The hottest Animal Behavior Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Culture Topics

The fascinating insights of Robert Trivers

Optimally Irrational • 69 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Reciprocal altruism — Cooperation can evolve between non-kin when people trade favors in repeated interactions, and this dynamic breeds moral emotions and incentives to spot or punish cheaters.
  2. Parental investment — Differences in gamete size and child-rearing costs push the sexes into different mating strategies: the higher-investing sex is choosier and favors long-term care, while the lower-investing sex tends toward short-term mating and competition.
  3. Parent–offspring conflict — Parents and children have overlapping but not identical genetic interests, so offspring will demand more resources than parents are selected to give, producing conflicts from pregnancy through weaning and prompting parental countermeasures.

What It's Like To Be A Worm

Asimov Press • 619 implied HN points • 01 Feb 26
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Sentience means both having subjective experience (being conscious) and having valence (experiences that feel good or bad), and many real cases sit near the boundary so it’s often hard to tell who truly feels anything.
  2. Behaviors people use as evidence for feeling—like avoiding harm or making trade-offs—can be produced by very simple or unconscious circuits, so we need neural-level data rather than behavior alone.
  3. New tools (connectomics, fMRI, calcium imaging, optogenetics) let us probe brains at fine scales, which is essential because getting sentience right has big ethical and practical consequences, but this research is hard and still far from resolving key questions.

Pit Bulls Part I: Identification

Cremieux Recueil • 567 implied HN points • 16 Jan 26
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Pit bulls are a recognizable type of dog with a consistent, stout muscular build and behavioral traits like high gameness and persistence that come from their bull‑and‑terrier fighting ancestry.
  2. People can reliably identify pit bull–type dogs by sight; studies and large public classification tests show high accuracy, and accuracy rises as pit ancestry increases.
  3. Arguments that pit bulls can’t be identified or that they were bred to be non‑aggressive toward humans are unsupported, and common patterns of misclassification tend to hide or downplay—rather than inflate—the elevated risks tied to pit bull type dogs.

Pt3: The Status Wars of Apes

Knowingless • 2741 implied HN points • 17 Jul 25
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Different ape species have very different ways of handling status and power. For example, bonobos are known for their peaceful, cooperative approach, while chimpanzees often engage in violence and competition for dominance.
  2. In orangutan and gorilla societies, the dominant males father most of the offspring, showing a stark difference in mating patterns compared to bonobos and chimpanzees, where mating is influenced greatly by social status and female choice.
  3. Ape social dynamics often revolve around sex. For instance, while chimpanzee females face many challenges and coercion, bonobo females tend to have more agency and sexual freedom, influencing their social standings and relationships.

Science can address meaning and purpose

Heterodox STEM • 64 implied HN points • 18 Feb 26
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Science can describe and explain feelings, values, and purposes as natural phenomena produced by evolution. It cannot, however, generate or prescribe what people ought to value.
  2. Meanings and purposes are real because they are patterns instantiated in brains and behavior, so social animals genuinely have goals, feelings, and significance in their lives. That human significance doesn't equal cosmic significance, but it's still real to us.
  3. Asking 'the meaning of life' in the abstract is a category error because meaning only applies relative to beings with desires and goals. Science is well suited to answer context-specific questions about what matters to those beings.
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The mourning of the elephants

Wrong Side of History • 588 implied HN points • 16 Nov 25
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Elephants show deep emotions when they mourn. They have rituals for honoring their dead, like touching the body and covering it with dirt.
  2. Octopuses and cuttlefish are surprisingly smart for invertebrates. Octopuses can solve problems and cuttlefish can count.
  3. Dogs really seem to love their owners more than food. They respond more to praise from people they care about than to treats.

Camouflage for nests, "nests" for language survival, & tumour hijacking strategies

The Strategy Toolkit • 17 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Elaborately draped nest decorations like hanging streamers dramatically lower predation by creating a false shape that confuses visually hunting predators.
  2. This disruptive camouflage works mainly against birds and other visual predators but won’t stop mammals or reptiles that rely on smell, and placing nests over water helps reduce scent-based detection.
  3. Building tails on nests seems to be an evolved adaptation to visual exposure, using conspicuous decorations not to hide but to mislead predators and protect the nest.

Wolverine: The Creature Most Voracious

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 239 implied HN points • 06 Jun 24
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Wolverines are known for their huge appetites and can eat a lot of food at once. They are so gluttonous that they can overeat and need to find narrow spaces to relieve themselves.
  2. These animals have a varied diet and are both hunters and scavengers, eating everything from birds to rodents. They do face tough winter conditions without hibernating, relying on their hunting skills.
  3. People often view wolverines negatively, calling them destructive and cunning. However, they are simply doing what they need to survive in harsh environments and shouldn't be unfairly blamed.

Thanks But I'll Walk, Scotty

Everything Is Amazing • 1031 implied HN points • 03 Feb 25
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Animals, like wild mice and rats, have been observed using wheels just for fun, without any obvious benefit. This suggests that play and enjoyment are important to all creatures, not just humans.
  2. Our brains can be easily tricked by illusions like pareidolia, where we see faces in random objects. This highlights how our perception can change quickly based on how we look at things.
  3. Having fun should be a priority in how we interact with each other. Embracing joy can improve our lives and connections, just like it does for animals.

Good morning, my liege

Disaffected Newsletter • 1258 implied HN points • 15 Mar 23
🎭️ Culture Animal Behavior
  1. Some pets seem very smart and almost think like humans. This makes them feel special and like they understand us.
  2. Cats can have strong personalities and are often seen as independent 'kings' or 'queens' in their territory.
  3. Morning routines with pets can be comforting and enjoyable, like having a coffee cuddle with them while relaxing.

