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Is there more to life than money?
12 Jan 2013 22:33 GMT | Human Rights, Sport, Cricket, Pakistan, United Kingdom
Pakistani off-spinner Saeed Ajmal made up for his omission on the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Player of the Year shortlist when he won four honours at the Pakistan Cricket Board's first awards ceremony.Ajmal, 35, was adjudged the best bowler in all three formats of the game and was also given the special prize of best bowler of the year."It is a great honour to get these awards. But I will cherish the best Test bowler award since bowling in Test matches requires fitness, perseverance and skill," said Ajmal."You have to think the batsman out. I am happy that I was rated as the best out of an attack that is considered second to none."Ajmal, who has played 23 Tests and 74 one-day internationals, said he also saw the special prize as adequate compensation for missing out on the ICC awards which took place last September.The PCB had filed an official protest with the ICC after Ajmal was not nominated for the final awards despite the bowler being ranked first in ODIS and third in Tests in 2012.
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During the period under consideration for the award - August 4 2011 to August 6 2012 - Ajmal took 120 wickets in Tests, ODIS and Twenty20 internationals, including 24 wickets in three Tests against England last January and February."The ICC and its member countries have their awards and we also want to encourage and reward our best performers in Pakistan cricket," said PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf.Ashraf added the annual awards would now be a permanent feature on the Pakistan cricket calendar.ICC chief executive Dave Richardson was present for the ceremony in which awards were given away in 18 different categories.Pakistan's Twenty20 captain Mohammad Hafeez walked away with the best player of the year award while opener Nasir Jamshed won the best Twenty20 and ODI batsman of the year awards. Azhar Ali won the best test batsman of the year award.Pakistan's former captains and greats, Hanif Muhammad and Imtiaz Ahmed, also got lifetime achievement awards and received their trophies from Richardson.Left arm paceman Junaid Khan won the emerging player award.
Source: Reuters
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Location Upper Marlboro MD Price Horse year old hh chocolate gelding eligible for KMSHA registration I have unfortunately decided that Gunner is not the…No Price Listed
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2005 Registered Paint gelding. Lark's Lightfoot (Pistol) is a ranch broke sorrel gelding that stands at 15.1hh. He has an impressive pedigree with Streakin…SOLD
Check out the speed in his pedigree at this link: http://www.ceeheart.com/HorseDetail.asp?regnum=5453862 Cee Heart Fast Fire is an Excellent barrel…SOLD

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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61797251436948486032016-04-27T13:18:52.360-07:00The Scorpion and the Frog...it's in our nature!Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-72359958666815018402016-04-25T09:44:00.000-07:002016-04-25T09:44:59.821-07:00Stress Break!I've got too much on my plate this week to write a proper post, but this video has been a great stress-reliever. Enjoy!

 Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-25334151499757347202016-04-18T12:32:00.000-07:002016-04-18T12:32:44.797-07:00Are Territory Disputes Between Male Butterflies Influenced by Motivation?By Nick Gremban

Male speckled wood butterflies will "perch" on leaves
and ends of twigs to look out over their territory for females.
 However, they have been known to be quite aggressive
with any intruding males! Photo by Alvesgaspar at
Wikimedia Commons, modified by Nick Gremban.

Think about any territorial animal. Now think about its aggressiveness while it is defending its territory. Was your animal a butterfly? No? You mean the colorful wings and the natural association with flowers doesn't strike a fierce image of aggression in your mind? Well, the truth is some butterflies are very territorial and aggressive toward one another, contrary to what we expect.

 Male butterflies do not have physical means to inflict harm to one another when it comes to territorial disputes. Instead, two or more males may stage "contests" with each other which often involve elaborate aerial chases. For example, a male that flies into the territory of another male will set off a pursuit by the resident male, resulting in both flying in circles around each other until one eventually gives up and is chased out of the territory. Normally, winners of the contests are the males that are able to endure the longest flights. An example of what these competitions look like can be seen from this video:

 Researchers have been puzzled by what determines which male butterfly wins a contest. Some researchers have thought body size should determine who wins the contest. After all, isn't being bigger always better? Turns out for many butterflies, it's quite the opposite, with smaller butterflies of some species winning contests more. What about age? Shouldn't the most experienced butterflies have better odds at winning? Again, the opposite is often true, with some studies finding younger males having better odds at winning competitions. How about motivation? Could some male butterflies be motivated by something that gets them revved up? Researchers from Stockholm University in Sweden seem to think so!

 In a study conducted by Martin Bergman, Martin Olofsson, and Christer Wiklund from Stockholm University, male speckled wood butterflies were tested by observing the number of contest rematches won by males that were subject to a source of motivation: a female speckled wood butterfly. Females are a primary purpose to why males hold territories, so interactions with them before a contest was thought to serve as motivation.

 The researchers staged their experiment in a series of steps. The first step consisted of introduced contests between two male speckled wood butterflies over a territory, or in this experiment, a sunspot. In total, 60 pairs of males were used to conduct this experiment. Males that won five consecutive contests were considered "winners" and given the status of being the resident male over the sunspot. Afterwards, winners were temporarily removed from the sunspot they just previously won.

Get out of my sunspot! Photo by Martin Bergman.

All males that lost the contests were considered "losers" and were split in to two groups. The first group was allowed to interact with a female for 30 minutes. Males in the second group were placed alone in a cage for 30 minutes. Afterwards, each male was allowed back to the sunspot, now vacant of the winner. After each of the losing males took over the sunspot, therefore claiming themselves as the new resident male, the winners were then returned to the sunspot. The return of the winners allowed rematches of contests. Researchers recorded contest duration and if the males that lost the first round of contests won their rematches.

 Loser males that had the chance to interact with a female won 53% of rematches while loser males placed alone only won 17% of rematches. In other words, males that interacted with a female endured longer flights to win their rematch. Furthermore, these same males were more likely to claim the vacant sunspot.

Male speckled wood butterflies
will "fight" over a female (such
 as this one)…doesn't this
concept sound familiar? Photo by
Mark Colvin at Wikimedia Commons.

Overall, the researchers suggested that the males which had interacted with a female had an increased motivation to fight harder on the rematch to win the sunspot. Just like with many other animals, male butterflies are willing to compete for the girl! The presence of a female may serve as a cue for the males that a particular territory is worth fighting for. After all, isn't reproduction the name of the game?

 Butterflies prove to be more mysterious and complex than we typically expect. Not only can they express territoriality without true physical means to harm each other, but they appear to be influenced by motivation! So, next time you see two butterflies fiercely circling each other in flight, you now know they mean serious business.

 References

<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Proceedings+of+the+Royal+Society+B%3A+Biological+Sciences&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1098%2Frspb.2010.0646&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Contest+outcome+in+a+territorial+butterfly%3A+the+role+of+motivation&rft.issn=0962-8452&rft.date=2010&rft.volume=277&rft.issue=1696&rft.spage=3027&rft.epage=3033&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Frspb.royalsocietypublishing.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1098%2Frspb.2010.0646&rft.au=Bergman%2C+M.&rft.au=Olofsson%2C+M.&rft.au=Wiklund%2C+C.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Bergman, M., Olofsson, M., & Wiklund, C. (2010). Contest outcome in a territorial butterfly: the role of motivation Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277 (1696), 3027-3033 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.0646  Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-45382064036664206622016-04-11T11:19:00.000-07:002016-04-11T11:19:26.794-07:00What To Do If You Find Orphaned Wildlife

A nest of baby cottontails waiting for sunset when their
mom will return. Image by Jhansonxi at Wikimedia.

Spring is finally in the air, and with Spring come babies! Finding baby animals in the wild is thrilling, but also concerning. Does this animal need your help? Where is its mom? What do you do?

Whenever possible, baby animals will do best when we leave them in the care of their mom. Even a well-meaning human is seen by a wild animal as a threat. Our interactions with them cause them extreme stress that can cause serious health problems and even death. Furthermore, if we take a baby animal home, it will not be able to learn its species-specific behaviors and skills and it can lose its natural and healthy fear of humans. It is also very hard to meet the specialized dietary needs of a wild animal in a captive setting. Taking a wild animal home can cause problems for us as well: many carry diseases that can be transmitted to our pets or even ourselves. And most wild animals are protected by state and federal laws that prohibit unlicensed citizens from possessing or raising them.

Luckily, most baby animals that seem alone actually have a mom that is not far away, either looking for food to feed herself and her babies or simply hiding from you. For example, rabbit mothers actively avoid their nests most of the time so as to not attract predators to the nest. Cottontail moms visit their babies only briefly at dawn and dusk for quick feedings. If you find a bunny nest, you can test to see if the mom is visiting by placing a few blades of grass or thin twigs in an X-shape over the babies. If you come back the next day and the pattern has been disturbed, then their mom is still caring for them and you should leave them be.

