Category: Eco Tonics

Cannibalism in the animal kingdom is very well known fact among the inhabitants. Animals whether big or small in their race for survival, resort to kill their competition by eating them. Animals like jungle king, lions are known to kill the offspring of the revival king to pave way for better future of its own offspring. But researchers say, the behavior of cannibalism can be also seen tiny wood frog tadpoles. These innocent looking tadpoles when hungry can eat other tadpoles present in the pool. Such behavior has also been…

While studying the Brazilian cave insects, researchers to their surprise discovered a penis like genitals in females and organ similar to a vagina in males. For the first time they have noticed, such an extreme switch of sex organs and have dubbed the newly revealed penis of the female insects as “gynosome” and “phallosome” for the vagina like organ in male insects. 

Studying the 305 million years old harvestmen fossil images, researchers and archaeologists have discovered that the forefathers of existing arachnids had 2 pair of eyes and not just one. 

When it comes to visualizing environment, eyes play an important role. But there are other ways of navigation such as echolocation used by bats and dolphins. Recently, researchers studying Mexican blind cavefish (Astyanax fasciatus), have found a unique and new method of navigation. These fishes spend their entire life in the deep sea or dark caves, which are devoid of any source of light and so as the name suggests, their eyes are rendered useless and over the time the fish losses their eyeballs. 

Researchers from the University of Hamburg, Germany and Macquarie University in Australia, studying St. Andrew’s Cross spiders, have found that male spiders looking for suitable mates, smell the webs woven by females and determine the females are ready for mating. The researchers observed several specimens of the species and conducted numerous experiment in their laboratory and finally concluded that smelling the pheromones present on the female web, male spider make a decision whether to move closer to the female for mating or not. 

When we encounter a danger, the first thing that strikes in our mind is to run away and hide (though many of us might choose to give a fight). But the article is in the context of animals and plants. Animals when encounter any danger of being attacked, the first instinct is to escape from the danger is to run. Unfortunately, the plants cannot do that. Rather, plants in order to defend themselves from their predators have evolved various defense techniques such as chemical weapons and insect armies. 

Just like humans, animals living in urban areas are constantly prone to metal intoxication. In France, a team of researchers studying the level of metal intoxication in birds have found a strange relation between the color of the plumage and the level of metal toxin in the bird’s body. They observed that the birds with dark shade plumage were better at getting rid of metal toxin from their bloodstream. 

The popular known fact that bamboo is the only food that panda exclusively feeds on, is not true. Researchers from the Monell Center have found that the panda has also liking for sweet food. The research, based on panda behavior and molecular genetics reveals the presence of taste receptors and confirms that the panda has a strong liking for natural sweeteners as fructose and sucrose. 

When we talk about intelligence in the animal kingdom, animals like chimpanzees, dolphins or crows are the first one to come across our minds. But it’s time to get over them, because as per the latest research, common goats are way more intelligent than formerly believed. 

Infidelity is very general trait to be observed in the animal kingdom. Maternal and paternal genetic tests have revealed that even the species that were considered to be faithful in their relationship, were often not loyal to each other. Merely about 10 percent of the species follow monogamy and are truly faithful to each other. However, according to a latest research led by University of Pennsylvania revealed that Azara’s owl monkeys (Aotus azarae) are remarkably devoted and faithful to their mating partners.