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…
In the dirt: do primates yuck?
POST BY: Cécile Sarabian Imagine living in an environment where pathogens and infectious diseases are everywhere. No hand sanitizer, no water purification tablets, no insect repellent, and potentially lots of infected mates. This is the scenario that most wild, social animals – including primates – have to cope with. Therefore, it is imperative for these species’…
Of People and Parasites
POST BY: Johnica Morrow It’s a few minutes after 8:00am and I walk into the lab to start another day of research. I turn on my favorite Pandora radio station, The 90s were great let’s hear it again, and carefully pull the cover off of my research microscope, the aptly named “Beauty”. The slide I…
Let’s talk about leks, baby
Imagine a young woman walking into a bar looking for a date. Now imagine the men in the bar attempting to impress her, either by buying her drinks, dancing, or otherwise showing off. At the end of the night, one of these lucky men will be successful and leave with our imaginary woman. This…
Creature Feature: Patas monkeys
Inhabiting a broad swath of arid savanna woodlands just north of equatorial Africa lives one of the most remarkable monkeys that you have likely never heard of. The patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas) survives in these difficult places with the help of several unique adaptations that allow it to carve out a living in ways unlike most other…
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider: Sociality in Spiders
By Cameron Jones When you think of spiders, the idea of them living or working together is probably the last thing that crosses your mind. After all, aside from when an egg sac has just hatched, we rarely see spiders together let alone interacting with each other. There is good reason for this: in spiders,…
Creature Feature: Steamer Ducks
Steamer ducks, consisting of four species of waterfowl, are pretty odd animals. They are unusual for ducks in several ways, including the fact that they weigh many times more than most ducks and are largely incapable of flight, with the only species capable of flight being the appropriately named “flying steamer duck” (Tachyeres patachonicus). Unlike…
theethogram.com 