Field Notes is a monthly segment in which we (the students of the Animal Behavior Graduate Group) recount the scientific side of our fieldwork – why we are there, what we do when we get there, and what we learned from our time. Stay tuned each month as we travel the globe studying a variety…
Creature Feature: Titi monkeys
If you ever visit the dense jungles of South and Central America, you may be lucky enough to encounter an elusive titi monkey (Callicebus spp.). Titi monkeys are small-bodied, monogamous New World primates that mate for life1. There are over thirty species of titi monkeys, but all share some unique characteristics. For instance, they have…
Sunday Sketch: Reindeer Games
Did you know? Reindeer are the only deer species where both males and females grow antlers. Though the males shed their antlers in late autumn after mating season, the females retain theirs throughout the winter pregnancy to defend scarce food patches. It is likely then, that Rudolph was in fact a female rather than a…
Field Fiasco Friday: The Lonely Male – Bentley
It was nearly daybreak. In the twilight of the dry-forests of Costa Rica, I sat silent at the base of a giant tree along the trail. As everything around me slowly came into focus, the trees started to stir. At the top of the tree under which I sat, monkeys began to wake up…
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…
Creature Feature: Loggerhead shrike
Imagine a little songbird, with black feathers encircling its eyes, a sleek gray body, whistling a high-pitched tweet toot-toot. The kind of bird that on first glance, you might mistake for a miniature mockingbird. “Aww,” you might think, “what a darling tweety bird!” Well, you’d be mistaken. Much like the “killer rabbit” of Monty Python fame,…
Sunday Sketch: Flying Mammals
Did you know? Bats are the only mammals that can fly! Other “flying” mammals like sugar gliders, flying squirrels, and colugos cannot truly fly: they can only glide for short distances. Bats, however, are capable of powered flight for long durations. Sketch by Amelia Munson Fact contributed by Allison Lau For more information on the…
Field Fiasco Friday: Chupacabra Attack!
Field Fiasco Friday is a weekly segment highlighting the follies, foibles, farces, and failures that accompany any successful field season. Through this segment, we’ll share the stories of scientific data collection that don’t always make their way into the published results. In early January of 2016, my colleagues and I headed out to South Mountain…
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…
