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Showing posts sorted by date for query SOCIOBIOLOGY. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Friday, November 15, 2024

 As It Happens

Surprisingly snuggly pythons upend what scientists thought they knew about snakes

Ball pythons, long thought solitary, repeatedly chose to eschew individual shelters and coil up together

Close up of a snake's head. It's yellowish with black spots.
Ball pythons are non-venomous constrictors native to Africa, and popular all over the world as pets. (Kurit Afshen/Shutterstock)

There's no single agreed upon term for a group of snakes, but scientist Morgan Skinner has a suggestion.

"Cuddle of snakes," he told As It Happens host Nil KÓ§ksal. "Maybe that should be the name."

Skinner, a quantitative ecologist, has co-authored a new study that found ball pythons — long believed to be solitary creatures, and often kept as solo pets — seem to enjoy each other's company. 

The findings, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, add to a growing body of research into the surprisingly active social lives of snakes. 

It also comes on the tail of several other studies that suggest other seemingly solitary species, including sharks and octopuses, may be more community-oriented than scientists previously believed. 

Not so solitary after all 

Skinner, who works for an environmental consulting company in Calgary, studied the social dynamics of snakes as part of his doctoral research at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.

In 2020, he and his colleagues published research showing that garter snakes, when given the choice, prefer to spend time together rather than alone, and even form something akin to friendships, showing preferences for certain individuals over others.

But garter snakes, Skinner says, were already known to hibernate and birth their young in groups. Ball pythons by contrast, lay eggs and do not hibernate. They're also a popular pet around the world, and are often kept in isolation.

"I wanted to see what a snake that was less social — in my thinking and in common perception — would do," he said. "You know, here's my social snakes and what they do. And how does this compare to a non-social snake?"

A group of snakes coiled together in a ball against a bright red backdrop.
Ball pythons, pictured under a red light, are seen coiled together after scientists lifted up the shelter where they chose to congregate inside their enclosure at Wilfrid Laurier University. (Morgan Skinner and Noam Miller/Wilfrid Laurier University)

Skinner and his colleagues put six ball pythons in a large enclosure for 10 days with enough individual shelters for each snake. 

Twice a night the researchers cleaned the enclosure and shuffled the snakes into different shelters. That's what Skinner was doing when he first laid eyes upon a python "cuddle."

"To my surprise, when I started lifting up the shelters, the first one I lifted up, they were all there together in one big group," he said. 

He separated the snakes and left. When he came back later for the second shuffle, they were all back together again. 

In fact, footage shows the snakes slithering around and exploring their enclosure, but ultimately opting to spend the majority of their time together in one shelter. 

"This really challenged my idea of what sociability is in snakes," Skinner said. 

An enclosure, pictured from above through a bright red light, with six boxes, each marked by a different symbol. Snakes can be seen slithering between, and in and out of, the boxes.
Despite having solo spaces available, researchers say the snakes repeatedly chose to congregate together. (Morgan Skinner and Noam Miller/Wilfrid Laurier University)

The team started to wonder if there was just something about that particular shelter they preferred. So they took it out.

The snakes, Skinner said, simply congregated in a different shelter.  

"We tested four more groups, a total of five, and they chose different home bases. So it wasn't something about that location or that shelter in particular," he said. 

Unlike the garters, the pythons didn't form cliques, instead preferring to stick all together. 

Vladimir Dinets, a specialist in reptile social behaviour at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who was not involved in the study, lauded its methodology. 

"I'm kind of impressed at how meticulously they worked out the whole thing and how well they showed this," Dinets told the New York Times. "I tend to look for flaws in things I read, and I couldn't find anything to pick on, here."

Do they also hang out in the wild?

Skinner says he can't be sure whether ball pythons congregate in the wild the same as they do in captivity, but he says he has seen at least one study of wild pythons that references finding them in burrows. 

