There's a small, fascinating part of the animal kingdom that rivals any Fashion Week. I'm talking about animals with great design sense! These creatures adorn themselves with extra bits of materials, like lovebirds who add paper streamers to their tails.
Why are these animals going the extra mile for the perfect fit? For lovebirds, they might look vain, but they're actually just being practical. The paper strips are good nest-building materials, and tucking them into those feathers is a great way to transport a bunch of them easily. The fact that they look good doing it is just a bonus. 😎
Check out these other animals with fashion sense in the wild:
🎩 Sponge Crab
This crustacean gets fancy with pieces of sea sponges from the ocean floor. The crab trims a sponge to fit just right, then plops the sponge onto its shell. How does the sponge stay put? The crab uses modified hind legs to hold tight to the sponge all the time - they're like a person clinging to their hat on a windy day.
Why does the crab cling to this squishy cap? Easy - this sponge hat deters predators. If an organism tries to take a bite, they'll get a mouthful of unappetizing sea sponge. Many sponges have toxins and sharp internal body parts that taste terrible. This is protective fashion!
🎩 Humpback Whale
A group of scientists spotted a few humpback whales swimming through clumps of ocean kelp back in 2007. The whales would then carry these pieces of the ocean plant on their heads and flippers, sometimes for as long as an hour. It seemed like strange, but isolated behavior.
Later, other enthusiasts noticed whales showing this same behavior in different parts of the world. Now scientists were curious; why were whales wearing kelp?
There's no sure answer yet, but whale experts have a few theories. Uncomfortable skin parasites like barnacles and lice like to hitch rides on humpback whales. "Kelping" might be a way for the whales to knock the freeloaders off their bodies. Kelp is also known for being antimicrobial. By putting on the sea plant, whales might be keep bacteria numbers down and reduce risk of infection.
🎩 Harvester Caterpillar
The harvester butterfly lives from eastern Canada to Florida, and it has the only purely carnivorous caterpillar stage. Harvester caterpillars love to munch on woolly aphids.
I have a whole blog post about woolly aphids; these little critters produce a stringy substance on their bodies that tastes disgusting. The harvester caterpillars aren't deterred, though. They mow through piles of aphids.
Here's the weird part: once they're done feeding on the aphids, sometimes the caterpillars will tie woolly pieces of the aphids on top of their own bodies!
Why do they do this? The aphids are defended by ants who have a symbiotic relationship with them. The fuzzy coat worn by the caterpillars confuses the ants and keeps them from attacking.
🎩 Bottlenose Dolphin
Like the sponge crabs, female bottlenose dolphins also wear sea sponges - but on their faces! Unlike the crab's sponge hat, though, the dolphins use sponges to protect their mouths.
The females dive towards the rocky seabed holding the sponges in their mouths. From there, they'll look for burrowing fish to feed on. Without the protective sponge, the dolphins might scratch up their faces in search of lunch.
Male bottlenose dolphins also carry sponges, but not for feeding time. They carry the sponges to decorate themselves when courting potential mates. Male dolphins will parade around with the fancy headgear, trying to attract attention. The ladies are usually not impressed by this display, though, and sometimes, the rejected male dolphins throw the sponges at the females!
Many instances of animals "wearing stuff" were only recently discovered by scientists. Could this mean that other dressy animal behaviors are left to be discovered? 🤔 Who knows!
What's wild is that scientists believe that bottlenose dolphins have been using sponge hats for no more than 200 years. It appears to be a learned trait that is taught by mother dolphins! Animal experts are tracking dolphin behavior to understand what makes them such great learners. Check out this graph of a young dolphin whose behavior was tracked over 88 hours at an aquarium:
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I might prompt my students with the following questions about the graphic:
💡Which behaviors are most related to basic survival? Feeding, swimming, respiration, maintenance, and possibly vigilance are all survival skills. Aggression might also help with survival in the wild.
💡Which behaviors are more likely to lead to discovering new skills for the first time? Exploration and solitary play might help develop a brand-new skill. In captivity, interacting with humans might also help.
💡Which behaviors might help dolphins pass on new skills to other dolphins? Affiliation (wanting to spend time together), social play, and exploration might help dolphins be interested in learning from other dolphins and help them share information.
I hope your students will enjoy ad-dressing this fancy topic! 😜
