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?
This brotherhood that we’re talking about, technically termed as reciprocal altruism, is a special behavior exhibited by a handful of animals. This is a form of sharing or kindness, which will result in benefitting both parties involved.
Sometimes we see beggars along the streets, yet most of us can easily walk away pretending to be obscure of the existence of these people in dire need of help. Blood ties or not, bats help each other by “donating” part of their share of food upon seeing a starving fellow species. It is understood that the recipient of this act of kindness is to reciprocate the favour should its benefactor need it someday.
This can be explained by the game theory, Prisoner Dilemma. Take for example a scenario where two prisoners are kept isolated from each other. Given that if one betrays the other, he will get a lighter sentence than when he does not confess but his friend did. Eventually, during the interrogation by police officers, lack of assurance and mutual trust will cause both prisoners to betray one another. Why would they want to sacrifice at their own risk? However, for bats, similar games are repetitively played. Knowing that cooperation will benefit both parties in the long run, Bats usually choose to cooperate. This should suggest why bats rather engage in reciprocal altruism, than to compete aggressive within their own species
Cost and benefit analysis:
Benefit: being saved from starvation or predation in future
Cost: that little portion of their food
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.
Reference
LiveScience “Frog Embryos Access Danger”. Accessed on 12th April 2009. (http://www.livescience.com/researchinaction/ria-090408.html)
K.M. Markentin, 2005. How do embryos assess risk? Vibrational cues in predator-induced hatching of red-eyed treefrogs. Animal Behaviour, 70(1): 59-71.
“I was surprised because teaching techniques on using tools properly to a third party are said to be an activity carried out only by humans”, said Professor Nobuo Masataka.
This comment was made as Professor Masataka presented his current research on a group of Long Tailed Macaques in Lopburi , Thailand. Up to a 100 Macaques were observed to use human hair to floss their teeth. More interestingly, it was found that female Macaques were actively teaching their offspring on the use of tools to maintain dental hygiene.
Macaques were known to be able to invent new behaviors and pass them on by imitation. However, this time round, researchers are observing how “education” is being done, naturally. It was noted that “the frequency of teeth-cleaning roughly doubled and became more elaborate when the infant monkeys were watching (their mother flossing the teeth), suggesting the females were deliberately teaching their young how to floss”.
In fact, to slow down and teach is a common practice for teaching our infants. For example, Parentese, the exaggerated, drawn-out form of speech that people use to communicate with babies, apparently helps infant to analyze and absorb. The next step in research would be to check whether the mothers’ efforts are effectively helping the small macaques to learn.
Given that flossing of teeth using hairs are not an instinctive behavior, and that around 100 macaques are actually performing this act, it is suggestive that education is indeed going on within the group. Learning about animal behavior has given me much insight into social behaviors of humans, and seeing this news really reinforces my thoughts about how similar humans and animal are.
While humans without their GPS in a barren desert are often as good as “sitting ducks”, the Desert Ant Cataglyphis fortis is able to navigate their way back to their nest in the absence of landmarks for guidance essentially saying they are able to navigate in the dark, a truly remarkable feat!
Foraging Cataglyphis fortis combine the use of visual cues and olfactory landmarks in their navigation systems to help them locate food and their nest.
Photography: Copyright Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Markus Knaden
Researchers Kathrin Steck, Bill Hansson and Markus Knaden from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany showed that Desert Ants incorporate both local smells and visual cues into their navigation systems to help guide them home. In the paper published, they used gas chromatography to verify that desert microhabitats do have unique odour signatures that can guide the ants back to their nest.
After identifying some of the odours present in these microhabitats, the researchers trained ants in field experiments to recognise these odours that points to a hidden nest entrance. The results showed the ants learned to associate their nest entrance with a single odour and discriminated the training odour against non-training odours. They even picked out the training odour from a four-odour blend. Although, the ants were less focused when faced with a blend rather than the pure scent of home, they still performed better in their search than those tested with the solvent control (trail with no odour).
“We are amazed to discover that while keeping track of the path integrator and learning visual landmarks, these ants can also collect information about the olfactory world.“ said Knaden, who hopes to investigate the interaction between visual and olfactory information in future research.
While usage of environmentally derived olfactory landmarks has been shown for pigeons, ants are normally known to rely on self generated pheromones trails. However, in the case of Cataglyphis, these ants roams over 100 meters in search for food in the salt pans of Tunisia. As a result of high temperatures and the unpredictable distribution of food, pheromone trails become ineffective as a tool for navigation (at such high temperatures, the pheromone trails evaporate very quickly). This might be an evolutionary choice for survival favouring the usage of more stable olfactory landmarks to pheromone trails as means for navigation due to presence of extraordinary environmental pressures.
Truly amazing how nature adopts itself…
You can read more about navigation and homing behaviours in Cataglyphis fortis by following some of the links below:
Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest
Pinpointing Food Sources: Olfactory and Anemotactic Orientation in Desert Ants, Cataglyphis Fotis
Path integration in desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis
References:
Frontiers in Zoology. “Desert Ants Smell Their Way Home.” ScienceDaily 28 February 2009. 11 April 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/02/090226210035.htm>.
Kathrin Steck, Bill S Hansson and Markus Knaden, 2009. Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest. Frontiers in Zoology, Vol 6:5
H Wolf and R Wehner, 2000. Pinpointing Food Sources: Olfactory and Anemotactic Orientation in Desert Ants, Cataglyphis Fortis, Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol 203, Issue 5 857-868
Pictures extracted from:
http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/view.php?tid=2&did=22765
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090226210035.htm
© 2009 LSM1303 Animal Behaviour. All rights reserved.
TerraFirma | Hosted by Edublogs.