"It's quite possible that what we're seeing is, to some extent, a natural behaviour," he said. "I think that this social behaviour in snakes inevitably has some benefit to them, whether it's protection from predators or it helps them, you know, maintain heat and moisture so that they can digest better.


Because one meal lasts them a long time, Skinner says they're rarely in competition for food, which could also explain the group dynamics. 

Snakes hunt alone, so when people encounter them above ground, they're usually on their own. That may have led to the misconception that they're anti-social creatures. 

"I think we're very visual, and when we think of social behaviour, we think of animals like flocks of birds," he said. "We don't believe it unless we see it."

Recent research suggests ball pythons are not the only species that my have been too hastily classified as non-social. 

Shark scientists are currently observing two great whites that keep showing up in the same place, challenging the common belief that the apex predators are loners.

A study published this year showed that brown bears interact more frequently outside of mating season than suspected. 

New deepsea research over the last decade has revealed that octopuses, who spend most of their lives alone, breed in large groups called nurseries. And new footage of shallow reefs shows octopuses sometimes hunt in groups with fish

"Most animals need to be social in some way," Skinner said. 

Interview with Morgan Skinner produced by Nishat Chowdhury and Cassie Argao

Saturday, November 09, 2024

 SOCIOBIOLOGY

Scarlet Macaw parents ‘play favorites,’ purposefully neglect younger chicks



Researchers at Texas A&M University have come to the rescue with a “foster program” for neglected chicks.



Texas A&M University





Scarlet macaws are a symbol of fidelity and virtue to many people because they are thought to mate for life — but it turns out that they also “play favorites” when feeding their young, making them excellent mates, but neglectful parents.

Fortunately, Texas A&M scientists have developed a way to ensure the birds’ bad parenting results in fewer chick deaths.  

Researchers at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences have discovered that scarlet macaws purposefully neglect feeding the youngest chicks in most broods, even when resources are plentiful. This results in only one or two chicks being able to fledge — the process in which parents teach their young to fly and survive on their own — even though broods may contain up to four chicks.

“Scientists have known for years that scarlet macaws hatch more chicks than they fledge,” said Dr. Donald Brightsmith, a professor in the VMBS’ Department of Veterinary Pathobiology. “We found that 26% of second chicks in scarlet macaw broods and nearly all third and fourth chicks die before fledging.

“We tested several theories as to why these younger chicks don’t survive, and we found that it’s not sibling rivalry or a lack of food. The parents just stop feeding certain chicks, so they starve to death,” he said.

The deciding factor appears to be the difference in chick ages.

“Scarlet macaws lay eggs over a period of several days instead of all at once, which means the chicks don’t hatch on the same day,” said Dr. Gabriela Vigo-Trauco, a post-doctoral researcher with the Schubot Center for Avian Health, who led the project. “If the second chick hatches only a couple of days after the first, there is a good chance that the parents will feed it. However, if it hatches four, five, or more days after the first chick, the parents will probably neglect it and let it die.”

The researchers, who recently published their study in the journal Diversity, suspect that when chicks are young and hatch four or more days apart, they begin to need different types of parental care. For example, some chicks need feeding while others are still incubating, which contributes to the high rates of neglect and starvation. 

Armed with this knowledge, the team has developed a method to save neglected chicks by giving them macaw “foster parents.”

“Thankfully, scarlet macaws are not endangered or threatened, but there are many parrot species that are,” Brightsmith said. “We hope that this foster program will be used to help save the populations of endangered parrot species.”

Understanding Brood Reduction

Brood reduction, or eliminating chicks after they hatch, is a common practice among birds.

“Some species of seabirds, like boobies, gulls, and pelicans, have a high degree of sibling rivalry that can lead to death,” Vigo-Trauco said. “Eagles, falcons and other species are known to attack and kill their own chicks. Often, parents target the smaller chicks, which are usually younger.”

For scarlet macaws, starvation is the cause of 45% of all chick deaths; chicks that hatch third or fourth in a brood always die.

