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Who finds your call sexy? How both sexes have a say in sexual selection.

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*Grace Day* Sexual selection, a derivation of natural selection in which some individuals out-reproduce others because they are more attractive mates, takes place in all species. In order to understand sexual selection, simply ask yourself, would you rather marry Ryan Gosling … Continue reading

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Risk Assessment: Scorpions’ Ability to Moderate Venom Spraying Behavior

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Many animals use chemical spraying as a defensive response to aggressors. It is considered a secondary tactic that renders the prey less easily captured, as opposed to a primary tactic, which reduces the likelihood of the prey being detected initially. … Continue reading

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Does my voice turn you on? Female bark beetle preference for courtship song

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The process of finding a mate is not fully understood in a lot of animals. Some animals use olfaction, while others use mating calls. Close-range courtship signals are thought to be the most influential type of acoustic signal for mating … Continue reading

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You Are Where You Live: How Environmental Changes Affect Life-History

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What They Did and Didn’t Know Changes in the environment occur naturally over geological periods, and in some cases are induced by human impact. These changes include ecological and climate events, such as algal blooms or El Niño years, and … Continue reading

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Even Fish Know Interrupting is Rude

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Most people know that humans are having an effect on the environment. Through pollution, overpopulation, and habitat destruction, we’re already impacting the way many animals live. Lately, people have realized another way we’re changing nature: by adding sound. Noise pollution … Continue reading

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Prey capture ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi

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Cnidaria is a diverse phylum containing over 10,000 species, all belonging to two basic body forms: swimming medusae (jellyfish) and sessile polyps. These organisms employ a wide range of strategies for food acquisition ranging from filter feeding and symbiotic relationships … Continue reading

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Early-life Stress Disadvantages Female Starlings’ Perception of Male Songs

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              Environmental stress can cause adverse effects on an animal’s health via the pressure it places on behavioral and physiological processes. These effects may last throughout an animal’s life, especially when the stress occurs … Continue reading

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Gall Lab Publish in Zoology

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The Gall Lab has just published a paper entitled “Frequency sensitivity in the auditory periphery of male and female black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus)”.  The first author is one of the first student members of the Gall Lab, Arick Wong. In … Continue reading

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Is sex worth being eaten? The use of silk pheromones when determining female quality in black widow spiders

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Background An organism preferentially choosing a mate by determining their quality is a mechanism that exists within many species. We usually associate selection as females choosing their mates from a large number of potential suitors, but the reverse is also … Continue reading

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House Finches uses Olfactory Cues in Predator Avoidance

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Prey animals are forced to employ various mechanisms of predator detection in order to avoid being eaten. Methods of detection can vary, and many animals can use multiple sensory modalities to perceive the presence of a predator. One possible means … Continue reading

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