Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [ethology]

The scientific study of animal behaviour, and a sub-topic of zoology.

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Do wind turbines kill many birds each year?

It has been claimed that due to their large size, and the velocity of their blades that wind turbines kill large numbers of birds that run into them at night, or in fog, and die. http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wind-farm-birds112011.html#cr Do…
Clatoon Adour
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Are "banana traps" effective at catching monkeys?

There is a famous claim that says the way to trap monkeys is by placing a staked container with a hole cut into it just wide enough for a monkey to stick its empty hand into. The container is baited with a banana or something attractive to the…
Napoleonothecake
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Do dogs know when their owner is coming home through some form of telepathic link?

My friend cited a study by Rupert Sheldrake which ran an experiment over several years that video taped dogs, showing that dogs knew when their owner was coming home due to some psychic link. He published a paper called: A Dog That Seems to Know…
Kit Sunde
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Do animals commit suicide?

I've done some Googling and only found case stories without any scientific backup. Most of the case reports about animal suicide online can by easily debunked by logical reasoning. For example there is a story about some dozen of cows throwing…
Jori
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Is 94% of male giraffe sexual behaviour homosexual?

I've been trying to track down the source of a claim that research has shown giraffe exhibiting a really high rate of male homosexual relations. Going through the blog spam leads me to a site without any references claiming to publish on science,…
Kit Sunde
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Can lions sense menstruating women?

I had an interesting chat today with a young woman from a traditional circus family, who explained she could not grow up to become a lion tamer, because lions could smell when women are menstruating and are then likely to attack. I found this claim…
Oddthinking
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Have cats hunted at least 33 species to extinction?

I heard recently that cats have hunted numerous species to extinction, but I couldn't find a reliable source for this. Several sources say that they have been blamed for these extinctions, but is there any reliable source showing that this is…
James Westman
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Do birds eat chewing gum they think is bread?

This image popped up in my facebook feed today. The translation reads: Did you know that: Chewing gum thrown on the street looks like pieces of bread to birds. They try to eat it, but it gets stuck in their beak. No longer able to eat or drink,…
Simon Verbeke
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Insects as food: Is it feasible for humans to replace traditional "livestock" meat with insects?

I have heard of some benefits of insects as food, but are there any drawbacks? I've never heard of a human culture whose primary protein intake came exclusively from insects. Would someone converting to an insect-only diet need to supplement their…
Dogmafrog
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Are some breeds of dog inherently dangerous, despite training?

On another SE site, this report was cited as evidence that some breeds of dogs are inherently more dangerous than others. I have some serious issues with that report (not least of which is that it is clearly heavily agenda-laden, and that it cites…
Beofett
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Is eating cloven-hoofed animals, bottom-feeders or ruminants bad for you?

The Torah and Talmud claim (and I have Christian friends that also claim) that eating animals that are bottom-feeders or ruminants—That is, eat the crud off the sea-floor, like shrimp, or digest their own waste like rabbits, pigs etc.)—OR have a…
MSpeed
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Do barking dogs seldom bite?

There is a very famous proverb that "BARKING DOGS SELDOM BITE". According to the saying: The dogs which bark too much in loud tone, bite very rarely. It implies that the people who threaten you more saying that they will harm you, often does…
The God Damn Geek 'ANIMESH'
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Do Japanese fishermen put sharks in their tanks to keep fish fresh?

I saw the following story on Quora and when I Googled it, I got a lot of inspirational websites like Patheos.org that were hosting this same story without any citations. I would like to know if the story is true. The Japanese have always loved…
Aamil Syed
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Can an elephant be trained to be lightly leashed?

Is been claimed that the way you keep an elephant leashed is with a chain pegged to the ground which they can easily break, just since they have learned when they where younger they could not escape and they continue to believe so. For example,…
Napoleonothecake
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Does a monkey/ape flee from half peeled bananas?

There is a claim by a German philosopher, named Max Scheler. Ein Affe, dem man eine Banane halb geschält in die Hand gibt, flieht vor ihr, während er sie ganz geschält frißt, ungeschält aber selber schält und dann frißt. Translation by me: A…
Angelo.Hannes
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