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The great tit (Parus major) shows consistent individual variation in problem solving abilities. Photo uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Luc Viatour.

Older studies have shown that some animals in nature show an impressive ability to solve problems right from the jumping spider who solves complicated geometrical problems to ambush its prey to the chimpanzees that modify sticks to scoop out termites. Birds seem particularly ingenious with the Caledonian crow as virtual Albert Einsteins with their ability to modify wires into hooks to lift food out of small buckets. However, even more mundane birds, such as the great tit, show innovative foraging behaviour. The great tit for instance learned how to open milk bottles at the time when they were placed in front of houses in the mornings.

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To catch very large prey, the arboreal ant, Azteca andreae, which live in a mutualistic association with a host plan, gather on side by side on leaf edges with their mandible open. When a prey lands on the plan they grab it with their mandibles which together with the hairy underside of the leaf acts as Velcro preventing prey, weighing up to 13,000 times as much as the ant, to escape.

The study recently published in PLoS One by French and Spanish biologists investigated the predatory behaviour of the ant Azteca andreae in French Guiana. The and lives in a close mutualistic relationship with its host, Cecropia obtuse, which in return for the ant’s protection from herbivores offer it accommodation in its hollow stems and nectar from extrafloral nectar bodies. However, the nectar is relatively poor in proteins and amino acids, so the ants supplement it by active hunting.

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New findings show that the lantern shark employs luminescence on its belly to camouflage itself in the water column. The deep water shark can control the intensity and wavelength of the light it emits ventrally so that it matches the downwelling light from the above. This phenomenon known as counter-illumination has been described from a few other species such as shrimps and squids but not previously from large vertebrae predators.

Most light in the aquatic environment comes directly from the sun, i.e. from above and as anybody who has dived can testify to then this mean that everything moves above you in the water column has a very distinct silhouette against the downwelling sunlight.  This makes it very difficult to remain hidden. Some luminescent shrimps and squids have therefore developed a method of directing their light emissions  downward to act as counter-illumination to hide their silhouettes from predators. However some sharks hunts from above and therefore would also benefit from counter-illumination.  

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