Many animal moms are prevented from taking care of their young when concerned people are hovering. Deer moms, for example, also actively avoid their babies (called fawns) so as to not attract predators to it. They generally return to nurse the fawns every few hours, but they won't return to nurse if people or pets are around. If you find a fawn and it is not wandering and crying non-stop all day, then leave it alone so its mom will come back.

A red fox mom and baby. Photo by Nicke at Wikimedia.

Even if you find a baby all by itself in the open, the best course of action is often still to leave it alone. Many mammal moms, like squirrels, raccoons, mice, rats, foxes, and coyotes, will retrieve their young if they fall out of their nest or wander away from their den. Although it is a myth that most animal moms will abandon their babies if you get your smell on them, your odor can attract predators. It is best not to touch wildlife babies if you can avoid it.

Awww... as tempting as it is to pick up an adorable baby skunk, don't do it
unless you are a trained and licensed wildlife rehabilitator (like this woman is).
Image by AnimalPhotos at Wikimedia.

So when should you get involved? If an animal is in a dangerous location (like a busy street), then it may need to be moved. You can slowly, quietly and gently try to guide a mobile baby animal away from hazards and to a safer location. If the animal is not yet mobile, in most cases, you can use clean gloves to pick up the animal and move it to a safer location, placing it as close as possible to where you found it.

If you know that the mom is dead or has been relocated, then you are dealing with a truly orphaned baby animal. Likewise, if an animal has been attacked (or brought to you by your "helpful" cat), or is bleeding, injured, wet and emaciated, weak, infested with parasites, or has diarrhea, then it may need medical attention. In these cases, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Wildlife rehabilitators have been trained and have the necessary equipment to temporarily care for and treat injured, sick and orphaned wild animals so they can be released back into the wild. If you can't find a wildlife rehabilitator, contact the Department of Natural Resources, a state wildlife agency, animal shelter, humane society, animal control agency, nature center, or veterinarian. Ideally, they will come to pick up the animal themselves. If they can't, then they should give you detailed instructions for your situation on how to catch and transport the animal.

For more information, check here:

The Humane Society of the United States

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

  Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-31214039246631375462016-04-04T09:32:00.001-07:002016-04-04T09:32:58.383-07:00Deception! If you saw Friday's video about the device that converts octopus gestures into English, hopefully you caught on that it was a pretty good (and hilarious) April Fool's prank by Oregon Sea Grant. Although there is not a lot of evidence of animals deceiving one another for fun, deception is pretty common in the animal kingdom. Here are some examples:

1) Male nursery web spiders often court females with gifts of a tasty fly wrapped in silk to appease her while he mates with her. But some stingy sneaks will eat the fly themselves and wrap up the carcass, or worse yet, wrap up some random piece of junk. If she tries to snatch the gift from him, he hangs on and plays dead until she stops running, only to "come back to life" to mate with her then.

 2) Cowbird moms lay their eggs in the nests of other species, relieving themselves of parental duties. But they stack the deck in favor of their own chicks: they often push eggs of the host bird out of the nest and color their own eggs to match that of the host. Their eggs hatch sooner and their chicks grow faster than their "siblings", which the chicks promptly push out of the nest to their death.

This is a picture of begging chicks in a parasitized nest of a chalk-browed mockingbird, taken from a video. The chick with the smaller, redder gape at the top of the image is the cowbird. The other larger gapes belong to the mockingbird's own chicks. Photo by Ros Gloag.

3) Crocodiles have been found to place sticks on their snouts to lure in birds that are collecting nest material.

I'm just a floating log and sticks… Really. Photo by Dinets published in Ethology, Ecology & Evoluton 2013

4) A queen ant wears a chemical disguise to smell like another species, only to sneak into their nest and lay her eggs for this other host species to raise. The queen's offspring then grow into an army that enslaves their adoptive colony, to serve their needs for life.

A 1975 cover of Galaxie/Bis, a French science fiction magazine,
 by Philippe Legendre-Kvater. Image from Wikimedia.

5) The mimic octopus  pretends to be venomous fish and sea snakes so predators will avoid it.

The disguises of the mimic octopus: (a) shows a mimic octopus looking out of its burrow; (b) is a foraging mimic octopus with coloration to blend with the sand; (c) shows a mimic octopus as a sole fish and (d) is an actual sole fish; (e) shows a mimic octopus as a lion-fish and (f) is an actual lion-fish; and (g) shows a mimic octopus as a banded sea-snake and (h) is an actual banded sea-snake. Images from the Norman, 2001 article in Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B.

Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-24529266508608004602016-04-01T07:40:00.000-07:002016-04-01T07:40:54.467-07:00Octopus Thoughts Interpreted!This is AMAZING! Scientists have developed a device that translates octopus gestures into English! Here is what this octopus was thinking:

  Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-38365436660251890672016-03-28T10:50:00.000-07:002016-03-28T10:50:09.859-07:00My Brother's Keeper

Photo by pugphai at freedigitalphotos.net.

Relationships with siblings tend to be complicated. We love them, but they drive us nuts. We want to help them, but not if it takes too long or costs too much. These are common struggles because the psychology of these relationships is in our biological heritage.

Let's play a thought experiment: Say a runaway trolley is heading down the tracks. Ahead of the trolley are five people tied to the tracks that are about to become mush (Don't ask why they are tied up on the tracks – Just assume the evil boogeyman got them). You are in the distant train yard next to a lever. If you pull the lever, the trolley will switch to another set of tracks, sparing the lives of the five tied-up people. But… there is one person tied to the other set of tracks, so pulling the lever would also kill that one person. What do you do?

Photo by David Ingham at Wikimedia.

This is the classic scenario in a field of ethics called "trolleyology". (Yes, this is a thing). If you are like 9 out of 10 people, you chose pretty quickly to kill the one person to save the five. Our utilitarian morals tend to value more lives over fewer.

But what if that one person is your daughter? Your mother? Your brother? The dilemma just became harder, didn't it? Not because the one life is now inherently worth more than the five… but because that one life is worth more to you.

We are a social species that tends to live in family groups, as were our ancestors for over 100,000 generations. We also share more of our genes with our closest family members through shared inheritance. For example, we each share about half of our alleles (our particular version of a gene) with each of our biological parents. Our siblings with the same two parents have also inherited about half of each parent's alleles, but not necessarily the same ones that we did. This means that we share about half of our alleles with our full-siblings too (and we share about a quarter of our alleles with our half-siblings). Following this same math, we share about a quarter of our alleles with our aunts and uncles and about an eighth of our alleles with our cousins. The more distant the relative, the fewer alleles we have in common.

Now let's play another thought experiment: Say there is a population of animals where some individuals have lots of babies and raise their children to be good parents, and other individuals don't have a lot of babies. An individual that has the "have lots of babies" and "be a good parent" alleles are going to share, on average, half of those alleles with each of their many children. They are also going to have more surviving children than most of the individuals that do not share those alleles. So, over many generations, more individuals in the population are going to have the alleles that make them have more babies and take care of them, right?

But there is another potential outcome to this thought experiment. Yes, we share about half of our alleles with our children, but we also share about half of our alleles with our full-siblings. Therefore, a "take care of your siblings" allele has the same probability of spreading through the population over generations as a "be a good parent" allele.

The genes that predispose our behaviors and decisions have been shaped by the generations of our ancestors that determined which of their relatives would have the support to raise more or fewer children… or none at all. In the 1960s, William Hamilton proposed a mathematical rule (called Hamilton's Rule) for just such a decision:

rbB > rcC

where B is the number of individuals that survived because of you, rb is a measure of relatedness to those individuals, C is the number of individuals that died without your help, and rc is your relatedness to those individuals. This means that to pass on the most of our genes, we should factor in how many individuals and how closely-related they are to us when we decide who to help and who to sacrifice.

For example, if you help to raise three of your siblings, each of which share ½ of their alleles with you and who would have died without you, but this means that you can't take care of your own child that dies as a result, then this equation would be (½) X 3 > (½) X 1. This means that, mathematically, you should opt to raise your three siblings rather than your own child. J.B.S. Haldane, an influential geneticist, summed this decision process up when he was asked if he would give his life to save a drowning brother by responding "No, but I would to save two brothers or eight cousins".

Inserting our close family members into the hypothetical trolley problem makes us squeamish because it puts the "take care of your family" alleles we have inherited in conflict with our utilitarian morals. We are literally the species we are today because we take care of our brothers and sisters as well as our children… even when they're obnoxious.  Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-67653820614743676782016-03-21T11:37:00.000-07:002016-03-21T11:37:59.067-07:00Caught in My Web: Insights on Professional Conferences

Image by Luc Viatour at Wikimedia Commons.

We are approaching conference season. If you plan on attending a professional conference for the first time or for the umpteenth time, this edition of Caught in My Web should provide you with some helpful tips, strategies and stories.

