Reindeer are a central figure in many modern Christmas celebrations. In the United States, children grow up listening to the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” on the radio, or watching him become Santa’s best buddy on TV. Yet as familiar as U.S. pop culture seems to be with reindeer, how much do we actually know…
Category: Science and Culture
5 Ways to be a Sensitive Animal
Animals, just like humans, can have personalities. Too bad, that unlike us, they can’t take online personality quizzes! Instead, scientists measure personality traits using behavioral assays. For example, we can test the “shyness” of an individual cricket by putting him in a box in a new space and see how long it takes him to…
Like a Moth to Flame
How humans have accidentally hacked the light-loving instincts of animals (and how animal behavior can save them). Arguably one of humans’ most conspicuous behavioral traits is our unparalleled predilection for engineering the habitats we settle upon. As we shape the world around us, some species may be drawn towards our settlements – into what they…
Buggin’ Out
It’s a hot summer night in Davis, one of the rare few where the delta breeze fails to bring relief from the scorching daytime highs. Tossing and turning in bed, you decide the effort is futile and you might as well engage in a little nocturnal foraging bout. You drag yourself from bed, bleary-eyed, and…
Udderly brilliant: Chewing for cognition
If you’ve ever walked past a dairy farm, you’ve probably seen a cow or calf doing something pretty similar to this picture below. While it looks like this calf is just sticking its tongue out at you, in person it certainly looks like the animal is a little bit crazy. In motion, it looks like…
Bowels and Movements
It’s a classic scene: a majestic humpback whale breaches, thrusting its mass into the air. Its pectoral fins wave as it turns to land with a splash. It disappears into the depths before resurfacing, exhaling a spout of steam from its blowhole. We watch in awe, but there’s something missing in this description that may…
The Traveling Sales-Monkey
There is a famous problem in the field of computer science called the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP for short). It goes something like this: you are a salesperson who needs to travel to some specific set of cities, and you want to travel the shortest distance possible. What is the shortest route such that you…
SPECIAL SEGMENT: Class Feature!
The Ethogram is excited to announce a special segment of blog posts – a Class Feature! The Fundamentals of Animal Behavior graduate course at UC Davis has teamed with The Ethogram to create a series of blog posts that will run throughout the month of November, starting tomorrow! The students in this course worked in…
Getting off the ground: climbing salamanders and Individual-Based Models
By: Kira McEntire Imagine you are a salamander. You are a small amphibian found in forests, ponds and/or streams. You probably have 4 legs and a long tail. You may be brightly colored with toxic skin. Got it? Good. What are the things most important to you (as a salamander)? How do you spend…
Saving the Kingfisher!
POST BY: Andrew Alba I have been fortunate to work closely with some of the best zoos in the country. I recently completed a Master’s thesis at the University of Missouri, during which I collaborated with 21 zoos and 2 conservation breeding facilities. The commitment to animal care and welfare, wildlife conservation, and scientific research…
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