LSM1303 Animal Behaviour

Mexican Axolotl

This animal that you see here is a Mexican axolotl (pronounced ACK-suh-LAH-tuhl) salamander, found exclusively in the lake complex of Xochimilco near Mexico City, The first time I saw the Axolotl, I thought it look like  a crab. The Axolotl is actually not a fish but an amphibian, a salamander, part of the order Caudata/Urodela. Axolotls differ from most other salamanders in that they live permanently in water.  I felt that this is a remarkable looking animal that we rarely come across. It worthy of note as this magnificent creature  has remarkable ability!

Axolotl is a fascinating creature. It has an amazing healing and regeneration abilities. Normal wound healing in animals occur through the growth of scar tissue, which is not the same as the original tissue. Normal wound healing also does not allow for most animals to re-grow a lost limb. However the axolotl is fully capable of complete limb re-growth. It is so amazing that it could re grow a limb. I didn’t even know an animal could do that! The Axolotl has an exceptionally large embryo. Its embryo is healthy and can be spliced and combined with different parts of other axolotl embryos with a high degree of success.

The other captivating fact about the Axolotl is that it exhibits the phenomenon known as neoteny. Normally, amphibians undergo metamorphosis of three stages from egg to larva and finally to adult form(example the tadpole of a frog is a larva) however the Axolotl, remains in its larval form throughout its life! This means that it keeps its gills and fins, and it does not develop any characteristics of other adult salamanders such as protruding eyes and eyelids. It grows larger than normal larval salamander. It also reaches sexual maturity in this larval stage. The animal is completely aquatic, and it breathes primarily through its gills even though it does possess rudimentary lungs. In the Axolotl, neoteny is now totally genetic. The axolotl will usually begin to metamorphose, when treated with hormones

Axolotls are probably one of the most scientifically studied salamanders in the world. Fortunately, even as the Axolotl is important in the scientific research, it is unheard of for them to be taken from the wild for that purpose because of the huge numbers bred in captivity each year. The disappointing thing about the Axolotl is that is an endangered species. This is largely due to the contamination of water in their captivity. I feel that the Axolotl are such fascinating creatures and it is really pitiful if we allow such remarkable creature to extinct.

Reference

Web link for Axolotl; part of Caudata.org Family
http://www.axolotl.org/

Web link from National Geographies : Mexican Axolotl 15^th April 2009

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/enlarge/axolotl_image.html

Informations and Images are ©1999-2008 John P. Clare & Caudata.org

As the saying goes, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Considering that the chimpanzees share a 94% similarity with humans in terms of DNA, is it any surprise that this saying might very well apply for our ape cousins as well?

Continue Reading »

In my few dives around the region, my encounter with moray eel left a deep impression on me. They often appear in crevices, between rocks on the seabed when you least expect it. It was a rare chance that I caught one feeding. It did not seem especially unique until i stumbled onto this article featured by National Geographic (March 2009). It was then that i realised i had the rare opportunity to watch such an amazing mechanism at work.

Picture scanned from National Geographic ( March, 2009)

Most fishes feed using a suction method whereby lower pressure in their mouth “sucks” up fishes nearby. However,  restricted by their habitat, moray eel depends on their second set of jaws to help capture its prey. This mechanism is similar to that of snakes. Snakes have a set of jaws which pulls prey down their gullet. This is an example of convergence, where organism of no similarity (except for the fact that they face the same problem) finds a similar solution.

References:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070905-eel-jaw.html

After watching a documentary on parasites on Animal Planet, I learnt about Tumbu Flies from Central Africa.

To summarise, scientist Karl Loren spent 3 years in Africa, and he realised that he was getting pimples on his skin. After a while, these pimples grew itchier and itchier. At some point these pimples grow bigger, redder, and turned to sores. Some time later, these lumps on his skin began to move. By then it was already too painful, and he stopped work and tried to dig the sores open.

“The tumbu fly is found in many parts of East and Central Africa. It lays eggs on clothing – especially clothes that bear traces of urine or sweat. Clothes hanging outdoors on the washing line and clothes laid out on the ground to dry are the usual target.”

“The eggs hatch on contact with human skin. The larvae burrow into the skin and produce a characteristic boil, which contains not pus, but a developing maggot. The boils are usually multiple and are most often over the back, arms, scrotum, and around the waist.”

“The breathing apparatus of the maggots can usually be identified at the surface of the boil as a pair of black dots. A maggot can be removed by placing water or oil over its breathing apparatus and gently squeezing it; the maggot will pop out. This is a rather unpleasant spectacle to witness.”

