Questions tagged [ethology]
The study of animal behaviour.
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Do animals exhibit handedness (paw-ness?) preference?
I have been observing my cat and found that when confronted with an unknown item, she will always use her front left paw to touch it.
This has me wondering if animals exhibit handedness like humans ...
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What do butterflies eat?
I found a beautiful scarce-swallowtail butterfly in my storeroom, but it was kind of frozen and couldn't fly away. So, I put it on my terrace in the sun. After a little bit, it flew a few meters away ...
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Can beavers control the direction a tree falls?
We humans can easily control the direction a tree falls by making a number of strategic cuts, essentially creating a hinge:
This prevents trees from falling on equipment and people and sets them up ...
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How long before robin no longer needs the nest on my porch?
A robin has made a nest on my porch. Unfortunately, the nest is on my weed wacker which I might want to use at some point this summer. Currently, there are two eggs in the nest.
How long will it be ...
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Where do migratory birds go when it rains?
I was reading a comic from XKCD which inspired me to ask this question: "well, where do they go when it rains?" I know that when it rains you usually don't see any birds flying through the sky.
I ...
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What exactly is this small puffer fish doing and how did it manage to accomplish such a feat?
I recently saw a video on youtube where it shows a puffer fish making intricate designs in the sand:
OZZY MAN VIDEO
The puffer fish made this design on the sand:
What exactly is the puffer ...
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Why do we laugh?
Why is it that the reaction we get from absurdity is laughter? Everyone does it, even babies. Is there a reason why it is our instinct to laugh when we see or hear something absurd/humorous
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Are there dextral/sinistral higher animals? [duplicate]
For example, almost every dog I've met in my life (more than 20 subjects) uses their right paw touching one while asking for attention. Can it be used as a criterion for calling them dextral? If not, ...
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Do species other than humans have distinct daily feeding patterns?
I have a general interest in complex adaptive systems and I have found that nature and the organisms within it is a perfect natural case of a rich adaptive system with a lot of possibilities for ...
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Why is wombat scat (feces) shaped like cubes?
I've heard that wombat scat is cube shaped, but I don't understand how that can happen. Has anyone studied the phenomenon? What would the evolutionary pressure have been to cause this?
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Do any animals other than humans undergo menopause?
Do any animals other than humans undergo menopause?
Also, is there any difference between animals in captivity and animals in the wild as regards menopause? For example, even if menopause has been ...
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Are there any animals that celebrate communally?
Are there any animals that are known to celebrate events? For example, we humans might celebrate a birthday or passing an important test. An event causes us to perform some sort of celebration that is ...
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How do porcupines keep from pricking each other while mating?
How do porcupines keep from pricking each other while mating? It seems like they would constantly be scratching each other.
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What is this grasshopper doing?
I spotted a grasshopper standing on a pavement with a long sting placed in asphalt. I also recorded a video of it moving:
https://youtu.be/JoDdg2yUuYo
What is it doing?
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Is there any documented evidence for suicide among vertebrates other than humans?
Is there any documented evidence for suicide among vertebrates other than humans? Lemmings not accepted !
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How do members of cryptic species know who to mate with?
According to Wikipedia:
In biology, a cryptic species complex is a group of species which
satisfy the biological definition of species—that is, they are
reproductively isolated from each other—...
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Do animals suffer from "Human" mental disorders?
It is tragic, but apparently Killer whales and Dolphins can commit suicide too (e.g. here)...
This suggests they can become depressed. I wondered whether they were "clinically" depressed like many ...
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Why do snails come out after the rain?
Many times, when there is rain after a long time, snails come out afterwards, and you can see snails and slugs everywhere! I have two questions:
Why do they come out after the rain?
Where are they ...
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Where do birds and squirrels go to die?
This may sound like a silly question, but I have been wondering about this for a while. I live in a suburban neighborhood with a lot of trees. A lot of trees means birds and squirrels. You can hear ...
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Do fake wasp nests actually fool wasps?
I have seen fake wasp nests sold as a deterrent against wasps and similar insects. Do they really work? Is there some scientific evidence for it?
A related link: http://www.scienceworld.ca/do-fake-...
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Name and Behaviour of Arthropods near a Cactus
Background Story
I have a small, old cactus on my sunny, south-facing window sill in southern Germany. Since a few years, small black dots gathered around its pot. At first, I thought the dots were ...
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Why do sparrows jump instead of walk when they are not flying?
I want to talk about sparrows, one of the most common birds around the world. I noticed that when one slowly walks into them (so that they are not frightened enough to fly away), these tiny birds ...
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Why can all animals swim in water without learning to swim but humans cannot?
I had a question since I was a child. I was always curious about the fact that all animals can swim in water. They don't need any training or to learn swimming. But humans need to learn to swim. Why ?
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Why does Hunger lead to the aggressive behavior?
I have observed that frequently when people are hungry; they tend to get angry more easily on pointless issues. Does this mean that our fight or flight response is more active when a person is hungry? ...
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Why do bumble bees run repeatedly into walls?
I have noticed on dozens of occasions that bumble bees will run repeatedly into a wall. Usually between 1 - 5 times before clearing the obstacle or flying away.
