Category Archives: behavior

Birds categorize colors just like humans do

Link

Birds categorize colors just like humans do. Duke Today, August 1, 2018. For a reddish-beaked bird called the zebra finch, sexiness is color-coded. Males have beaks that range from light orange to dark red. But to females, a male’s colored bill may simply be hot, or not, findings suggest. Due to a phenomenon called categorical perception, zebra finches partition the range of hues from red to orange into two discrete categories, much like humans do, researchers report in the journal Nature. Picked up by Forbes, Discover Magazine, BBC News and ZME Science.

When cozying up with would-be predators, cleaner shrimp follow a dependable script

Link

When cozying up with would-be predators, cleaner shrimp follow a dependable script. Duke Today, June 20, 2018. It’s a mystery how cleaner shrimp partner with would-be fish predators — sometimes even climbing in their mouths — without getting eaten. A new study reveals how the shrimp convinces fish not to eat them, and the fish conveys that it’s a friend and not a foe. Picked up by National Geographic.

Birds have time-honored traditions, too

Link

Birds have time-honored traditions, too. Duke Today, June 20, 2018. By faithfully copying the most popular songs, swamp sparrows create time-honored song traditions that can be just as long-lasting as human traditions, finds a new study. The results show that creating traditions that pass the test of time doesn’t necessarily require exceptional smarts. Picked up by Gizmodo, Mental Floss, Newsweek, the Daily Mail, Science Magazine, National Geographic, The London Economic, News & Observer and New Scientist.

Why a robot can’t yet outjump a flea

Link

Why a robot can’t yet outjump a flea. Duke Today, April 26, 2018. Smashing mantis shrimp. Snapping trap-jaw ants. Stinging jellyfish. Some of the fastest living things — at least over short distances — are also the smallest. A new mathematical model explores how the smallest and speediest things on Earth generate their powerful jumps, snaps, strikes and punches. The model could help explain why robots can’t hold a candle to the fastest-moving insects and other tiny-but-powerful creatures, and how they could get closer. Picked up by Scientific American, Wired, Popular Mechanics, Quartz and Tech Times.

How infighting turns toxic for chimpanzees

Link

How infighting turns toxic for chimpanzees. Duke Today, March 26, 2018. How did a once-unified community of chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, end up at each other’s throats? In a new study, researchers mapped the chimps’ social networks at different periods leading up to the split to pinpoint when relations began to fray, and test ideas about what caused the rift. The most likely culprit was a power struggle among three top-ranking males, which was made worse by a shortage of fertile females, results show. Picked up by Quartz, CBC News, Seeker, Futurity and the Daily Mail.

How the color-changing hogfish ‘sees’ with its skin

Link

How the color-changing hogfish ‘sees’ with its skin. Duke Today, March 12, 2018. The hogfish can go from white to reddish in milliseconds as it adjusts to shifting conditions in the ocean. Scientists have long suspected that animals with quick-changing colors don’t just rely on their eyes to tune their appearance to their surroundings — they also sense light with their skin. But exactly how remains a mystery. A study reveals that hogfish skin senses light differently from eyes. Picked up by Futurity.

Women survive crises better than men

Link

Women survive crises better than men. Duke Today, Jan. 9, 2018. Women tend to live longer than men almost everywhere worldwide. Now, three centuries of data show that women don’t just outlive men in normal times: They’re more likely to survive even in the worst of circumstances, such as famines and epidemics. Picked up by Xinhua, The Guardian, United Press International, Futurity, U.S. News & World Report, New York Post and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Bonobos prefer jerks

Link

Bonobos prefer jerks. Jan. 4, 2018. Never trust anyone who is rude to a waiter, advice columnists say. But while humans generally prefer individuals who are nice to others, a Duke University study finds bonobos are more attracted to jerks. The fact that our closest primate relatives prefer bullies suggests that an aversion to creeps is one of the things that makes humans different from other species, and may underlie our unusually cooperative nature. Picked up by Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, UPI, Science News, Quartz, Radio France, Le Figaro, France Inter, Smithsonian, Cosmos, Daily Mail, Discover Magazine, Scientific American and National Public Radio.

Chimp females who leave home postpone parenthood

Link

Chimp females who leave home postpone parenthood. Nov. 20, 2017. Female chimps that lack supportive friends and family wait longer to start having babies, Duke University researchers find. An analysis of more than 50 years’ worth of daily records for female chimpanzees in Gombe National Park in Tanzania indicates that would-be moms who leave home or are orphaned take roughly three years longer to start a family. Picked up by the Daily Mail.

Pinpointing where Durham’s nicotine addicts get their fix

Link

Pinpointing where Durham’s nicotine addicts get their fix. Duke Research blog, Aug. 10, 2017. It’s been five years since Durham expanded its smoking ban beyond bars and restaurants to include public parks, bus stops, even sidewalks. While smoking in the state overall may be down, 19 percent of North Carolinians still light up, particularly the poor and those without a high school or college diploma. Now, new maps show where Durham’s nicotine addicts get their fix.

Live-in grandparents helped human ancestors get a safer night’s sleep

Link

Live-in grandparents helped human ancestors get a safer night’s sleep. Duke Today, July 12, 2017. A sound night’s sleep grows more elusive as people get older. But what some call insomnia may actually be an age-old survival mechanism, researchers report. A study of modern hunter-gatherers in Tanzania finds that, for people who live in groups, differences in sleep patterns commonly associated with age help ensure that at least one person is awake at all times. Picked up by The New York Times, CBS News, New Scientist, Discover Magazine, Science, Huffington Post, Daily Mail, Cosmos, The Guardian, BBC News, Mental Floss, Popular Science, Toronto Star, Reader’s Digest, USA Today and The Telegraph.

