Since Snowball the sulphur-crested cockatoo went viral with his dance moves, plenty of cockatoos and other parrot species have been observed boogieing to their favorite jams. What makes these birds such good dancers? The leading hypothesis is that their innate vocal learning ability has equipped them with the special perceptual and cognitive tools that allow them to feel the rhythm and move to a beat.
Author: Alexander Vining
Alexander is a fourth year Ph.D. Candidate in the Animal Behavior Graduate Group at UC Davis. He studies the evolution of spatial cognition within tropical canopies, focusing primarily on the kinkajou, a medium-sized, nocturnal frugivore that lives in the forest canopies of Central and South America. He loves climbing trees, rambling for hours about cognitive psychology, and writing an elegant function in R.
Field Notes Supplementary Material: Facing COVID-19 as a scientist on the move.
In case last week’s Field Notes left you wanting more, researcher Alexander Vining provides some “supplementary material” about what it is like to migrate amid a pandemic.
Field Frame Friday: Beauty in Decay
I found this violet bellied hummingbird (Juliamyia julie) in Panama shortly after it died. The iridescence in hummingbird feathers does not come from pigmentation; it is structural. Microscopic “bubbles” in hummingbird feathers refract light; the size and arrangement of the bubbles determines the colors that escape, creating brilliant patterns like the rainbow seen on this…
Creature Feature: the Greater Spear-Nosed Bat
“I think he’s in the termite mound!” I shouted. Camila Calderón, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, called back: “No! Let’s keep looking over this hill! Maybe the signal is bouncing!” Camila studies the greater spear-nosed bat, Phyllostomus hastatus (or just Phast to its friends). With a typical adult wingspan of…
Field Fiasco Friday: Case of the Missing i-Pad
The animal I study (the kinkajou, Potos flavus) is arboreal and nocturnal. This means that to watch one, I have to run through the Panamanian rainforest at night. While looking up. To manage this, I rely a lot on technology. First, I put collars on my kinkajous that transmit a radio signal. I can use…
Field Notes: Jungle Prozac
Jungle Prozac, my mom calls it. A potent drug, elements unknown. Possible components include the slurry of plant-produced volatile compounds infusing the air, the pleasing fractal dimensions of so many trees, adventure-induced hormone cascades, frequent exercise, a vegetative buffer from the anxieties of society, and a palm-framed view of Lake Gatun, Panama. Whatever its true…
Field Frame Friday Holiday Edition: Christmas in the Field
Alexander is spending Christmas on Barro Colorado Island in Panama, part of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The island is quiet for the holiday: only him, a handful of guardabosques (“Forest Guards”, similar to game wardens, that help maintain and protect the Barro Colorado National Monument), and a few cooks. They had a special lunch,…
Creature Feature: Orchid Bee
Orchid bee cologne smells a bit like vanilla, cinnamon, and a dollop of rotting meat…
Field Frame Friday: Forest monkeys
Commonly known as the red-tailed monkey, Schmidt’s guenon, or the black-cheeked, white-nosed monkey, this primate species (Cercopithecus ascanius) ranges across much of Central Africa. This male, named Kinky for the bend in the end of his tail, was photographed in the Issa Valley, part of the Ugalla Region, Tanzania. He was one of a couple…
Field Frame Friday: Beach baboons
A threat display from an olive baboon (Papio anubis) produces a submissive response from a second individual. Dominance (relative rankings of animals) is a major guiding force in many animal societies. In fact, in male olive baboons, more certain dominance hierarchies is associated with lower average levels of cortisol, a hormone that is typically associated…
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