Behavior brief

Flashy fathers risk offspring safety

Blue-black Grassquit, Volatinia jacarina
Wikipedia Commons/Dario Sanches

In a population of blue-black grassquits, song birds found in the tropics of South America, nests within territories of displaying males are at greater risk of predation by avian predators than areas without them, suggesting a trade-off exists for fathers between attracting new mates and protecting their existing offspring.R. Dias, et al., "Experimental evidence that sexual displays are costly for nest survival," linkurl:Ethology,;http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2010.01817.x/abstract 116:1011-19, 2010.Spiders duped by bug predatorBy comparing spiders' reactions to different stimuli landing in their web, researchers found that assassin bugs trick their spider prey by mimicking the vibrations on the web made by the spider's own struggling prey, causing the spiders to come within striking range.A. Wignall, et al., "Assassin bug uses aggressive mimicry to lure spider prey," Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, AOP, linkurl:doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2060,;http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/10/26/rspb.2010.2060.abstract?sid=fb54e380-9508-492f-b947-069c5caf1a13 2010.

Predators influence offspring in ovoFemale sticklebacks exposed to the threat of predators tend to produce offspring that stay closer together when shoaling, researchers found. When in the egg, these offspring exhibited higher levels of cortisol, suggesting a hormonal mechanism might explain how the information about the predatory environment influences offspring behavior. E. Giesing, et al., "Female stickleback transfer information via eggs: effects of maternal experience with predators on offspring," Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, AOP, linkurl:doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1819,;http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/11/03/rspb.2010.1819.abstract 2010.Queens conquer unrelated hives

Queen bee surrounded by workers
Wikipedia Commons/Waugsberg

Normally queen bees either leave with a swarm of workers to establish a hive of their own or supersede a mother queen after she dies. Now researchers have found evidence that nascent queens occasionally take over unrelated hives nearby as well.T. Wenseleers, et al., "Intraspecific queen parasitism in a highly eusocial bee," Biology Letters, AOP, linkurl:doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0819,;http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/10/16/rsbl.2010.0819.abstract?sid=3dc7ebe6-f214-48cd-afa2-cdd327402114 2010.The bird who cried wolfFork-tailed drongo birds trick individuals of their own and other species into abandoning newly found food by making false alarm calls. In addition to their own alarm calls, researchers found that drongos can mimic the alarm calls of others species, perhaps as a ploy to sustain their trickery when animals stop responding to the drongos' calls. T. Flower, "Fork-tailed drongos use deceptive mimicked alarm calls to steal food," Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, AOP, linkurl:doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1932,;http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/10/27/rspb.2010.1932.abstract?sid=993be3cc-7967-41d0-8523-3a68bc7a45e9 2010.Love songs stay classicCourtship songs of chestnut-sided warblers appear relatively stable over evolutionary time compared to those used for territorial displays, which have changed considerably over the course of two decades, researchers found, suggesting the presence of two distinct traditions in song bird "culture." B. Byers, et al., "Independent Cultural Evolution of Two Song Traditions in the Chestnut-Sided Warbler," linkurl:The American Naturalist,;http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/656268?prevSearch=%2528Bruce%2BByers%2529%2BAND%2B%255Bjournal%253A%2Ban%255D&searchHistoryKey= 176:476-89, 2010.

Meat, the ultimate pacifierDespite the need for the protection of meat resources in the wild for primate ancestors, researchers found that the sight of meat makes people less aggressive. Research subjects looking at pictures of meat were less likely to dictate punishment than those looking at neutral images, suggesting meat actually has a calming effect.F. Kachanoff, et al., presented at McGill University's annual undergraduate science linkurl:symposium,;http://aoc.mcgill.ca/news/channels/2010/november/1/caveman-behavioural-traits-might-kick-dinner-table-eating 2010.