“We wanted to understand what was causing 26% of second chicks to die of starvation,” Brightsmith said. “Scientists often point the finger at a lack of resources in the environment, but if it’s about conserving resources, then why do scarlet macaws lay so many eggs?”

To rule out lack of resources, Gustavo Martinez, a member of the research team, marked and monitored trees to estimate the amount of fruit — scarlet macaws’ main source of food — in the forests of the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru where the study was conducted. 

“Once a month for several years, he would go out and check about 1,300 trees for fruit and flowers,” Brightsmith said. “Looking at the data, we can tell that there were times when food scarcity forced macaws to forgo breeding for a season, but we couldn’t find any association with chick starvation.” 

Catching Macaws In The Act

To see what was happening in scarlet macaw nests, the researchers installed cameras in nest boxes at the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru. For 10 years, they captured video segments showing what was happening to the chicks. 

They also accessed the nests and manually checked which chicks had received food, which was how they determined that some chicks were intentionally being starved.

“Scarlet macaws have a food sac on their necks called a crop, and in chicks it’s very easy to see when it’s full of food,” Brightsmith said. “We caught video of female macaws trying to over-feed their oldest chicks while the third chick would be running slowly around the base of the nest with an empty crop, begging for food.  

“What’s more, the chicks at that age can’t regulate their own body temperature, so they need to be in the nest. We saw that the mother won’t even share her body heat with her dying offspring,” he said. “As scientists, we try not to do what’s called anthropomorphizing — attaching human ideas about morality to animals. But it’s hard to watch that and not think of it as parental abuse.”

The “abusive behavior” goes even further — but it seems that macaw parents aren’t always on the same page.

“Sometimes the female macaw will start to bury a chick that she’s decided not to feed by kicking nest substrate on top of it,” Brightsmith said. “But then the father will come home and unbury the chick and feed it. So, they’re not always in agreement, which makes the whole process even more complex.”

Saving Neglected Chicks

While scarlet macaws have some questionable parenting techniques for their own hatchlings, the good news is they also make excellent foster families for neglected chicks.

As part of her doctoral research, Vigo-Trauco developed a program for saving neglected chicks. The chicks are raised in captivity for a few weeks before being placed in the nests of macaws with chicks at a similar developmental stage or that have lost all their chicks to predation.

The program effectively eliminates the need for different types of parental care and allows the foster parents to raise chicks that would have starved. 

“The key to success is making sure that the chicks all look about the same size,” she said. “This encourages the new parents to take care of the foster chick as if it were their own.”

While the macaws seem to notice that something is different, that doesn’t stop them from adopting the foster chick.

“We see them on camera as they land on the nest box, look in, and then look around like they’re thinking, ‘Did I walk into the wrong house?’ It’s kind of hilarious,” Brightsmith said. “They turn their heads sideways to get a good look at the new chick, think about it for a moment, and then start to feed them.”

The foster chick program, published in Diversity in 2021, successfully re-homed 28 chicks over the course of three breeding seasons. 

“Parrots are one of the most endangered groups of birds in the world,” Brightsmith said. “We hope that this program, and the understanding of brood reduction behind it, can assist with the conservation of a broad array of parrot species across the tropics.”

By Courtney Price, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

Saturday, November 02, 2024

 

Bee gene specifies collective behavior



Bee research: publication in Science Advances



Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf

Honeybeens with QR code 

image: 

Each honeybee is labelled with a QR code so that their individual behaviour can be tracked. (Photo: HHU / Christoph Kawan)

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Credit: HHU / Christoph Kawan




Embargoed: Not for Release Until 2:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time Friday, 01 November 2024.

Researchers at Heinrich Heine University DĂźsseldorf (HHU) are collaborating with colleagues from Frankfurt/Main, Oxford and WĂźrzburg to investigate how the complex, cooperative behaviour of honey bees (Apis mellifera) is genetically programmed so that it can be passed on to subsequent generations. As they explain in the scientific journal Science Advances, they found an answer in what is known as the doublesex gene (dsx).

