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animal psychology

·March 9, 2023·4 min read

Complex Learned Social Behavior Discovered in Bee’s Waggle Dance

A bee's "waggle dance", an intricate series of motions that signals the location of critical resources to other bees, is improved by social learning and can be culturally transmitted.

This shows a drawing of bees having a meeting

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·March 7, 2023·3 min read

Puzzle-Solving Behavior Spreads Through Bumblebee Colonies

Bumblebees are able to learn to solve puzzles by watching more experienced bees complete a task. This new behavioral preference then spreads throughout the entire colony. The bees that learned from others became more adept and began to prefer the learned solution over alternatives.

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·January 23, 2023·4 min read

Dogs Show Things to Humans but Pigs Do Not

While pet dogs and pet pigs pay their owners a similar amount of attention, when it comes to pointing to the location of an out-of-range treat, only dogs direct their owner's attention to the location. Findings suggest directing human attention to an interesting location is not ubiquitous in domesticated animals.

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·January 16, 2023·4 min read

Study Questions Whether Toddlers Choose to Help Dogs Impulsively

Toddlers are twice as likely to help a dog reach a toy, even when the animal showed no interest in the object. The findings suggest toddlers' prosocial and goal-reading abilities extend beyond other humans and to animals.

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·December 21, 2022·9 min read

Human Empathy Makes Us Better at Understanding Animal Sounds

People who score higher for empathy traits are better able to understand and decode the emotional sounds of animals.

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·December 8, 2022·4 min read

Canine Brain Wiring Influenced by Human-Driven Breeding Practices

Areas of the genome associated with brain development harbor variants that seem to account for behavioral differences between dog breeds. The genomic differences between dog breeds are related to the development of their nervous systems. Researchers say genes associated with different dog lineages may relate to genes involved in the development of human behavior.

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·November 18, 2022·2 min read

Social Bees Travel Greater Distances for Food Than Their Solitary Counterparts

Social bees venture further for pollen and nectar than their less social counterparts.

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·October 25, 2022·4 min read

Cats Distinguish Between Speech Directed at Them and Humans

Cats alter their behavior when their owner speaks in a cat-directed tone toward them, but not when their owner talks to another human or when a stranger addresses them in a cat-directed tone. Evidence suggests cats are able to, and do form strong bonds with their owners.

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·September 20, 2022·5 min read

The First Look at How Rabies Affects Vampire Bat Social Behavior

Male vampire bats infected with rabies socially withdraw, scaling back their social behavior of grooming other bats before they succumb to the disease.

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·September 20, 2022·5 min read

Wolves Can Show Attachment Toward Humans

Wolves, like dogs, prefer the presence of a familiar person over that of a stranger. Familiarity with a human has a positive and calming impact on a wolf's social behavior.

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·June 15, 2022·4 min read

Dog-Assisted Interventions Lead To Lower Stress Levels in Children

A new study reports that dog-assisted interventions lower cortisol levels and overall stress in young children.

This shows a dog with a lot of snuggly toys

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·June 13, 2022·5 min read

A Glimpse Into the Dog’s Mind: A New Study Reveals How Dogs Think of Their Toys

Dogs have multi-modal mental imagery of items and objects that are familiar to them. When a dog thinks about an object, they imagine the object's different sensory features.