LSM1303 Animal Behaviour

Original image from: Mark Thorpe, http://www.flickr.com/photos/camdiver/850157199/

• Wanted: The Mimic Octopus – a specie of octopus that has a strong ability to mimic other creatures.
• Specie: Thaumoctopus mimicus
• Size: can grow up to 60 cm (2 feet) in length.
• When not in disguise: normal colouring consists of brown and white stripes or spots.
• Usual hang-out: in the tropical seas of South East Asia
• Last seen: mimicking a banded sea-snake, darting away from the alarmed damselfish-prison-guards whose predators are banded sea-snakes. 
• Last words-quoted from its Fishbook status: I’m not as ‘sotong’ as you think! *chuckles*  

Sea dwellers beware! Do not be fooled by this con-octopus! Indeed, this intelligent creature of the deep has intrigued scientists due to its mysterious ability to mimic lionfish, flatfish, jellyfish, sea snakes and even the mantis shrimp – at least fifteen different species of sea creatures! Octopuses are known for its flexibility and capability of changing colours and texture to blend into its surroundings but the mimic octopus has managed to go a step further by mimicry. Initial discovery of this specie of octopus has amazed researchers, such as Mark Norman of the Melbourne AustraliaMuseum

The art of mimicry and camouflaging is not unknown in the animal kingdom. Among the many types of biological mimicry, the one most familiar to us will be Batesian mimicry, named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, where a harmless specie (the mimic) imitate another dangerous specie (the model) in order to ward off its predator, such as the milk snake resembling the highly venomous coral snake as we have seen in lecture. Still, if there is an Oscar Award in the animal kingdom, in my opinion, this specie of octopus owns it all. The ability to mimic many animals is termed as dynamic mimicry in Norman et al.’s study of the Mimic Octopus and this is largely beneficial since the open sand and mud habitat of the octopus is rather exposed to a huge number of predators in the sea. Thus, it does makes a lot of sense for the highly flexible Mimic Octopus to adopt an outward appearance best suited to the perceived threat at that point of time.

What is pertinent to note, however, is that the mimic octopus impersonates mostly animals that produce strong toxins such as the banded sea snakes and lion fishes to deceive its predators, as shown from the studies done by Norman and fellow researchers Julian Finn and Tom Tregenza (Mark D. Norman, Julian Finn and Tom Tregenza, 2001). This suggests that the Mimic Octopus imitates to warn off its potential predators rather than for its own predatory purpose. Below are some of the mimicry survival tactics quoted from National Geographic News:

-         Lion fish. Just above the seafloor the octopus swims with its arms spread wide and trailing from its body, mimicking the lion fish and its poisonous fins.

-         Sea snakes. Changing its color to imitate the yellow and black bands of the toxic sea snake, the octopus threads six of its arms into a hole and waves the other two arms in opposite directions so they look like two snakes. 

Enough said. Here are some forms it may take:

Mimic Octopus in various forms: flatfish; lionfish; sea snake

Image taken from: http://bbblog.ru/images/2008/11/mimic-octopus.jpg

Report to Underworld Water Prison immediately if you see it.

References:

“Newfound Octopus Impersonates Fish, Snakes”, by John Roach. National Geographic News, September 21, 2001

 Mark D. Norman, Julian Finn and Tom Tregenza (2001). Dynamic Mimicry in an Indo-Malayan Octopus. Proceedings: Biological Sciences, Vol. 268, No. 1478 (Sep. 7, 2001), pp. 1755-1758. Published by: The Royal Society

 Hemdal J. (2007). Aquarium Fish: Captive Observations of the Mimic Octopus, Thaumoctopus mimicus. Advanced Aquarist’s Online Magazine, Vol. VI, April 2007.

 Wikipedia, “Mimic Octopus”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimic_octopus  

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.”

Way to go kitty!

Interview with Dr. Joan Teno

Fox News: Oscar

The Oscar case solved!!!

References

US cat ‘predicts patient deaths’ (Thursday, 26 July 2007), from BBC Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6917113.stm

Amazing can can predict death (Thursday, 26 July 2007), from The Courier Mail Australia: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22137965-952,00.html

Interview with Dr. Joan Teno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWUXQ0hXJHk

Eye to Eye BBC News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xuK8hoH5io

The Oscar case solved: http://www.youtube.com/v/K0FUFxEyGJ0

Camera?

What does this sound like to you?

Yes, it sounds like a camera taking pictures. 

How about this?

chainsaw?

If you hear these noises while walking in the forest of southeastern Australia, you might think that someone is out there stalking you with a camera and chainsaw. But don’t panic, as most likely what you heard has nothing to do with psychotic stalkers. 

If you think that the above 2 sound clips are sounds of camera and chainsaw, then you have just been fooled by the most amazing songbirds on the planet – the Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae). 

Here is what it looks like.

The Superb Lyrebird can produce and mimic diverse and complicated sounds due to its syrinx, which is the vocal organ of songbirds.  The syrinx of the Lyrebird is the most complexly-muscled of the songbirds. It gives them the amazing ability of mimic sounds like camera shutters, chainsaws, car alarms and even crying babies. 

In order to attract females, the male Superb Lyrebird tries singing complex songs. The songs are complex as the Superd Lyrebird will copy the singing of other species of birds. Sometimes the mimicry is so good and accurate that even the original is fooled by it.

For those who have a hard time believing that a bird is capable of mimicking the sounds of camera shutters and chainsaws, below are clips of the birds performing.

 camera

chainsaw

Lyre Bird – Imitating Sounds

References

Richard Zann and Emily Dunstan (2008) Mimetic song in superb lyrebirds: species mimicked and mimetic accuracy in different populations and age classes

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