Animal Behavior Research Blog Posts

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!

Fish live longer and are more active after eating “young poo”

Have you got the guts for it? Well, I hope you at least have the gut bacteria for it.

Isolated and stressed zebrafish as a model for major depression

Depression: a fifth (!) of us cope with it, making it the most prevalent psychiatric disorder. Prof. Gerlai recently investigated the interaction between mild stress and developmental isolation in zebrafish models.

Dynamic winners and sluggish losers

We all know the phenomenon: some have it all. Look around a classroom and you see immediately who gets all the attention and who doesn’t, who are “winners”, and who are “losers”. Are we born this way, or do we learn it?

Spatial and odor memory impaired mice – new model for Alzheimer’s

Plaques and tangles… those of you even remotely familiar with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) will immediately recognize these hallmarks. But they are linked to familial AD, while sporadic AD is far more common.