🌱 Sources for Selected Observations

Dragonflies (95% hunting success)

• UC Davis Biology: How Dragonflies Catch Prey in Midair – biology.ucdavis.edu
• Combes et al. (2013), Capture Success and Efficiency of Dragonflies Pursuing Different Types of Prey, Integrative and Comparative Biology – academic.oup.com

Mast years (trees flood seed supply / predator satiation)

• Zwolak et al. (2022), Global patterns in the predator satiation effect of masting, PNAS – pnas.org
• Bogdziewicz et al. (2018), Effectiveness of predator satiation in masting oaks – pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Scientific American: This Fall Is Full of Acorns, Thanks to a Mast Year – scientificamerican.com

Tree growth into shaded areas (shade tolerance & structure)

• Canham, C. (1988), Growth and Canopy Architecture of Shade-Tolerant Trees: Response to Canopy Gaps – researchgate.net
• Poorter et al. (2012), Architecture of Iberian Canopy Tree Species in Relation to Shade Tolerance – link.springer.com
• ScienceDirect Topic Page: Shade Tolerance – sciencedirect.com

Octopus camouflage & intelligence

• Hanlon, R. (2008), Cephalopod Dynamic Camouflage – pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• University of Chicago: Octopus Genome Sequencing Reveals Basis for Intelligence and Camouflage – news.uchicago.edu
• Stanford Neuroscience: Inside the Mind of an Octopus – neuroscience.stanford.edu
• PNAS (2024), High Energetic Cost of Color Change in Octopuses – pnas.org

Prairie dog language

• Slobodchikoff et al. (2009), Prairie Dog Alarm Calls Encode Labels About Predator Colors – pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Slobodchikoff et al., Acoustic Structures in the Alarm Calls of Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs – wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org
• Animal Cognition: The Linguistic Genius of Prairie Dogs – animalcognition.org

🌿 More Sources for Observations

Slime molds (maze solving, memory, intelligence)

• Nakagaki, T., Yamada, H., Tóth, Á. (2000). Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism. Nature — showed slime molds can find the shortest path in a labyrinth.
  👉 https://www.nature.com/articles/35035159
• Reid, C. R., Latty, T., Dussutour, A., Beekman, M. (2012). Slime mold uses an externalized spatial “memory” to navigate in complex environments. PNAS — slime molds use chemical “memory” trails to guide movement.
  👉 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1215037109
• Boussard, A. et al. (2021). Adaptive behaviour and learning in slime moulds. PMC — evidence of learning and adaptive problem-solving in slime molds.
  👉 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7935053/

Coral reefs (cooperation, chemical communication, ecosystem intelligence)

• Wang, T. et al. (2022). Research advances in communication interactions among coral symbiotic system. PubMed — coral and symbionts use chemical signals to coordinate survival.
  👉 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36131675/
• NSF / WHOI (2022). Impact of coral chemical compounds on reef health. NSF News — coral exudates influence microbial balance and reef resilience.
  👉 https://www.nsf.gov/news/impact-coral-chemical-compounds-reef-health
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (2024). WHOI scientists “read” the messages in chemical clues left by coral reef inhabitants. WHOI — identified chemical “messages” that corals use to interact with surroundings.
  👉 https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/whoi-scientists-read-the-messages-in-chemical-clues-left-by-coral-reef-inhabitants/
• University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (2023). Biochemistry innovation to aid reef restoration, management. UH News — mapped coral biochemical compounds linked to stress resilience.
  👉 https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2023/09/28/biochemistry-coral-reefs/