perhaps more likely, time for dinner. Some particularly intelligent canines can even identify more than 100 words. And incredibly, a few genius doggies may be able to learn words not by being taught but purely by eavesdropping on human conversations.

I write this post with a clear but demanding purpose. I aim to apply insights from animal behavior research to gain a deeper understanding of how humans behave, struggle, and adapt. As a clinical psychologist, much of my work centers on two closely related questions. Why do people do what they do? And why is changing what does not work for them so often more difficult than it appears?

A peek behind the scenes at the zoo reveals animal escapades, and a glow-worm shines in a mild midwinter, in our weekly dip into Nature 's archive.

The six cats, two dogs and one musician live in Galway

No, I don't want a candle that smells like turkey, because, well, we'll be cooking turkey. Nor do I want a sunrise alarm clock that mimics natural light, because I can leave the curtains open. And I definitely don't want a salmon DNA pink collagen jelly mask (Good Housekeeping's Best for Beauty Lovers), because said DNA comes from milt. AKA semen. If I wanted fish sperm on my face, I would tickle some pollocks.

With the use of a bootstrap experimental setup consisting of a large polystyrene ball, a curved computer monitor, and a small straw that dispenses sugar water, Tóth managed to teach a rat how to play the classic 1994 video game Doom II. The rat's movements translated into rotations of the ball, which were then translated into movement inside the iconic first-person shooter. The sugar water served as a treat whenever the rat completed a milestone, like walking down a corridor.

From monkeys beating out musical rhythms to dogs on CBD, we're seeing some truly hedonistic behaviour

That could be deadly for young sea otters, according to Shayla Zink, who works at the center in Morro Bay. That pup is really relying on everything it learns from the mother to be able to survive in the ocean, Zink said, adding that a mother sea otter cares for her pup for up to nine months, often carrying her small baby on her chest.

When I was seven years old, something happened that I still think about today. It was in Astana, Kazakhstan - back then it was called Akmola. After school, I would walk home with my stepbrother, his two friends, and my best friend. It was a quick 10-minute walk, and we usually stopped by her apartment on the way. One rainy day, she invited us in to wait out the rain.

They're not sad at all, said Gedman. The question of whether the gorillas at Bristol Zoo Gardens might be sad has made headlines in the UK tabloids and provoked concern from animal lovers around the world. Three years ago the site near the Clifton Suspension Bridge closed to the public and most of the animals were moved to a new site, Bristol Zoo Project, on the edge of the city, where they have larger, leafier enclosures.

In both cases, the test subjects were presented with visual stimuli in the form of two white plastic cards. Sizes differed for the doves and the guppies, but each card showed an array of six black circles with a bit of food serving as the center "circle": red millet seeds for the doves and commercial flake food for the guppies.

Dog: Smelled some organic compounds on his breath. Picked up traces of blood in his stool. It's either cancer or the worst case of Happy-Tail Syndrome I've ever seen. Doctor B: I don't buy it. I want a full workup. Blood, imaging. Dog: While you do that, I'll do a full workup on a hair ball the size of a colostomy bag. Tomorrow, I'll still be right and there's a good chance your patient will be dead.

"When I did this experiment, I hoped that I would win the Ig Nobel. It's my dream. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable," said Tomoki Kojima, whose team put tape on Japanese beef cows and then spray-painted them with white stripes. Kojima appeared on stage in stripes and was surrounded by his fellow researchers who harassed him with cardboard flies.

A young bird of prey learning to hunt has a varied diet, which can include small rodents like squirrels, particularly when food is scarce.

The narrative of wildlife documentaries often begins with sweeping shots of the African savannah, establishing a familiar, bittersweet cycle of life and death among species.

"I think more and more we are really understanding the extent to which social behavior influences animals' lives," says Adelaide Abraham, a PhD student at the University of Oxford and first author of the study. "It's hugely, hugely important."

The clip shared on Instagram by zoologist and author Lucy Cooke and wildlife veterinarian Andrés Sáenz Bräutigam proves definitively that these adorable animals are just as gassy as any other mammal.