Very much in the spirit of Bats Sing, Mice Giggle, the November/December issue of Orion magazine has a fascinating article by Sy Montgomery about how science is beginning to measure the minds of octopuses. Thomas Nagel’s classic philosophy paper ‘What is it like to be a bat?’ highlighted just some of the difficulties in trying to achieve this – you would have to be a bat to know but then your knowledge couldn’t then be looked at from any other perspective than a bat’s. So, it’s a question we humans just cannot answer. But, as Montgomery points out, this hasn’t stopped researchers trying to understand what it’s like to be an octopus. You can read the whole article here.
There’s a whole chapter of Bats Sing Mice Giggle which explores how much of animal life depends on bothe the production and detection of vibrations. THis includes a look at spiders in particular. DiscoveryNEWS recently posted a fascinating piece that examined how Spiders are among the most vibration-sensitive organisms in the world, second only to cockroaches. You can read more here. It also included the following video which details how the longer a male Australian redback spider woos a female, the better the chance of her not eating him when they mate.
Talking of sex and spiders, the New Scienctist has this story about how ‘young spiders play at sex before sexual maturity. The behaviour has a downside for young males, though, who may later be too tired for the real thing.’ More can be read here.
Who’d be a spider heh?
Dr. Karen Shanor, co-author of Bats Sing Mice Giggle, will be interviewed on the Lee and Brian Show this Saturday, 29th October. The interview will stream live here.
Also, there’s a fantastic review of the book by Cynthia Sue Larson on New Consciousness Review. She describes the book as ‘a captivating read for animal lovers, biologists, and anyone interested in discovering just how much humans have in common with other species’ and you can read the full review here.
There’s a fantastic story over at SFGate that details the recent findings of Giacomo Bernardi, an evolutionary biologist at UC Santa Cruz, when he went diving in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Bernardi was able to capture on a film a wrasse (a type of fish) using a rock to breakthrough a clam’s shell so that it can get to the flesh inside.
Dr. John Pilley at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC, has worked with Chaser, a 6 year old border collie, for more than 3 years to learn 1022 plus words. And Chaser is eager to learn more!
The National Park Service is hosting a special presentation by Dr. Karen Shanor, co-author of Bats Sing, Mice Giggle – The Surprising Science of Animals’ Inner Lives.
During this free event, Dr. Shanor will discuss the fascinating concepts revealed in the book, including how animals communicate and warn each other in times of danger, solve problems “even more effectively than humans,” and “build, create and entertain themselves and others.” The presentation will focus on the wildlife of eastern deciduous forests and include topics such as bat echolocation, circadian rhythms, and the specific communication and sensing techniques used by coyotes, white-tailed deer, eastern box turtles and other animals.
This free presentation is open to the public and will be held from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 in the Rock Creek Park Nature Center Auditorium. The Nature Center is located at 5200 Glover Road, NW, Washington DC 20015. Directions can be found here.
In Bats Sing, Mice Giggle, Drs. Karen Shanor and Jagmeet Kanwal examine how many animals are able to detect the Earth’s magnetic field and use it for navigation. Scientists have known loggerhead turtles can pinpoint latitude because the field varies a lot from north to south. But there is much less variation in the field from east to west. And this has begged the question of how the turtles have determined their lattitude. A new study in the journal Current Biology, discussed here at Scientific American, would seem to have the answer – it’s probably via the field’s inclination.
They’ve both been interviewed on Animal House Radio! Tune in as Dr. Shanor talks about amazing animal behavior this Saturday, Feb. 19 at noon (EST).
A new report by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics has just been published in the American Journal of Primatology. Scientists filmed how one chimpanzee mother appeared to go through a grieving process for her 16 month old infant who died.
More can be read about the story here.
Catch up with the latest developments! Tune in this month as Dr. Karen Shanor discusses Bats Sing, Mice Giggle on the following shows:
Feb. 8, 5pm (6pm EST), At Issue with Ben Merens WPR
Feb 10, 5pm, WOL Radio, Bernie McCain show
Feb.12, 2-4 pm The Lee and Brian Show WNJC Radio
Feb. 13 8-9:30pm (EST) on 21st Century Radio with Dr.Bob Hieronimus
