Page 17 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #06

WILD NEWS

Q BEHAVIOUR
The
LOOK EXPLAINE
SMART 6FLHQWLĶF WHUPV SXW LQWR SODLQ

Being clever is an advantage (QJOLVK IRU WKH UHVW RI XV
in life. But for ring-tailed
Lemurs: Bernard Castelein/naturepl.com; roof: D ane Cook And Len Jenshe /Getty; malleefowl: Michael Pitts/naturepl.com; ant: Heinz Wiesbauer/AAAS/Creat veCommons
lemurs, it’s also advantageous PHILOPATRY AND
to be seen to be clever. DISPERSAL
New research has shown Just as some humans are
that lemurs that worked out homebodies while others
how to extract food hidden have wanderlust, animals
in apparatus received social vary in their inclination to
favours from others that had travel or stay put. Among
watched them do it. mammals, for example,
“I was quite impressed males tend to disperse
that the frequently observed Catch a lift? How from their birthplace
lemurs received more do flightless insects while females are more
reach roof gardens?
affiliative behaviours, such as Q INSECTS philopatric. In birds, it’s
grooming, without adjusting the other way around.
their own social behaviour,” ISLAND HOPPING Males birds tend to attract
says Ipek Kulahci of Ireland’s mates by defending
University College Cork. Green roofs are effectively of these non-specialists territories, so it pays to
“In most primate species, islands in the sky. And like quickly die off in the harsh stay put and inherit land
grooming tends to be mutual; real islands are notoriously conditions. from their parents. Male
it relies on reciprocity hard to colonise, especially “This means that green mammals, though, defend
between the groomer and the for flightless species. But roof soil species must arrive females directly, so they
individual being groomed,” colonise they do, and new via another method, such need to go and find them.
she adds. “So it’s a pretty research shows how. as by hitching lifts on birds
striking pattern that the Until now, it wasn’t clear or coming in the aerial Malleefowl pairs
frequently observed lemurs whether soil organisms such plankton,” says Heather pick and defend
a territory.
received lots of grooming as springtails and mites Rumble, a biologist at the
without providing more were imported with building University of Portsmouth.
grooming to others.” materials and plants during Rumble recommends that
In which case, what’s in construction or if they arrived the biodiversity of green
it for the observers? The under their own steam. It roofs could be boosted
biologists found that, by turns out that many species further by seeding them
initiating social contact, they are indeed brought in during with appropriate species
are more likely to learn the construction, but that most in the first place.
task for themselves.
SOURCE Applied Soil Ecology LINK https://bit.ly/2Hs62bg

NEW SPECIES Extreme measures:

SPOTLIGHT exploding ants defend
their colony by tearing
themselves apart.
EXPLODING ANT
WHAT IS IT? It’s not just a name. These ants,
now oicially described as Colobopsis explodens,
do, quite literally, explode. Certain workers in the
colony specialise in this form of self-sacrifice in the
face of danger, spattering assailants
with sticky, toxic glandular secretions that are
Ring-tailed
lemurs recognise stored in their abdomens.
intelligence, and WHERE IS IT? The ants live in tree-hole nests, often
show appreciation high in the canopy, in Borneo. Other worker castes
of it, in others. are equipped with large, plug-shaped heads, which
they use to block nest entrances against intruders.
SOURCE Current Biology
LINK https://bit.ly/2HwczgW SOURCE ZooKeys LINKhttps://bit.ly/2r2oE6v
June 2018 BBC Wildlife 17