Credit: Spine Films
This source ...
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Can dolphins actually communicate linguistically?
Humans use "language." By language, I mean the thing I am using right now to talk to you.
I know dolphins and orcas have very complex communication systems and also seem to process linguistic and ...
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Why can cats interpret things on a monitor/tv, but dogs cannot?
E.g. you can see a lot of videos where cats are smashing some mouse or spider on an ipad, but I have never seen it with a dog. I have a dog myself and I know that he sometimes responds to the sounds ...
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What is this woodlouse doing?
I picked an apple from the ground, it was wet with dew and a woodlouse was stuck to it, with its back against the apple. When it got loose, it started flexing its "tail" like this for a while. Why?
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Can canines communicate with each other using gaze direction?
After researching why humans have white scleras when most primates have dark scleras, I stumbled upon the cooperative eye hypothesis. It proposed that white scleras may have evolved on behalf that it ...
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Dogs bark at familiar person in Santa costume. Why? Don't dogs trust smell over vision?
Last night 10 humans and 2 dogs spent Christmas together. At some point, one human dissappears for a few minutes and comes back wearing a full Santa outfit. Upon respawning, the dogs start barking ...
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Squirrel nest construction
I've often wondered how squirrels -- specifically, eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) make their nests. Specifically, I've been curious about how they "weave" everything together to make ...
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Do birds ever fly in clouds?
Do (some) birds ever fly in fog or clouds so that they would not be able to see either the ground or the sun? Assuming the visibility is good enough so they can see obstacles in time to avoid them.
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How do other primates treat their fingernails?
Do all primates have to trim their fingernails in some way, or do some primates' fingernails wear off through natural use?
Also, is constant nail growth common to all primates?
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Cat's tail movement as an indicative of tension
It appears to me that tail's twitching in the cats indicates how much tension the individual is under. During a hunt, when a cat tries to stay invisible, while approaching a target it is almost ...
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Why do people and animals stretch out their bodies and what is causing this behaviour?
I noticed that my cat which is only 6 months old has started stretching its body from time to time. Then I thought that this motion doesn't seem very natural from another cat's viewpoint, so my cat ...
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What triggers the migration of robins?
I live in central Massachusetts, and have begun seeing robins, as we generally do in early March. The temperature is well below normal, though, and three feet of snow are covering the still-frozen ...
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Why does walking mitigate the urge to urinate?
When feeling a strong urge to urinate humans tend to walk around when e.g. waiting for the current bathroom occupant to get out. Why is that?
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ID flying insect found in Belgium
I live in Belgium, and I've just witnessed a weird looking wasp/fly flying around in my room. Here's a picture:
So, what's this? It's still in my room, just chilling there. It zooms like a wasp, and ...
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Why is the Kakapo more attracted to humans than its own kind?
The Kakapo can be seen in this video by BBC. It is said that the species is strongly sexually attracted to humans. Why could this be the case?
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Is homosexuality an adaptation in humans?
Homo sapiens have menopause - as some other mammals (e.g. some Cetacea) - a phenomenon where older females live for decades after the end of their own reproduction.
Perhaps homosexuality, that looks ...
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Why do carnivores evolve?
If humans can live without consuming other animals, then why do we do it? From a biological point of view, why do we eat meat? I would also extend the question to other animals because many animals ...
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Why do flies fly in circles?
Lying on my bed, doing nothing I recently noticed flies usually fly in small circles, right under my ceiling lamp. Worth noting - the lamp was off as it was middle of a day. And those flies kept ...
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What does "nesting failure" mean?
According to the Wikipedia article on swans, swans are mostly monogamous but may sometimes separate, particularly after a "nesting failure". What "nesting failure" may mean is not entirely clear to me....
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Crow branch pecking behaviour
I was walking through a small park when two crows started cawing at me, and followed me, flying from tree-to-tree as I walked. I speculate that this is a territorial or protective behaviour, but what ...
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Why do pigeons kill their chicks when touched by a human?
I used to have many pigeons around the house. If by chance one of the chicks fell out of the nest, we used to put it back using gloves.
Usually, if we would touch the chicks with our bare hands, ...
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Why don't birds in flocks fly into each other?
I've seen videos of hundreds of birds flying in the same general direction but creating incredible patterns in the sky seemingly instantaneously! How do they all know in what direction to turn at the ...
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Do non-human animals suffer from insomnia?
And how do we know whether they do or not?
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If sleep is a physiological need, it seems weird that we become unable to fulfill on demand even in the absence of any obvious physical issues. We would ...
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Birds placing sticks on train tracks?
I live in a semi-rural area in Germany, close to a park which trains go through every 20 minutes.
Today, I saw something that left me perplexed.
There is a large population of birds that look like ...
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Why do earthworms surface after a rain?
Googling, I find two different explanations for why earthworms tend to surface after a rain.
This page from UCSB, for example, gives both answers, contradicting itself:
The first explanation is ...
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Facultative Cannibalism?
I heard about Larger cats eating the cubs. Is it some kind of facultative cannibalism or they can eat there own kind like that?
What are the facultative cannibalism present in animal kingdom?
What ...
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