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?
The star-nosed mole (Condylura Cristata) gives a totally new meaning to the term “fast food.” This mole has moves that can put David Blaine to shame: It can detect small prey animals and gulp them down with a speed that the human eye can’t follow.
The star-nosed mole, operating in the darkness of its burrow, can detect the presence of a tasty tidbit, such as an insect larva or tiny worm, determine that it is edible and gulp it down in 230 milliseconds!!
IN MY FULL GLORY
The secret to the star-nosed mole’s impressive foraging ability is the star-shaped set of appendages that ring its nose. The 22 appendages that ring its nose have a much larger surface area than the sensitive area of an ordinary mole nose. The flexible fingers also allow the star-nose to tap objects in its environment at a much faster rate.
This ability to handle prey so quickly and efficiently seems to provide the star-nosed mole with a real advantage: It should be able to live on a diet of smaller animals than its slow-poke competitors like the shrews and other kinds of moles.
This little critter is not simply a super-fast forager, it is in fact moving about as fast as its brain and nervous system will allow. When the mole touches a new object, its brain takes about eight milliseconds to determine whether it is edible. Given the minute timing involved, it is unsurprising that they frequently make mistakes.
RAWR!!!!
GONE IN MILLISECONDS!!!!!! EAT THAT NICHOLAS!! :p
References
Journal
1) The Journal of Comparative Neurology, Volume 351 Issue 4, Pages 549 – 567: Organization of the somatosensory cortex of the star-nosed mole, Kenneth C. Catania, Jon H. Kaas
2) he Journal of Comparative Neurology, Volume 365 Issue 3, Pages 343 – 354: Ultra structure of the Eimer’s organ of the star-nosed mole, Kenneth C. Catania
3) Bioscience, Vol.46, No.8 (Sep 1996), Pages 578-586: The Unusual Nose and Brain of the Star-nosed mole, Kenneth C. Catania, John H, Kaas
Long thought to be deaf, the praying mantis’ ear was discovered by David Yager during his graduate study stint at Cornell University. It was termed to be sensitive and specialized with the ability to pick up ultrasonic frequencies. Unlike other hearing insects which possess a pair of ears, the mantis only has one which is located in a groove in the underside of its thorax.
Functioning as an early warning signal for insectivorous bats, the mantis ear was dubbed to be like the device which warns a military pilot when enemy radar has locked onto his plane. The ear is tuned to the high frequency chirps of bats which is inaudible to humans. This enables the praying mantis to avoid their predators during flight and even a surprise bat attack cannot necessarily overcome the mantis advantage.
Within a tenth of a second after the mantis detects the bat’s ultrasonic calls, the mantis goes into a stall-like position with a superman-like stretch of their body and legs. Thereafter, the insect goes into a power dive which a spiral trajectory can also be added (if the need arises) and it enables them to double their speed when travelling in the air. Although the bats are still far superior in flight speeds, the mantis outmaneuver them with their evasive choreography.
Usually the mantis will pull itself out at the very last moment before hitting the ground. But it will crash land as a last resort if the bats are still hot on their trails. The mantis will survive the impact due to its weight and body structure but the bat will give up the chase due to their much higher chances of injury should they hit the ground.
Amato, Ivan. (1991). “Praying Mantises Play Top Gun“, Science, New Series. Volume 252, No. 5007, Page 781.
Miller, J., A. (1986). “Sensory Surprises in Platypus, Mantis“, Science News. Volume 129, No. 7, Page 104.
Yager, David D. and Hoy, Ronald R. (1986), “The Cyclopean Ear: A New Sense for the Praying Mantis“, Science, New Series. Volume 231, No. 4739, Pages 727-729.
Leopards are known to be graceful and powerful large cats which are so strong and comfortable in trees that it often hauls its kills into the branches. These solitary and predominately nocturnal predators usually usually hunt from trees because their spotted coat allows them to camouflage with the leaves, hence allowing them to hide themselves from their unsuspecting prey.
Leopards continually move about their territory, seldom staying in an area for more than two or three days at a time. They are now an endangered species especially in regions outside Africa.
The picture displays a leopard resting on a tree top perch.
As we all know, leopards are the ultimate predators for they are shrewd, deceitfully skilled and stealthy when they kill. But yet in Okavango Delta of Botswana, the law (leopard as the jungle queen predator) of the jungle was rewritten!
Leopard vs Baboon
It all began when Legadema, a young leopard, pounced on and silenced a baboon with a swipe of her vicious paw. Unknown to her, this was a mother primate who now lays dead. As she remained limp and motionless while being dragged up to the tree trunk by Legadema, something rustled from beneath the dead baboon’s fur!
Out crawled a tiny infant baboon who then dropped to the ground! It took awhile for Legadema to notice the presence of the newly born baby.
Did it attacked the little innocent, weak baboon?!!
Must be right!
(Like how predators love to lash out on the weak, injured and the young)
HOWEVER
Instead of a swift bite to the head of the baby baboon, Legadema actually invited its paws out and laid down beside the baby baboon after the tiny baboon stretched its arms out to her.
The momentus kill of the mother baboon had took for an amazing twist instead! This was nothing like the usual case of the predator-prey.
