🐴 A new, one-day learning test for horses has been developed to assess their learning capacity and motivation in familiar environments. The "reverse learning test" involves teaching horses to touch an object for a reward and then changing the correct object to see if they can adapt.

😴 The study found a strong link between REM sleep duration and learning performance in 16 riding school horses. Horses with over 30 minutes of REM sleep per night performed better, indicating REM sleep is associated with motivation and perseverance.

🧠 This research highlights that a horse's ability to cope with challenges isn't just about training or motivation, but also significantly influenced by their sleep quality, particularly REM sleep.

#EquineScience #AnimalBehavior #HorseWelfare

🐒 Urine tests from 20 chimpanzees in Uganda reveal alcohol consumption, with 17 samples showing byproducts of ethanol, suggesting significant intake from fermented fruits.

🌳 Researchers Aleksey Maro and Robert Dudley's work, published in Biology Letters on February 24, 2026, provides physiological evidence for the "drunken monkey" hypothesis.

🔬 Urine samples tested positive for ethyl glucuronide, a metabolic byproduct of alcohol, at levels comparable to human consumption after 1-2 standard drinks.

#PrimateResearch #AnimalBehavior #ScienceNews

🧠 Brain Cell "Switch" Discovered in Mice: Researchers identified a unique cluster of brain cells (named DIMPLE) in mice that acts as an "on/off" switch for sex-specific social behaviors.

🔬 Binary Brain Feature: In females, this cluster is permanently "on," while in adult males, it remains "off" until mating. This binary difference is exceptionally rare in the brain and offers new insights into how social and reproductive life stages physically alter brain structure.

📈 Social Trigger: For adult males, physical sexual contact with a female triggers the DIMPLE cluster to turn "on." This activation appears to be linked to a spike in the hormone prolactin immediately after mating.

#Neuroscience #AnimalBehavior #ScienceDiscovery

Ravens Fly Up to 6 Hours Nonstop, Using Memory — Not Tracking. Rather than tracking predators directly over long distances, ravens repeatedly revisited specific areas where wolf kills were common. Some individuals flew up to 155 kilometers in a single day

Read Full Article

#Ravens #AnimalBehavior #Migration

🎥 Rare footage from 2023 captured female sperm whales cooperatively assisting during a birth, a behavior previously unseen outside of primates.

🌊 The collaborative effort involved multiple female whales from different family lines supporting the mother during labor and lifting the newborn calf above water for hours.

🎧 Researchers observed distinct clicking sounds made by the whales during the birth, suggesting a form of synchronized communication to coordinate their actions.

#SpermWhales #MarineBiology #AnimalBehavior

🐙 Scientists discovered male octopuses use a specialized arm, the hectocotylus, as a sensory organ, similar to a tongue, to detect the female hormone progesterone.

🐙 This allows males to locate and fertilize females even without sight, as the arm can detect the female’s reproductive tract.

🐙 Researchers observed this behavior by separating male and female octopuses with a barrier, where the male's specialized arm could reach through and locate the female.

🐙 Experiments with tubes filled with substances confirmed that progesterone alone is sufficient to trigger key mating behaviors in male octopuses, with receptors on the arm tip involved in sensing it.

#OctopusScience #MarineBiology #AnimalBehavior

👀 UK researchers found that European herring gulls were significantly less likely to approach or peck at takeout boxes with googly eyes attached.

👁️ The study, published last month in Ecology and Evolution, suggests that artificial "eyespots" can exploit animals' natural fear of eyes, similar to how some butterflies have evolved eye-like patterns.

💡 While not a complete solution, googly eyes and other contrasty eye patterns could help reduce human-gull conflict, but public education on not feeding gulls and better waste management are also crucial.

#GullDeterrent #AnimalBehavior #UrbanWildlife

Naked mole-rat colonies can undergo peaceful queen transitions without the lethal aggression typically seen in eusocial mammals. Researchers found that daughter successions can occur through a non-violent process, challenging previous assumptions about colony dominance.

Read Full Article

#NakedMoleRat #AnimalBehavior #Biology

🦜 A new study published in Ecology and Evolution reveals that self-pleasure in birds, including parrots, ducks, turkeys, and chickens, is a common and natural behavior, not a sign of stress in captivity.

🌿 Researchers collected data on 120 bird species and found the activity is more prevalent in wild birds than those in captivity. Vets are advised that intervention, such as removing perches or surgery, can be more harmful than the behavior itself.

