From teaching robots to talk to eating stones, here are 10 incredible animal behaviors.
10.
Pigeons Procrastinate
You might think that it’s just humans who have a habit of procrastinating, and putting
things off until tomorrow.
Yeah, we’ve all done it, don’t lie!
But it turns out that animals do it too.
Instead of taking opportunities when they see them as you might expect, pigeons have
been documented doing the exact opposite!
Researchers studied how they would deal with unpleasant tasks, and found that they would
avoid doing them, even if further down the line they would have to do something more
difficult.
This is an amazing example of animals making the same kinds of decisions that we usually
associate with ourselves, and is further proof that they think in similar ways to us.
We have often thought that animals use purely instinctual behaviour but now we know it’s
not always the case.
Next time you see a carefree pigeon doing something weird, like walking round in circles,
just remember there may be far more going on in its little brain than you might think...
(They still aren’t my favorite animal in the world….)
9.
Cows Eat in Same Direction
When you look at a field of grazing cows, have you ever noticed that they are all facing
the same direction?
It gets even weirder, because it turns out that all of the cows in the world face one
of two directions-north or south.
This is called animal magnetism.
It’s a well known fact that most animals have some sense of magnetism.
It’s how birds know how to migrate, and even how some fish navigate through the sea-
but with cows, the effect is different.
A team that studied multiple herds found that when they eat, cows will align themselves
along a north-south axis, meaning they will only ever point in one of two directions while
grazing or resting.
Why??
It was deduced that this is because of a magnetic sense, because all other factors- such as
wind direction, sunlight and temperature- change throughout the days and seasons.
This is the first proof that the behaviour of larger animals is influenced by the earth’s
magnetic fields, and opens up the possibility that many others are too.
Maybe even we are!
8.
Crows Hold a Grudge
Crows also show very similar traits to humans, and are often thought of as one of the most
intelligent bird species.
Research in 2012, showed that their level of intellect went far beyond what was previously
thought.
They have a great memory and will most definitely hold a grudge.
Researchers found that crows would remember the faces of humans that had previously captured
them, sometimes years after the event, and then taunt and even dive bomb them.
They would also enlist their friends to help to attack the human, even if they had no previous
interactions with them.
Rather than simply being an evil bird that attacks people, when the researchers wore
masks to obscure their faces, the crows would act normally.
The second phase of this experiment, after observing the unusual behaviour, was to scan
the brains of the crows.
What the researchers found was astonishing- their brains would light up in exactly the
same way a human’s does when we see someone’s face that we recognize.
The combination of recognition and memory means that if you ever do wrong by a crow,
you’ll never quite know when they’ll come back for their revenge!
So be nice to them...
7.
Parrots Don’t Just Imitate
Parrots are renowned for their ability to mimic human speech.
It’s always fun to see one that has picked up some naughty words along the way, does
impressions, or recites the pledge of allegiance- but researchers now believe there is more
to this than simply imitating noises that they have heard.
Evidence is now emerging that parrots are capable of logical leaps, and can even perform
linguistic processing to the same sort of level as you would expect from a 4 to 6 year
old child.
They also appear to understand concepts to do with quantities, like “same” and “different”,
“bigger” and “smaller”, and even numbers.
Furthermore, they can also combine different words that they have heard, attribute meaning
to them, and use them again in different sequences to make a completely new phrase that makes
complete sense.
It’s such an incredible recognition behaviour, that parrots are being used by some researchers
to try and help assist with machine learning, so robots are able to develop artificial speech.
Which means that people who are creating robots are now going to teach parrots and study how
they learn to help the robot “learn” how to speak.
Pretty cool right?
6.
Chicks Chirp to Help Each Other
Quite often we think of animals as being self serving- they are just living in the present
trying to find their next meal and becoming the strongest and the fittest to survive.
But across the animal kingdom there are plenty of examples of them working together.
This is most prevalent in what we consider to be the more intelligent animals, like apes
and dolphins, but the behaviour can also be seen in those that are lower down on the intelligence
scales.
Take chicks, for example.
They are barely out of their eggs before they start helping the others around them.
They have a special chirp when they are feeding, and this is thought to be a form of “kin”
selection.
The chirp alerts nearby chicks that there is food available, and allows them to benefit
from it before it runs out.
In all likelihood, the chicks who benefit from this are related to the one who makes
the chirping noise in the first place, so it helps entire families grow up to be strong
and healthy.
It’s proof that evolution isn’t necessarily about the survival of the fittest animal,
but the survival of the fittest genetic data.
Food for thought!
5.
Predicting Earthquakes
Animals have a lot of senses that we don’t really have ourselves, or we are just a little
out of touch.
One of the most interesting theories is that they can detect geological events way before
the most sensitive of technologies can, even today.
