LSM1303 ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR : groups

Battle at Kruger - Buffalo, Lions and Crocs!

N. Sivasothi — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:40:14 GMT

This is the 2007 viral video from YouTube which I entertained the early-comers to the lecture with today. "Battle at Kruger" is an epic that has received more than 26 million views!

Originally filmed in September 2004 by videographer David Budzinski and photographer Jason Schlosberg at a watering hole in Kruger National Park, South Africa, it now has its own webpage, Wikipedia entry and Time magazine article ("When animals attack and defend," by Jeffrey Kluger. Time, 07 Jun 2007). A National Geographic channel special is due in May 2007.

Even 25-year African wildlife veteran Dereck Joubert said,

"There is no doubt at all that the tourist who shot that scene … was unbelievably lucky."

Video by NegativeSpace.com

See also the photo gallery by Jason Schlosberg which includes phottos from their return to Kruger (2007).

Reasons for monkey troop's mayhem

N. Sivasothi — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:53:00 GMT

"Monkey mayhem in Bukit Timah," by Arul John. The New Paper, 12 Mar 2008.

There had to be a good reason for the monkey's mayhem. The incident happened in a residential area south of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. A trap on loan from AVA had been set and captured an inexperienced baby monkey. A social troop like the long-tailed macaque would attempt to free the baby or agitate the captors.

Thus agitated troop vocalised and in this heightened mood, one individual entered the house.

Eventually AVA officers removed the cage and its solitary occupant, the baby monkey, which was put to sleep.

The article later lists some measures that can be adopted to make houses less attractive to these monkeys. These include reducing access by monkeys to food (including refuse), reduce motivation to enter by hiding obvious food items like fruit from open view and to provide negative feedback (spraying water) when they venture too close.

Since humans are intelligent enough to modify our behaviour quickly, the questions is, will the monkeys respond? Animals will respond to specific cues and have evolved to exploit specific environments. The long-tailed macaque is a highly adaptable and opprtunistic species able to venture out of forests edges into partially urbanised areas. As a result they will quickly adapt to the cues that we provide to deter their raids. Likewise, visitors to our Nature Reserves are told to "Stop Feeding the Monkeys" [By N. Sivasothi, Habitatnews, 07 Jun 2005]. An interesting point was made by residents of another house - "the monkeys usually just climb into the garden and eat the fruits from the trees. They have never terrorised people before."

BBC: Attenborough - Elephant Seals, featuring the Beach Master!

N. Sivasothi — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:05:55 GMT

Click to see the

BBC Video:

The Black-tailed Godwit - maintaining pair bonds across seasons

N. Sivasothi — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:51:43 GMT

Photo by Marek Szczepanek

Gunnarsson, T. G., J. A. Gill, T. Sigurbjörnsson & W. J. Sutherland, 2004. Pair bonds: Arrival synchrony in migratory birds. Nature, 431(646), doi:10.1038/431646a.

Abstract - Synchronous arrival of pairs of migratory birds at their breeding grounds is important for maintaining pair bonds and is achieved by pairs that remain together all year round. Here we show that arrival [in Iceland] is also synchronized in paired individuals of a migratory shorebird, the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa islandica), even though they winter hundreds of kilometres apart [in Europe] and do not migrate together. The mechanisms required to achieve this synchrony and prevent 'divorce' illustrate the complexity of migratory systems.

Essay on Cooperative breeding

N. Sivasothi — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:12:12 GMT

Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin & Darryl Wheye, 1988. “Cooperative Breeding” in The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds Including All Species That Regularly Breed North of Mexico. Simon and Schuster, New York.

The essay is hosted on "Birds of Stanford" webpage. They provide an excellent summary of cooperative breeding including aspects from: Glen E. Woolfenden, John W. Fitzpatrick, 1984. The Florida Scrub Jay: Demography of a Cooperative-Breeding Bird. Princeton University Press, N. J., USA. 406pp.

Look under "Essays" and click the link for "Alphabetical order" to find "Cooperative Breeding".