If Goats could climb trees…

If I were to tell you goats could climb trees, you’d probably reply “pigs can fly.” But that’s just what’s happening in Morocco.

In Morocco, goats standing on tree branches are a common sight. There must be something that entices them to carry out this death defying stun. And if you guessed survival, you are probably right.

Food is the more likely answer. Further research revealed that the goats climb the Argan tree has a fruit which they love to feed on. Although the Agran tree is thorny, the goats do not seem to mind. Some climb as high as almost 10 meters to reach the fruit. The tree’s twisted trunk allows for easy climbing for them.

Unable to reach the fruits, the goats probably felt climbing them would be the next best option. It is not known how the goats took to climbing the trees, but the feet of the goats is shaped in a way that it provides enough cushion (for the thorns) and grip (to make their way up), and not forgetting their centre of gravity as well. The goats have to be light enough to stand on the branch, yet strong enough to climb their way up.

Interestingly, farmers would follow these herds of goats. That is because they tend to spilt out an indigestible part of the fruit which the farmers can use to produce oil. So it seems like a win-win situation for all. However, the Argan tree itself may face extinction.

16 Goats In A Tree

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References:

7 Incredible Natural Phenomena you’ve never seen http://www.oddee.com/item_91568.aspx

Goats in Trees? http://www.smm.org/buzz/blog/goats_in_trees

The Incredible Tree-Climbing Goats of Morocco http://webecoist.com/2008/08/19/the-incredible-tree-climbing-goats-of-morocco/

Hungry Goats Atop a Tree, Doing Their Bit for Epicures http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/international/africa/27goat.html

Pictures from:

The Incredible Tree-Climbing Goats of Morocco http://webecoist.com/2008/08/19/the-incredible-tree-climbing-goats-of-morocco/

Video from:

16 Goats In A Tree http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQev3UoGp2M&feature=related

I DON’T KNOW WHY MY ABOVE IS THAT WAY BUT JUST REFER TO MY BELOW:

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References:

7 Incredible Natural Phenomena you’ve never seen http://www.oddee.com/item_91568.aspx

Goats in Trees? http://www.smm.org/buzz/blog/goats_in_trees

The Incredible Tree-Climbing Goats of Morocco http://webecoist.com/2008/08/19/the-incredible-tree-climbing-goats-of-morocco/

Hungry Goats Atop a Tree, Doing Their Bit for Epicures http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/international/africa/27goat.html

Pictures from:

The Incredible Tree-Climbing Goats of Morocco http://webecoist.com/2008/08/19/the-incredible-tree-climbing-goats-of-morocco/

Video from:

16 Goats In A Tree http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQev3UoGp2M&feature=related

BBC – Nature’s Great Events – Bubble Net Fishing

link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hfiFfJHPcg

Cooperative behavior-bubble net feeding  (watch video from 2:50min onwards)

The Formation of the Bubble Net:

It is amazing to witness how graceful and huge marine mammals such as the Great Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) can devise an intelligent method of catching huge amounts of fish during foraging. Known as a method called bubble net feeding, Humpbacks hunt for their food in groups by assigning a whale to blow a jet of bubbles, forming curving lines to form a curtain of bubbles to trap a school of fish. Once this curtain of bubbles is formed, the rest of the whales will position themselves at the bottom of the bubbles before emerging upwards to feed on the fish. 

Sound Communication in action:

What intrigues me about the Humpbacks’ method of foraging is the way the whales communicate within one another to ensure better chances of foraging success. As shown in the video, the humpback whales constantly send out callings to another to locate their prey and position themselves accurately below the bubble net. Using this form of communication, the whales are able to forage with ease. They are able to move together and synchronize themselves to emerge towards the surface as a group to feed. 

Benefits in hunting in groups:

Humpback whales seem to be benefiting from this method of hunting in groups. In my opinion, it might be better off for the humpback whales to hunt in a group as they can cooperate to hunt a larger amount of fish as it might be more energy costly for them if they were to hunt alone. By assigning each whale to a different role, they might be actually spreading out the effort needed forage. This method of hunting might mean that it would be more energy-efficient for them to hunt as a team. 