Many species can detect earthquakes, with the first records of this behaviour dating
back to 373 BC when droves of rats, snakes, and weasels fled the Greek city of Helice
just days before an earthquake razed it to the ground.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that other species, ranging from catfish, to chickens, to dogs,
also detect earthquakes before they happen, but no-one’s sure what it is that they pick
up on- is it vibrations in the earth, or maybe electrical changes in the atmosphere?
There’s debate within the scientific community of whether these behaviours are, indeed, linked
to an imminent earthquake.
American seismologists, still aren’t convinced- but in 2003 a Japanese doctor released a paper
that detailed how the erratic behaviour of dogs, like excessive barking or biting, can
be used to predict an event.
It’s an area that will be investigated a lot further, because if any signs can be found
to give warning of earthquakes and possible tsunamis, it could save a lot of lives.
4.
Courting By Urination
Virtually every species in the animal kingdom has its own unique ways of attracting mates-
whether it be by birds singing, peacocks presenting their feathers, or dogs leaving their scents-
but two of the strangest courting rituals are done by Hippos and Giraffes.
This might be a little graphic so nobody get offended.
You know nature can be scary, creepy and gross.
Female Giraffes will let a potential mate know that they are interested by urinating
into their mouths, while hippos will let the opposite sex know that they are ready to mate
by urinating and defecating on the same spot at the same time.
It may sound disgusting to us, but there’s a logical reason behind it.
Urine has traces of compounds in it that lets others know how fertile, healthy, and ready
to mate that an animal is, and by presenting it to a potential mate, animals are essentially
proving that they are worthy.
It’s all in the chemistry, literally.
3.
Backwards Runners
Naked mole rats are crazy looking creatures that are native to Africa.
They are small, burrowing rodents, and spend most of their lives underground in their tunnels.
There’s a lot of weird things about this species, such as their ability to survive
high levels of carbon dioxide, their secretion of a gloopy sugar based polymer that prevents
them from developing cancer, and their long lifespan- up to 30 years.
They are also reported as not being able to feel pain.
Besides all that, they have a strange ability to run backwards just as fast as they can
run forwards.
Most animals have developed to face forward.
After all, this allows them to see where they’re going and it’s not too difficult to turn
to face the direction you need to go.
When you’re a rodent in a tunnel, though, it’s not so easy to turn around.
The physiology of the mole rat eliminates this problem by having joints in the legs
that allow them to function just as effectively no matter which way they need to move.
It not only allows them to traverse their tunnels easier, but also lets them escape
potential predators much more quickly.
2.
Whale Songs are Getting Deeper
Whales are arguably the most majestic and mysterious creatures of the ocean.
Many of the species are larger than any other animal on earth and the blue whale is the
largest known animal to have ever existed!
They live for a very long time, and spend much of their lives in parts of the ocean
that’s much deeper than we are able to go to understand them further.
The songs that they sing are particularly mystifying, and scientists have debated for
years about what their songs mean.
Is it for communication, searching for food, or something else entirely?
This search for answers has meant that whale songs have been studied for decades, and something
even stranger has been discovered- the pitch of the songs they sing has been gradually
getting deeper, and it’s the case for virtually every species.
It is most noticeable with the blue whale.
Researchers have found that between 1963 and 2008, the pitch has dropped by 31%- which
is the equivalent of three white keys on a piano.
It’s true across all populations around the world, and it’s a mystery as to why
it’s happening.
Some suggest that the noise created by human activity on boats and submarines could be
to blame, others think it’s pollution, or even the changing qualities of water because
of the rising temperatures.
The most optimistic reason, though, is that the males don’t have to sing as loudly or
have their song travel as far as they once did.
In 1966 there was a world ban on whaling and, as their numbers have been increasing ever
since, they don’t need to search as far for potential mates.
Maybe that’s it?
1.
Crocodiles Eat Stones
The dietary habits of crocodiles may seem gross to most of us at the best of times,
but there’s one thing that they can’t seem to get enough of- and that’s stones.
Why??
What nutritional advantage can they get from that??
Well the answer is none, but it’s thought to be very helpful with how they digest food
and swim.
They aren’t the only species known to do this, some birds do as well.
A stone that is swallowed is known as a gastrolith, and all species of crocodiles do this.
The main reason they do it, is to aid with digestion.
Rocks in their stomach help to crush and grate food, which is particularly useful if you
have eaten an entire animal with a bunch of tough bones.
Eating stones may also help make the crocodile feel fuller after a small meal, and could
even help them to weigh a bit more, which would allow them to stay underwater for longer,
to wait for their next unsuspecting victim.
Thanks for watching!
Hope you learned something new!
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Byeee!