This condition is known as Myiasis, which is the infestation of live animals with larvae, which at least for a period, feed on the host’s dead or living tissue. Fortunately for Loren, he got the help of a native African doctor, who covered his sores with coconut oil until the maggots came to the surface of the skin and they dug out the maggots one by one. I can’t imagine being eaten alive like that.

References:

Animal Planet: TV With Teeth – Nature’s Vampires

Karl Loren (2003). The Bite? of the African Insect? That lays egges that burrow. http://www.karlloren.com/biopsy/p47.htm

James AS, et al; Cutaneous myiasis due to Tumbu fly. (Arch Emerg Med, 1992 Mar, Abstract available) [MEDLINE]

“Dogs look up to man. Cats look down to man. Pigs look at us straight in the eye and see an equal.”

- Winston Churchill

Whoever would have thought of themselves as an equal to a pig? Well, Winston Churchill certainly did. He is often quoted using pigs to comment on the human condition. Besides this, who can forget the ambitious trio, Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer in George Owell’s dystopian novel, Animal Farm. Perhaps then, pigs are closer to us humans than we all expect. How much do we know of pigs? Well… one thing’s for sure. No one ever expect them to start investing in fashion!

This is one pig who will be putting the commonly used phrase “messy as a pigsty” out of business. Meet Cinderella, Cinders in short. Belonging to couple Debbie and Andrew Keeble in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, this piglet certainly stand out amongst its siblings. While the rest of Cinders’s siblings messed around in the mud in a very piggish manner, Cinders stood aloof by the edge of the grass. Closer observation by the interested couple found her shaking by the edge of the grass patch.

“It was the strangest thing. When the batch ventured away from their mother, Cinders just stood at the edge of her sty shaking while the others explored. We thought it was just that she didn’t want to leave the sty or the sow but we soon noticed if we moved them to where there wasn’t any mud, she happily left it and roamed around without any nonsense.” – Debbie Keeble

This unique behaviour exhibited by Cinders seemed to have no scientific explanation. Till now, one of the most convincing explanation given would be that Cinders is suffering from a case of Mysophobia. This would be the intense fear of dirt and uncleanliness, and being covered in mud certainly fulfills these two criteria. Such a fear is usually an irrational behaviour, and in this case, it definitely fits the bill.

In order to provide Cinders with a complete and healthy lifestyle, the Keeble family came up with an ingenious idea, inspired by another animal – the bear. The family’s five-year old daugther suggested putting her Paddington Bear boots onto the pig, and this solution worked like a charm. These days, Cinders would run to Andrew Keeble in the morning for him to put on her “magical glass slippers”, much like the tale of Cinderella. Who says a pig can’t appreciate fashion?

It would be interesting to see if Cinders would finally grow out of her fear of mud and reaffirm the saying that “You can’t get much happier than a pig in muck” or would she be the first of her kind to put to rest the misconception that pigs are plain filthy animals… That being said, perhaps she could simply be making a fashion statement with her green wellingtons?

Pig Wears Boots on YouTube

References:

Daily Mail Online:Pig in Boots: The World’s Only Porker Who Is Afraid of Mud

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1025428/Pig-Boots-The-worlds-porker-afraid-mud.html

Telegraph.co.uk: Meet Cinderella, Pig in Boots

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2105763/Meet-Cinderella-Pig-in-Boots.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysophobia

As a owner of 2 dogs, i cannot agree less with Dr Friederike Range, of the University of Vienna’s neurobiology department, with the idea that dogs feel intense jealously when they spot that they are unfairly treated compared with other dogs. When i fed dog snacks to them (something which they like very much) unequally, my dog which had less start to become fidgety and starts seeking attention. It takes more time to coax it to listen to my commands. It also displays signs of unhappiness (weak sway of the tail) when i called it. However, when i reward them separately (not in the view of each other), they were much happier and, at certain occasions, started to play with each other.

Therefore, i learnt the lesson for one to appear ”fair” in a dog eat dog world, one has to make the other party ignorant of your actions.

If this interests you, please have a look at the following articles in the reference and the comments written by other people.

Reference:

Susan Milius. (2009). Dogs will go on strike over unfair treats. Retrieved 14 April, 2009, from http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39187/title/Dogs_will_go_on_strike_over_unfair_treats#sequence

Nora Schultz. (2008). Jealous dogs don’t play ball. Retrieved 14 April, 2009, from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16216-jealous-dogs-dont-play-ball.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Rebecca Carroll. (2008). Dogs can feel envy, study suggests. Retrieved 14 April, 2009, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081208-dogs-envy.html?source=rss

I was born to love you, with every single beat of my heart…

But no, I was (NOT) born to take care of you…

Because I’ll just stick to you, and provide sperm, and die (still stuck to you)…

This is probably what you might hear a male anglerfish sing to a female one. If you could hear fish singing that is.

