Animal Behavior Research Blog Posts

Strain differences in zebrafish behavior and physiology

A zebrafish is not just a zebrafish. Strain differences in zebrafish behavior and physiology.

Tracking chickens: A promising approach for identifying feather-peckers

Manually observing chickens in barns is a tedious job to which ultra-wideband tracking offers a solution. But does it interfere with normal behavior?

Why it doesn’t seem fair to prefer male mice in behavioral studies

Is it justified to use male mice only in behavioral studies, as many diseases affect men and women differently? This might be the most important argument to favor including female mice in certain studies.

IR backlight in rodent behavioral testing

How do mice act in complete darkness? Ann-Kristina Fritz and her colleagues ordered a large, round open field with IR backlight, custom made by Noldus, to investigate.

Brain & behavior: data integration in horse studies

EEG recordings – they produce useful data, but are not always easy to obtain in animal studies. You can’t really ask a horse to sit still, so these researchers invented a promising new system for EEG recording.

Behavioral tests to select police horses

The personality of police horses influences how well they do in their ‘job’. That’s why personality tests are important for both animal and human welfare and safety.

Gait recovery and other effects: treatment of cervical myelopathy

At the Dr. Michael Fehlings' lab, they are on a quest to find out what exactly causes the lower success rate of delayed surgery in cervical myelopathy.

Video tracking makes bird watching much easier

Everyone with children knows the phenomenon that what is good for a child is not always the best for a parent. The same counts for birds.

Ticking clocks – tides and activity peaks in American horseshoe crabs

Recently, I came across an interesting paper in which American horseshoe crabs were video-tracked to investigate their internal clocks.

Flower preference in solitary bees

Mason bees are fascinating and friendly creatures. Tibor Bukovinszky and his colleagues investigated how their foraging behavior affects their offspring.

Time is of the essence in fish studies

You recently moved into your new house. How do you feel? How do you act in this new space? The answers may depend on how long you have lived there…

Social buffering in zebrafish

Shared sorrow is half a sorrow, according to the old proverb. New research indicates that social support is not only important for us humans, but also for zebrafish!