Neophobia – the fear of unfamiliar stimuli – is more pronounced among birds and mammals, especially those reared in the wild, than in other animals, a recent meta-analysis reveals. Researchers looked into different kinds of neophobia among predators, both wild-caught and captive, to see which animals brave the novelty better. Their findings also identified that […]
Tag: predation
Porcupine study reveals how populations change with predation and foraging 
Investigation of predator-prey relationships in a changing environment is an important way to track changes to local ecosystems. A new investigation takes a look at the effects of both top-down (predation-driven) and bottom-up (food and foraging-dependent) systems in predator-prey dynamics. The research team tracked a population of porcupines in Wisconsin, US, over a period of 14-year […]
Size and growth rate for sharks determined by their habitat
How big a young shark grows up to be, and how fast it grows, may depend on where it feeds. Researchers observed a population of juvenile sharks in a nursery that contained both a high-risk habitat (open seagrass beds) and a low-risk one (protected mangroves). Sharks that preferred to feed in the mangroves were generally smaller and grew […]
Want to escape predators? Become a synchronized swimmer
For fish, blending with the group can be a matter of life or death. Just like humans prefer either the right or the left hand as their dominant limb, fish choose either the right or the left as their dominant swimming direction. But unlike human dexterity, in this bias to turning either right or left […]
How bugs decide when to fly the coop
Many animals seek new habitat if they are too crowded or if there are too many predators, but new research suggests that the effect of these two factors can’t easily be separated. Researchers filled artificial pools with backswimmers, insects that normally swim but that can fly to a new pool if stressed. Introducing a predator […]