How do they know? :

It is said in the video that only a few groups of whales know how to fish using the bubble net method. It still remains a mystery to me to find out how did these whales manage to implement such an intelligent method in the first place, from whom or how do they learn to trap the fish? How do they know that the fish would somehow be afraid and not dare to swim across the curtain of bubbles formed by the whales?  

References:

Bubble Net Feeding, http://www.alaskawhalefoundation.org/education/bubble_net/bubble_net_feeding.html , Retrieved 14th April 2009

BBC’s The Great Feast, http://www.bbc.co.uk/naturesgreatevents/feast_bubble.shtml, Retrieved 14th April 2009

In 1997, Swedish inspectors made a discovery of a pile of ammunition of missiles hidden in the Furuvik Zoo, apparently for the purpose of using it to hurl visitors. Among the discovery are five separate caches of stones found on the shoreline facing the public area. Each cache contained 3-8 missiles including concrete slabs and algae-covered stones.

The owner of it? Santino the chimpanzee!

Santino the chimp!

In the March 9 issue of the Current Biology, Mathias Osvath of Lund University noted that the behaviour of Santino is ‘premeditated’. According to him, “These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future in a very complex way,” and that “It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including life-like mental simulations of potential events. When wild chimps collect stones or go out to war, they probably plan this in advance. I would guess that they plan much of their everyday behaviour.”

Until now, it remains to be seen if natural chimp behaviour involves ‘true forward-planning or represents a reaction to present circumstances i.e. is a chimp that gathers twigs for termite-fishing planning for the future, or just responding to a more immediate hunger?’

Ing-Marie Persson who is one of Santino’s caretakers, has collected enough evidence to show that the chimp was deliberately stockpiling those objects for future acts of tourist-stoning. Persson observed Santino’s behaviour and it was noted that before the zoo is opened to visitors in the mornings, he would gather numerous stones from the moat and stacked them on the bank. When it was noon and as the crowds grew, Santino grabbed his ammo from his piles and threw them at the visitors.

A few studies (Gorillas Found Tossing “Weapons,” Study Says in the National Geographic and Apes Save Tools for Future Use by Nicholas J. Mulcahy and Josep Call⁾ have reported that chimps, orang-utans and scrub jays can plan for the future. Santino’s stone-throwing antics were completely spontaneous and could possibly be the very first few evidence of planned animal action.

References:

“Chimpanzee collects ammo for “premeditated” tourist stoning” by Ed Yong, 9 March 2009. http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/03/chimpanzee_collects_ammo_for_premeditated_tourist-stoning.php

“First Evidence Of Planned Animal Action? Chimp’s Stone Throwing At Zoo Visitors Was ‘Premeditated’” by Science Daily, 11 March 2009. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090309121931.htm

“Gorillas Found Tossing ‘Weapons,’ Study Says” by Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News, 30 January, 2008. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080130-gorillas-weapons.html

“Apes Saves Tools for Future Use” by Nicholas J. Mulcahy and Josep Call in Science Magazine, 19 May 2006. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/312/5776/1038

“Spontaneous planning for future stone throwing by a male chimpanzee” by
Mathias Osvath in Current Biology, 9 March 2009. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VRT-4VT0BCK-9&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=372daecb9f99d4f7862c069dee92e009

Recently, I caught this really hilarious video on the web of “Bizkit the Sleepwalking Dog”. Since I don’t own a dog, I started to wonder if dogs dream, and if they do, what they dream of. My research shows that it is possible that dogs dream, although they can’t tell us what they’ve been dreaming about.