1. Hilda Bastian at PLOS Blogs gives 7 tips for women at science conferences here (although these tips are good for everyone).

2. Jordan Gaines Lewis gives her personal insight from presenting her research at the 2016 AAAS Meeting at Gaines, on Brains.

3. On TEDBlog, Jedidah Isler reflects on this photo of herself with her colleague friends at the TED2015 conference.

An impressive group of professionals show each other mutual support at
this global conference about Technology, Entertainment and Design.

4. Felicity Muth blogs about her experience at the Animal Behavior Society Conference at her Scientific American Blog, Not bad science.

5. Before you present your research, consider these insights on the science of persuasion:

  Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-61304906785150844632016-03-14T08:17:00.000-07:002016-03-14T08:36:44.082-07:00Can You Feel the Love Tonight? (A Guest Post)By Maggie Nannenhorn

If you're like me, you never truly realize how quiet winter is until all the sounds of spring come back in a chorus of celebration. Between the birds, crickets, and frogs, you can really hear the love in the air. So you can hear the love, but can you feel the love?

 Wood frogs are known for their chorus of calls that sound like a duck laughing. Seriously, tell a duck a good knock-knock joke and that is what a male wood frog sounds like when trying to attract a mate. He makes the call by expanding his two vocal sacs, membranes of skin underneath the neck, forming a bubble-like appearance. When a female surfaces, drawn to the call, the male frog clasps onto her, causing her to lay her eggs. The male frog then externally fertilizes the eggs. This form of mating is termed amplexus. The use of the call in the reproduction ritual is well studied. However, it is possible the small ripple formed in the water from the expanding vocal sack is relaying information that influences the mating behavior of these frogs.

Male wood frog resting on the water surface. Image by Maggie Nannenhorn.

Male wood frog calling with vocal sac expanded.
Notice the ripple it creates in the water. Image by Maggie Nannenhorn.

 In 2010, Gerlinde Höbel and Robb Kolodziej from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee conducted an experiment that explored the use of water surface waves in wood frog reproductive behavior. They hypothesized male wood frogs use ripples in the water to find female wood frogs to mate with, while female wood frogs use ripples in the water as indicators of harassing males.

Video of a wood frog calling by Maggie Nannenhorn.

 Wood frogs have a very short mating period: only 1 to 3 days per year! This study occurred on April 1st - 2nd, which corresponded with the wood frogs' natural mating period. The first component of the study was the observation of a pond containing more than 500 wood frogs in amplexus. Amplexus was determined by the presence of males clasping on to the backs of female frogs in the water. They learned males approach surface waves on the water and clasp onto the frog that caused the ripple. However, females move away from surface waves on the water and dive downward.

 After preliminary observations, they developed an experiment to cause rippling of the water. The first experiment tested the effect of stimulation (dipping a wooden probe into the water) near male wood frogs. The males tested were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. The 34 males in the control group were simply observed, and the direction and pattern of movement was recorded. For the experimental group, a long wooden probe was dipped in and out of the water 25 cm away from a male frog for 10 seconds. The resulting ripple was meant to mimic a ripple caused by a female frog moving in the water. Based on the hypothesis, the male wood frogs should approach the ripple hoping to find a female to mate with. Of the 60 males in the experimental group, half were stimulated from the right and half were stimulated from the left. A circle diagram (depicted below) was used to map the direction the males moved.

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Video of a wood frog approaching ripples by Gerlinde Höbel.

This figure shows: a) the control group and b) the experimental group.
A circle diagram representing the reproductively driven movement direction
of wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) in a laboratory pool as a result of
stimulated surface waves on both the left and right sides.
Figure from: Höbel, G., & Kolodziej, R. C. (2013). Behaviour, 150(5), 471-483.

 The females are difficult to observe in the field since they prefer to stay beneath the surface. So, the researchers set up a tank to test 4 breeding pairs of wood frogs. They tested the females both while in amplexus and while alone. They dipped wooden probes into the water to stimulate the females on both the left and the right side in turn. Their positions and directions were also recorded using a circle diagram.

 So, what did they find? It turns out, their predictions were correct! The males would approach the ripple caused by the probing. This is likely because the ripple may indicate a competing male they want to drive away or a female they want to mate with. The females moved away from the ripples by either swimming away or diving underneath the water surface. This may reduce the amount of harassment they receive from males. If a female becomes the center of attention for too many males, she may drown from the weight of them all attempting to grab her. Besides, if a male is fit, he will likely be able to catch up to her and successfully mate with her despite her swimming away.

The mating calls and movement of the wood frogs affect the surface waves, and these waves are used to make sexual behavior choices. This spring, the chorus of love will still ring out through the reeds, and I encourage you to take a moment to stop and listen. When you're stopped, take a moment to notice the waves of love bringing these wood frogs together. Hopefully this spring, we will all be feeling the love.

Reference:

<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Behaviour&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1163%2F1568539X-00003062&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Wood+frogs+%28Lithobates+sylvaticus%29+use+water+surface+waves+in+their+reproductive+behaviour&rft.issn=0005-7959&rft.date=2013&rft.volume=&rft.issue=&rft.spage=1&rft.epage=13&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fbooksandjournals.brillonline.com%2Fcontent%2Fjournals%2F10.1163%2F1568539x-00003062&rft.au=H%C3%B6bel%2C+G.&rft.au=Kolodziej%2C+R.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Höbel, G., & Kolodziej, R. (2013). Wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) use water surface waves in their reproductive behaviour Behaviour, 1-13 DOI: 10.1163/1568539X-00003062
Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-88592217451477307582016-03-07T07:38:00.000-08:002016-03-07T07:38:37.955-08:00Science Beat: Round 6It is that time in the semester when midterm pressures start building and the facts we're supposed to be learning for tests start disappearing like lost keys. Sometimes putting the material in a new context can help. Try these:

 Cellular Biology:

Anatomy and Physiology:

Cellular Respiration:

Vote for your favorite in the comments section below and check out other science songs worth learning at Science Beat, Science Beat: Round 2, Science Beat: Round 3, Science Beat: Round 4, Science Beat: Round 5, and Science Song Playlist. Check out some song battles about the life of scientists at The Science Life, Scientist Swagger and Battle of The Grad Programs! And if you feel so inspired, make a video of your own, upload it on YouTube and send me a link to include in a future battle!  Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-86021469029475787522016-02-29T09:53:00.000-08:002016-02-29T09:53:08.675-08:00Need a Hand? Just Grow it Back! How Salamanders Regenerate Limbs (A Guest Post)By Maranda Cardiel

How cool would it be if you could regenerate your own body parts? Just imagine: you are chopping up some carrots for dinner, but whoops! You accidentally cut off your thumb! No worries, it'll grow back in a few weeks, good as new and fully functional. No need to take a trip to the hospital and pay all of those annoying medical costs.

 That all sounds pretty nifty, but that can't actually happen, right? Tissue regeneration on that large of a scale is something you can only find in science fiction. …Or so you may think. Nature has actually found a way to regenerate full limbs and other body parts after they have been completely amputated. However, among animals with spines, this unique ability is only found in salamanders. But how does it work, and why can't we do it too?

A cartoon illustrating examples of the three different methods of tissue regeneration in animals. A.) An adult hydra being cut into two pieces and regenerating into two separate hydras. B.) Part of a human liver being cut off and the remaining liver regenerating via cell division. C.) A salamander's arm being amputated and undergoing epimorphosis to regenerate an entire new arm.
Source: Maranda Cardiel

There are actually three ways that animals can regenerate tissues. Some animals, such as hydras, can use the tissues they already have to regenerate themselves after being cut in two, resulting in two separate hydras. Mammals, including humans, have the ability to regenerate their livers by having the liver cells divide into more liver cells. This is how liver transplants work – a portion of liver from a live donor will grow into a fully-functioning liver in the recipient. The third method is called epimorphosis, which is the ability to change existing cells of specific types so that they can re-grow as different cell types, and this is what salamanders are able to do.

When the limb of a salamander is cut off, only the outermost layer of skin moves to cover the wound. This single layer forms a special skin cap known as the epithelial cap, and the nerves at the amputation site shrink back from the wound. Then the cells beneath the cap dedifferentiate, losing their specific characteristics so all of the different types of cells become the same and detach from each other.

A cartoon illustrating the process of a salamander regenerating its arm. A.) The limb is amputated. B.) The outermost layer of the skin begins to cover the wound. C.) This single layer of skin creates an epithelial cap and the blastema forms underneath it. D.) The cells of the blastema begin to differentiate into bone, nerves, etc. E.) The cells continue to divide and differentiate until the limb is fully formed. Source: Maranda Cardiel

Now the amputated limb has a mass of indistinguishable cells under the cap, and this mass is called the regeneration blastema. A blastema is simply a clump of cells that is able to grow into an organ or body part. Over the course of several weeks, this blastema divides into more cells and the cells begin to differentiate - or turn into multiple types - again, forming different cell types such as bone, muscle, cartilage, nerves, and skin. Eventually, the salamander will have a brand new limb.

