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human behavior

Science

How human behavior turned these 6 animals into garbage lovers.

Even though they might be pests (to us), it's partly human behavior that made them that way in the first place.

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It's not really their fault

Not every animal can be a majestic stag leaping over a Scottish field while grown men in kilts cry in the background.

Some animals are the opposite. They’re not majestic beasts of the wild glen, they’re just ... kind of trashy. As in, they literally eat trash.

Even though they might be pests (to us), it's partly human behavior that made them that way in the first place.

Animals are eating garbage because humans create so much of it. Americans are producing about 268 million tons of waste every year.

This steady source of free food — and shrinking natural habitats — has drawn the animals out of their innate routines and into our garbage cans and dumpsters, earning them their "nuisance" label.

But which animals are the trashiest?

Here are six animals who, with the help of us humans and all our trash, love to eat garbage.

raccoon, garbage, environment. health and safety

As cute as can be yet not made for cuddles.

Photo by Gary Bendig on Unsplash

1. Raccoons are taking over the world.

Raccoons have become invasive species in Europe and Japan because people began bringing them into homes as exotic pets.

While domesticating a raccoon for Instagram fame might seem like a cute idea, in reality, these animals aren't meant to cuddle on the couch with us. Even "tame" raccoons are still wild animals. Plus, wild ones can carry diseases like roundworm and rabies.

lime disease, ticks, opossums, garbage, behavior

A little weird looking and hungry for ticks.

Photo by Kurt Anderson on Unsplash

2. Wild opossums help keep Lyme disease away.

This is the one animal on this list I’m most likely to freak out — hey, give me a break, they’re super weird-looking and kind of hissy — but in the wild, they can actually be kind of cool. Opossums eat ticks, for example, which helps prevent the spread of Lyme disease. Plus, they carry their babies on their back, which is adorable.

I can’t be mad at them. Just as long as they stay out of my garage.

Yellowstone, humans, garbage, behavior, bears

Garbage dumps contribute to bears' loss of natural suspicion of humans.

Photo from Pixababy

3. Yellowstone used to be full of trashy bears.

Dumpster bears were actually a big problem at Yellowstone. The park used to feature large garbage dumps, which bears would visit for free food. The close contact with people made the bears lose their natural suspicion of humans and people got hurt.

Thankfully, better garbage cans, improved guest behavior, and closing nearby dumps helped solve the problem.

Monkeys work in packs.

Photo by Tracy Kasssandra on Unsplash

4. Monkeys have learned to commit crimes.

On the one hand, who doesn’t like monkeys?

On the other, monkeys can be wicked smart, have little grabby hands, and can run in packs, which spells trouble. In fact, group of macaques in Indonesia has even learned to steal stuff from tourists and hold it for ransom.

rats, New York, environment, health and safety

Rats are excellent survivors.

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

5. New York City's spent millions trying to exterminate rats.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has committed $32 million to rat extermination, but they’re not likely to disappear anytime soon. Rats are excellent survivors, and estimates on the NYC rat population number in the millions.

Then again, I think rats in general are pretty misunderstood. Sure, they’re kind of icky, but they also laugh when tickled.

trash, plastic, environment, seagull, garbage

Eating plastic makes seagulls sick.

Photo by Navi on Unsplash 6. Even seagulls can get sick from eating trash.The noise! The screeching! The fact that they always seem to smell kind of like stale poop. If any animal was going to be crowned King Trashy, seagulls would be it. Of course, eating garbage isn’t good for them. Yes, even seagulls can get sick from eating garbage — especially if they accidentally gobble up stuff like plastic.The thing is, these animals wouldn’t be so trashy without, you know, our trash.All of these animals were doing just fine without garbage dumps. They’re simply responding to our expanding cities and the smorgasbord of free (if smelly) food we leave behind. Not all animals can be majestic, it’s true, but we certainly can do a better job helping them not be trashy, either.This article originally appeared on 01.31.18

From Your Site Articles

animals

Science

How humans and monkeys are triggered by jealously in the same way.

