Derek de Witt

Koko the gorilla was an inspiration to many with her use of sign language. However, her play behavior and its progression as she aged is just as interesting and inspiring.

For humans, play behavior is an important part of our development, both physical and social. This is true even after we have reached maturity, as the skills it provides can diminish with disuse.

While play behavior is often practice for future needs, it can also be a way of facilitating social interaction between individuals. Species with complex social structures can accrue enormous benefits from those systems and play is an excellent way of starting and maintaining social relationships.

Play behavior is often about learning and for many animals, they learn by doing. Play allows them to practice important survival behaviors, like those needed for feeding, with fewer consequences for failure.

Humans aren't the only animals that will engage in play just for the fun of it. While many of the examples we will look at are preparing themselves for adult life, birds like crows and ravens will gladly just enjoy themselves.

Play can often be dismissed by us as unimportant or a waste of time. However, I believe that a look at its benefits for other animals can help remind us of its importance for humans as well.

Sometimes, you need a little bit of help to get a meal. Maybe your prey live in holes that are too small for you to follow in, or have a hard shell that is difficult to break. Certain species have gotten around these obstacles by incorporating tools into their foraging behavior.

It is said that good artists borrow and great artists steal. But they aren't the only ones. A wide variety of animals have developed behaviors for stealing food instead of getting it themselves.

Water birds have developed a variety of foraging behaviors, each of them suited for the particular diet they target. Just by watching which one a species uses, it can tell you a wealth of information about what it eats, where it lives, and how it moves and flies.

A single species will not always have the same kind of diet for its entire lifetime. The needs of an individual shift as it develops and this can lead to changes in diet preferences as it ages. Some of these shifts are small, and others span entirely different food types.

What would this majestic moustachioed walrus like to eat? And how would it go about it? If you know your Lewis Carroll (or Disney classics), you might have a decent guess.

Some species get their food while performing an important ecosystem service. Breaking down dead and decaying material can reduce disease transmission and return nutrients back into the system. One such animal is a brightly colored slug named after a yellow fruit.

Sponges have several defenses that make them an uncommon food source in a coral reef environment. However, there are a few species they will consume them, and even focus on them as the primary aspect of their diet.

Major ecological changes can cause a shift in diet and foraging behaviors. This is the case for the koala, a native of Australia with highly specialized diet. Eucalyptus is not necessarily an ideal food source, but climatic changes made it much more abundant, making it a viable option.

Some feeding strategies can seem more passive than others. Filter feeding seems like easy-mode, but it can actually be much more complex, especially because it still costs energy to perform.

Powered flight is one of the strongest adaptations that has ever occurred. It has advantages on both defense and offense against animals that are only able to travel on the ground. But some cats have developed ways to go after flying animals, adding them to their diet.

Some diet choices can seem a bit bizarre, or even counterintuitive. Certain animals will even eat non-nutritious substances. What reason could there be for such a behavior?

Because of their isolated nature, islands are hotbeds of evolutionary change. One of the most celebrated examples of speciation to adapt to different diets is the finches of the Galapagos Islands, described by Charles Darwin in 'On the Origin of Species'.

The diet of each organism has developed over millions of years of evolution and a relationship between it and its environment. A variety of strategies and diets exist and we'll be covering some of the most interesting ones.

We've seen organisms that mimic other species and those that mimic their own, but we're finishing up with a defensive strategy of mimicking oneself, making one part of the body look like a different part.

An organism doesn't always mimic other species. Sometimes, it will mimic individuals of its own species as a way of fooling others and getting a surreptitious reproductive benefit.

Mimicry isn't just used in predator/prey relationships, but also for reproductive purposes. Some flowers can mimic female insects, attracting male insects to unknowingly pollinate them without having to supply nectar to them.

When it comes to mimicry, perspective is everything. An organism does not have to look exactly like its model in every way, only from the perspective of those it is trying to dupe. With soaring birds, this often includes only their undersides.

Cleaner fish are an important part of shallow ocean ecosystems, interacting in a symbiotic manner with larger species. However, several species have learn to mimic both their coloration and behavior in order to get a free meal without providing cleaning services.

While previous examples of mimicry have shown different methods for keeping others away, we now look at a mimic that wants to draw others to it instead. This organism is a predator and it can mimic its prey to bring them in close.

Human agricultural actions have been another driver of mimicry in cultivated fields. Specifically, unwanted weed species mimic the cultivated species making it harder for humans to tell the difference and remove them.

Mimicry isn't always one size fits all and new data can change our understanding of each relationship. Sometimes, two species can both have defenses and end up mimicking each other.

Adaptability is strongly favored in an evolutionary sense. Imagine if a mimic could copy multiple model organisms. It could adapt its mimicry for multiple situations. Not many organisms could pull this off, but cephalopods have the color- and shape-changing abilities to do so.

Woodpeckers don't have venom like snakes or bees. They seem fairly harmless. Yet there is a species of South American woodpecker that exhibits defensive mimicry. What kind of deterrence is it copying?

Fear and pain van be useful tools for mimics. If the species they appear similar to can deliver a nasty sting, then there is a greater incentive for predator species to leave both the original and the mimic alone.