The salamander's body can even tell what body part it's supposed to re-grow; if it's amputated at the wrist it will grow a new hand, and if its entire hind leg is amputated it will grow a new hind leg. And it's not only limbs that salamanders can regenerate – they can even grow back their tails, retinas, spinal cords, and parts of their hearts and brains!

 As you can see, the process of epimorphosis is much more complicated than simply having a single cell type divide a lot. It also requires certain chemicals and patterns of immune signaling to work properly. But why can't people do this too? One of the reasons is because when our tissues are damaged, all of our skin grows to cover and heal the wound, which forms scars. In salamanders, only the outermost layer of skin does this, which prevents the scarring that would stop tissue regeneration. The salamander's immune system is also regulated differently than our own, which allows them to regenerate whole body parts.

 Unfortunately we are not salamanders, so when you cut off your finger it's not going to grow back. But researchers are continuing to study salamanders and their astounding regenerative abilities in the hopes of finding a way to apply it to people. Who knows, maybe someday we'll be able to grow back our own limbs too.

 Sources:

Gilbert, Scott F. Developmental Biology 6th Edition. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2000.

<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Proceedings+of+the+National+Academy+of+Sciences&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1073%2Fpnas.1300290110&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Macrophages+are+required+for+adult+salamander+limb+regeneration&rft.issn=0027-8424&rft.date=2013&rft.volume=110&rft.issue=23&rft.spage=9415&rft.epage=9420&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pnas.org%2Flookup%2Fdoi%2F10.1073%2Fpnas.1300290110&rft.au=Godwin%2C+J.&rft.au=Pinto%2C+A.&rft.au=Rosenthal%2C+N.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CMedicine%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CHealth%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Godwin, J., Pinto, A., & Rosenthal, N. (2013). Macrophages are required for adult salamander limb regeneration Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110 (23), 9415-9420 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1300290110  Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-7149426895285469792016-02-22T07:15:00.000-08:002016-02-22T07:15:30.865-08:00Let's Hope She Doesn't Have Twins! (A Guest Post)By Eric VanNatta

 Of all the oddball bird species in our world, the brown kiwi surly waddles in amongst the flock. Found only in the forests of New Zealand, this small flightless bird belongs to an ancient group of birds called the ratites. Joined by ostriches, emus, cassowaries and rheas, the ratites are all flightless and dressed in shaggy feathers. In addition, the ratites have all been linked to a common ancestor (simply referred to as the ratite) that was isolated after earth's continents shifted apart some 300 million years ago.

A size comparison of the moa and kiwi.
Drawing by Josef Korenski (around 1901)
at Wikimedia Commons.

Originally found throughout the single landmass, future generations of ratites living in the places we now call South America, Africa and New Zealand experienced changing climates and new habitat types. Depending on individual traits, certain birds had better or worse success based upon their ability to survive and reproduce. Most of these species developed longer legs used for running and lost their large wings required for flight, as we can clearly see today in the ostrich and emu. In the islands of New Zealand, the ratite developed into a similar group of species we know as the moas. Similar to the emu and ostrich, the moa was a large bird with powerful legs used for running. Eventually, several million years later, the moa, too, continued to take advantage of different habitats within the island in the absence of mammalian predators. Of the handful of new species that the moa gave rise to, one of them actually began to shrink back down in size; we know it as the brown kiwi. Although moas and kiwis were both exceptional at surviving on the island, humans later drove moas to extinction through over hunting during early island colonization.

However, the unique ancestry of brown kiwis is not the only thing that granted them an oddball award. The size of their eggs and their properties is something that has inspired curiosity in us ever since humans discovered the island several hundred years ago.

Size comparison between an kiwi and its egg.
Photo taken by Hannes Grobe at the Kauri Museum in
New Zealand. Available at Wikimedia Commons.

For a bird that can weigh in between 1.5 and 3.3 kilograms (3-7 pounds), brown kiwis' eggs are a whopping 0.4 kg (almost a pound)! Due to the tremendous size of the eggs, a female kiwi only has room for one egg at a time. On the extreme end, up to 20% of a female's mass before laying her egg is from her egg. That's equivalent to a human carrying a 30-pound baby before birth!

 So why the heck do kiwis have such massive eggs? What good could this possibly be? Those are two questions William Calder III set out to ask in his research on kiwi eggs.

Before he started answering questions, he compiled many of the characteristics of kiwis and their eggs. In order to look at these differences, he compared kiwis to other bird species of similar mass (seabirds, chickens, etc.), and he compared kiwi eggs to similar sized eggs from other species (emus).

Size comparison between ostrich,
emu, kiwi, and chicken eggs. Photo
by Zureks at Wikimedia Commons.

To start the laundry list of unique observations, the yolk itself is as large as that of an emu, the equivalent of about 11 chicken yolks. This gives a developing chick plenty of nourishment, and upon hatching it still has excess yolk to last 10 days without the need to forage for food. Incubation time for a kiwi egg takes 75-84 days, which is double the amount of time as comparably sized eggs. This has been hypothesized to be a result of lowered incubation temperature, since kiwis have a lower metabolism and body temperature compared to other birds, but there has been no formal investigation of this. The eggs themselves also appear to have an excess of antifungal and antimicrobial properties to endure the 3-month incubation period.

After comparing these characteristics and taking into account their unique ancestry, Calder supported the scientific understanding that kiwis' large eggs are simply relics from their past. Generations of the moa likely decreased in size after smaller individuals took advantage of eating small prey and living in forest understory habitats. Although these resources allowed for a change to smaller physical size, there was no reason for their eggs to reduce their size. In fact, fossil collections have shown that kiwi eggs are nearly the same size as those from the 12-kilogram (26 pound) moa. Kiwis historically never had to worry about nest predators entering their burrows since there were none on the islands. Their only predators were large flying birds, so it was advantageous to keep chicks in eggs for a longer amount of time until they were more developed. The large yolk reserve also allows chicks to stay hidden during their first days of exploration, and not have to worry about eating.

Talk about an odd reproductive system and a unique lineage! Who knows, maybe future environments will present opportunities for kiwis to increase their number of offspring. As human development encroaches valuable forest ecosystems, it would be beneficial to increase the odds of the species' survival. Surely any chance of this will take thousands of years of environmental opportunities, as have the changes from their ancestors, but it wouldn't be the first time the bird has surprised us!

 References: <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=BioScience&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.2307%2F1307538&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=The+Kiwi+and+Egg+Design%3A+Evolution+as+a+Package+Deal&rft.issn=00063568&rft.date=1979&rft.volume=29&rft.issue=8&rft.spage=461&rft.epage=467&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fbioscience.oxfordjournals.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.2307%2F1307538&rft.au=Calder%2C+W.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Calder, W. (1979). The Kiwi and Egg Design: Evolution as a Package Deal BioScience, 29 (8), 461-467 DOI: 10.2307/1307538 Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-22028284785601909602016-02-15T09:41:00.000-08:002016-02-15T09:41:46.698-08:00Infidelity in Nature: a Lion's Story (A Guest Post)By Devin Zingsheim

When people think of mating, especially in the case of humans, they often think of one man marrying and mating with a single female. While this provides a nice image of mating, it is not always true. In the case of humans, both males and females may stray from this image and mate with other individuals. For example, a female in a relationship may become attracted to and mate with someone she finds exciting, like a rebel. These exciting individuals are the outsiders because they exist outside the female's main relationship. But this is only in the human species - Could this observation hold true in another species, like lions?

Photo taken by Devin Zingsheim
at the Wisconsin Wild Cat Sanctuary.

As most people know, lions live in groups of animals, called prides. Prides often consist of between one and three dominant males and several females. Females of one pride typically do not co-mingle with members of other prides. This fact means that typically in a pride, the dominant males do all the mating and father all of the cubs born into their pride. However, as with humans, could there also be exceptions in lions?

 Martha Lyke of Northeastern Illinois University, Jean Dubach of the Wildlife Genetics Lab at Loyola University Medical Center, and Michael Briggs of the African Predator Conservation Research Organization investigated breeding behavior in lions. These researchers noticed that field observations recorded females of prides residing in the Etosha National Park in Namibia interacting with outsider males. Outsider males can be from other prides or they can be rebels without a pride. This is unique because past studies focusing on lions of the Serengeti revealed that females seldom interact with other prides. These observations led the researchers to three main hypotheses. First, they thought that this mingling with outside males could lead to mating and eventually births. They also thought that females might mate with more than one male, potentially leading to cub siblings with different fathers. Lastly they thought prides with fewer males would be at greater risk for these illegitimate births because the male is not around enough to drive the outsider males away.

