Agoutis are terrestrial rodents that can be found throughout Central and South America. If you come across these creatures you are most likely to find them traveling in pairs and perusing the forest floor for fruits and seeds. Due to these foraging patterns, these animals are known to have important ecosystem roles as seed dispersers…
Grief: It’s Not Just a Human Thing
Grief is a familiar emotion to many people who have experienced loss. However, behaviors associated with grief are not exclusive to our fellow Homo sapiens. In fact, numerous other animal species have been observed to grieve a loss through an assortment of behavioral responses. Emotions like grief are able to connect animals both socially and…
Creature Feature: Spotted Hyena
Spotted hyena females have a pseudo penis, which makes for interesting birthing stories…
Sunday Sketch: Parrot Fish
As a kid, would you hide under your blanket to avoid monsters lurking in your closet? Well, many Chlorurus genera of parrotfish, such as the Bullethead Parrotfish (Chlorurus spilurus), not only hide from predators, but make the blanket that they hide under! They will find a nook in the coral reef in the evening and…
Field Frame Friday: Zany zebu
Zebu (Bos indicus or Bos taurus) are a species of domestic cattle that can be seen in many countries throughout Asia and Africa. They can be easily spotted by the fatty deposit atop their backs, and are popular due to their adaptability to hot and arid environments. These animals have many uses for humans including…
So, you want to go to grad school?
Are you interested in any form of animal behavior, conservation, ecology, and /or evolution? Do you think you want to apply to graduate school, but aren’t sure where to start? The Ethogram has curated a list of resources, many specific to our field, full of advice on all steps of the process. Note: this is…
Creature Feature: San Joaquin Kit Fox
Although the San Joaquin Kit Fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) can easily be mistaken for other canids such as the red or grey fox, they are their own unique species with an interesting history. Unlike coyotes or other foxes, these slender, miniature foxes are endemic to the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. As the smallest…
Sunday Sketch: Sea Squirts
Did you know that humans are related to sea squirts? Although you may not see the family resemblance, sea squirts (class Ascidians), are members of the phylum Chordata, which include all animals with a spinal cord (e.g. birds, fish, reptiles, and humans). However, unlike typical chordates, sea squirts only have their spinal cord and a…
Field Frame Friday: Early mornings
Jungle breakfasts are usually creative: most gibbon groups begin singing as the sun rise, so breakfast is always eaten in the dark and often accompanied with a beautiful chorus. Each morning, we did fixed acoustic surveys based off two observers in order to triangulate group locations and estimate gibbons densities within our field site. Pictured next…
Field Notes: Trinidadian guppies
For the last five years, I have studied the effects of human-induced land change on species interactions and behavior in freshwater streams in the Northern Range Mountains of Trinidad. As I put the finishing touches on my dissertation, this my first summer in four years when I’m not in the Northern Range Mountains of Trinidad…
Creature Feature: Kinkajou
The kinkajou is a carnivoran with some pretty unique adaptations…
Sunday Sketch: Ape Tails
Did you know that an infant #chimpanzee has a white tail tuft until it is about 3 years old? Gorilla infants have this white patch on their rumps too! It is still unclear exactly why these great apes would need this derrière protective peace flag as infants, although evolutionary theory has suggested that it might…