Bringing the baby baboon to safety from its prey
Soon, a pack of hyenas came and confronted the baby baboon for their kill. Instead of behaving like it was defending its kill, Legadema protected the baby by picking it up gently in its mouth, holding it from the scruff of its neck and carried it up safely into the tree. It was more like a mother trying to ensure that its young was free from harm.
It then cared for the baby and nestled together with it in the tree as if it was her own baby child.
Inter-species living together?
Baboons are the arch enemies of the Leopards. So why was this happening?
It could be that the maternal instincts of this leopard had set forth. It had forgotten itself as a predator and had unleashed its motherly predisposition to nurture it.
Hunting instincts are triggered by movement or sounds in cats. So could be be that it had confused itself into thinking it was a baby cub since the baby baboon was not sounding or moving much like a baboon?
Or could it be that the benefit of doing so had outweighed the cost? Benefit: Needed someone to communicate and play with? Cost: Forgoing it as its food?
The picture below shows the baby falling out from the tree and Legadema anxiously trying to save her away from the hyenas that were below the tree.
With its legitimate mother dead, the newborn starting following Legadema wherever she went, reaching out to her, most likely imprinting on its new surrogate mother.
Enjoy the Amazing Video
The night the leopard laid down with its enemy baboon.
In conclusion,
this news from National Geographic had showed us that large ferocious cats like Legadema do exists- they may consistently be curious and may be more willing to explore new experiences. They may not always be cold-blooded and in this case, the leopard had diverted from its hunting instincts. In addition, imprinting behaviour occured for the baby babon, who became socially bonded to the first moving object (Legadema) it had encountered. According to Dereck Joubert, a filmmaker who had followed Legadema for three and a half years in her natural habitat,
“It was as if nature had turned on its head completely.”
Did You Know?
Leopards weigh between 30-80 kg.
The elegant, powerfully built leopard has a long body, relatively short legs and a broad head. Its tawny coat is covered with dark, irregular circles called “rosettes.”
Both lions and hyenas will take away a leopard’s kill if they can. To prevent this leopards store their larger kills in trees where they can feed on them in relative safety.
References:
Leopard Lessons, by National Geographic Explorer, April 2007. Article by Dereck Joubert. Retrieved on 11 April 2009 from http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0704/articles/mainarticle.html
Leopard Saves a Baby Baboon, 14 April 2006. Retrieved on 11 April 2009 from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-422784/How-leopard-changed-spots—saved-baby-baboon.html
Learning Who is Your Mother, The Behaviour of Imprinting. Retrieved on 09 April 2009 from http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n14/experimento/lorenz/index-lorenz.html
Leopards, Wildlife- African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). Retrieved on 09 April 2009 from http://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/leopard
Baboons. Retrieved on 08 April 2009 from http://www.balaams-ass.com/yarn/baboons.htm
Mind control is a word that is not usually associated with the real world. What comes to mind when this word is mentioned are images from horror movies. However, in actual fact, the manipulation of the mind for the benefit of self is not that far fetched after all! There have been recorded instances of animals that appeared to have the ability to control the behaviour of others through parasitism.
Parasitism refers to a type of relationship between two organisms, in which one receives benefit from the other at the expense of the other organism. Some examples of well known parasites are the tapeworms and fleas.
Tapeworm
While some parasites induce pain, spread diseases and cause general deterioration of the host’s health, there are some parasites that do far more than merely affecting the physical being of the host.
wasp eggs deposited on caterpillar
The trematode parasite, Microphallus sp. was found to affect the behaviour of infected snails radically. The snails are the intermediate host for the parasite while birds are the eventual host. It was found that snails that were infected by the parasite were more prone to linger in open areas, where they were more noticeable by its predators. This bizzare behaviour greatly increases the possibility of the snails being spotted and consumed by birds. Once the parasitized snail is consumed by a bird, the parasite is then able to complete its developmental cycle in the bird’s body. Hence, through the modification of the behaviour of the snail, the parasite significantly increased its chances of completing its development (Levri, 1999).
Another example of such mind control actions of parasites include how wasps affect the behaviour of orb weaving spiders. The wasp Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga parasitizes on its host, the orb-weaving spider Plesiometa argyra by laying eggs on the abdomen of the spider. The spider is then able to carry out its normal daily function and appeared unaffected by the infection while the larva of the wasp feeds on the spider through small holes made on the spider’s abdomen. However, on the night before the larva kills off its host, the spider is induced to make a cocoon web that is able to support the cocoon of the larva, instead of its usual orb shaped web. Upon completion of this task, the spider is then killed and becomes food for the growing larva (Eberhard, 2001).
Normal orbweb vs Web spun by parasitized spider
Researchers are currently looking into the mechanism behind such phenomenon and if successful, this could translate into highly effective pest control measures.
References
Eberhard, W.G. (2001). Under the influence: Webs and building behaviour of Plesiometa argyra (Araneae: Tetragnathidae) when parasitized by Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). Journal of Arachnology 29, 354-366.
Levri, E.P. (1999). Parasite-induced change in host behaviour of a freshwater snail: parasitic manipulation or byproduct of infection? Behavioural Ecology 10, 234-241.
