{"id":10581,"date":"2021-12-10T17:44:12","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T17:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/?p=10581"},"modified":"2021-12-14T15:34:21","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T15:34:21","slug":"risky-business-death-defying-animal-acts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/en\/risky-business-death-defying-animal-acts\/","title":{"rendered":"Risky Business: Death Defying Animal Acts"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the bravest thing you\u2019ve ever done?<\/h2>\n

Maybe you\u2019ve flown halfway across the globe for a job. Tried skydiving? Or maybe your version of bravery is trying something new at a restaurant. We\u2019re not judging. Not everyone\u2019s going to approach risk taking in the same way. That\u2019s one of the things that makes us all unique. It\u2019s the same in the animal kingdom. However, there are a few patterns in relation to risk taking that are fascinating in the wild world! Buckle up and enjoy the ride!<\/p>\n

Grumble, Grumble<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"
A cougar leaps a rocky chasm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019ve ever found your tummy grumbling and your normally placid mood going out the window, you might know a thing or two about how hunger can affect your behaviour. It\u2019s the same with animals!<\/p>\n

Although\u2026not fully. Unlike (most) humans, animals have to jump through some pretty scary hoops to access food, water and shelter. They might have to explore different territory or risk getting gobbled up by a predator \u2013 just for the basics!<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s risk taking and then there\u2019s RISK taking. Nicholas Moran, a scientist at Bielefeld University took an in-depth look at different animals \u2013 from birds<\/a> to amphibians<\/a>, insects<\/a> to mammals<\/a> \u2013 and discovered that hunger plays a crucial role in how many risks they\u2019re willing to take. If an animal had a hard time getting food early in life, in essence, if they were on the brink of starving, they were 26 per cent more likely to do whatever they needed to get their paws on grub. Interestingly, when animals have access to food earlier in life, they\u2019re better able to think on their toes and not have to take increased risks to keep their tummies full.<\/p>\n

The Young and the Restless<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"
Black Bear cub in tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Remember all the crazy things you did as a teen? Yup. I\u2019d bet most of us would look back on our teenage years and think, \u201cWhat was I thinking?!!\u201d And we\u2019re not just talking about our terrible fashion choices. We\u2019re talking about the outright crazy risks teenagers take. Didn\u2019t we all just think we were invincible? No wonder our parents breathed a sigh of relief when they heard us coming home after a wild Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers wrote an entire book about adolescence \u2013 in humans and animals \u2013 called Wildhood<\/em>. The book explains that animals also make inexperienced decisions during their youth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called naivety.<\/p>\n

It turns out that when animals are young, and don\u2019t have much experience with predators, they\u2019re willing to take risks an adult animal simply would not. Apparently, this explains why adolescent sea otters will swim towards predators without a care in the world and why \u201cteenage\u201d groundhogs will continue playing even when a predator is lurking close by. Silly youngins.<\/p>\n

After a few close calls, these na\u00efve adolescents will grow into more cautious adults that\u2019ll know what dangers to look out for and how to avoid them.\u00a0 It also teaches onlookers to be more cautious. I guess we all grow up at some point!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the bravest thing you\u2019ve ever done? Maybe you\u2019ve flown halfway across the globe for a job. Tried skydiving? Or maybe your version of bravery is trying something new at…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":10582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[631],"tags":[9116],"class_list":["post-10581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-connect-with-nature","tag-animal-behaviour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10581"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10632,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10581\/revisions\/10632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}