Celebrating International Dolphin Day!
Author: The Ethogram
The official blog of the UC Davis Animal Behavior Graduate Group.
Sunday Sketch: The Blue-Footed Booby
The healthiest Blue-Footed Booby chicks are typically sired by fathers with brighter blue feet. Female bird’s are more attracted to male birds with bluer feet, and male birds seek out partners with similar traits. During the breeding season, both sexes display their feet to each other as part of courtship. The nest is usually built…
Newsroom: Moving Day Mayhem: How adult-brood ratios shape ant relocation dynamics
Imagine you’re moving to a new house, and not only must you pack up all your belongings but also carry your children safely to the new home. Sounds stressful? For the Indian ant Diacamma indicum, this is pretty much their life story when they relocate their nest. A recent study in Myrmecological News shows that…
Field Notes: The Music of Mono Lake
I remember getting the acceptance email, offering me a position as a research assistant, on a late January night. It was the type of silence in the house you only achieve when the world is asleep…until I shouted in excitement and scared my brother who was sitting next to me. That was the first note…
Field Frame Friday: Ants know how to take a taxi!
The black cocoa ant (Dolichoderus thoracicus) is one of Southeast Asia’s most common and widely recognized arboreal ant species. Recently, they have also attracted attention as an invasive species in several Asian countries. What’s particularly interesting about the black cocoa ant is its unique breeding system, which involves multiple queens that aid the formation of…
Creature Feature: Haggis
Learn about the stunning true story of this marvel of the Scottish Highlands in the latest from Creature Feature!
Field Frame Friday: The odd damselfly out
I typically tell my summer camp kids that damselflies perch with their wings together, but this is an odd damselfly out. What’s its deal? How else can you properly identify a damselfly on the fly?
Arts & Crafts: Happy Save a Spider Day (March 14th)!
Brush up on some spider facts!
Sunday Sketch: The Small Bufflehead
They are recognized as the smallest diving ducks in North America. Their diet includes aquatic invertebrates, crustaceans, and mollusks, which they capture and consume underwater. During the breeding season, these birds vigorously defend their territories by attacking intruders—either in flight or by swimming underwater—and striking at them with their wings. Art and fact by Cloude…
Creature Feature: Leaf Slug
Do my eyes deceive me or is that patch of algae…moving? Well, not exactly. This sea slug (Costasiella kuroshimae) goes by many names, often affectionately referred to as the leaf sheep or even the “Shaun-the-sheep slug” by divers in the Philippines [1]. The leaf slug – like in this artistic rendition – does bear a…
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