Archive for November 2011

Put bees next to mice on the list of things elephants are afraid of

1:03 PM 0 Comments A+ a-

It turns out elephants are afraid of bees. According to the Discovery news article  'Bees Protect Kenyan Crops from Elephants,' they are so afraid of them that if bees are anywhere near a potential food source, elephants will choose to eat somewhere else.

Biologist Lucy King discovered this information when she read a study published in 2002 that explained elephants will not eat from acacia trees that house beehives. She then took this information one step further and applied this knowledge in an attempt to save Kenyan farms from being raided by local elephants. She set up bee hive fences on 17 farms, connecting wires to the hives so that every time an elephant approached the farm the shake of the wire would set the alarm and swarms of bees would immediately follow.

Her approach worked 93% of the time, keeping the majority of elephants away. And it worked because an elephant’s long memory reminds them of their first encounter with those stingers; they didn't like it the first time around and they definitely don't want to endure it again. This memory plays such a powerful role in the minds of these tusked animals that even the sound of a beehive, the notorious buzzing sound, can effectively scare them off. And while scampering away, they warn their surrounding friends about the bees using infrasonic communication. This is the same type of communication discussed in an earlier post about why elephants may be able to sense earthquakes before humans.

Christian the Lion

2:40 PM 0 Comments A+ a-

This is an absolutely beautiful story. In 1969, two men, John Rendall and Anthony, or "Ace," Bourke, bought a lion cub from Harrod's pet department in London and took him home to raise. Raising lions was legal at this time so they named him Christian and treated him like a dear friend. According to an interview with Rendell on MSNBC’s TODAY, Christian was never trained using physical force. The two friends used their tone of voice to make Christian understand what was right and what was wrong. Apparently it worked – Christian never bit anybody.

After a while, although, the lion got too big for their home and they decided to reintroduce him into the wild. Their attempt did not only work, but it was incredibly successful. In the year after they took him to Kenya, Christian became the leader of a pride.

But his former friends wanted to see him again. Even though they were warned that Christian may not remember them, this turned out not to be the case. They were not only welcomed by Christian, but by his family. At first Christian slowly approached the men, but after seemingly recognizing them he sped up and jumped into their arms, showing that he still remembered them.

On their very last trip to visit Christian in 1974, the lion had not been seen for three months. Oddly enough, the night before Rendall and Bourke landed, Christian was spotted sitting on a rock near their camp – as if waiting for his friends.

While living with Rendall and Bourke, Christian was treated as part of their family. He frequently joined his friends when they went out to restaurants around London, riding in the back of their Bentley. I believe that this close bond between human and animal was the combination of a highly intelligent animal and a loving and affectionate relationship. 


Strong relationships seem to be the reasoning behind much of the scientific experiments done with animals. Jane Goodall needed to have a good one with her chimps and, to cite an earlier post, Dr. Herzing needs one with her dolphins. 


Cross-dressing in the wild

8:21 AM 0 Comments A+ a-

A report in Biology Letters and an article in the NY Times, 'Male Hawks in France Find More than their Feminine Side,' found that 40% of western marsh harrier males in France, a common hawk, are cross-dressing. The color of their case plumage is usually light grey on males. Although, they are beginning to change from their traditional color to a darker color, which is more commonly seen on the females.

These she-males have also started acting differently. They aren't attacked as much as the hawks that look male, but they do tend to be more aggressive. They defend their winter roosts more, recruited by the he-males to do the fighting and other dirty work. And when they are aggressive within their own species, it is directed more towards females instead of males.

But these personality shifts are not the reason for the physical changes. It is possible, like another bird species that has changed their features, that these birds may be doing this so they can get closer to the female hawks while avoiding competition. They can get "some" easier than those males with traditional features.

Birds are not the only species that do this. Garter snakes also mimic their female counterparts. After males come out of their winter dens, they emit female pheromones that attracts hundreds or more males. But their main goal is to get warm. In these huddles, enough body heat is produced that enables them to warm up after a long winter.

This article goes along with one of my earlier posts, the one about the squids who seemingly have bisexual tendencies. In the wild, there isn't a lot of uproar about animals doing whatever it takes. They aren't necessarily doing these things because of sexual preferences, but because of traits that have developed to increase their chances of survival and reproduction. This makes me wonder what types of tendencies have naturally developed within the human population? Did something over time trigger sexual preference changes in humans or are they just personal preferences that have always been there but have recently begun to surface more?  
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)