Image of Africa with the location of Namibia highlighted.
 "Location Namibia AU Africa" by Alvaro1984 18 –
Own works. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.

To find the answers to the three questions the researchers had, they set up a study in Etosha National Park. This national park has a program in which every lion that resides in the park is branded for monitoring. At the beginning of the study, the researchers took observations of every lion spotted and its interactions with other lions. Lions that were observed spending a lot of time with one another in a territory were considered a pride. This then allowed the researchers to identify when and if females interacted with outsider males. After identifying prides, the researchers gathered blood and tissue samples for analysis. DNA analysis indicated the parents of any cubs within the prides.

 Observations led to the identification of 11 prides containing 102 lions. Prides on average contained 10 individuals and had a roughly 2:1 adult female to male sex ratio. Surprisingly, only 55% of the 164 DNA samples collected came from the 11 identified prides and a whopping 41% of cubs sampled were illegitimate and had outsider males as their fathers. Interestingly, the researchers found that these cubs fathered by non-pride males came from only five of the prides, four of which had an unusually high female to male sex ratio. Additionally, the researchers also found four cases where litters of cubs had different fathers!

 These results provide a lot of new and interesting insights into the sexual behavior of lions. Evidence was found to support all three of the researchers' hypothesis. They found that females do give birth to young whose fathers are not part of the pride and that mixed paternity does occur in this population. They also found that prides with fewer males did have cubs born to males from outside the pride. This might be due to the fact that there are fewer pride males around to protect and drive away outside males. Additionally, with fewer males around, females may want to seek out other males to ensure they get to reproduce. This study has found evidence that there may be a lot more to sexual behavior in lions than meets the eyes. It has shown that, like human females, lionesses may be tempted to run off and mate with that exciting rebel outsider male.

 Works cited

<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Molecular+Ecology&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1111%2Fmec.12279&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=A+molecular+analysis+of+African+lion+%28Panthera+leo%29+mating+structure+and+extra-group+paternity+in+Etosha+National+Park&rft.issn=09621083&rft.date=2013&rft.volume=22&rft.issue=10&rft.spage=2787&rft.epage=2796&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fdoi.wiley.com%2F10.1111%2Fmec.12279&rft.au=Lyke%2C+M.&rft.au=Dubach%2C+J.&rft.au=Briggs%2C+M.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Lyke, M., Dubach, J., & Briggs, M. (2013). A molecular analysis of African lion (Panthera leo) mating structure and extra-group paternity in Etosha National Park Molecular Ecology, 22 (10), 2787-2796 DOI: 10.1111/mec.12279 Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-49462999999841662682016-02-08T09:41:00.001-08:002016-02-08T09:41:40.348-08:00Why Ask for Directions? (A Guest Post)by Anna Schneider

 For the iconic monarch butterfly, the shorter days in fall mean it's time to pack up and head south to a warmer climate! Just like clockwork, the Eastern population of monarch butterflies makes a 2000 mile journey to their winter paradise roosts in central Mexico. The journey in itself is one of the greatest migrations among all animals.

 But here's the catch: none of these butterflies has made this trip before. Several generations of monarchs have come and gone over the course of a summer, but the generation born in late August and early September are genetically prepared for months of survival without feeding or breeding. But their predecessors didn't exactly leave them with a map. How do they know where to go? Do they have a map and compass inside their heads? The answer: yes! Well, sort of…

 Think about this: if you were lost in the woods and needed to find south, what would you do? Here's a hint: look up! The sun can be a great resource when you're lost, and I'm not talking about just asking it for directions. As the Earth rotates on its axis throughout the day, the sun appears to travel overhead. By knowing approximately what time of day it is, you can determine the cardinal directions. Monarchs use specialized cells or organs called photoreceptors that respond to light to establish the position of the sun.

Representation of time compensated sun compass orientation used by monarchs;
Image created by Anna Schneider.

Until recently, it was thought that monarchs simply used the photoreceptors on the top portion of their compound eyes, called the dorsal rim. Past studies have shown that the signals are passed from the photoreceptors on to the "sun compass" region in their brains and the butterflies change direction based on that information. Like most animals, it was assumed that their internal clock was located inside their brains. However, recent research has demonstrated that individuals whose antennae have been painted or removed altogether become disoriented when placed in flight simulators. These monarchs do not adjust for the time of day when trying to fly south. When those same antennae that were removed were placed in a petri dish, they continued to respond to light and showed signs that they continued the pattern of time. This indicates that antennae and the brain are both needed for the monarchs to correctly determine their direction.

Diagram of features on the head of a monarch butterfly; Image created by Anna Schneider.

Now, estimating which way is South might be fine and dandy on a bright sunny day, but what happens when it's cloudy? Not a problem for these super-insects! In another recent study, researchers tethered monarchs to flight simulators and altered the magnetic field conditions to see what would happen. When the magnetic field was reversed so magnetic North was in the opposite direction, the butterflies altered their bearings and flew exactly opposite as well. This suggests that monarchs could have some sort of way to detect the earth's magnetic field, called magnetoreception, which could enhance the photoreception capabilities.

Many of the mechanisms behind the migration of these incredible creatures are yet to be discovered, but much progress has been made in the past decade. So next time you see a monarch butterfly, take a second look. There is more than meets the eye.

Sources:

<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Nature&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1038%2Fnature08719&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Animal+cryptochromes+mediate+magnetoreception+by+an+unconventional+photochemical+mechanism&rft.issn=0028-0836&rft.date=2010&rft.volume=463&rft.issue=7282&rft.spage=804&rft.epage=807&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Fdoifinder%2F10.1038%2Fnature08719&rft.au=Gegear%2C+R.&rft.au=Foley%2C+L.&rft.au=Casselman%2C+A.&rft.au=Reppert%2C+S.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CNeuroscience%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Gegear, R., Foley, L., Casselman, A., & Reppert, S. (2010). Animal cryptochromes mediate magnetoreception by an unconventional photochemical mechanism Nature, 463 (7282), 804-807 DOI: 10.1038/nature08719

 <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Nature+Communications&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1038%2Fncomms5164&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=A+magnetic+compass+aids+monarch+butterfly+migration&rft.issn=2041-1723&rft.date=2014&rft.volume=5&rft.issue=&rft.spage=&rft.epage=&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Fdoifinder%2F10.1038%2Fncomms5164&rft.au=Guerra%2C+P.&rft.au=Gegear%2C+R.&rft.au=Reppert%2C+S.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CGeosciences%2CPhysics%2CNeuroscience%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Guerra, P., Gegear, R., & Reppert, S. (2014). A magnetic compass aids monarch butterfly migration Nature Communications, 5 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5164

 <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Science&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1126%2Fscience.1176221&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Antennal+Circadian+Clocks+Coordinate+Sun+Compass+Orientation+in+Migratory+Monarch+Butterflies&rft.issn=0036-8075&rft.date=2009&rft.volume=325&rft.issue=5948&rft.spage=1700&rft.epage=1704&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencemag.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1126%2Fscience.1176221&rft.au=Merlin%2C+C.&rft.au=Gegear%2C+R.&rft.au=Reppert%2C+S.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology">Merlin, C., Gegear, R., & Reppert, S. (2009). Antennal Circadian Clocks Coordinate Sun Compass Orientation in Migratory Monarch Butterflies Science, 325 (5948), 1700-1704 DOI: 10.1126/science.1176221

 Steven M. Reppert.  The Reppert Lab: Migration. University of Massachusetts Medical School: Department of Neurobiology.  Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-65028457786503181642016-02-01T07:28:00.000-08:002016-02-01T09:20:09.313-08:00A True Underdog…or Undermouse (A Guest Post)By Spencer Henkel

 People love a good underdog story, and nowhere is that image more embodied than in the rodents that live in deserts. In the desert there are two main problems that animals must face: it is way too hot and way too dry. You would think that rodents, the smallest of mammals, would not have much difficulty surviving in this kind of habitat. You might think that they would need far less food and water than their larger neighbors like reptiles and birds. Unfortunately, this is not the case; in fact, rodents' small size actually makes life harder for them in such harsh conditions. Rodents gain and lose body heat faster through surface exchange with their environment, their highly active lifestyle requires a lot of food and a high metabolism, which generates a lot of extra heat that must be dispersed, and the distance they can travel to find food and water is extremely limited. Desert rodents must find ways to deal with all these issues, a tremendous feat for such tiny creatures.

Photo of a Golden Spiny Mouse (Acomys russatus) in Israel
by Mickey Samuni-Blank at Wikimedia Commons.

