Stories by Jason G. Goldman

A Kangaroo Battles Cancer

January 29, 2013 started as a normal day at the Racine Zoo in Racine, Wis. Two red kangaroos were scheduled for their routine veterinary exams and keepers were busy preparing.

Photoblogging: A Snow-Covered Mountain for a Hot Summer Day

While combing through my photo database during this unusually-hot-even-for-July heatwave that's been baking southern California, I was drawn to this winter photo taken in January in Palm Springs...

Eavesdropping Lemurs Tune Into the Forest Soundtrack to Survive

One of the ways that primates avoid predators is with the use of alarm calls. If a lemur, monkey, or ape detects a predator, he or she shrieks, warning the rest of the social group.

Photoblogging: Filming with @LizBonnin at the LA Zoo

I've been inspired by Anton Zuiker to resume my series of photoblogging posts, usually on Sundays. What better way to start than with this photo, taken last week just outside the LA Zoo?...

More Friends Make Lemurs Better Thieves (But What Does It Mean For Brain Evolution?)

Highly social lemurs are better thieves than their less-social cousins. On its surface, this isn't particularly surprising. The social intelligence hypothesis claims that the evolution of primate intelligence was driven by the need to predict and manipulate the behavior of others...

Gathering Emotional Intelligence: My Review of Animal Wise

My review of Virginia Morell's latest book Animal Wise is in this summer's issue of Conservation Magazine , and is also now online. It was just after six o’clock in the evening on an autumn day in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve...

Bringing Science to the Zoo

Within the wildlife conservation community, both in the field (" in situ ") as well as in captive settings (" ex situ "), there is a great deal of folk knowledge about the best methods for animal care as well as species protection and restoration...

The Best Animal Engineers

If an intelligent alien species landed on the small bit of galactic rock that we call home, they might get out of their spaceships, have a look around, and decide that we—that is, our species—are the master builders on our planet...

Once Upon A Time, The Catholic Church Decided That Beavers Were Fish

From time to time, politicians and other rulers-of-men like to categorize the natural world not according to biology, but rather for convenience or monetary gain.

Cognitive Chickens and Memorable Sea Slugs

There is a rich tradition in psychology and neuroscience of using animals as models for understanding humans. Humans, after all, are enormously complicated creatures to begin even from a strictly biological perspective...

The Doctor Is In

Original image by Charles M. Schulz/Peanuts .

A Flyer Makes It Official

Time for a Nap [Photo]

Well, I've gone and submitted my dissertation to my committee.Like this San Diego Zoo polar bear, I intend to hibernate through the weekend. And then, we prepare the defense.

Ronan Fights Back! Scrappy Sea Lion Might Reclaim the Title of First Non-Human Mammal Dancer

Two weeks ago, I wrote about a new study by Peter Cook and colleagues from the Pinniped Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In their study, Cook claimed that Ronan the California sea lion was the first non-human mammal to show evidence of "rhythmic entrainment," or the ability to synchronize the movements of his body with an external rhythm...

Is Meat-Eating A Conservation Tactic?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about wildlife conservation psychology, especially in light of last month’s TEDxDeExtinction event.

Ronan the Sea Lion Dances To The Backstreet Boys. So What?

Ronan is the name of a the California sea lion ( Zalophus californianus ) who can bob her head in time to music. She apparently dances to Boogie Wonderland , and the Backstreet Boys song Everybody ...

A Photo Safari at the San Diego Zoo

#PHD2013 is getting closer and closer. In the meantime, here are some more portraits of San Diego Zoo residents, following on from last week's post.Here's an angolan colobus monkey, with some bits of breakfast stuck to its face.An African Grey Parrot, a conspecific of the famous Alex.A menacing Steller's Sea Eagle, the best of all of Steller's birds, according to John McCormack...

This Is The Best Animal Photo I Have Ever Taken

Longtime readers of this blog know that I like to take photos, and I primarily take them of two types of subjects: nighttime cityscapes, and animals.

The Thoughtful Animal, Now With More MIND

Changes are afoot around here! Six new blogs were launched today, which when combined with the previously-existing Sci Am psychology and neuroscience bloggers, form the new Scientific American MIND Blog Network.What does it mean for this blog?...

Animating Anthropomorphism: Giving Minds To Geometric Shapes [Video]

The brain has a problem. Information can only enter it through sensory apparatuses: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin. And the information that enters the brain is fairly simple.