Behavioral Science News

June 11, 2025

Top Headlines

Satellite Tracking of 12,000 Marine Animals Reveals Ocean Giants Are in Trouble

June 7, 2025 — A massive global collaboration has tracked over 12,000 marine animals from whales to turtles to create one of the most detailed movement maps of ocean giants ever assembled. The project, MegaMove, ...

Baboons Walk in Line for Friendship, Not Survival, New Study Finds

June 3, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that baboons walk in lines, not for safety or strategy, but simply to stay close to their ...

Keep the Cool Feeling: A Lipid Enzyme for Maintaining Cool Temperature Sensation and Avoidance

May 29, 2025 — Researchers have identified a monoacylglycerol acyltransferase-coding gene named bishu-1. It is involved in the thermal responsiveness of cool temperature-sensing neurons by regulating ionotropic ...

Newly Identified Group of Nerve Cells in the Brain Regulates Bodyweight

May 28, 2025 — Obesity is a global health problem that affects many people. In recent years, very promising anti-obesity drugs have been developed. Despite these successes, there are patients who do not respond to these drugs or suffer from side effects. ...

Genetic Basis of Purring in Cats

May 29, 2025 — Whether you are lucky enough to have a cat companion or must merely live this experience vicariously through cat videos, Felis catus is a familiar and comforting presence in our daily lives. Unlike most other feline species, cats exhibit sociality, ...

Forest in Sync: Spruce Trees May Communicate During a Solar Eclipse

Apr. 29, 2025 — Regular light-dark cycles greatly affect organisms, and events like eclipses induce distinctive physiological and behavioral shifts. While well-documented in animals, plant behavior during eclipses remains largely unexplored. Scientists monitored ...

Can Plants Hear Their Pollinators?

May 21, 2025 — When pollinators visit flowers, they produce various sounds, from wing flapping during hovering, to landing and takeoff. Scientists studied these vibroacoustic signals to develop noninvasive and efficient methods for monitoring pollinator ...

Light-Driven Cockroach Cyborgs Navigate Without Wires or Surgery

May 14, 2025 — have created a new type of insect cyborg that can navigate autonomously -- without wires, surgery, or stress-inducing electrical shocks. The system uses a small ultraviolet (UV) light helmet to steer cockroaches by taking advantage of their natural ...

The Scent of Death? Worms Experience Altered Fertility and Lifespan When Exposed to Dead Counterparts

May 22, 2025 — Research reveals that for C. elegans worms, the presence of dead members of their species has profound behavioral and physiological effects, leading them to more quickly reproduce and shortening ...

Asian Elephants Have Larger Brains Than Their African Relatives

May 20, 2025 — African elephants are the largest land animals on earth and significantly larger than their relatives in Asia, from which they are separated by millions of years of evolution. Nevertheless, Asian elephants have a 20 percent heavier brain, as ...

Capuchin Monkeys Develop Bizarre 'Fad' of Abducting Baby Howlers

May 19, 2025 — Animal abduction: Biologists documented five male capuchin monkeys carrying at least eleven different infant howler monkeys -- a behavior never before seen in wild primates. Rise and spread: The sightings were remotely recorded by over 85 camera ...

Mice Use Chemical Cues Such as Odors to Sense Social Hierarchy

May 19, 2025 — Researchers have shown that mice use chemical cues, including odors, to detect the social rank of an unfamiliar mouse and compare it to their own, using this information to determine their ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:34am EDT

Whales Blow Bubble Rings--And They Might Be Talking to Us

June 7, 2025 — Humpback whales have been observed blowing bubble rings during friendly interactions with humans a behavior never before documented. This surprising display may be more than play; it could represent ...

Very Different Mammals Follow the Same Rules of Behavior

May 16, 2025 — In the natural world -- where predators pounce, prey flee, and group members feed and sleep in solidarity -- animal behavior is glorious in its variety. Now, new research suggests there may be an ...

Digital Reconstruction Reveals 80 Steps of Prehistoric Life

May 15, 2025 — A dinosaur's 40-second journey more than 120 million years ago has been brought back to life by a research team using advanced digital modelling ...

Not All Orangutan Mothers Raise Their Infants the Same Way

May 13, 2025 — Sumatran orangutan mothers differ from one another in how they behave with and take care of their infants and how flexibly they adjust their mothering behaviors as their infants grow. Whilst mothers ...

Butterflies Hover Differently from Other Flying Organisms, Thanks to Body Pitch

May 13, 2025 — Butterflies' flight trajectories often appear random or chaotic, but their hovering patterns can potentially provide critical design insights for ...

Echidna Microbiome Changes While Mums Nurse Puggle

May 12, 2025 — Research shows microbial communities in echidna pseudo-pouches undergo dramatic changes while the animal is lactating, which could help in creating an environment for their young, known as puggles, ...

Birds Form Bonds That Look a Lot Like Friendship

May 7, 2025 — A study of starlings in Africa shows that they form long-term social bonds similar to human ...

AI Has Untapped Potential to Advance Biodiversity Conservation

May 6, 2025 — A new study suggests the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to rapidly analyze vast amounts of biodiversity data could revolutionize conservation efforts by enabling scientists and policymakers to ...

