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Articles on Animal behavioural patterns

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Why do cats knead?

Kneading is typical kitten behaviour but may be retained into adulthood because it can help communicate messages.
Could this be the world’s largest Fitbit? Supplied

Why it’s so important to understand how elephants sleep

By understanding sleep across animals we can gain insights into improving the quality of human sleep. It can also help to bolster conservation management strategies for the animals in question.
Some of the bird world’s mimicry superstars. Clockwise from top left: superb lyrebird; silvereye; satin bowerbird; Australian magpie; mistletoebird; brown thornbill. Alex Maisey; Justin Welbergen; Johan Larson; Leo/Flickr; David Cook/Filckr; Patrick/Flickr

The mimics among us — birds pirate songs for personal profit

From Roman classics to British tabloids, humans have long celebrated the curious and remarkable ability of birds to imitate the sounds of humans and other animals. A recent surge of research is revealing…
Don’t even go there, girlfriend! KOO/Shutterstock

Ravens have social abilities previously only seen in humans

Humans and their primate cousins are well known for their intelligence and social abilities. You hear them called bird-brained, but birds have demonstrated a great deal of intelligence in many tasks. However…
Our relationship with four-legged friends has brought many benefits. JDEN

Canine and able: how dogs made us human

What role have dogs played in human evolution? Woof … now there’s a question. Anthropologist Pat Shipman, in a recent issue of American Scientist, suggests dogs gave our human ancestors an advantage over…
Pet cats are single-minded hunters, but are they wiping out native species? bolg/Flickr

Jury still out on whether cats are killers, but prison is on the cards

In “The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson”, Mark Twain equated keeping a cat to domestic bliss: When there was room on the ledge outside of the pots and boxes for a cat, the cat was there – in sunny weather…

Chimps share to be social

A new study of chimpanzees has documented a frequency of sharing previously unreported for animals, demonstrating that they…

Can crows read?

Crows can recognise and ascribe numerical meaning to symbols, a new study shows, suggesting that the unusually intelligent birds may be able to “read” numbers and simple icons. Crows are known for their…

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