Can’t touch this: Why do jumping spiders freeze when flies dance?

Signals used in animals Plenty of animals eat each other, but some of these animals have developed ways to avoid becoming lunch. Bright colours are a common strategy, like in this Granular Poison Frog: Animals can also give a more active response, such as this video of a Lepidobatrachus frog: This behaviour is called a

Born this way: What’s important for vertebrate reproduction?

How does reproduction differ across vertebrates? Vertebrates (animals with a spine) perform reproduction and care for their young in different ways. This is part of life history theory, a framework of biological evolution that seeks to explain animal behaviour and anatomy (1). Scientists know of relationships between vertebrates and their life histories on a broad

Fight fire with fire: indigenous knowledge & practices can save our species

Shannon Kaiser | 22 March 2020 Australia’s collapsing biodiversity With species going extinct at 1000 times their natural rate, ecosystems around the globe are losing a vital key for their effective functioning: biodiversity.1, 2 As ecosystems degrade, their ability to be productive and provide services decreases.3 These services include: providing food, fresh water, climate regulation,

Worm your way through this! What makes worms stick together?

Can one tiny worm make a difference? Biologists have been working on understanding animal behaviour for a long time, and one of the big questions that we’re still trying to answer is “how do animals stay together?”(1) Scientists know quite well how this works on a large scale, such as herding in zebra, but they