Ever eat a fig; a nice, ripe, juicy fig? Then you have also eaten essence of fig wasp! The name Fig Wasp is actually a bit confusing as it can apply to several groups of wasps. Some of those groups are parasitic fig wasps that bore holes in ripening figs and so damage the crop….
Hidden Colors: You can’t see them, but lizards can!
Unlike humans, many animals have (UV) vision, but what exactly does that mean? You can think of UV vision as the “opposite” of color blindness. For example, people suffering from red-green color blindness cannot distinguish red and green colors. Photos: Colblindor (www.color-blindness.com)
Scholar Holler: Athena Aktipis, Ph.D.
Athena Aktipis is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Arizona State University, co-Director of the Human Generosity Project, and Director of Human and Social Evolution and co-founder of the Center for Evolution and Cancer at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Aktipis received her BA in Psychology at Reed College, her PhD in…
Scholar Holler: Ellen Ketterson, Ph.D.
Ellen Ketterson is a Distinguished Professor of Biology and Gender Studies at Indiana University. Selected by students at UC Davis to give a Storer Lecture, she talked with Ethogram writer Helen Chmura about her life studying the evolution, behavior, and physiology of juncos. The Ethogram: When you were a kid, what did you want to be?…
Creature Feature: Valley Carpenter Bee
The Valley Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa varipunctata) is the largest species of bee in California, and they are not messing around. They are huge! The females, which are completely black and very dramatic looking, can get up to just over an inch long, and the
Creature Feature: Torpedo Ray
The weapons that submarines fire at one another in the movies we have all seen are called torpedos, but where did the naval weapon get its name? It came from a genus of Rays (relatives of sharks) that have the stunning ability to produce electrical shocks that subdue their prey or discourage their predators, the…
A Story of Sex, Betrayal, and Murder
Imagine that you are a female gelada monkey, living in a large group of females under the protection of one alpha male. On one particular lackluster day in between your usual routine of naps, walks, grooming sessions, and meals of grass and grubs, an unfamiliar male arrives. He is intriguing, he is fascinating, he is……
Animals have personality. Here’s why it matters.
Personality in dogs is no surprise to dog owners. But what about other animals? It turns out that animal personality is not rare. The existence of personality in animal populations matters for a contemporary and ever-increasing phenomenon…
Creature Feature: Band-tailed Pigeon
The Band-tailed Pigeon (Patagioenas faciata) is a native to California, and is the largest extant member of the dove family in North America. It is the closest relative to the now extinct Passenger Pigeon, which was the largest pigeon in North America, period. Band-tailed Pigeons breed across much of western North America, and at high…
Scholar Holler: Preston Wilson, Ph.D.
Preston Wilson is an Associate Professor in the Acoustics and Dynamic Systems & Control program of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Texas in Austin. A native of Texas he received his Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Texas in Austin and then a PhD in Mechanical Engineering…
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