Inside the Animal Mind

Social Cues in Animals Social cues are an important aspect of daily life for all humans and come in many different variations such as facial expression and body language. Each of them can be seen in an individual's everyday life. Examples of this can be anywhere from using one’s tone of voice to show anger towards something that is displeasing or nodding one’s head to agree with someone. While social cues are well known to be a significant part of human interaction, they can also be seen in animals as well. Elephants in Zimbabwe have been tested to see how they would react to social cues when they are given to them by humans. In the following video the african elephants are given an experiment much like the one that was used in class. In this experiment the elephants are shown two buckets. One of the buckets has food in it and the experimenter points to the correct bucket to see if the elephant would follow the social cues in order to choose the correct bucket. The video s

Yawning.      We know that yawning is quite contagious. Just while picking the image above, I yawned four times. We know that yawning tends to happen when we are tired or bored but do we really know why ? And the more pressing question, what would it mean if we knew the underlying cause ? What could that knowledge really be used for.       Researchers have been trying to nail down just what causes yawning (because it really is kind of an odd practice). One thing researchers have looked at is  who doesn't yawn.  They have noticed that those with empathy-related disorders, such as autism, tend to yawn less than whose without. This indicates that there is a certain level of empathy required for yawning, but other researchers argue that yawning is a biological reflex that cools down the brain. (No, it is not to get oxygen to the brain. If you are like me, that is what you were told when you were younger but this has since been debunked.) It is believed that the action of y

All Things Scary http://weknowyourdreams.com/fear.html Fear is defined by dictionary.com as “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat”. Animals and humans experience fear in many different ways. Fear is an evolutionarily useful emotion- it can prevent a creature from coming in contact with something potentially harmful or engaging in a behavior that is dangerous and may cause injury or death. Studies have shown there are different ways to experience fear. Sometimes, there are fears that are predisposed to a species, while other studies have shown that fear can be learned. The processes linked to these fear responses may be very complex and involve many different areas of the brain. Below, a video describes a study which attempted to determine the functions of the brain during courage. Participants were exposed to a fearful stimulus (a snake) and their brain activity was monitored. Activity was fo

Puppies have the most energy and a lot of social interactions while they are young.  To burn off some of that energy and help social interaction, they play!  Them playing as puppies is a critical time for their social development and learn proper dog manners.  But how do you know if they are playing or fighting? This is what could be difficult for the owners to distinguish from play or fighting.  They both look fairly similar and could leave someone confused about the situation. There are many different things that can show it's just play and not fighting, moves like the play bow, open mouth, snarling by the dogs, and etc.  The play bow is when the dogs front end is down and their back end is up in the air.  Like we talked about in class, they have their mouths open.  They also snarl and growl continuously while playing.  They will also bouncy around while doing all these actions together.  Bouncing around in the play bow with their mouths open showing the other dog or dogs

Flocks of Fun  October 07, 2017 Play is perhaps one of the most complex topics when it comes to animal psychology. It is often difficulty to recognize and their are an abundance of theories about why animals may engage in play behavior. However; too often it seems that play is only examined, perhaps because it is easier to recognize but they most certainly are not the only ones to engage in play (All About Birds 2009).  Like in mammals it makes sense that play could be used to help the birds practice skills they may need later in life. Birds it seem though are especially fond of playing with their "toys". For instance birds Gulls and frigate birds will release twigs well in the air and swoop down to grab them. If they find a stick they like they may well hold onto it for hours(Ogilvie 2017).  Quite the exciting game if you ask me. Of course this play like most play performed by animals is not without greater purpose to it. The seagulls in question well

Insight refers to the sudden production of a new adaptive response that did not originate and bettered from trial and error behavior. In other words, insight is the combination of different knowledge to arrive at something new. For example, researchers found that a crow was able to create and use tools in a remarkable way (Weir, Chappell, & Kacelnik, 2002). Betty the crow was the crow that created her own tool. Betty’s task was to retrieve a basket with a handle from a tall cylinder. All that Betty had available to retrieve the basket was a straight stick. Betty previously had access to a stick with a hook end, however, she did not have this available this time. Watch the following video to see what she did. Amazing ! After trying to retrieve the basket with the straight stick, she modified her tool to be hooked. She then very easily retrieved the basket. Another example is that of crow 007. Crow 007 first learned how to perform different task separately. For exam