Lesson Idea

Scientific Articles about Animal Behavior

This collection features five of SJK’s adapted research articles on animal behavior, exploring zombie ants, zoo animals during a solar eclipse, shark sleep habits, raven cognition, and mice behavior when infected by a parasite.

Engage students with standards-matched adaptations, introductory video content, comprehension questions, and vocabulary to further the lesson outcomes. Each adapted article also comes with additional suggestions for activities to enhance the readers’ understanding and make the class more exciting.

Click the button below to view our full catalog of adapted research articles on animal behavior.

All Animal Behavior Articles

1. How do some fungi turn insects into zombies?

Abstract: Did you know that certain fungi can turn insects into zombies, just like in the movies? These “zombie-making” fungi control the insects’ behavior and make their hosts do strange things like walking a long way, climbing tall plants, and hanging onto high surfaces. This is so the fungi can make their infectious spores spread further. There are many types of zombie-making fungi, and most have evolved independently. Yet they change the insects’ behavior in a similar way. How do they do this and why is it so common? We reviewed previous studies on zombie-making fungi to search for an answer. These fungi use both mechanical and chemical processes to control their hosts. And while the changed behavior is very similar, the ways they achieve it vary greatly among the different species of zombie-making fungi. Each one has its own unique way of manipulating insects to change the same behaviors! We believe these same behaviors are changed by all these different fungal species because these manipulations are the best way to infect as many other hosts as possible.

This article is suitable for elementary school, middle school, and high school students. This article is available in an upper reading level and a lower reading level. An audio version is available in English, and a written translation is available in Spanish. This article includes a Lesson Idea video to engage students in detecting which parasites infected humans. This article also includes an Ask-A-Scientist interview with one of the original researchers, Dr. Will Beckerson, who talked with us about zombie ants, zombie snails, zombie movies, and body tattoos (of zombie insects).

Key terms: animal behavior, dual reading level, evolution, fungi, insects, parasite
Scientific figures: data table, pictograph
Scientific method: systematic review

2. How do animals behave during a solar eclipse?

Abstract: When was the last time you were at the zoo? You probably saw lots of animals doing lots of different things there. We wanted to know what zoo animals do when a solar eclipse happens. People have observed animals during solar eclipses before. But these were mostly just casual observations. We designed a study to observe 17 different types of animals at the zoo. First, we observed their normal behaviors. Then we recorded what happened during a solar eclipse. We saw that a lot of animals did something that wasn’t normal. Most of them started behaving like it was nighttime – in the middle of the day! Some of them even seemed anxious – like the eclipse stressed them out. This helps us understand how complex animal behavior can be.

This article is suitable for elementary school and middle school students. An audio version is available in English.

Key terms: animal behavior, astronomy, physics
Scientific figures: Venn diagram
Scientific method: observation

3. Why do sharks sleep?

Abstract: We all know what it feels like when we have not had enough sleep. You might feel tired, have trouble concentrating, or even be grumpy and irritable. Despite it being such an important part of our daily lives, sleep still remains a bit of a mystery! To help answer the question of why we sleep, scientists have started researching sleep in other animals. This can help us understand how and why sleep evolved. Sharks are hundreds of millions of years old. In fact, they are the oldest living group of jawed vertebrates! Because of this, we think they could help unlock important information about the evolution of sleep. So far, only one study has focused on sleep in sharks. We wanted to change this! We studied the metabolic rate and behavior of draughtsboard sharks (Cephaloscyllium isabellum) over a 24-hour period. Our results show that when sharks sleep, they typically have a flat body posture and a reduced metabolic rate. Our study supports the hypothesis that the conservation of energy is a core function of sleep. It also provides insight into its evolution.

This article is suitable for elementary school, middle school, and lower high school students. This article is available in both an upper reading level and a lower reading level. An audio version is available in both English and Spanish, and a written translation is available in Spanish. This article includes a Lesson Idea video to engage students in exploring shark sleep behaviors.

Key terms: animal behavior, dual reading level, evolution, fish, metabolism, sleep
Scientific figures: bar graph, pictograph
Scientific method: experiment, observation

4. How do ravens’ thinking skills compare with apes’?

Abstract: Ravens behave in ways that suggest they are really smart. Most scientists studying animal intelligence focus on monkeys and apes like macaques and chimpanzees. One group of scientists made a set of puzzles that tested primates’ physical and social thinking skills. We wanted to know more about ravens’ intelligence, and we wanted to be able to compare ravens and great apes. So, we changed the set of puzzles to make sure they could be solved by a bird using a beak instead of fingers. We found that ravens did just as well as the apes on almost all of the puzzles!

This article is suitable for middle school and lower high school students. An audio version is available in English, and a written translation in both English and Bulgarian. This article includes two different Ask-A-Scientist video interviews with the original researchers Dr. Simone Pika and Dr. Miriam Sima.

Key terms: animal behavior, birds, cognition, intelligence, neuroscience
Scientific figures: data table, pictograph
Scientific method: experiment, observation

5. How do parasites affect mouse behavior?

Abstract: Have you ever heard of Toxoplasma gondii? It’s a tiny parasite that can infect animals’ brains. Moreover, it can change their behavior! We captured mice on Kangaroo Island in Australia and examined their brains. We searched for changes in the brain associated with infection. We found alterations in specific genes related to behavior in infected male mice. These changes made the mice less afraid of cats – their natural enemy! Interestingly, we observed no such changes in infected female mice. These findings help us understand how parasites might affect the behavior of the organisms they infect.

This article is suitable for middle school students. An audio version is available in English. This article includes a Lesson Idea video to engage students in observing signs and symptoms of parasite infection.