LSM1303 Animal Behaviour

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.

The Stoat or more commonly know as the Ermine or the Short-tailed Weasel, is a a small mammal of the family of Mustelidae. It can be found in the Northern temperate, sub-artitic and Artitic regions, as well as Europe, North America and Asia. It is a predator and a carnivore and it feeds mostly on small mammals such as rodents, fish and reptiles. It also prey on larger mammals than itself such as rabbits.

One of the most interesting behavior about the Stoat is the way in which it hunts larger mammals than itself such as rabbits by performing a sort of dance to transfix the rabbit, and the rabbit appears to be hypnotized by it and fail to realise that the Stoat is within striking distance, and falls prey to it!

Here is a link to an article where you can read about real life descriptions of how people observed stoats hunting their prey http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/88/stoat_packs.html

Here is a video of the Stoat performancing the dance!

Stoat Dance

Here is another video of how the stoats hunt its prey once it got within striking distance

Stoat Hunting

There are some explanations for the behavior of Stoats doing the dance. Scientist attribute it to, them trying to gain the curiosity of the animal, thus enabling them to more easily preying on it, and that it is a learned behavior as Stoats being opportunistic hunters, when they learned the connection between mesmerizing the animal and the subsequent kill.

However other proponents of the theory have suggested that it could be due to the intense irritation of parasitic worms lodged in the Stoat’s skull, which led to such behavior.

You can read more about the reasons for the dancing behavior of Stoats in this scientific article: http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=5ae9c7GO_cUC&pg=PA120&lpg=PA120&dq=stoats+dance+hunting&source=bl&ots=M6pDak3C-u&sig=AgHaWPlUPiBbc85Bl3aK5moJGuw&hl=en&ei=5XThSe_bJMqLkAXSpdXdCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPA120,M1

Hope you guys enjoyed this interesting hunting behavior of the Stoats as much as I did! Have a good day!

A, Adult male using a puncturing stick at a subterranean termite nest.

B, Adult female using a perforating twig to open termite exit holes on the surface of an epigeal termite nest. She holds a brush-tip fishing probe in her mouth.

                      The sheer intelligence and learning abilities of these apes has never failed to surprise us each time. With this new discovery, it can even be concluded that the crafting of tools to aid the chimpanzees in reaching food resources is most definitely not by chance or circumstances. As stated in the article, “We found that in the Goualougo Triangle in the Republic of Congo, the chimpanzees were modifying their termite-fishing tools with a special brush tip.” From this we can also infer that this behavior was in fact a learnt skill.

            Then again, this termite fishing behavior was only found in the chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle. Thereby, the absence of such unique ‘engineering’ skills amongst the Chimpanzees in eastern and western Africa enables us to understand that this is definitely not an instinctive skill found in all chimpanzees. Hence such behavior leads us to the conclusion that the Goualougo primates are learning the crafting technique from other chimps instead.

               With that, this puts us into thinking if Chimpanzees of other unstudied areas are coming out with more complex tools yet to be discovered. Also, questions regarding the first development of these skills are some aspects for us to ponder upon. Hence, to find out more about what goes on in the minds of our closest ape cousins, and the many other abilities they are capable of, do read on from the link below to find out more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7922120.stm

To see a video on how termite fishing is done, click on the URL below

 http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/action/showFullPopup?doi=10.1086%2F424803&id=fg6 

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/news-chimps-invent-brush-tool.html

References:

Rebecca Morelle, 2009, Chimps craft ultimate fishing rod, retrieved 8th Apr 2009 from BBC Science/Nature, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7922120.stm

Crickette Sanz, Dave Morgan, and Steve Gulick, the American naturalist (2004), vol. 164, no. 5, New Insights into Chimpanzees, Tools, and Termites from the Congo Basin,

Jorge Ribas, 2009, Discovery Channel Videos: News: Chimps Invent Brush Tool, retrieved 11th Apr 2009 from discovery channel, http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/news-chimps-invent-brush-tool.html

It has the longest ranging mating call out of all birds, sings from an amplification bowl that it tramples into the ground. He then starts to transmit the most amazing message that can be heard as far as four miles away. What is so awesome about the kakapo is that it puffs itself up, till it is about twice its original size, and it “booms” you can view a video of the boom here.