The most pressing concern of any animal that lives in the desert is making sure its body has enough water to carry it through the day. Needless to say, water can be hard to come by in such arid lands, and what water is present is usually found in seeds, tubers, and other plant material. Rodents will find and take in this water, but they face another problem: the contents of their diet are very salty. The rodents must now find a way to get rid of this excess salt while still holding onto a fair amount of water, for they cannot afford to simply excrete a steady stream of urine like we can. They must call upon a chemical from their brain, vasopressin, to help them out with this process. Vasopressin is an antidiuretic hormone, what I like to call an "anti-makes-you-pee". It is made in the hypothalamus part of the brain, and when called upon it exits the pituitary gland and travels by blood to the kidneys. Once there, vasopressin causes the tiny blood vessels in the kidneys to clench up, slowing the flow of blood and increasing the time water has to be reabsorbed before urine is produced. When Nature eventually does call, the rodents will have made a small amount of urine that rids them of a whole lot of salt.

 Now the rodents must turn to the other issue at hand: keeping cool. Water plays an active role in cooling an animal's body by evaporation through sweating, panting, urinating, and defecating. Unfortunately, as with the salt in their diet, rodents can't afford to lose all that water if they want their insides to keep functioning. So instead, rodents will lower their metabolisms. This reduces the amount of heat generated inside the body, so their core temperatures will decrease. A lower metabolism will also reduce the amount of water the rodents need to cool themselves down. However, if this process keeps up, the animal could die of hypothermia, ironically. So to keep that from happening, these rodents increase the amount of heat generated by their brown fat, masses of fat found primarily in animals that hibernate. This tissue will keep the animal's core body temperature stable even when their metabolism slows way down.

 In spite of their size, rodents actually have a rather tough time surviving in the desert. Yet they have found efficient ways of dealing with such extreme challenges. They can conserve enough water to live while still filtering out a great deal of salt, and they can slow down their own heat production while maintaining stable body temperatures. It is indeed quite a feat when the smallest of mammals succeeds in living in one of the harshest places on earth!

 Sources Cited

<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Integrative+Zoology&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1111%2Fj.1749-4877.2009.00176.x&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Physiological+adaptations+of+small+mammals+to+desert+ecosystems&rft.issn=17494869&rft.date=2009&rft.volume=4&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=357&rft.epage=366&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fdoi.wiley.com%2F10.1111%2Fj.1749-4877.2009.00176.x&rft.au=SCHWIMMER%2C+H.&rft.au=HAIM%2C+A.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CHealth%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">SCHWIMMER, H., & HAIM, A. (2009). Physiological adaptations of small mammals to desert ecosystems Integrative Zoology, 4 (4), 357-366 DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-4877.2009.00176.x Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-4383413436296468892016-01-25T06:47:00.000-08:002016-01-25T06:47:47.383-08:00Caught in My Web: What the WHAT?

Image by Luc Viatour at Wikimedia Commons.

For this edition of Caught in My Web, we just wonder.

1. Scientists confirm that zebra stripes are not for camouflage… or even to help recognize one another. Anyone got another idea?

2. Want to surf in the ocean without fear of sharks? A shark deterrent wet suit is explained in this TED talk.

3. The woolly mammoth may be brought back from extinction in just a few years!

4. Gorilla treetop slumber antics were caught on tape for the first time.

5. Some towns wake up covered in giant spider webs. Here's why.  Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-90358829227531887862016-01-18T08:29:00.003-08:002016-02-01T09:19:58.908-08:00Catch Him If You Can (A Guest Post) By Caitlin Lockard

When playing Frisbee with your dog, do you ever wonder how they have the ability to catch it so effortlessly? The art of being able to figure out where something like a Frisbee is headed requires some crazy math skills. Ostracods are one kind of animal that puts their wicked math skills to the test while finding a mate.

The image above of a female ostracod was provided by Trevor Rivers.

You've never heard of an ostracod you say? Ostracods are small crustaceans, which basically means they have lots of legs and are covered by a hard shell. Male ostracods can be seen roaming throughout the ocean trying to enchant females with light displays. Typically, just after sunset, males begin their light displays, which consist of two phases. The first phase is the bright phase, which is short. The goal here is to signal to the female that "I'm here, single (except all my buddies that I brought with me of course) and ready to mingle". The second phase is where males spiral up in a helix while pulsing repeatedly. This phase is much dimmer and is used by females to choose a mate. But exactly how do female ostracods go about catching the moving and light-pulsing man of her dreams?

Scientists, Trevor Rivers of the University of Kansas and Jim Morin of Cornell University, set off to explore if female ostracods try to intercept the moving and pulsing males or if they just chase them. In order to conduct this experiment, immature female ostracods were collected off the shore of Southwater Caye in Belize. After catching the ostracods, females were put into tanks and raised to maturity, ensuring that all the females were sexually mature virgins. Rivers and Morin put an LED light behind the different tanks in order to mimic an actual mating display. The LED light looked like a string of Christmas lights pulsing from bottom to top, mimicking the males' helical light display. In the control group, there was an LED light placed behind the tank, however it was turned off. The duo questioned whether or not the LED light show was able to mimic the display put on by male ostracods. Also, they questioned how females respond to the males' display by measuring the height at which females intercepted the LED light, how straight of a line the female swam in, if the female swam at an angle, and what direction the female swam in. Check out a video here.

The scientists found that the LED light was able to mimic the helical phase that male ostracods put on well enough for the females to respond. Females in the control group merely swam at the same height, as there was no reason for her to waste her energy with no "male" around. However, females in the experimental group had to think on their feet to figure out where their male crush was heading. They swam directly toward but slightly above the "male" than when there was no "mate" around. If the female merely headed to the same spot where her "male" previously was, she would miss him. Instead, she had to anticipate where he was going next and head that direction.

What's the moral of the story here? If you're a female ostracod, your man will always be on the move, so you better have some gnarly geometry skills in order to track him down.

Work Cited:

<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Behavioral+Ecology&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1093%2Fbeheco%2Fart022&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Female+ostracods+respond+to+and+intercept+artificial+conspecific+male+luminescent+courtship+displays&rft.issn=1045-2249&rft.date=2013&rft.volume=24&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=877&rft.epage=887&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.beheco.oxfordjournals.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1093%2Fbeheco%2Fart022&rft.au=Rivers%2C+T.&rft.au=Morin%2C+J.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CMathematics%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Rivers, T., & Morin, J. (2013). Female ostracods respond to and intercept artificial conspecific male luminescent courtship displays Behavioral Ecology, 24 (4), 877-887 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/art022Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-65395466080156140572016-01-11T10:55:00.001-08:002016-01-11T10:55:28.190-08:00How To Get Into An Animal Behavior Graduate Program: Preparing for Your InterviewCongratulations! You have been invited to interview for a chance to be a graduate student. …Now what?

Image from freedigitalphotos.net.

First of all, give yourself a pat on the back. Graduate student positions are highly competitive and as funding dries up, they are becoming even more so. Being invited to interview means that you have done all the right things to grab the attention of a Principal Investigator (P.I., i.e. the person that runs a research lab). At this point, the P.I. has already assessed your application and determined that you have the potential to be productive in his or her lab. Your primary job in this interview is to confirm this view. However, many people forget that interviews go two ways: Your second job in this interview is to assess whether this is the lab where you want to spend the next 4-8 years of your life.

A helpful way to think about interviews is from the perspective of the interviewer. What does a P.I. hope to do by interviewing prospective graduate candidates in the first place? Most P.I.s are limited in how much time they have for mentoring and how many resources they have to support students and their research interests. They want to know that the students that they accept will be motivated, capable, and realistic. They also want to know that anyone new to the lab will get along with current lab members. Ideally, new lab members would also bring in new energy and ideas. To gain insight about where you may fall with respect to these qualities, most interviews for graduate positions include a one-on-one chat with the head of the lab, social interactions with other lab members, and tours of the lab and parts of campus or the geographic area.

 Your one-on-one interview with the P.I. is your primary time to convey your passion for what the research lab does and your motivation for being a part of it. This means that you need to do your homework beforehand: Read the lab website (if there is one) and know what the major topics of research are. Read several papers from the lab and have a sense of what techniques they use (The P.I. is usually listed as the last author of papers that are published by lab members). From what you have learned about the lab, have a few different ideas for projects you might be interested in working on if you were a student there. What qualities do you have and what experiences have you had that show that you would be capable to do such a project with adequate mentoring? If you can get the P.I. excited about an idea you pitch, you have a good chance of getting the spot. However, don't get too attached to your research ideas: They may not be feasible for some reason or perhaps the P.I. only has funding for a student to work on a specific project, so you need to go in with a flexible mindset. You should also ask questions of your own during this time, both to show your serious interest and to assess if this lab and potential advisor are a good fit for you. Here are some questions you may want to ask:

I know you have done research on X, Y, and Z from reading your website and papers, but do you have any lines of research you are currently working on or plan to work on that you have not published yet?

How involved are you in helping your students choose their topics of study?

How do your students learn research techniques?

