My Animal Minds blog post about the possible reason that shark bites occur has been adapted for the Psychology Today August print issue! Check it out on newsstands or here: The Real Reason Sharks Might Bite You.

In a new study, researchers at the University of Sussex investigated the cognitive abilities that have allowed herring gulls to succeed in urban environments. They found the gulls are attentive to human behavior and able to apply what they observe to their own foraging choices.

Read more at my Animal Minds blog: That Seagull Will Have What You’re Having.

If you spend a lot of time with certain frogs, you’ll probably notice a behavior called toe-tapping: a rapid up-and-down movement of the middle toes of the hind legs. People have known about toe-tapping for a long time, but despite being so widely observed, there have been very few experimental investigations of the phenomenon, and its function is hardly clear.

Read more at my Animal Minds blog: Why Do These Frogs Tap Dance?

How are armadillos, the leprosy bacterium, and organ regeneration connected? In a recent study, researchers found that leprosy infection causes armadillo livers to grow, offering clues to organ regeneration.

Read more at The Science Journal for Kids: Can armadillos show us how to regrow a liver?

Pinyon jays and Clark’s nutcrackers share habitat in the southwestern U.S., and both rely heavily on thousands of cached pine seeds over the winter. But the two species differ when it comes to their social structures: Pinyon jays are highly social, while Clark’s nutcrackers are more solitary. Researchers investigated how this difference in sociality influences their caching behavior when being observed by a bird of their own kind or a different species.

Read more at my Animal Minds blog: Hiding Seeds? It Depends Who’s Watching.