#scieblr

[todropscience]

SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALE CALVES ARE LITTLE MILK THIEVES

Drone footages made during the nursing season, off Encounter Bay, South Australia have revealed an unknown behaviour in southern right whales (Eubalaena australis), with some calves involved in direct and intentional movement to steal milk from other lactating mothers, with the intention to drink some delicious extra milk.

This phenomenon called allosuckling has potential benefits for the calf as it may gain extra milk to help it grow in size and strength, but it may be disadvantageous to the non-biological mother as she needs to provide milk to her own offspring. According to lead researcher of the study, whales have a capital breeding strategy, where during the nursing season the mother does not feed and is not able to replenish her lost energy reserves.

Allosuckling, the suckling of milk from a non-biological mother, occurs in some species of mammals, whoever, this is the first time is reported in baleen whale calves.

Gif description: A calf performing allosuckling, and the non-biological mother showing an evasive reaction, Sprogis & Christiansen, 2024.

reference (Open Access): Sprogis & Christiansen, 2024. Allosuckling in southern right whale calves. Mamm Biol

[laurelstudies-blog]

Free study calendar?

Each year I make my own wall-calendar, since I found that having one with a certain layout helps me study a lot. Would you guys like it if I posted it here for you to download for free??

[thefatstudent]

We are the scientists, trying to make sense of the stars inside us.

Christopher Poindexter

[todropscience]

NEMO FISHES CAN COUNT STRIPES, SCIENTISTS SAY

Clownfish, aka anemonefish, famous by their distinct white bar patterns seen in Disney’s Finding Nemo, can count up to three, a new study finds.

There around 28 different species of anemonefish know to date, having between 0 to 3 white stripes, which has been suggested to be important for species recognition. In a recent study, researchers found out that in lab conditions, common anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris), a species that displays three white bars, when faced with an intruder fish, attacked their own species more frequently than other species of intruding anemonefish.

Recearchers tested how common anemonefish could count number of stripes, and they used orange plastic models with different numbers of bars, and compared whether the frequency of aggressive behavior towards the model differed according to the number of bars. The frequency of aggressive behavior toward the 3-bar model was the same as against living common anemonefishes and was higher than towards any of the other models.

-Plastic models used to measure the aggressive behavior of clown fish. Clownfish could count stripe and shown aggresive behavior following the number of stripe. Photo by Kina Hayashi.

Researchers believe common clowfish count the number of white stripes as a cue to identify and attack only competitors that might use the same anemone where they live, using counting as an important behavior for efficient host defense.

Photo: Gaell Mainguy ·

Reference (Open Access): Hayashi et al., 2024. Counting Nemo: anemonefish Amphiprion ocellaris identify species by number of white bars. Journal of Experimental Biology