Surprisingly (at least for me), quite some research has been done on the sleeping patterns of mammals in general, and dogs in particular. Dr. Graham Adams has published quite a few articles that focuses on the sleeping patterns of dogs and how it may influence their daytime behaviors. You can just go the the Science Direct website via NUS Library E-Databases and search for Adams G.J. One of his papers, entitled “Sleep-wake cycles and other night-time behaviours of the domestic dog Canis familiaris” shows that many dogs undergo both quiet and active sleep in relatively short sleeping cycles. Active sleep is where one will be able to observe the dog “showing REM or spasmodic movements of its legs, paws, ears, tail, tongue or muzzle” (238). The paper also quotes another paper that has found out that dogs “frequently display the signs of locomotor-like movement of their limbs” (Hendricks and Morrison, 1981), which is like what we saw in the video above.

In a not so academic but equally informative article, Dr. Nicholas Dodman points out that dog sleep is similar to human sleep in that both sleeps encompass rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and slow wave sleep (SWS). SWS occurs first, then REM; the latter is where “the body is fully relaxed but the mind is racing”. Dogs “may move their legs as if they are running, may whine or whimper as if excited, and may breath rapidly or hold their breath for short periods”. Studies in humans have shown that REM sleep is where dreams occur, or where people can remember their dreams, so it is possible to say that dogs are also dreaming during this time, which will account for their active movements and barks. This is the link to the article: http://www.petplace.com/dogs/do-dogs-dream/page1.aspx

So dog owners, if you see your dog start to run, whine or bark in its sleep, your dog is probably sleeping well. It’s probably chasing after something (a cat? a rabbit?) in its dreams and (hopefully) having lots of fun. :)

Photo of Sleeping Dog by Doug Greenberg on Flickr

References:

Adams G.J., and Johnson, K.G., “Sleep-wake cycles and other night-time behaviours of the domestic dogCanis familiaris”, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 36 (1993), 233-248.

Dodman, Nicholas, Do Dogs Dream? http://www.petplace.com/dogs/do-dogs-dream/page1.aspx

Doug Greenberg, Letting the sleeping dog lie image. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dagberg/451063931/

Hendricks, J.C., and Morrison A.R., “Normal and abnormal sleep in mammals”, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 178 (1981), 121-126.

Youtube, Bizkit the Sleepwalking Dog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2BgjH_CtIA

We are well familiar with the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House and even the Great Wall of China. But as impressive as these human architectures are, we have equally (or some would say, even better) awesome architects in nature: the Termites.

Certain species of Macrotermes and Amitermes build huge mound nests which are more than 10m in height. Amitermes are also known as magnetic termites due to the way they orientate their flat and broad protruding mounds which are along the north and south axis of the Earth. Unlike us, in which we can employ the help of heavy machinery and tools to aid in construction today, the termites built their enormous mounds solely relying only on their own strength. Bit by bit, each worker places a “brick” of building material, consisting of nothing but the soil in their vicinity, probably mixed with a bit of their saliva for cementing purposes.

Why the high and conspicuous mound you might ask. The reason is ventilation. Nests like these house large colonies of termites, some reaching a population of a million strong. With such numbers in an enclosed place, it can get truly hot. Acting as a chimney, the protrusion draws away heat and exchanges it with cooler fresh air. In addition to a chimney, these mound nests are fully equipped with a “well’ at the bottom in which the termites draw precious water.

The designs of these mounds serve several functional purposes like thermoregulation, ventilation and hydration. Moulded and fine-tuned overtime through evolution, they stand the trial of time. It is indeed fascinating to see such elaborate structures constructed by these little creatures working in great unison with such efficiency. But exactly how it is they communicate to each other to achieve such cooperation to the most minute of details, we don’t yet know.

 BBC Home Making: Termites

Termite World – Life in the Undergrowth – BBC Attenborough

References

Korb, J. and Linsenmair, K. E., 2000. Thermoregulation of termite mounds: what role does ambient temperature and metabolism of the colony play? Insectes Sociaux, 47:357-363.

Korb, J., 2003. The shape of compass termite mounds and its biological significance. Insectes Sociaux, 50: 218-221.

BBC Home Making: Termites. Accessed 9 April 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld07xdqnytk

BBC – Life in the Undergrowth: Episode 3. Accessed 9 April 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGaT0B__2DM