Researchers identify genes that help trout find their way home

Link

Researchers identify genes that help trout find their way home. Duke Today, April 26, 2017. In the spring when water temperatures start to rise, rainbow trout that have spent several years at sea traveling hundreds of miles from home manage, without maps or GPS, to find their way back to the rivers and streams where they were born for spawning. Researchers have identified genes that enable the fish to perform this extraordinary homing feat with help from Earth’s magnetic field. Picked up by the Daily Mail, Nature, The Herald-Sun, IFLScience and the News & Observer.

Mating mix-up with wrong fly lowers libido for Mr. Right

Link

Mating mix-up with wrong fly lowers libido for Mr. Right. Duke Today, March 16, 2017. If you’ve ever suffered a nightmare date and were hesitant to try again, fruit flies can relate. Female flies that have been coerced into sex by invasive males of the wrong species are less likely to reproduce with their own kind later. Invasive species are known to threaten native biodiversity by bringing in diseases, preying on resident species or outcompeting them for food. But these results show invasives pose a risk through unwelcome advances, too. Picked up by The Discovery Files, a podcast from the National Science Foundation.

People far from urban lights, bright screens still skimp on sleep

Link

People far from urban lights, bright screens still skimp on sleep. Duke Today, Feb. 16, 2017. Screen time before bed can mess with your sleep. But people without TV and laptops skimp on sleep too, researchers say. A Duke University study of people living without electricity or artificial light in a remote farming village in Madagascar finds they get shorter, poorer sleep than people in the U.S. or Europe. But they seem to make up for lost shuteye with a more regular sleep routine, the researchers report. Picked up by Huffington Post.

Why baboon males resort to domestic violence

Link

Why baboon males resort to domestic violence. Duke Today, Jan. 18, 2017. Some baboon males vying for a chance to father their own offspring expedite matters in a gruesome way — they kill infants sired by other males and attack pregnant females, causing them to miscarry, researchers report. Infanticide has been documented in other animals including baboons, lions and dolphins, but rarely feticide. The perpetrators are more prone to commit domestic violence when forced to move into a group with few fertile females, the study finds. Picked up by The Times (South Africa), Cosmos Magazine, Smithsonian and Seeker of the Discovery Channel.

Genetic opposites attract when chimpanzees choose a mate

Link

Genetic opposites attract when chimpanzees choose a mate. Duke Today, Jan. 11, 2017. Duke University researchers find that chimpanzees are more likely to reproduce with mates whose genetic makeup most differs from their own. Many animals avoid breeding with parents, siblings and other close relatives, researchers say. But chimps are unusual in that even among virtual strangers they can tell genetically similar mates from more distant ones. Chimps are able to distinguish degrees of genetic similarity among unfamiliar mates many steps removed from them in their family tree. Picked up by UPI.com and the Daily Mail.

 

Upward mobility boosts immunity in monkeys

Link

Upward mobility boosts immunity in monkeys. Duke Today, Nov. 24, 2016. The richest and poorest Americans differ in life expectancy by more than a decade. Health inequalities across the socioeconomic spectrum are often attributed to medical care and lifestyle habits. But a study of rhesus monkeys shows the stress of life at the bottom can impact immunity even in the absence of other risk factors. Infection sends immune cells of low-ranking monkeys into overdrive, but social mobility can turn things around, researchers report in Science. Picked up by BBC News, Scientific American, The Telegraph, The Scientist, Science Magazine, Science News, the Daily Mail, New Scientist and The New York Times.

‘Mean girl’ meerkats can make twice as much testosterone as males

Link

‘Mean girl’ meerkats can make twice as much testosterone as males. Duke Today, Oct. 20, 2016. Testosterone. It’s often lauded as the hormone that makes males bigger, bolder, stronger. Now researchers have identified one group of animals, the meerkats of Africa, in which females can produce even more testosterone than males — the only animals known to have such a pattern. Female meerkats with high levels of testosterone-related hormones are more likely to be leaders, but they also pay a price for being macho, according to two new studies. Picked up by the Daily Mail and the daily news feed of the National Science Foundation.

In the ocean, clever camouflage beats super sight

Link

In the ocean, clever camouflage beats super sight. Duke Today, Aug. 23, 2016. Some fish blend seamlessly into their watery surroundings with help from their silvery reflective skin. Researchers have long assumed that squid, shrimp and other ocean animals could see through this disguise, thanks to an ability to detect a property of light — called polarization — that humans can’t see. But a new study finds that not even polarization vision helps animals spot silvery fish from afar. Picked up by Cosmos.

Breakneck bite

Link

Breakneck bite. 1,100 words, Aug. 1, 2016. The jaws of trap-jaw ants can generate forces hundreds of times their body weight and snap shut at speeds reaching 145 miles per hour — over 2,000 times faster than the blink of an eye. Duke biologists are using 3-D X-ray imaging to peer inside the insects’ heads and study the internal structures that power their impressive mandibles.

Lemurs mix smelly secretions to make richer, longer-lasting scents

Link

Lemurs mix smelly secretions to make richer, longer-lasting scents. Duke Today, April 19, 2016. Humans aren’t alone in their ability to mix perfumes and colognes. Lemurs, too, get more out of their smelly secretions by combining fragrances from different scent glands to create richer, longer-lasting scents, finds a study led by Duke University. Picked up by Mental Floss, Scientific American, Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, and the Daily Mail.