How are most students in your lab funded? (If you express a willingness to apply for your own funding, the P.I. will be impressed).

How long do most of your students take to get a degree?

Have any of your students left before completing their degree?

 All of the lab members will try to assess how well you will likely fit in with the group. Don't let this freak you out: Just be your natural self, but be careful which self you project: you don't want to be the version of yourself that relaxes on the couch with friends slinging curse words like a drunken sailor (even if the other lab members are interacting this way with one another). Remember that you are meeting them for the first time, so be the friendly and slightly more formal version of your natural self that you present to Grandma or church. Also use this time to get the "real" scoop that you may not get directly from the P.I. Some good questions to ask lab members (when the P.I. is away) are:

How is the P.I. as a mentor? Have you or anyone else had any issues with the P.I.?

What are other lab members like?

What is it like to be a graduate student in this program?

What is the area like?

Where do graduate students live? What is typical rent like?

How hard is it to get funding as a R.A. (research assistant) or T.A. (teaching assistant)? How difficult is it to balance R.A. or T.A. responsibilities with classes and research?

Don't forget that as the lab is trying to assess whether you would be a fit with them, you should assess whether they would be a fit for you. Are there opportunities to do research that you find interesting and to gain skills that will be useful to you? Is this a place and a lifestyle that you think you would be happy in for the next several years? And perhaps most importantly, does the P.I. have a personality and mentoring style that will help you grow as a person and as a scientist?

 As for what to wear, dress business-casual and appropriate for the weather. There will likely be a lot of walking around, some outside. Scientists are a practical bunch and will not likely be impressed with your fancy outfit if it does not exhibit common sense. On the other hand, they will think you lack motivation if you show up in tattered jeans and a sweatshirt. Wear something semi-professional and comfortable.

 Now get out there and knock their socks off!

 For more advice on applying for graduate programs, go here.  Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-44727972430018255532016-01-04T09:49:00.000-08:002016-01-04T09:49:44.483-08:00When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Become BabiesToday I am giving new young life to a post from 2012. You can find the original here.

We celebrate the New Year as a time of rebirth, renewal, and do-overs. We join gyms, swear off our bad habits, and promise to be better people. This is especially true for those of us that have had a rough 2015... Our 2016-version-of-us has got to be better, right? But what if you could get a real do-over? What if you could be a kid again, grow up again, and become a brand new person? As far-fetched as it may sound, some animals do exactly that.

 Cnidarians (the "C" is silent) are a huge group of aquatic animals that includes jellyfish, corals, and anemones (like the one Nemo lived in - Yeah, that tentacled home was a living animal). They are named after prickly plants known as nettles, or cnides in Greek, and if you touch one you will quickly know why. Cnidarians, armed with stinging cells called nematocysts, sting at the slightest touch.

 Jellyfish make up many of the cnidarian species, and they have been found in every ocean and at every depth. Some even live in freshwater. The "typical" jellyfish life cycle starts when eggs and sperm are released into the water and find one another. When they do, they form larvae, which you can think of as baby jellyfish. The larvae sink and settle on a hard surface, where they mature into polyps. These polyps are jellyfish in a juvenile stage. The polyps elongate and begin to bud off adult medusa, which are the bell-shaped blobs with tentacles that most of us think of when we think of a jellyfish. Medusa mature to become reproductive adult jellyfish.

The jellyfish life cycle by Zina Deretsky at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Image available at Wikimedia.

 Larval and polyp jellyfish are much more resistant to harsh conditions then are medusa jellyfish. When life gets hard for a jellyfish, perhaps because of starvation, physical damage, temperature changes or salinity changes, those that are in the larval or polyp stages can often shrink and rest in a hibernation-like state while they wait for more favorable conditions. But in some species, young adult medusa can even regress back to the juvenile polyp stage. By reverting back to a juvenile stage, they have more protection from the challenging world around them.

 In most cases, this reversal to a juvenile state can only happen in young medusa that have not yet developed their gonads. Thus, the onset of sexual reproduction (puberty, if you will) might be regarded as the point of no return in development. However, one species, called the immortal jellyfish, has shown that this rule can be broken.

 As an adult medusa, the immortal jellyfish is a pea-sized jellyfish with a round bell, bright red stomach and anywhere from 8 to 90 tentacles. It is currently the only known animal that can regress from a fully reproductively mature adult into a juvenile polyp. If exposed to dangerous conditions, immortal jellyfish medusae completely reduce all of their medusa-specific organs and tissues and develop new polyp-specific tissues, essentially becoming kids again!

This figure from the Piraino et al. 2004 paper at the Canadian Journal of Zoology shows the life stages of the immortal jellyfish. The adult medusa is in panel (a). Panels (b) and (c) show the medusa tranforming to a ball-like blob as it reverts to a juvenile stage. The green stain in these panels shows the cells initiating this transformation. Panel (d) shows the remnant of a medussa, and the black arrow shows the stalk that is common in the polyp stage. Panel (e) shows the resulting juvenile polyp.

 But wait! It gets better! Theoretically, if an animal can revert to a juvenile stage at any point in its adult life, it could attain immortality. But if that were true, they would have the classic immortality problem: These animals would reach such high populations they would saturate the world's oceans...And this may actually be happening.

 Immortal jellyfish are thought to originally be from the Caribbean, but they have since been discovered worldwide and their populations seem to be growing. Likely, they are hitching rides in the ballast water that is sucked into cargo ships to provide stability. If this is true, the immortal jellyfish polyps could be attaching to the ships' hulls and settling in for a long voyage to a new home.

 We don't yet know if the immortal jellyfish are actually immortal, but it is fun to consider that they might be (although they can still be killed by predators or viruses, so they're not invincible). And we can take inspiration from them: When the going gets tough, try reverting to your more resilient juvenile self, but be thankful you don't have to go through middle school again!

 Happy New Year!

 To learn more, check these out:

 1. Piraino, S., De Vito, D., Schmich, J., Bouillon, J., & Boero, F. (2004). Reverse development in Cnidaria Canadian Journal of Zoology, 82 (11), 1748-1754 DOI: 10.1139/z04-174vv

 2. Miglietta, M., & Lessios, H. (2008). A silent invasion Biological Invasions, 11 (4), 825-834 DOI: 10.1007/s10530-008-9296-0  Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-42251099596369479902015-12-29T10:41:00.000-08:002015-12-29T10:41:11.104-08:00Our Most Popular Posts of 2015

To celebrate the end of the year, I compiled a list of The Scorpion and the Frog's most popular posts of 2015. If you missed them, check them out here:

#5. Gut Feelings explains new research that shows that the microorganisms living in our guts can affect our behavior in mysterious ways.

#4. In Vole Pee: An Epiphany, Nate Kueffer talks about how birds of prey use ultraviolet vision to see pee-trails of their prey.

#3. Prepare to be amazed! Enjoy The Weirdest Animals on Earth: 12 Amazing Facts About Octopuses.

#2. Rachael Pahl tells us about some crazy bug sex in The Bed Bug's Piercing Penis.

#1. In The Beginnings of Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Blood Discovered?, Sam Vold contemplates the real science behind Jurassic Park.

There have been some fascinating animal stories by many great science writers. Here's to many more stories in 2016! Happy New Year!  Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-68049294218761935762015-12-21T10:41:00.000-08:002015-12-21T10:41:16.922-08:00Caught in My Web: All About Dogs

Image by Luc Viatour at Wikimedia.

For this edition of Caught in My Web, we celebrate our wonderful canine companions.

1. Nina Golgowski at HuffPost Science explains research that shows that dogs give treats to their doggy friends, but not to doggy strangers.

2. Rafael Mantesso's wife left him and took everything but the dog and the empty white apartment. Rafael found inspiration in his predicament and created some of the most wonderful photos ever! Check them out here.

3. Let puppies teach you about complexity theory in this TED talk by Nicolas Perony.

 4. Virginia Hughes at National Geographic shares research that shows that dog brains process voice information similarly to our own.

5. And just for fun, here is Bella the dog singing "Jingle Bells":

 Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-63891336312534230332015-12-14T08:54:00.000-08:002015-12-14T08:54:28.489-08:00Why Are Cats Scared of Cucumbers?Have you seen the video of cats' terrified responses to cucumbers? No?! Then check this out:

This hilarious video has led many people to try this on their own cats… to varying degrees of success. And it has led to some curious questions: Why are these cats so terrified of a cucumber? And why isn't my cat?

The fear of something specific (like a cucumber) can either be innate (as in, you're born with it) or learned. For many animal species, it would make sense to be born with a natural fear of something that can kill you the first time you encounter it, like a steep drop, being submerged under water, or a venomous snake. Some of these things can be so dangerous that an animal with a fear of anything that even resembles it may have a higher chance of surviving long enough to produce its own fearful babies some day. So maybe these cats have an innate fear of snakes that has caused them to respond in this hilarious way to anything that resembles a snake… like a cucumber?

