For nearly 60 years, the red fox has been teaching scientists about animal behavior. In a long-term experiment, foxes at the Russian Institute of Cytology and Genetics have been selected for tameness or aggression, recreating the process of domestication from wolves to modern dogs in real time. Today, with the first-ever publication of the fox...
Small birds fly at high altitudes towards Africa
A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that small birds migrating from Scandinavia to Africa in the autumn occasionally fly as high as 4,000 metres above sea level -- probably adjusting their flight to take advantage of favourable winds and different wind layers.
This is the first time that researchers have tracked how high...
Mice individuality is influenced by their relations
Individuality is not exclusive to humans. Though this idea was previously rebutted by biologists, today it is accepted that individuality is found in all animal species. It is defined as all the behavior differences between individuals of a single species that are relatively stable over time. Though the process called individuation is supported by genetic...
Abandoned farmlands enrich bird communities
Agriculture and conversion of pristine lands into urban or industrial areas have exerted immense pressure on the natural biota due to habitat destruction and fragmentation in industrialized countries around the world. But since the 1900s, farmlands have been increasingly abandoned due to the decline in domestic agriculture and, in some countries, a decline in population....
Fairy-wrens learn alarm calls of other species just by listening
Birds often eavesdrop on the alarm calls of other species, making it possible for them to take advantage of many eyes looking out for danger. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on August 2 have found that fairy-wrens can learn those unfamiliar calls -- which they liken to a foreign language -- even without ever...
Fecal deposits reveal the fruit fly's pheromone flag
Fruit flies have a rich language of smell messages that they exchange, but now their secret is out. In a report published August 2 in Current Biology, scientists were able to tap into the communications among freely interacting flies using a bioluminescent technology to monitor their brain activity. They discovered that males signal their presence...