Urban Umwelt in Awe of Animals

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 199 implied HN points • 15 Feb 24
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Animals have unique ways of sensing their world that we often can't understand. For example, dogs like Taylor use their amazing noses to gather information that goes beyond what we can perceive.
  2. The concept of 'umwelt' shows that each species experiences their environment differently. This means animals interact with their surroundings in ways that are complex and rich, not simple or automatic.
  3. Learning about how animals sense the world can help us appreciate their lives and experiences more. It reminds us that our way of sensing things isn't the only way and that every creature has its own valuable perspective.

The Mantis Shrimp Edition

Why is this interesting? • 241 implied HN points • 20 Nov 24
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Mantis shrimp can punch very fast, making them the fastest strikers in the animal world. It's incredible how quickly they can hit their targets.
  2. These shrimp are very protective of their territory and will aggressively defend their space against intruders.
  3. Their powerful punches are so strong that they can even break glass, showing just how strong these small creatures really are.

Birds being other birds

Splattern • 19 implied HN points • 20 May 24
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Some birds, like the Stellers jay and raven, can imitate the sounds of other birds, which can be surprising and confusing. It's interesting to see how these smaller birds can mimic larger ones.
  2. Birds like mockingbirds and parrots are known for their ability to mimic various sounds, sometimes up to 200 different ones in their lifetime.
  3. Only a few species, including humans, parrots, and songbirds, can learn and repeat sounds they hear, which is quite rare in the animal kingdom. This ability is also linked to the capacity to dance to music!

My Little Cockroach

Banana Peel Pirouette • 79 implied HN points • 22 Nov 23
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Cockroaches have been around for millions of years and are found on every continent except Antarctica, adapted to urban environments due to global commerce.
  2. Humans have a unique disgust towards cockroaches, though other pests like mice and pigeons coexist with us and are even celebrated in popular culture.
  3. Our fear and loathing towards cockroaches stem from the way they challenge our perceptions of hygiene and control over the environment, showing how closely intertwined our lives are with these creatures.

Meaning and the firefly

Banana Peel Pirouette • 79 implied HN points • 28 Jun 23
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Animals like songbirds and insects communicate through sounds and movements that hold specific meanings for them, unlike the fixed characteristics of their appearances.
  2. Fireflies communicate with light patterns, where their visual signals guide them in finding mates and coordinating activities; their world of light holds deep communication that contrasts human mediums like language.
  3. The impact of human actions, like light pollution, can disrupt the meaningful communication patterns of fireflies, leading to potential disturbances in their mating behaviors and survival.

Paradox of the Horse

The Heart Attack Diet • 59 implied HN points • 07 Nov 23
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Paradoxically, horses need high-calorie foods like oats to survive even though they're known for being unable to properly self-regulate their food intake.
  2. Horses, as we know them today, are not naturally evolved animals but products of long-term selective breeding by humans.
  3. The existence of wild horse herds in North America raises intriguing questions about their history and the role of humans in their evolution.

Can a Hermit Crab Be Rich?

Creating Inequality • 39 implied HN points • 07 Oct 23
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Hermit crabs can be seen as 'rich' based on the size of the snail shells they possess, which determines their level of wealth.
  2. The distribution of wealth in hermit crabs closely resembles that of human societies, showing similarities in terms of inequality.
  3. Factors like individual differences and wealth transfer through vacancy chains may explain the similarity in wealth distributions between hermit crabs and humans.

Scolding Crows

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 159 implied HN points • 09 Jun 22
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Crows are very protective of their young and can become aggressive towards humans and other animals that come too close to their territory. It's not uncommon for a crow to scold you if you're in their area.
  2. Crows have been observed to mob other predators, like hawks and eagles, to protect themselves and their young. This shows their smart and social behavior as they work together to fend off threats.
  3. Studies have shown that crows can recognize faces and remember individuals who pose a threat to them. They teach younger crows to scold these dangerous figures, demonstrating their ability to learn and pass on knowledge.

What it means to be human

Who is Robert Malone • 19 implied HN points • 21 Jun 25
đź“– Philosophy Animal Behavior
  1. Humans often assume that animals understand their intentions, but animals react instinctively based on their own perspectives. It's important to remember that what feels friendly to us may be seen as a threat to them.
  2. Thinking in images instead of words can help us connect with our animal side. Animals primarily think in pictures, and accessing that part of our brain can calm us and improve our understanding of other creatures.
  3. Our bigger brains give humans advanced reasoning abilities, but it can also make it harder to relate to animals. Understanding our differences and similarities with other species helps us learn more about being human.

Why Are Rat Populations In Big Cities Really Exploding? Leash Laws!

C.O.P. Central Organizing Principle. • 36 implied HN points • 01 Feb 25
🎭️ Culture Animal Behavior
  1. Keeping un-neutered and un-spayed pets roaming in cities may help control rat populations. Allowing animals to do their natural job can help keep rodents in check.
  2. The rise of car culture in America has harmed pets and reduced their ability to manage rodent populations. By prioritizing cars, many cities have made it unsafe for pets to do their jobs.
  3. Rats are often blamed for problems caused by humans. Historically, they have been wrongfully accused of spreading diseases due to human actions and messy situations.

Flying Rats or Models of Evolution?

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 59 implied HN points • 18 Nov 21
🔬 Science Animal Behavior
  1. Pigeons are often seen as dirty or bothersome, yet they play an important role in urban ecosystems by cleaning up food waste. Instead of just seeing them as pests, we should recognize their contributions to keeping our cities cleaner.
  2. Pigeons are surprisingly intelligent and adaptable birds. They learn from each other, can navigate long distances, and have been used in important historical events, like carrying messages during wars.
  3. Charles Darwin studied pigeons to understand natural selection better. He saw how humans influenced their breeding, which helped him develop ideas about evolution that still matter today.