A Formica ant suspends a drop of aphid honeydew between her mandibles (which bristle with 7 or more teeth), as she drinks it. 
		Photo courtesy of Alex Wild, copyright, used with permission.WonderQuest:  On the web since 1997...      

Home   Top 10    Newsletter   Answer a question    Site Map   Fast answers 
Solving mysteries
WonderQuest

with April Holladay
New!  WeatherQuesting
 
Google
 
Web www.WonderQuest.com

     
RSS Add to Google

Answers About:  

   Animals
   Humans  
   Astronomy 
   Physics
   Mathematics 
   Evolution/Genetics
   Earth 
   Technology
   Plants
   Airspace 
   Sky
   Art, TV, music...  
   Food 
   Oceans/climate 
   Chemistry
   Computers
   Microcreatures

Special Features:  

   Current Column
   Teachers' corner
   Newsletter
   Answer a question
   Interact with nature

Question for readers to answer:

Can an average person develop the skill to reliably detect liars?

To clarify:  this question is similar to - Can an average person improve at hiding and detecting 'tells' in poker?  Also, consider only deliberate lies intended to harm another and, please, expound on the reasons backing your answer.

Deadline:  June 29, 2009.  We will publish the best answers on  July 13.

You get the credit.

Click here to give me your answer: Answer the question.


Interacting with nature by K:

How to Offer Wild Birds Shelter in the Winter

Not all birds migrate south for the winter.  Winter is a hard season for birds, and many risk freezing to death at night. It doesn't take much effort or money to provide shelter for them, and it can make a huge difference to the little feathered guys!

More Articles >>

 

 

Copyright 2005, all rights reserved

Philandering life mates

The gray wolf mates for life.  Pups are born in the spring.  Through the summer while the pups grow in ability, the adults hunt singly.  Each autumn, the pups join the hunting pack and both parents teach them to hunt and kill prey.  A family group of about five members (the parents and various offspring) stay together and form a hunting pack. [Gary Kramer, US Fish and Wildlife Service]Q: Which animals mate for life? (Jen, New York, New York)

The gray wolf mates for life. Pups are born in the spring. Through the summer while the pups grow in ability, the adults hunt singly. Each autumn, the pups join the hunting pack and both parents teach them to hunt and kill prey. A family group of about five members (the parents and various offspring) stay together and form a hunting pack. [Gary Kramer, US Fish and Wildlife Service]

A: Gibbon apes, wolves, termites, coyotes, barn owls, beavers, bald eagles, golden eagles, condors, swans, brolga cranes, French angel fish, sandhill cranes, pigeons, prions (a seabird), red-tailed hawks, anglerfish, ospreys, prairie voles (a rodent), and black vultures — are a few that mate for life.

Of course, it depends on what you mean by "mate for life." These creatures do mate for life in the social sense of living together in pairs but they rarely stay strictly faithful. About 90 percent of the 9,700 bird species pair, mate, and raise chicks together — some returning together to the same nest site year after year. Males, however, often raise other males’ offspring unknowingly. DNA testing reveals that the social-pair male did not father 10, 20, and sometimes 40 percent of the chicks.

Black vultures, though, discourage infidelity. All nearby vultures attack any vulture caught philandering.

Only about 3 percent of the 4,000 mammal species are monogamous (and Homo sapiens isn’t one of them). Beavers, otters, bats, wolves, some foxes, a few hoofed animals, and some primates live together in social pairs but dally sexually much as birds do.

Wolves, for example, are generally monogamous but also breed polygamously if the male is unrelated to the female and prey is plentiful. Moreover, they sometimes have more than one mate in a lifetime, says Dan Stahler, biologist at the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Restoration Program run by the National Park Service. This happens "if one mate dies, gets kicked out of the pack, or is physically unable to breed due to injury, illness, etc."

One species is absolutely monogamous. In the black darkness of the deep sea, the tiny male anglerfish (perhaps one tenth the female’s size) detects and follows the scent trail of a female of his own species. Once found, he bites his chosen one and hangs on. His skin fuses to hers, their bodies grow together (he gets his food through a common blood supply and becomes essentially a sperm producing organ). They mate for life — a short life for the male.

Further Reading:

J. Young and Zuoxin Wang (2004) The Neurobiology of the Pair Bond. Nature Neuroscience. 7:1048-1054.

National Geographic News: Lovebirds and love darts

University of Washington: Deflating the myth of monogamy by David P. Barash

(Answered Feb. 25, 2005)

 

 

Site Map

Question Archive Features Info
Animals Sky ▪  WonderQuest's ▪  Correspondents' Contributors
Humans Art, TV, music   Ask a question   Interact with nature About April
Astronomy Food   Top 10 questions   April's blog
Mathematics Oceans & climate    Forum   Newspapers with WonderQuest:
Evolution & genetics Chemistry   Answer the question     Globe and Mail
Earth Computers   Newsletter     Happy News
Technology Microcreatures   Further reading     Corrales Comment
Plants     Fast answers    
Aerospace USA Today   Teachers' science corner   Advertising

Copyright 2008 by April Holladay  

Please note: We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, or to opt out, click here: Google ad and content network privacy policy