Questions tagged [ethology]
The scientific study of animal behaviour, and a sub-topic of zoology.
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Do dogs who play with laser pointers get neuroses?
There are many anecdotes about "laser pointer syndrome" claiming that dogs suffer from something like OCD as a result of playing with laser pointers. Some vet clinics that propagate this ...
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Did a rabbit bite Justice David Souter?
In a panel discussion titled HLS in the World | A Conversation with Six Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court [partially transcribed at Harvard At 200: Justices Look Back On Their Law School Days — And ...
user16959
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Do wombats share their burrows during fires?
In the wake of the devastating bushfires currently burning in Australia, an image has been widely shared on social media:
Here is one example from Twitter, retweeted 11K times:
While I have an ...
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Do dolphins intentionally intoxicate themselves with puffer-fish venom?
Since late 2013, outlets as serious as Smithsonian Magazine have circulated the claim that dolphins intentionally get "high" by harassing pufferfish. It is further claimed that this is a ...
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Do crows like to get dizzy? [closed]
In a lecture on the "Meaning Crisis", John Vervaeke, an assistant professor of cognitive science at the University of Toronto, and a colleague of Jordan B. Peterson, states:
Caledonian crows will ...
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Do European deer still stick to their sides of the Iron Curtain?
I found such a claim in an article here:
http://nowiknow.com/the-thin-red-deer-line/
But that was a long time ago, especially if you’re a deer — they only live about ten or so years in the wild. ...
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Does human excrement or toilet paper attract wild animals?
One commenter on Clarification sought on the six-inch-cat-hole rule says of toilet paper, "One issue is that (even if it does biodegrade), animals may dig it up and scatter it around..."
I've heard ...
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Can elephants be held by a single piece of rope if they grow up conditioned to believe they cannot break free? [duplicate]
According to theunboundedspirit.com:
As my friend was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused
by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small
rope tied to ...
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Can Rambo, the German shepherd, follow written commands?
An article on The Laughing Squid shows a German shepherd seemingly following written commands.
An impressively intelligent German shepherd named Rambo, who’s learning how to read with the help of ...
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Have badgers eaten coyotes?
Wikipedia claims that badgers sometimes eat coyotes:
In North America, coyotes sometimes eat badgers and vice versa, but the majority of their interactions seem to be mutual or neutral.[19] ...
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Do apes/monkeys open bananas from the floral end?
I often hear people lecturing about how to open a banana from the "right" end, including an explanation that this is how monkeys do it.
A quick search in the internet offers a lot of examples (for ...
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Would a ferret (or any other animal, for that matter) insist on its caregiver to handle its offspring?
There is a video of a ferret biting on someone's hand, guiding it towards a shoebox filled with kits (baby ferrets). It tends to appear alongside the claim that the ferret wants its caregiver to meet ...
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Do overpopulated rats have extremely high infant mortality rates caused by competition and stress?
Dr John B. Calhoun conducted a series of experiments in the 1960's on the effect of over-population on Norway rats.
Wikipedia explains:
The conclusions drawn from this experiment were that when ...
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Is the "Alpha Wolf" theory debunked?
The concept of "Alpha" originates in studies of wolves and the theory that an "Alpha" wolf leads a pack.
They were very scientifically popular in the 60s/70s, and obviously dominate popular culture.
...
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Do the older slower wolves lead a wolf pack?
I saw this on Facebook. Is it true?
pretty cool
A pack (wolves): The first 3 are the older or sick and they set the pace of the group. If it was on the contrary, they would be left behind and ...
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Do roosters let hens eat first?
I recently saw this Reddit comment claiming that roosters are seen as gallant because they let their hens eat first:
In France, the Rooster is seen as a symbol of gallantry. This is
because, (...
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Is tickling a form of torture for slow lorises?
The campaign Tickling is Torture by international animal rescue campaigns against people keeping slow lorises as pets (for very good reasons). One claim they make however is that tickling is torture ...
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Do pigeons and doves refrain from mating after their lifelong mate dies?
I just came across this quote by Jerome (I don't know in what book he originally wrote it):
Even the pigeons and doves don't take another partner if their companions pass away.
I don't take Jerome'...
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Do orangutans rape women?
Following up from the lions-attacking-menstruating-women question, I read an account that claimed male orangutans will rape a human woman, especially if she is in menstruated. Are there verified ...
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Can lions sense menstruating women?
I had an interesting chat today with a young woman from a traditional circus family, who explained she could not grow up to become a lion tamer, because lions could smell when women are menstruating ...
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Have cats hunted at least 33 species to extinction?
I heard recently that cats have hunted numerous species to extinction, but I couldn't find a reliable source for this. Several sources say that they have been blamed for these extinctions, but is ...
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Can mice find their way back to your home from 1+ miles away?
I've read on many pest control websites that if you catch a mouse in your home that they must be taken 1+ miles away, otherwise they will easily make their way back to their old home (ie. your house).
...
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Did lions in Ethiopia save a 12 year old girl from rape?
The story goes, with a youtube video:
A 12-year-old girl was kidnapped in Ethiopia, beaten, and almost forced into an awful and disgusting marriage, but luckily, that marriage didn't happen because ...
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Can chickens be hypnotized by drawing a line in front of them?
It's commonly said that if you hold a chicken's beak to the ground and draw a straight line in front of it, it will stare at the line and not move. There's no shortage of footage on youtube to prove ...
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Does a monkey/ape flee from half peeled bananas?
There is a claim by a German philosopher, named Max Scheler.