🩺 The findings aim to reassure bird owners and vets, with experts like Dr. Chloe Heys and Dr. Matilda Brindle emphasizing it's a healthy part of a bird's natural sexual repertoire.

#BirdCare #AnimalBehavior #PetHealth

Animal empathy reconsidered

Read Full Article

#AnimalEmpathy #AnimalBehavior #ScienceNews

🐺 Horses can identify predators like wolves from silent videos alone, even without prior experience or other sensory cues.

❤️ While their hearts race when seeing predators, horses maintain a "poker face," showing no outward signs of distress, indicating significant cognitive restraint and rapid assessment.

📺 This visual recognition of threats can lead to internal agitation without visible cues, making it difficult for handlers to detect a horse's stress, as highlighted in a study published July 15, 2026, in PLOS One.

#AnimalBehavior #EquineScience #Research

Great Apes kiss and cuddle to keep the peace, says study - Touching, embracing and kissing before stressful events may be an ancient way of building trust, according to scientists studying the behaviour of our closest ape relatives.

Read Full Article

#GreatApeBehavior #Primates #AnimalBehavior

🐒 Great Apes use touch like kissing and hugging to reduce tension and build trust before stressful events, such as competition for food.

🤝 This behavior, observed in chimpanzees and bonobos, helps foster cooperation and suggests an ancient form of communication predating language, potentially dating back seven million years.

🔍 Researchers from Durham University studied apes at sanctuaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, noting that groups showing more reassuring touch were more likely to share food peacefully.

#AnimalBehavior #GreatApes #Science

Humans Love Having Pets. Seems Like Some Other Primates Do, Too.

Read Full Article

# petlovers #primates #animalbehavior

🐴 Study shows horse personality is shaped by housing, care, and owner relationships, not just genetics.

🐴 Daily management decisions like social housing and quality time with owners significantly influence a horse's personality and well-being.

🐴 Horses with long-term owners (10+ years) and those ridden frequently (4-7 times/week) exhibit higher sociability and calmness.

🐴 Solitary housing is linked to lower Horse Sociability scores, highlighting the importance of social environments for horses.

#HorseWelfare #EquineHealth #AnimalBehavior

🐘 Researchers led by Sydney Hope and Joshua Plotnik used a "detour paradigm" to test impulse control in 16 Asian elephants (ages 4-60) in Thailand.

🐘 Elephants successfully navigated a transparent box to get fruit, resisting the urge to reach directly for it, indicating strong inhibitory control.

🐘 While older elephants showed slight difficulty adapting to changes, the study suggests a link between brain size and impulse control in animals.

#ElephantResearch #AnimalBehavior #ScienceNews

The 'Mind Control' Cat Parasite Manipulating You May Have a Simple Explanation: Animals (and humans) may be more likely to encounter Toxoplasma gondii because they're natural risk-takers – rather than becoming risk-takers because they encountered T. gondii.

Read Full Article

#ToxoplasmaGondii #ParasiteScience #AnimalBehavior

🐘 A new study published in Scientific Reports used machine learning to analyze hundreds of African elephant rumble recordings from Kenya's Amboseli National Park. The analysis identified distinct rumble types like "coo" for calves, "contact" calls, "let's-go" signals, and "greeting" rumbles.

🤝 Researchers found that different rumbles sometimes became progressively similar, a phenomenon called "vocal convergence," which was observed mainly during situations where elephants were coordinating group behavior. This could potentially indicate agreement, though further research is needed.

📊 The machine learning algorithm was able to predict elephant behaviors based on rumble recordings better than chance, suggesting that similar situations may involve vocalizations with similar acoustic properties.

#ElephantCommunication #AnimalBehavior #MachineLearning

A study of 26 chimpanzees observed for over 800 hours found they stole food less often from friends than non-friends (61% vs. 70%), while victims calmed down faster when the thief was a friend, suggesting chimpanzee friendships involve expectations of preferential treatment.

Read Full Article

#Chimpanzees #AnimalBehavior #SocialInteractions

🐶 A new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences suggests dogs, like humans, may associate the made-up word 'Kiki' with spiky shapes and 'Bouba' with rounded shapes.

🧠 Researchers at the University of Parma in Italy conducted experiments with 70 domestic dogs, using an AI to track their gaze patterns when exposed to the sounds and corresponding shapes.

🎧 In one experiment, dogs showed a bias towards spiky shapes when 'Kiki' was played, but this bias disappeared when owners wore headphones, suggesting dogs weren't simply following owner cues.

#DogScience #AnimalBehavior #Psychology