Wild Things: Mongooses, Bladderworts and More...
Fairy-wrens, wasps, and a nearly 3,000 year old big toe
- By T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Laura Helmuth, Jesse Rhodes and Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian magazine, April 2011
Juvenile Banded Mongoose (Mungos mungo). (Mark Macewen / Peter Arnold)
Banded mongooses, small striped carnivores from sub-Saharan Africa, have unusually high "breeding synchrony"—64 percent of females give birth on the very same night. A 12-year study in Uganda reveals the reason for this phenomenon. If a mommy mongoose gives birth too early, other adults in the group may kill the new pup. And if a pup is born too late, it is too small to compete with larger litter mates and is more likely to starve.
Learn more about the banded mongoose at the Encyclopedia of Life.
Additional Sources
“A Mechanical Signal Biases Caste Development in a Social Wasp,” Sainath Suryanarayanan et al., Current Biology, January 20, 2011
“Ultra-fast underwater suction traps,” Olivier Vincent et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, February 16, 2011
“The art of medicine: The ancient origins of prosthetic medicine,” Jacqueline Finch., The Lancet, February 12, 2011
“Danger may enhance communication: predator calls alert females to male displays,” Emma I. Greig and Stephen Pruett-Jones, Behavioral Ecology, October 12, 2010
“Reproductive competition and the evolution of extreme birth synchrony in a cooperative mammal,” S. J. Hodge et al., Biology Letters, August 4, 2010
Comments (2)
Is it possible to retrieve a video advertised in a November 2006 issue of Smithsonian Magazine? "The trap-jaw ant in action" How does this compare with the Sea creature in the April 2011 issue of Smithsonian Magazine? (Sorry, someone in the family has moved our copy for the moment.)
Posted by Janet Rathmell on April 7,2011 | 03:32 PM
Awesome photo of it's work place
Posted by Toni Aull on March 24,2011 | 07:18 PM