Behavioural interactions between organisms are fundamental and often inherited. Every human being and every animal interacts with other individuals in its social group in one way or another through its behaviour. In the animal kingdom, this has considerable advantages in collective foraging for food, defence against predators and the rearing of offspring.

In some animals, such as honeybees, the social behaviour bonds are so strong that the individual members form a tight-knit society that function collectively as a single “superorganism”. Through their individual behaviour, thousands of worker bees protect the entire colony, feed it and care for the brood.

Professor Dr Martin Beye, who heads the Institute of Evolutionary Genetics at HHU and is the corresponding author of the study that has now been published in Science Advances, emphasises: “The behavioural repertoire of the individual bees and their function in the colony are not learned, but rather inherited. Until now, it was not known how such complex behaviours were genetically encoded.”

Together with colleagues from the universities in Frankfurt/Main, Oxford and WĂźrzburg, the team of researchers at HHU led by Beye and first author Dr Vivien Sommer has now discovered that a special gene known as dsx specifies worker bee-specific behaviour.

Sommer: “The gene programmes whether a worker bee takes up a task in the colony and for how long. This includes collective tasks such as caring for the larvae or foraging for food and social exchanges on food sources, for example.”

The biologists used the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors in their investigations to modify or switch off the dsx gene in selected bees. They attached a QR code to the manipulated bees, then monitored their behaviour in the hive with cameras. The resulting video sequences were analysed with the support of artificial intelligence to determine the bees’ individual behavioural patterns.

Sommer: “Our central question was whether and how the inherited behavioural patterns changed as a result of the gene modification. Such changes must be reflected in the nervous system of the worker bees where the specific behaviour is controlled.”

The researchers introduced green fluorescent protein (GFP) into the dsx sequence so that GFP was produced together with the dsx protein. The neuronal circuits could then be viewed using fluorescence microscopy, in both the unmodified bees and in those with genetic modifications. “We were able to use these tools to see exactly which neural pathways the dsx gene creates in the brain and how this gene in turn specifies the inherited behavioural patterns of honeybees,” explains doctoral researcher Jana Seiler, who is also a co-author of the study.

“Our findings indicate a fundamental genetic programme that determines the neuronal circuitry and behaviour of worker bees,” says Professor Dr Wolfgang RĂśssler from the Department of Behavioural Physiology and Sociobiology, who led the study at the University of WĂźrzburg.

In the next step, the researchers now want to move from the level of the individual honeybee to the bee colony superorganism. Alina Sturm, who is also a doctoral researcher at HHU and study co-author, adds: “We hope to find the link between individual programming and the coordinated behaviour of many individuals.”

The neuronal network in the bee’s brain appears in green. (Image: HHU / Institute for Evolutionary Genetics)

Credit

HHU / Institute for Evolutionary Genetics


Original publication:

Vivien Sommer, Jana Seiler, Alina Sturm, Sven KĂśhnen, Anna Wagner, Christina Blut, Wolfgang RĂśssler, Stephen F. Goodwin, Bernd GrĂźnewald, Martin Beye. Dedicated developmental programing for group-supporting behaviors in eusocial honeybees. Science Advances (2024).

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp3953

Sunday, June 02, 2024

Camera tags capture social flexibility of Antarctic minke whales


TOO BAD THIS WON'T STOP JAPAN FROM HUNTING THEM FOR SUSHI


GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY
Minke tagging 

IMAGE: 

THE TEAM OF RESEARCHERS DEPLOYED TAGS TO THE ANTARCTIC MINKE WHALES THAT CAPTURED VIDEO AND AUDIO DURING THEIR INTERACTIONS.

