The latest scientific discoveries in haiku form – sciku!
Road-safety crucial:
Engine noises distract from
predator odours.
Noise pollution can have a number of effects on wild animals. Morris-Drake et al (2016) found that road noises meant that dwarf mongooses were slower to detect a predator odour and did not increase vigilance in response to the odour (whilst mongooses exposed to normal ambient noise found the odour faster and showed increased vigilance).
Lugging worker ants
use a celestial compass.
Is this a moonwalk?
Ants often need to walk backwards when dragging heavy food items to their nests, but how do they navigate when moving in reverse? Rather than relying on visual memories of terrestrial cues, ants instead use their celestial compass – this can be disrupted by presenting ants with a mirror image of the sun’s position in the sky. Schwarz et al, 2017.
Original research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.019
When courting with song
do take turns with your neighbour –
Gentlemen hermits!
Male long-billed hermits (a sub-group of humming birds) form leks to attract mates by singing, but competing birds close together could overlap singing and confuse each other’s song. To counter this, males close together coordinate to alternate singing bouts whilst males further away from each other (and not at danger from vocal obscuration) overlap their songs. Araya-Salas et al, 2017.