Deep Sea Anglerfish (Ceratias holboelli) have a rather interesting way of reproduction. And that’s an understatement. The male deep sea anglerfish is born way smaller than their female counterpart, and once it hits “puberty” (or in other words, when it matures) its digestive system disintegrates, leaving him “incapable of feeding independently”. It is now a race against time to find a female counterpart before it starves to death on its own. Fortunately for male anglerfish, they are born with extremely well developed olfactory organs which aids them in their search for female anglerfish. Once a male anglerfish finds a female counterpart, he …

“bites into her skin and releases an enzyme that dissolves the skin of his mouth and that of her body. The two become fused together and their blood vessels join as one. The male will spend the rest of its life joined to the female like a parasite, getting all of his nourishment from her body.”

This way of reproduction may seem rather extreme, but it also offers an extremely high(if not 100%) rate of fertilization of the eggs. Think about it, the male is permanently stuck to his female counterpart. (And a female anglerfish can carry up to 6 males on her body at a time.) This ensures that both male and female genitals can “ripen simultaneously” and the female anglerfish can also “control the seminal discharge of the males to ensure that it takes place at the right time for the fertilization of her eggs”   

And they (all) live happily ever after…  

References:

Creatures of the Deep Sea

Link: http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/anglerfish.html

Dimorphism, Parsitism and Sex: Reproductive Strategies among Deep Sea Ceratoid Anglerfishes

Theodore W. Pietsch

Copeia, Vol. 1976, No. 4 (Dec. 30, 1976), pp. 781-793

Published by: American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists

Link: http://www.jstor.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/stable/1443462?seq=1&Search=yes&term=anglerfish&term=male&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dmale%2Banglerfish%26gw%3Djtx%26prq%3Danglerfish%2Bmating%2Bbehaviour%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&item=17&ttl=117&returnArticleService=showArticle&resultsServiceName=doBasicResultsFromArticle

Other Relevant Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish#Reproduction

A picture to get your attention! Well, if you have watched Disney’s “Finding Nemo”, you might remember the fish on the right of the picture – the Deep Sea Anglerfish. This however, is the female, which gets all the “limelight” (well, light… see the thing sticking out its head? get it? light…? alright, lame jokes aside…)

The male anglerfish is the lead of this post. In comparison, the male anglerfish does not look like its female counterpart. It does not have the light-producing component (which is actually part of its spine) and is much smaller in size.

Male Anglerfish

The interesting thing about the Deep Sea Anglerfish is its method of reproduction – with particular focus on the male. The male gradually loses its digestive ability as it matures. In order to survive, the male then searches for a female and bites onto the female. The male then releases an enzyme that dissolves the skin around its mouth and the body of the female. Eventually, their bodies become fused together for the rest of their lives.

Its role then becomes a gonad (or testicle) for the rest of its life, releasing sperm when the female is ready to reproduce. Did I already mention this is for the rest of its life?

You could catch a video from the link below, particularly from 3:00 onwards…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RitJe16c3sM

Citation

1. Deep Sea Anglerfish – Deep Sea Creatures on Sea and Sky http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/anglerfish.html

2. Theodore. W. Pietsch, 1976. Dimorphism, Parasitism and Sex: Reproductive Strategies among Deepsea Ceratoid Anglerfishes. Copiea, Vol. 1976 (4): 781-793

Does your pet know when you are coming home? There have been lots of experiments that say, while you are gone, your pet actually “feels” when you are ready to return, even while YOUR mind is on more pressing personal matters. Recent studies have shown, while incorporating real and hard core scientific protocols that your pet may sense FAR more than we think, and may have a connection to our consciousness that surpasses SOME science fiction novels. This article talks about whether animals really have heightened senses than we can imagine. To us, humans, we call it the sixth sense.

Can Animals Really Be Psychic? Read This and Find Out.IanHollander(n.d.) http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/194318/pets/can_animals_really_be_psychic__read_this_and_find_out.html

CAN ANIMALS DETECT WHEN THEIR OWNERS ARE RETURNING HOME?

AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF THE ‘PSYCHIC PET’ PHENOMENON. Richard Wiseman, Matthew Smith (n.d.) https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/2299/2285/1/902380.pdf