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CREDIT: DAVE CADE




Researchers have conducted one of the first quantitative studies of social structure and social foraging in Antarctic minke whales (AMWs), using pioneering animal-borne camera tags.  

This study sheds light on the complex social and foraging behaviours of these elusive krill specialists within the fragile Antarctic sea-ice ecosystem. 

The study was led by Dr Jenny Allen as a Griffith University Research Associate in collaboration with the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC).  Data were collected in 2018 and 2019 around the Western Antarctic Peninsula as part of a research grant from the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs to Dr Ari Friedlaender, a Professor in UCSC’s Ocean Sciences Department.   

The study is unique in its use of motion-sensing, video- and audio-recording tags deployed on Antarctic minke whales for the first time to study their ecological role through analysis of their diving, foraging, and social behaviours. 

Data analyses focused on the whales' diving, foraging, and social behaviours, providing fresh insights into their ecological roles. 

Findings from the study indicated that Antarctic minke whales exhibit a "fission-fusion" social structure, frequently switching companions.  

This social flexibility is similar to what is seen in several other baleen whale species. In 60.6% of cases, whales were observed forming short-term associations, engaging in both foraging and non-foraging activities.  

Larger individuals were more likely to socialise, and this social interaction correlated with a noticeable reduction in their feeding efforts, regardless of dive depth. 

Furthermore, the study documented 12 instances where tagged whales associated with each other in pairs or trios.  

These groups demonstrated synchronised spatial movement and diving behaviours, suggesting that Antarctic minke whales employed group foraging strategies.  

Specifically, 67.5% of associated dives and 64% of associated feeding lunges were synchronised. 

"These findings provide essential baseline information on the sociality and group foraging behaviours of Antarctic minke whales," Dr Allen said.  

"Understanding these patterns is crucial, especially as climate change continues to impact the Antarctic ecosystem." 

The study underscored the importance of Antarctic minke whales as top krill predators, highlighting their role within the ecosystem.  

The synchronised foraging behaviour observed suggested these whales might optimise their feeding efficiency through cooperation, a behaviour previously underappreciated in this species. 

"This study is fascinating because it provides new information on complex and dynamic social and behavioural patterns by an animal that until now we had very little information about", says Dr. Friedlaender the senior investigator on the project. 

This research not only enhanced our understanding of AMW social and foraging ecology but also encouraged the need for future studies aimed at more targeted investigations.  

Dr Allen is currently a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at UCSC within the Behavioural Ecology and Bio-Telemetry Laboratory and an Adjunct Researcher with Griffith University’s Southern Ocean Persistent Organic Pollutants Program.  

The study ‘Evidence of sociality and group foraging in Antarctic minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis)’ has been published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, and was supported by the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs via grant nos. 1643877 and 1644209, and by World Wildlife Fund grants. P0710 and 0711-02. 

Friday, February 16, 2024

 

Desert ants: the magnetic field calibrates the navigation system


Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WÜRZBURG

Desert Ants 

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THE DESERT ANT CATAGLYPHIS NODUS AT ITS NEST ENTRANCE - AN INCONSPICUOUS HOLE IN THE GROUND THAT CANNOT BE SEEN FROM THE ANT'S PERSPECTIVE. TO FIND ITS WAY BACK THERE, THE ANT USES THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD DURING ITS LEARNING WALKS.

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CREDIT: ROBIN GROB



They are only a few centimeters tall and their brains have a comparatively simple structure with less than one million neurons. Nevertheless, desert ants of the Cataglyphis genus  possess abilities that distinguish them from many other creatures: The animals are able to orient themselves to the Earth's magnetic field.

Visible Changes in the Nervous System

A research team from Julius-Maximilians-Universität WĂźrzburg (JMU) discovered this a few years ago. However, it was previously unknown where in the ants' brains the magnetic information is processed. This has now changed: In a new study published in the journal PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team shows that information about the Earth's magnetic field is primarily processed in the ants' internal compass, the so-called central complex, and in the mushroom bodies, the animals' learning and memory centers.

