Cool Animals
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Dolphins ‘talk’ like humans + efforts at a translator « Xenophilia (True Strange Stuff)
A study in which recordings of dolphins made in the 1970s were re-analysed has revealed that dolphins talk to each other in a manner very similar to human speech, using tissue vibrations. The study by biologists at Aarhus University in Denmark concentrated on the dolphin’s whistle, which was believed to be produced by the resonance of air in the dolphin’s nasal air cavities. This would have implications for how dolphins communicate at depth — increased air pressure would affect the size of the nasal air cavities and therefore the pitch of the sounds they can make. Instead, the team discovered that the dolphin’s whistle isn’t in fact a whistle at all; but a sound produced by tissue vibrations.
Elephant Makes a Stool—First Known Aha Moment for Species
In an apparent flash of insight, a young Asian elephant in a zoo turned a plastic cube into a stool—and a tool—a new study says. That eureka moment is the first evidence that pachyderms can run problem-solving scenarios in their heads, then mentally map out an effective solution, and finally, put the plan into action, researchers say. During the study seven-year-old Kandula was eager to reach a cluster of fruit attached to a branch that was suspended from a wire, just out of reach. After some apparent thought, the young male rolled a large plastic cube under the branch and stepped up to snatch the treat with his trunk—a feat he repeated several times over multiple days with the cube and with a tractor tire.A South American dolphin is the first “true mammal” to sense prey by their electric fields, scientists suggest. The researchers first showed that structures on the animal’s head were probably sensory organs, then found it could detect electric fields in water. The Guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) lives around the east coast of South America, and resembles the much more common bottlenose variety. They are not as sensitive as sharks and rays, but can detect signals of the same size as those produced in water when fish move their muscles. …
Dolphin hunts with electric sense « Xenophilia (True Strange Stuff)
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Psychedelic frog comes back from the deads - Australian Geographic
Add this spider to your page and watch it crawl around and follow your mouse. The latest update added more realism to the spider and allows you to change its color, size, and speed. You can also add an image behind the spider.
iGoogle: Get Spider on your Google homepage
A spider widget!
This is cool; a Google, Netvibes, etc, shockwave widget showing a spider walking across your screen. Without a mouse in view, it’ll randomly walk across. With a mouse, it’ll follow it around. It’s a definite must have for anybody suffering from arachnophobia: aBowman.com » Spider
BBC Nature - Lizard has problem-solving skills
The tropical lizard Anolis evermanni was able to associate the colour of a disc with a food reward - flipping over the correct disc to reveal a worm secreted underneath. Manual Leal, the Duke University researcher who led the study, explained: "The first thing we wanted to know was: can they flip over the disc to get the worm?" This humble, well-studied species is known to have a simple foraging method, whereby it scans the horizon for moving prey and strikes it from above.
A gorilla at the UK's Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust was recently given a video camera, and you can see the results in the video up top. Honestly, the gorilla's cinematography is way more coherent than most action movies. Not to be outdone by a bunch of macaque photography enthusiasts , staff at the Jersey wildlife trust gave an HD camera to a 27-year-old Silverback gorilla named Ya Kwanza. The camera was covered in oats and honey to attract Ya Kwanza's attention, and it was encased in an indestructible box so that the gorilla couldn't have too fun with it. Keeper Jon Stark explains how he got the idea:
Gorilla is given a video camera, awesomeness ensues
This is the first ever photo of a fish using tools
This blackspot tuskfish, found in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, held a clam in its mouth and smashed it against a rock to reach the food inside. This photo is the first incontrovertible proof that fish are capable of tool use. While tool use was once seen as a uniquely human behavior, decades of animal observation has proven just how wrong that really was. We've seen primates, crows , and maybe even octopuses show signs of tool use. But outside of mammals, birds, and octopuses, tool use is close to unknown.
July Fourth tragedy: Dolphins 'carried Luis Arturo Polanco Morales' body to shore' | Mail Online
At first they believed the tide had washed Mr Morales up but witnesses to the sad event at Grand Isle, Louisiana, reported the body had been carried to shore by dolphins. Did they help? Witnesses at Grand Isle, Louisiana, reported the drowned body of Luis Arturo Polanco Morales had been carried to shore by dolphins
Panzee, a chimp with a talent for words A talented chimpanzee called Panzee can recognise distorted and incomplete words spoken by a computer, scientists have discovered. That suggests that apes may be more capable of perceiving spoken sounds than previously thought, and that the common ancestor of humans and chimps may also have had this ability. It also refutes the idea that humans have brains uniquely adapted to process speech, say the scientists who have published their findings in the journal Current Biology. Panzee was raised from 8 days old, by humans, and was spoken to and treated as if she were human. At the same time, she was taught to use symbols called lexigrams to communicate.
BBC Nature - Chimp recognises synthetic speech
It soon attracted the attention of an inquisitive female from a local group of crested black macaque monkeys, known for their intelligence and dexterity. 'They were quite mischievous jumping all over my equipment, and it looked like they were already posing for the camera when one hit the button. 'He must have taken hundreds of pictures by the time I got my camera back, but not very many were in focus.
Black macaque takes self-portrait: Monkey borrows photographer's camera | Mail Online
How humpback whales catch prey with bubble nets
ScienceDaily (June 24, 2011) — Marine biologist David Wiley of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) and others report in the latest issue of Behaviour how humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine catch prey with advanced water technology. Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) are large baleen whales (up to 14 m long) that feed on a small prey in dense concentrations, such as krill or herrings. Humpbacks whales have large flukes relative to their size providing greater thrust for quick maneuvers. While other baleen whales feed by swimming rapidly forward, humpbacks are adapted for fine-scale movement to create bubble nets. Behaviorally, humpback whales capture prey by engaging in complex feeding maneuvers that are often accompanied by the apparently directed use of air bubble clouds (the production of single or multiple bursts of seltzer-sized bubbles) to corral or herd fish.Orangutan saves drowning chick « Xenophilia (True Strange Stuff)
A visitor to US zoo, captured moment when a 15 stone ape mounted a delicate rescue of the young bird, tenderly lifting it from the water using a leaf. The curious ape was in its enclosure, when it noticed the bird’s struggle in the pond It yanked a leaf from a nearby bush and extended its arm out to the bird, beckoning to the chick in the hope that it will latch onto the leaf.Animals
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