Wild Behavior – Details, episodes & analysis

How do you study an animal that lives in a totally different world? 

In this first episode of the Wild Behavior podcast Dr Stephanie King tells us all about the incredible life of a dolphin researcher! Dive on in with us (pun intended).

Links to Stephanie's work:

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Stephanie-King-51f8882c-81d0-4f06-b62a-239460af967b/ 

https://bsky.app/profile/stephanielking.bsky.social 

Coming soon! Wild behavior - a journey into the world of animal behavior research. 
We'll take you from amazing scientific discoveries to a behind the scenes peak into what it's like to be an animal behavior researcher. 

Subscribe now so you don't miss out. 

Did you know some crows can make tools? But do the crows really understand what they're doing or do they just get lucky?

In this episode of the Wild Behavior podcast Dr Sarah Jelbert tells us all about the tool-making abilities of New Caledonian Crows! Let's swoop into the world of birds. 

Links to Sarah's work:

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Sarah-Jelbert-c090ce16-d43a-4a29-af02-fd00d651d89e/ 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-27405-1 

https://bsky.app/profile/sjelbert.bsky.social 

We covered some important questions with Dr Chris Krupenye, a leading figure in ape-hollywood as well as actual science. Can apes read minds? What skills are actually needed to succeed in social situations (asking for a friend)? How does one make a soap opera for chimpanzees? 

Links:

You can follow Chris on Bluesky 

Find out more about his research at: Social & Cognitive Origins Group Johns Hopkins University 

We've got elephants!

In this episode with Dr Josh Plotnik we cover the cultural history of elephants in Thailand and ethical tourism. How to study an animal with a totally different sensory world. How do you smell an experiment? And we talk about how we can use cognition research to protect wild elephants.

You can find out more about Josh's work here:

https://hunter.cuny.edu/artsci/psychology/faculty-and-staff/profile/joshua-plotnik/ 

http://thinkelephants.org/ 

It's time to put ourselves in the hot seat and introduce you to your Wild Behavior hosts. 

Rachel and Megan interview each other about their scientific journeys. We find out about demanding elephants, curious kea parrots and our shared experiences of the slightly gross side of working with carnivores. 

What's the difference between wolves and dogs? How did we create the noble pug? Let's enter the world of domestication with Dr Sarah Marshall-Pescini. 

More about Sarah's work:

https://sites.google.com/view/marshall-pescini/home 

Video of wolf cooperation:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1709027114#supplementary-materials 

Sarah's latest research on carnivore urbanisation:

https://academic.oup.com/cz/article/70/3/394/7666915?login=false 

How do animals produce sound? How important is size? How to they adapt their sounds for their environment? How do they interpret the sounds they hear?
Welcome to the world of bioacoustics!

Dr Maxime Garcia introduces us to the study of animal communication, using species from howler monkeys to woodpeckers as examples. 

In the words of Max - give it a look, give it a listen! 

More about Maxime:
https://www.mpi.nl/news/animals-who-try-sound-bigger-are-good-learning-sounds 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maxime-Garcia-5 

Professional alligator wrangler and IG Nobel prize winning scientist Stephan Reber joins us to tell us all about alligators. What’s the difference between alligators and crocodiles? How (and why?) is helium used in alligator research? What can alligators tell us about dinosaurs? 

Follow Stephan on Bluesky: @stephanreber.bsky.social‬

More on Stephan's work:

https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/stephan-reber 

Link to Gharial father transporting babies: 

https://www.livescience.com/gharial-crocodile-papa-photo.html 

More on the IG Nobel award:

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/lu-researcher-receives-ig-nobel-prize-alligator-helium-study 

Studying animals in the wild comes with challenges. You have to find the animals and build a research "villa" before you even start the science. 

Mark O'Hara & Berenika Mioduszewska took on this challenge to study wild Goffin's cockatoos on a small Indonesian island. Their exciting findings help us understand why some birds evolved be so clever. 

More on Mark and Berenika's research:

https://goffinlabtanimbar.org/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/berenika.mioduszewska/