Professor Wolfgang RĂśssler, holder of the Chair of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology at the University of WĂźrzburg, Dr. Pauline Fleischmann, former scientist at the Chair of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology and now a member of the Neurosensorics/ Animal Navigation working group at the University of Oldenburg, and Dr. Robin Grob, who has since moved from RĂśssler's chair to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, were responsible for this study.

First Exploratory Walks for Calibration

"Before an ant leaves its underground nest for the first time and goes in search of food, it has to calibrate its navigation system," says Pauline Fleischmann, explaining the background to the work. During so-called learning walks, the animals then explore the immediate surroundings around the nest entrance and repeatedly pirouette around their own body axis with short stops in between. During these pauses, they always look exactly back in the direction of the nest entrance, even though they cannot see it – a tiny hole in the ground.

Thanks to their field studies in southern Greece, where Cataglyphis ants are native, Fleischmann and her colleagues were able to prove that desert ants orient themselves to the Earth's magnetic field during the learning walk phase. Pauline Fleischmann and Robin Grob were once again on site in Greece. This time, however, they not only investigated the ants' orientation behavior while the magnetic field was being manipulated, but also looked for changes in the nervous system of Cataglyphis as an expression of the newly acquired experience.

A Faulty Magnetic Field Disrupts the Learning Process

The zoologists concentrated on young workers that had not yet undertaken any learning walks. The animals were only allowed to set off as part of the precisely planned experiments – sometimes under natural conditions, sometimes in a permanently manipulated magnetic field that, for example, displayed chaotic directions or did not allow horizontal orientation. With this faulty directional information, it was not suitable as a reliable reference system for the ants' behavior to look back to the nest entrance during the learning walks.

The result: "Our neuroanatomical brain analyses show that ants exposed to an altered magnetic field have a smaller volume and fewer synaptic complexes in an area of the brain responsible for the integration of visual information and learning, the so-called mushroom body," explain Fleischmann and Grob. In the central complex, the region of the ant’s brain in which spatial orientation is anchored, the same findings were observed under certain conditions.

The Number of Synaptic Connections Increases

Desert ants that were allowed to make their first excursions under natural conditions were clearly different. Their sensory experiences, a combination of information about the magnetic field, the position of the sun and the visual environment, triggered a learning process that was accompanied by structural changes in the neurons and an increase in synaptic connections in the aforementioned brain regions.

According to the scientists, this leads to the conclusion that magnetic information not only serves as a compass for navigation, but also as a global reference system that is crucial for the formation of spatial memory.

In Search of the Sensory Organ

The results of their experiments prove "that ants need a functioning magnetic compass during their learning walks in order to calibrate their visual compass and at the same time store images of the nest environment in their long-term memory", as Pauline Fleischmann and Robin Grob say. At the same time, their research extends far beyond the field of compass calibration in ants. Wolfgang RĂśssler emphasizes that "the results provide valuable information on how multisensory stimuli can influence neuronal plasticity of brain circuits for navigation in a critical phase of brain maturation."

In a next step, the team now wants to investigate in which sensory organ the desert ant receives the magnetic information and via which sensory pathways it is transmitted and processed. This has not yet been achieved with any animal species that orients itself to the Earth's magnetic field. Due to their manageable and relatively small nervous system, insects, to which Cataglyphis belongs, offer a unique opportunity to investigate the neuronal basis of magnetic orientation at all levels.

The research team used a 3D Helmholtz coil system to manipulate the earth's magnetic field around the nest entrance.

CREDIT

Robin Grob

Confocal microscope image of the central area in the brain of the desert ant Cataglyphis nodus. The paired mushroom bodies, which are responsible for sensory integration, learning and memory, can be seen on both sides. In the middle between the mushroom bodies is the central complex, a brain structure responsible for orientation in space.

CREDIT

Wolfgang Roessler