Ein Affe, dem man eine Banane halb geschält in die Hand gibt, flieht vor ihr, während er sie ganz geschält frißt, ungeschält aber selber ...
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Do dogs bite more during a full moon?
In various cultures throughout the world there is the widespread belief that animals, including companion dogs, are more likely to bite when under the influence of a full moon
http://www.dogexpert....
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Do barking dogs seldom bite?
There is a very famous proverb that "BARKING DOGS SELDOM BITE". According to the saying: The dogs which bark too much in loud tone, bite very rarely. It implies that the people who threaten you more ...
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Do crabs exemplify "crab mentality" behaviour?
Is there any verifiable evidence that crabs, in fact, behave as if they possess "crab mentality"?
The term “crab mentality” is used to describe a kind of selfish
thinking that runs along the ...
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Do animals commit suicide?
I've done some Googling and only found case stories without any scientific backup. Most of the case reports about animal suicide online can by easily debunked by logical reasoning. For example there ...
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Do roaches die (naturally) on their backs? [closed]
First, a major qualifier here; by naturally, I mean not forced to die on its "stomach" (like by being stepped on). Secondly, I live in the U.S., so maybe this applies to only American roaches.
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Do Japanese fishermen put sharks in their tanks to keep fish fresh?
I saw the following story on Quora and when I Googled it, I got a lot of inspirational websites like Patheos.org that were hosting this same story without any citations. I would like to know if the ...
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Do Macaque monkeys steal money from wallets and use it to buy food from vending machines?
I saw this rumor on Reddit, which refers to factsanddetails.com and which doesn't indicate the information source. I saw a video of a monkey using a vending machine on College Humor, but that doesn't ...
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Do spiders intentionally wear water droplets on their heads?
I discovered today that there are a lot of pictures of spiders "wearing" water drops as hats.
(More research: Warning -- Spiders!)
However, I can't find anything related to why they might do this. ...
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Do sea otters rape baby seals to death?
Popular facebook group
Nature isn’t always kind and cuddly. A study showed that sea otters
will restrain baby seals and then begin copulation; sometimes drowning
it during the 105-minute-long ...
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Can a skunk spray with its feet off the ground?
A colleague has a family story that if confronted by a skunk, if you can get its rear feet off the ground, it's unable to release its foul-smelling spray.
Evidence for or to the contrary?
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Can dolphins learn a symbol based language?
I recently stumbled across the following article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1240334/Dolphins-clever-humans--treat-like-people-say-scientists.html
which makes the claim that ...
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Do wind turbines kill many birds each year?
It has been claimed that due to their large size, and the velocity of their blades that wind turbines kill large numbers of birds that run into them at night, or in fog, and die.
http://www....
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Do male penguins search for pebbles to present to female penguins?
I came across the following unsourced claim:
When a male penguin falls in love with a female penguin, he searches the entire beach to find the perfect pebble to present to her. And when he finally ...
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Did large herbivorous dinosaurs have any predators?
I went to the Natural History Museum in London today. I saw the dinosaur exhibition, and in the exhibition was this image, of an Allosaurus attacking a Diplodocus:
Image by John Sibbick
This ...
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Do birds eat chewing gum they think is bread?
This image popped up in my facebook feed today. The translation reads:
Did you know that:
Chewing gum thrown on the street looks like pieces of bread to birds. They try to eat it, but it gets stuck ...
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Do cats get stuck in trees?
There are a number of movies and cartoons that humorously have a hero saving the day by rescuing a cat from a tree (the first one that pops into my mind is in the movie The Incredibles). There are a ...
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Is 94% of male giraffe sexual behaviour homosexual?
I've been trying to track down the source of a claim that research has shown giraffe exhibiting a really high rate of male homosexual relations. Going through the blog spam leads me to a site without ...
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Are "banana traps" effective at catching monkeys?
There is a famous claim that says the way to trap monkeys is by placing a staked container with a hole cut into it just wide enough for a monkey to stick its empty hand into.
The container is baited ...
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Can an elephant be trained to be lightly leashed?
Is been claimed that the way you keep an elephant leashed is with a chain pegged to the ground which they can easily break, just since they have learned when they where younger they could not escape ...
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Do bitter apple or actual orange peels prevent cats from scratching?
This article - http://www.allourpets.com/feline/stop-scratching.shtml - mentions that bitter apple or actual orange peels prevent cats from scratching?
If your cat still scratches in appropriate ...
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Does chicken manure keep cats away from garden areas?
This article mentions that chicken manure can keep cats away.
Chicken manure around established plants can also deter cats as they don't like the smell.
Is it true?
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Do we know why animals have evolved to have sex for reproduction?
I've been reading 13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Intriguing Scientific Mysteries of Our Time (2010) and Chapter 10 concentrates on the subject of Sex. The author argues that we do not know ...
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Do pigs have 30 minute orgasms?
A widely circulated internet meme (see e.g. the oatmeal) states that pig orgasms can last up to 30 minutes.
I've been trying to find any source or reference to back up (or refute) this claim, but ...
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Are there examples of exclusive homosexuality in non-human animals?
I have often heard the claim that homosexuality exists in non-human animals. Sheep and dolphins seem to be common examples. I find it easy to believe that homosexual activity exists - some animals ...
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Does swatting/killing a bee cause the hive to attack?
I used to hear this all the time when I was growing up. Just ignore bees, don't swat at or try to kill them, because if they die, they'll send a "signal" to the hive that will attract dozens more. ...
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