But if cats have an innate fear of snakes, why don't they all respond to cucumbers this way?

Sometimes fears appear to be innate, when they are actually learned. For example, in 2009, researchers Judy DeLoache and Vanessa LoBue at the University of Virginia explored whether the fear of snakes is innate in human babies with a series of three experiments.

In the first experiment, Judy and Vanessa showed 9- and 10-month old babies silent films of snakes and other animals and they measured how long the babies looked at each type of film. Presumably, a baby will be more vigilant of and spend more time looking at something they are scared of. They found that the babies responded exactly the same towards the snake films than to the films of other animals.

Next, the experimenters showed the babies the films of either a snake or another animal again. However, this time they played the audio of a person sounding either happy or frightened along with the video. The babies looked at the non-snake animal videos the same amount regardless of whether the audio sounded happy or scared. However, the babies looked at the snake videos longer if the audio sounded scared than if the audio sounded happy.

In the third experiment, the experimenters repeated this pairing of audio with visuals, but this time they used still pictures of snakes and non-snake animals instead of videos. This time, the babies did not react differently to the snake or non-snake animal pictures depending on if the audio sounded happy or scared.

This shows that, at least for people, we don't have an innate fear of snakes, but we do have an innate tendency to develop a fear of snakes if we are exposed to the right combination of hearing someone being afraid and seeing a moving snake. In other words, some fears are more contagious than others. And this isn't just true for people: a study of rhesus monkeys found that baby monkeys raised by parents that were afraid of snakes only developed a fear of snakes themselves if they observed their parents acting fearful in the presence of a real or toy snake. So perhaps, the cats in this cucumber video saw or heard someone being fearful of something cucumber-like (or snake-like) when they were young... Or maybe they were just surprised by something sneaking up on them while they were eating.

In any case, don't be too bummed if this hasn't worked on your cat… Maybe try it on your friends instead!

 Want to know more? Check these out:

<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Developmental+Science&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1111%2Fj.1467-7687.2008.00753.x&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=The+narrow+fellow+in+the+grass%3A+human+infants+associate+snakes+and+fear&rft.issn=1363755X&rft.date=2009&rft.volume=12&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=201&rft.epage=207&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fdoi.wiley.com%2F10.1111%2Fj.1467-7687.2008.00753.x&rft.au=DeLoache%2C+J.&rft.au=LoBue%2C+V.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CResearch+%2F+Scholarship%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">DeLoache, J., & LoBue, V. (2009). The narrow fellow in the grass: human infants associate snakes and fear Developmental Science, 12 (1), 201-207 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00753.x

 <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Journal+of+Abnormal+Psychology&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1037%2F0021-843X.93.4.355&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Observational+conditioning+of+snake+fear+in+rhesus+monkeys.&rft.issn=0021-843X&rft.date=1984&rft.volume=93&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=355&rft.epage=372&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fcontent.apa.org%2Fjournals%2Fabn%2F93%2F4%2F355&rft.au=Mineka%2C+S.&rft.au=Davidson%2C+M.&rft.au=Cook%2C+M.&rft.au=Keir%2C+R.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CPsychology%2CSocial+Science%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Mineka, S., Davidson, M., Cook, M., & Keir, R. (1984). Observational conditioning of snake fear in rhesus monkeys. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93 (4), 355-372 DOI: 10.1037/0021-843X.93.4.355 Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-37906975055903439382015-12-07T10:14:00.000-08:002015-12-07T10:14:19.426-08:00Are GMO Fish Safe for the Environment?

Photo of an Atlantic salmon by Hans-Petter Fjeld, licensed under
the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License and
available at Wikimedia Commons.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the first genetically engineered animal for food consumption, AquAdvantage Salmon, a salmon strain developed 25 years ago by AquaBounty Technologies. The FDA determined that this salmon strain is as safe to eat and as nutritious as other wild-caught or farm-raised Atlantic salmon and they have provided strict guidelines as to where and how these fish can be farmed (authorizing only two specific facilities, one in Canada and one in Panama, to breed and raise them). These fish will likely soon be in our grocery stores and restaurants, despite the resistance of many environmental and food-safety groups as well as skeptical grocery chains and citizens. What exactly are these animals and do they pose a threat to our environment?

 Today at Accumulating Glitches, I talk about genetic engineering, GMOs, and what scientists think about whether AquAdvantage Salmon pose a risk to our environment. Check out the whole article here.  Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-47241979518210207122015-11-30T09:07:00.000-08:002015-11-30T09:07:23.955-08:00This Animal Looks Like a Penis With Teeth... But It's Even Stranger Than ThatThis is a naked mole rat.

Yes, this is arguably the freakiest-looking animal on Earth.
Photo by Roman Klementschitz at Wikimedia Commons.

Naked mole rats are rodents that live in underground tunnels under East African savannas and grasslands. There's nothing all that strange about that... but how they have adapted to this lifestyle is unique... and, quite frankly, amazing.

For one thing, to cope with the low oxygen levels of the subterranean environment, naked mole rats have very low metabolisms and breathing rates. One of the biggest uses of metabolic engines in mammals is to produce our own body heat. These little guys have cut this big expenditure by being what may be the only ectothermic mammals on the planet. Ectotherms are animals like most fish, amphibians and reptiles that get most of their body heat from their environment, rather than making it themselves. Because naked mole rats want to exchange heat with their environment, they want to eliminate insulation... giving them their hairless and fatless bodies. Now when they bask in the sun at their tunnel entrances or huddle with their family they can take in all that warmth without anything getting in the way.

There are some benefits to having low metabolisms and not using much oxygen: Naked mole rats live for nearly 30 years (compared to 1-3 years in regular rats). Oxygen creates free radicals, highly reactive chemicals that cause damage to DNA, leading to a wide range of diseases. Naked mole rats don't just use less oxygen, but they have special proteins that are resistant to these damaging chemicals. They also produce a specialized super-sugar that has essentially eliminated cancer in this long-living species. What's more, these elderly rodents have managed to avoid dementia and osteoporosis, traits we hope to learn more about through ongoing research.

Naked mole rats have also developed some unique sensory traits. Living with your entire extended family in underground burrows means that you live in high levels of carbon dioxide and walls saturated in pee. These little guys don't even have any body hair to protect their pink skin from all that burning ammonia. Their solution: get rid of pain. These guys have no pain receptors for noxious chemicals like acids or capsaicin (the stuff that makes hot peppers hot). Furthermore, they are lacking a specific neurotransmitter, called substance P, that other mammals use to send many pain signals. Since naked mole rats have less need for sensation in their skin, they have developed brains that have repurposed about 30% of the sematosensory cortex (the part of the brain that interprets touch sensations) to their digging teeth!

Perhaps the strangest quality of all for these animals is their behavior. Naked mole rats are one of only two known mammals that are eusocial (the other being the Damaraland mole rat). Eusociality is a social organization common among bees, wasps, ants and termites, in which the colony has castes that include queens, workers and soldiers. Among naked mole rats, there is a single queen in the colony that mates with a few dominant males; workers that dig the tunnels, gather food, and care for the young; and soldiers that protect the colony from predators. Workers and soldiers are all reproductively sterile with undeveloped gonads and low hormone levels. However, if the queen dies, one of the non-reproducing females will go through puberty and take on her role as the new queen.

Now that you know that naked mole rats are so much more than just a "freaky thing", enjoy this naked mole rat rap (or maybe even a whole episode of Disney's Kim Possible, which features Rufus, the naked mole rat):

Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-60645170214542137072015-11-23T09:04:00.000-08:002015-11-23T09:04:39.861-08:00The Science Life 2The life of a scientist is increasingly stressful. Sometimes it helps to relieve stress in song:

 "Bad Habits" by Nathaniel Krefman (Parody of "Magic" by B.o.B. featuring Rivers Cuomo):

"Eight Days a Week" by the UC-Berkeley Molecular and Cell Biology Department (Parody of "Eight Days a Week" by The Beatles):

"The Tale of a Post Doc" by James Clark at Aerospace Medicine at King's College London (Parody of "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen):

 Vote for your favorite in the comments section below. If you would like to see more music videos on the life of a scientist, check out The Science Life. And if you feel so inspired, make a video of your own, upload it on YouTube and send me a link to include in a future post!  Miss Behaviorhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6179725143694848603.post-66644455255360017132015-11-16T07:27:00.000-08:002015-11-16T07:27:20.286-08:00Animal Mass Suicide and the Lemming Conspiracy

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, technically not Walt Disney himself…

 Today I am revisiting an article I wrote in the early days of The Scorpion and the Frog, explaining animal mass suicide and the role of Disney in creating one of the greatest animal behavior hoaxes of all time. You can read the article in it's entirety here.  Miss Behaviorhttp://email@example.com