How Hunting Harriers Home in on Their Prey

May 6, 2025 — Owls, well adapted to hearing the exact location of prey, have something in common with an unrelated group of raptors -- harriers. A new study has found that harriers across the world are able to ...

New Research on Bird Behavior Suggests That Evolution May Repeat Itself

Apr. 28, 2025 — The study found that bird species who nest in tree cavities have independently evolved heightened aggression across lineages, particularly in ...

Rhythmically Trained Sea Lion Returns for an Encore -- And Performs as Well as Humans

May 1, 2025 — Animal research on biomusicality, which looks at whether different species are capable of behaving in ways that show they recognize aspects of music, including rhythm and beat, remains a tantalizing ...

Zoo Life Boosts Object Exploration in Orangutans

Apr. 30, 2025 — A new study comparing wild and zoo-housed Sumatran orangutans reveals that life in a zoo significantly alters how orangutans interact with their environment. Researchers analyzed over 12,000 ...

Palatable Versus Poisonous: Eavesdropping Bats Must Learn to Identify Which Prey Is Safe to Eat

Apr. 29, 2025 — Scientists found that the fringe-lipped bat, known to eavesdrop on frog and toad mating calls to find its prey, learns to distinguish between palatable and unpalatable frogs and toads through ...

Social 'Hippie' Spiders Don't Believe in Labels: Study Challenges Long-Held Assumptions About Animal Personalities

Apr. 28, 2025 — Scientists suggest social spiders are more about going with the flow than sticking to a role, after new research challenges the idea of fixed ...

Family First: Scientists Reveal Long-Tailed Tits' Remarkable Family Bonds

Apr. 28, 2025 — Forget fleeting friendships the social secrets of the long-tailed tit has revealed an extraordinary level of family commitment even during migratory journeys. Birds that babysit: scientists reveal ...

Study on the Reproducibility of Behavioral Experiments With Insects Now Published

Apr. 25, 2025 — A recent study provides evidence that some results of behavioral experiments with insects cannot be fully reproduced. So far, possible reproducibility problems have been little discussed in this ...

Animal Energy Usage Made Visible Through Video

Apr. 25, 2025 — Strong methods do exist for measuring animal movement in the context of energy expenditure, but these are limited by the physical size of the equipment used. Now, in a paper published in the Journal ...

Monkey Database Reveals Shift Towards Open Science

Apr. 24, 2025 — A database about monkey behavior reveals how science is evolving towards a more open, collaborative ...

Omnivorous? Vegan? Makes No Difference to Muscle Building After Weight Training, Study Finds

Apr. 21, 2025 — A new study asked three questions about muscle protein synthesis in response to a nine-day diet and weight training regimen: First, does the source of protein -- plant or animal-based -- make any ...

How Changes in Lemur Brains Made Some Mean Girls Nice

Apr. 21, 2025 — If there was a contest for biggest female bullies of the animal world, lemurs would be near the top of the list. It's the ladies who get their way and keep males in line. In one branch of the ...

Personality Test for Bees

Apr. 17, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that honey bees from the same colony have different preferences in terms of defensive behavior. While some are still hesitating, others are already ...

Little Birds' Personalities Shine Through Their Song -- And May Help Find a Mate

Apr. 15, 2025 — In birds, singing behaviors play a critical role in mating and territory defense. Although birdsong can signal individual quality and personality, very few studies have explored the relationship ...

Primate Mothers Display Different Bereavement Response to Humans

Apr. 15, 2025 — Macaque mothers experience a short period of physical restlessness after the death of an infant, but do not show typical human signs of grief, such as lethargy and appetite loss, finds a new study by ...

Unlocking the Genetic Basis of Animal Behavior Using Fruit Flies

Apr. 14, 2025 — Understanding how genes influence complex behaviors remains one of biology's most fascinating challenges. Now, however, in a recent study, researchers have compiled a comprehensive dataset ...

Love Songs in the Sand: Researchers Listen in to Fiddler Crab Courtship

Apr. 9, 2025 — A study has 'listened in' to the fascinating courtship displays of Fiddler crabs using geophones. The findings provide new insights into how the animals communicate effectively on the noisy ...

Do 'Optimistic' Versus 'Pessimistic' Medical Detection Dogs Perform Differently?

Apr. 9, 2025 — A new, exploratory study has revealed statistical links between the performance of medical detection dogs and their scores on behavioral and affective tests, finding that more 'optimistic' ...

Animal Behavioral Diversity at Risk in the Face of Declining Biodiversity

Apr. 3, 2025 — Drastic declines in biodiversity due to human activities present risks to understanding animal behaviors such as tool use, according to new research. Shrinking animal populations make the study of ...

How the Brain Evaluates Rewards

Apr. 2, 2025 — Researchers have gained a new understanding of how the brain processes reward and risk information. Neuroscientists show how nerve cells in the so-called amygdala not only encode the probability and ...

A Step Toward Plant-Based Gelatin

Apr. 1, 2025 — Researchers present gum tragacanth as a plant-based alternative to gelatin for creating edible films. The team developed films containing different concentrations of gelatin and gum tragacanth and ...

Scientists Solve 'Cocktail Party' Mystery of Bat Echolocation

Mar. 31, 2025 — Every night, bats emerge out of roosts in massive numbers, creating what scientists have called a 'cocktail party nightmare' of clashing echolocations. Nobody knew how bats managed this ...