#How zebrafish maintain efficient and fair foraging behaviours

“#How zebrafish maintain efficient and fair foraging behaviours” Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain New insight on how zebrafish achieve near-optimal foraging efficiency and fairness among groups has been published today in the open-access journal eLife. The findings, based on analysis of the joint swimming patterns of individual zebrafish and groups, and detailed mathematical models of their…

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#Beam me up: Researchers use ‘behavioral teleporting’ to study social interactions

“#Beam me up: Researchers use ‘behavioral teleporting’ to study social interactions” ‘Behavioral teleporting’ in action, a live fish (right) interacting with a replica (left) by Maurizio Porfiri at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Credit: Maurizio Porfiri Teleporting is a science fiction trope often associated with Star Trek. But a different kind of teleporting is…

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#Animals are picky eaters too – we’re trying to discover if parents teach them what’s safe to eat

“#Animals are picky eaters too – we’re trying to discover if parents teach them what’s safe to eat” Credit: Jolanda Aalbers/Shutterstock The internet is filled with blogs and articles offering advice for parents who are trying to coax children into eating greens. Anyone with kids can relate to stories of mealtimes becoming a succession of attritional…

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#This cuttlefish is flamboyant on special occasions only

“#This cuttlefish is flamboyant on special occasions only” In nature, the flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi) spends most of its time in camouflage mode. Credit: F. Bavendam The flashy Flamboyant Cuttlefish is among the most famous of the cephalopods (octopus, squid, and cuttlefish)—but it is widely misunderstood by its legions of fans. A new paper from…

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#Mother bats use baby talk to communicate with their pups

“#Mother bats use baby talk to communicate with their pups” Mother-pup pair of the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx bilineata, in their daytime roost. The pup (dark fur color) is holding on to the mother’s belly (light fur color). Credit: Michael Stifter When talking to babies, humans slow down their speech, raise their pitch and change…

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#Songbirds, like people, sing better after warming up

“#Songbirds, like people, sing better after warming up” The dawn chorus of birdsong may be a warm-up routine that helps birds meet the physical demands of singing and deliver their best performance later in the day. Credit: Robert Lachlan, Royal Holloway, University of London If you’ve ever been woken up before sunrise by the trilling…

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#Swans reserve aggression for each other

“#Swans reserve aggression for each other” Aggression among mute swans. Credit: WWT Swans display more aggression to fellow swans than other birds, new research shows. The study examined three swan species—mute, whooper and Bewick’s—and found all were most frequently aggressive to their own kind. The findings suggest that similar individuals are the greatest competition for…

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