Two male great white sharks, named "Jekyll" and "Simon", tagged off Georgia's coast in December, displayed a groundbreaking migration pattern.
From April, Jekyll and Simon's joint journey saw them traverse the Atlantic Coast, passing places like Ocracoke and Virginia Beach in a synchronised manner. While sharks sometimes gather for mating or feeding, their migrations are usually solitary.
Behavioural innovation is thought to play an important role in enabling animals to cope with environmental change. Research on animal innovation has focused on terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates, but few animals face environmental variation as extreme as those living in littoral zones, where physical and social conditions change dramatically from moment to moment.
The trumpetfish, with its long, slender body, shadows non-threatening species like the parrotfish. This allows it to get closer to its prey, such as damselfish, without being detected. Dr Sam Matchette, a leading researcher from the University of Cambridge, explains that when the trumpetfish swims alongside another species, it either remains hidden or is not recognised as a threat due to its altered shape.
Scientists have observed neon tetra fish queuing up when exiting through a narrow opening, according to a study in the journal Scientific Reports.
In the study, Aurélie Dupont, a biological physicist in the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique at University Grenoble Alpes, and her team set up two fish tanks connected to each other by a narrow opening. The diameter of the passageway varied from 1.5 to 4 centimeters.
A new study demonstrates how animals recognise self-images.
Some animals have the remarkable capacity for mirror self-recognition (MSR), yet any implications for self-awareness remain uncertain.
In a test of MSR ability in cleaner fish, mirror-naive fish initially attacked photograph models of both themselves and unfamiliar strangers. In contrast, after all fish had passed the mirror mark test, they did not attack their own (motionless) images, but still frequently attacked those of unfamiliar individuals.
Have you ever noticed that when adults speak to babies or small children, they speak in a distinctively specific manner? As if by instinct, they speak in a high-pitched voice, with clear pronunciation and longer pauses between words.
It seems that this “baby talk” is not reserved for humans. Researchers have discovered that dolphins too indulge in baby talk—by changing their characteristic whistles and frequencies—when they communicate with their offspring.
So far this year, dozens of orca attacks on vessels have been recorded on Spanish and Portuguese coasts. In most reported cases, orcas are biting, bending and breaking off the rudders of sailboats.
What do sharks do when we’re not looking?
To answer this question, Murdoch University fish biologist Lauran Brewster attached accelerometers to the fins of 24 lemon sharks in the Bimini Islands, Bahamas to find out.
Shark dives provide an excellent way to meet a lot of sharks, and represent a unique situation in which sharks are treated well by humanity.
Shark dive clubs usually bring some fishy scraps—in most cases the remains left over after big fish have been cut up for sale. The scent attracts the sharks into view, and provides a bit of excitement as the animals investigate and try to get a piece.
In pairs of coral reef rabbitfishes (f. Siganidae), one fish frequently assumes an upright vigilance position in the water column, while the partner forages in small crevices in the reef substratum. Both behaviours are strongly coordinated and partners regularly alternate their positions, resulting in a balanced distribution of foraging activity.