Male kakapo at night, producing `boom` call to try to attract femalesNHNZ Moving Images

As you saw in the video, the Kakapo doesn’t sing, but instead, makes this booming sound from an amplification bowl which he tramples, after which, he sits inside, inflates his thoracic sac. during this process, he can be double his original size! They start with low grunts, which increase in volume as the sac inflates. Each male booms up to 8 hours a night, and may do this continually up to 2 months. Lek mating, it is called. This is perhaps taking into account that an interested female have to walk all the way through the forest, past many obstacles and potential predators, to meet the male. Talk about love.

Truly an amazing creature, the Kakapo is very much endangered. It cannot be bred in captivity, will not nest if the tree with its favorite food does not bear fruit, its eggs have 50% chance of being infertile, and the chicks never hatch. Among other reasons for their low reproductivity rate.

Kakapo's size, in relation to humans.

The Kakapo, also called owl parrot, is a specie of nocturnal parrot native to New Zealand. The largest parrot in the world, with the heaviest (up to 3.6 kilograms), the Kakapo slowly lost its ability to fly when the islands off New Zealand broke off, and with it, the loss of mammalian predators.

Kakapo populations crashed when stoats were introduced to New Zealand from Europe in the 1880s. The birds’ strong scent and flightlessness makes them easy prey for stoats, cats and other predators, which they make no attempt to evade. Hopefully, we can save this fascinating animal before its too late….. All 90 of them.

If you’d like to know more, go to this link!

Group18

References:

Kiwi Convservation hub: http://www.kcc.org.nz/birds/kakapo/booming.asp

Very detailed Wiki page with citations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo

The life of birds: David Attenbourogh http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/songs/index.html

When we think of transvestism, we don’t normally think of it as something natural and images of Kumar wearing a shimmery silver dress usually comes to mind. However, it seems that transvestism does occur in the natural world of animals too, in fact, it seems to be quite advantageous to those that undergo that ‘transformation’.

Photograph by: Martin Whiting, AFP

It was discovered by South African and Australian researchers that young male Augrabies flat lizards in South Africa fool aggressive older males into leaving them alone by mimicing females. This clever trick allows them to ’slip under the radar’ of the older males thus both avoiding the costs of broadcasting their masculinity while at the same time allowing them to gain access to normally inaccessible nubile females.

Associate Professor Martin Whiting explains: “By delaying the onset of colour to a more convenient period, these males (termed she-males) are making the best of a bad situation. An immediate advantage is freedom of movement in the normally treacherous zones which make up the territories of highly aggressive males that already have extensive fighting experience. At the same time, these female mimics are able to court the myriad of females that share the territorial male’s residence.”

However, it seems that these she-males need a spritz of perfume to make their ‘transformation’ more complete. The researchers tested whether she-males are able to mimic the chemical ‘signature’ of females and discovered that the dominant male was able to detect the transvestite’s male hormone with his sensitive tongue, so the young male would need to be dexterous to evade advances from the adult male that it has attracted. 

University of Sydney researcher Jonathan Webb says, “Males are fooled by looks, but not by scent. She-males are able to maintain this deception by staying one step ahead of a prying male, and thereby avoiding a nosey tongue that might give the game away.”

References:

Martin J Whiting, Jonathan K Webb, and J. Scott Keogh
Flat lizard female mimics use sexual deception in visual but not chemical signals
Proc R Soc B 2009 : rspb.2008.1822v1-rspb.2008.1822.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/Ladyboy+lizards+transvestite+trickery+researchers/1348557/story.html

http://web.wits.ac.za/NewsRoom/NewsItems/Transvestite+Lizard.htm