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.
Animals have always been known to procreate for survival, to increase their numbers to improve chances for survival. However, do animals enjoy sex? Most studies have shown that animals have sex at a given time of the year during mating seasons solely for survival purposes. However, little studies have been made to see if it is indeed pleasurable for them.
The youtube video is one of a dog humping a teddy bear.
It seems from the video that dogs indeed enjoy sex (or sort of). Mr. Jonathan Balcombe PhD-toting ethologist (a person who studies animal behaviour) has written a book on all aspects of animal pleasure called pleasurable kingdom. When interviewed by thestar.com, Mr. Balcombe said that he believes that animals enjoy sex and are highly motivated to engage in it unlike the sterotype of once a year mating.
However, as can be viewed by the albatross video, Mr. Attenborough believes that animals are more concerned of their genes passing on to the next generation.
It would be hard to tell if animals in general enjoy sex all the time. However, i would think that sex for just procreation purposes would be hard to believe judging by how dogs(mine included) enjoy humping legs/stuff toys.
He’s so cute and cuddly that everyone just wants to hug and squeeze him! But trust me, you don’t want Oscar the cat snuggling up to you. Not especially if you are a terminally ill patient in Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center waiting for your time on this cruel world to be up.
Oscar the cat has an uncanny ability to predict when a patient is about to die. Once Oscar jumps up onto a resident’s bed and curls up, it usually means that death for the patient is less than 4 hours away. Coincedence? Not exactly. Oscar’s accuracy has already been observed at least 25 times. “He doesn’t make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die,” said Dr David Dosa in an interview.
Oscar was adopted as a kitten and grew up in Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. After about 6 months in the facility, Oscar started making his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He’d sniff around and sit beside people who would end up dying a few hours later.
As far as those who work at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center are aware, there is only one death at which Oscar has not been present – and that wasn’t because he didn’t notice it, but because relatives of the patient asked for him to be removed from the room. After Oscar was removed from the room, he started pacing up and down the corridor and meowing in protest.
So is Oscar a psychic? Or is there a biochemical explanation to this phenomenon?
Laurie Cabot, the ‘official witch’ of Salem, says that Oscar is acting as a ‘familiar’ – the term witches of old used to refer to the cats who were their constant companions – which means that he is in psychic communication with the patients he visits.
“He knows they are going to die because he is picking up on their brainwaves. Science has found that the brainwaves of cats never go into Beta mode, they are always in Alpha. And it is in the Alpha range that all psychic things happen. This little cat Oscar knows all the patients in the unit and he is trying to help them, just like the cats that I’ve always kept will curl up on my chest and try to heal me if I feel upset or am ill. In this case, though, Oscar is not trying to heal, he is clearly trying to help these people walk over into the other world,” says Cabot.
Intersting as it may seem, perhaps Oscar isn’t really psychic and there is a biochemical explanation. As far as we know, felines have a keen sense of smell and are able to detect very subtle changes in smell and hormones. Even dogs are able to detect when their owners are about to get epilepsy fits, or even detect cancer. Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University postulates that Oscar is able to detect some type of Toxin that is released from the body of a dying patient before death.
Looking on the behavioural point of view, it could be that Oscar is mimicking the actions of the doctors and nurses at the facility by spending more time with patients who are about to die. When animals exhibit mimicry, there must be some benefits to it. Daniel Mills, a specialist in veterinary behavioural medicine at Lincoln University postulates that one ‘admittedly far-fetched’ reason might be that metabolism changes shortly before a person dies, “and often the body makes a last-ditch surge. So perhaps they get a little warmer, and the cat seeks them out because of that.”
It also seems possible that through conditioning, Oscar repeats this behaviour of sitting next to dying patients simply he enjoys the commotion that occurs when a person passes away (how morbid!)
Currently, we do not know how and why Oscar exhibits such behaviour. Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioural clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying. However he does it, I think Oscar’s doing a great job by giving families advanced warning about the departure of their loved ones. In fact, Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his “compassionate hospice care.”
Predator-prey relationship is extremely crucial in upholding the delicate balance among different animal species. Prey and predators alike are constantly undergoing adaptive changes to aid in their survival. To avoid falling prey to a predator, animals have developed various types of defense mechanisms and methods of accessing predator risk factor. For the red-eyed treefrogs, Agalychnis callidryas, it appears that even their embryos are able to respond to predator threat.
Agalychnis callidryas are found in the tropical rainforest of Central America. Their eggs, which are laid in gelatinous clutches attached to vegetation overhanging ponds and swamps, are highly susceptible to predation. Recent findings have shown that these embryos are able to hatch early when attacked by predators such as snakes. However, as hatching early increases the risk of predation in water, it should be avoided unless the embryos are in absolute danger. Here is a video of the embryos escaping from a snake attack.
A recent study by Karen Warkentin of Boston University have shown that the embryos of Agalychnis callidryas are able to differentiate attacks by predatory snakes and wasps from benign disturbances like wind and rain via vibration cues in the egg mass (Warkentin, 2005). This study provides new insight into the sensory information processing abilities of embryos and enhances our knowledge on how animals make use of vibrational information.
Picture of the eggs of Florida Bush Katydid, a species of Orthoptera
Wouldn’t it be nice to escape the winter; living in an egg pod together with your brothers and sisters until the weather is warm and nice before you emerge from your protective shelter?
REMAINING AS EGG
Diapause is a physiological state of domancy whereby there is arrested development and lower metabolic activity 1particularly common in arthropods, especially insects. Unlike hibernation in animals, diapause can only be terminated by a certain stimuli, this is important in differentiating the two phenomena. There are different stages in insect diapauses and these vary considerably from one taxon of insects to another.2 To read more about what happens in each stage, read this!
BEING AN EGG
Diapause hormones are released into the eggs through the mother. Sorbitol directly inhibits development and is reconverted at the end of diapauses. The egg is the overwintering stage for most species of Orthoptera and environmental stimuli such as increased temperatures and humidity from a spring rainfall will trigger hatching of the egg.3 Much like how sunshine after the rain brings crowds of people into the parks.
COMING BACK TO REALITY
Without the ability to escape or protect itself, these eggs undergoing diapauses are susceptible to the very same harsh environmental conditions that initiated diapauses in the first place.4 Water logging in soils where these eggs are laid or temperature fluctuations can cause these eggs to die. Just when diapause is about to come to an end, i.e. temperatures are starting to rise, microbial pathogens or parasitoids attack these eggs. Still happy to hide away from tough times?
References
Tauber, M.J., Tauber, C.A., Masaki, S. (1986) Seasonal Adaptations of Insects. Oxford University Press, 414 pp.
Kostal, V. (2006). Eco-physiological phases of insect diapause. Journal of Insect Physiology. 52: 113-127.
Horie, Y., Kanda, T. and Mochida, Y. (2000) Sorbitol as an arrester of embryonic development in diapausing eggs of the silkworm, Bombyx mori. Journal of Insect Physiology. 46: 1009-1016.