Could jealously be a evolutionary advantage?

Image via Pixabay and Photo by Jeff Kubina/Wikimedia Commons/Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.

The human game of love is a battle won and lost by more than just us.

The monkey had a busy morning, but it was finally time to go home.

He was a small creature, about the size of a rabbit, with a long prehensile tail and dusky red fur. Earlier that day, scientists had scooped him up from his cage and taken him away to get a shot. But now that was done, and just like for many of us, heading home meant that he'd finally get to rest and hang out with his mate.

This time, though, his scientist colleagues weren’t done with him. In fact, our monkey was being set up for an incredible betrayal.

As the copper titi monkey settled in, he spotted his mate — not at home, but in the cage of a romantic rival. Suddenly, circuits deep in his brain came to life. He arched his back and smacked his lips, his tail lashing wildly back and forth.

If he could have gotten over to that cage, he'd have pulled his mate away in an instant, shouted, maybe even fought off the rival.

If you think the monkey’s reaction seems a lot like human jealousy, you're probably right. The entire setup was part of an experiment by Nicole Maninger and Karen Bales of the University of California to figure out where jealousy lives in the brain and how it works.

When they looked at the jilted monkey's brain, two areas in particular lit up.

An MRI and blood draw afterward gave Maninger and Bales a peek at the animal's brain, and in addition to higher testosterone and stress hormones, two more areas deep within his brain were triggered. The first, the cingulate cortex, has a lot to do with social rejection. The second, the lateral septum, is connected to bonding.

"The approximate locations of the cingulate cortex (red) and lateral septum (green) in an MRI of the human brain.

Original image from Geoff B Hall/Wikimedia Commons.

Put together, these areas of the brain appear to show us what Victorian novels, romantic comedies, and reality TV shows have long suspected: Jealousy is intimately tied to monogamy.

Monogamy is interesting because it's actually very rare in the animal kingdom. Fewer than 1 in 10 mammal species mate and bond with a single individual. Even humans aren't strictly monogamous. But we do form uniquely strong, lasting bonds between individuals.

What the research hints at, says Bales, is that the pain of jealousy might actually be one of the reasons monogamous animals bond so strongly to each other. This might even confer an evolutionary advantage, since monogamous male monkeys help raise and feed their kids.

So that tail-lashing, lip-smacking monkey might just help us understand ourselves.

"Understanding the neurobiology and evolution of emotions can help us understand our own emotions and their consequences," says Bales.

It could even help us recognize how our brains form romantic relationships — and what happens when those relationships go terribly wrong. About 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men are victims of intimate partner violence in their lifetimes, and research has hinted that jealousy might play a major role.

Human emotions are incredibly complicated, of course, and we shouldn't suggest that monkeys experience the exact same feelings we do. Titi monkeys have very different lives, societies, and evolutionary histories than people do.

Still, Bales says that we have seen hints of similar brain activity in human studies.

As anyone who's ever felt it knows, jealousy can be an intensely dark, powerful emotion. The next time you feel it, maybe you can take some comfort knowing just what is going on in your brain.

Maninger and Bales' work was published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

This article originally appeared on 10.19.17

From Your Site Articles

The way these baby orangutans are taught to fear snakes is gloriously dramatic ›

animals

Culture

The life-changing magic of knowing whether people are 'Askers' or 'Guessers'

Photo by Eunice Lituañas on Unsplash

My husband and I own a short-term rental, and last year a woman rented it for a couple of months straight. She was friendly, personable, and overall a lovely guest. But she asked for things, a lot. Like, all the time. Big things, little things—it seemed like pretty much anything she thought she could possibly ask for, she asked for.

My husband, who manages the property and requests from guests, found himself getting irritated that she was asking for so many things.

"I don't think she expects you to actually say yes to all of these things," I finally told him. "I think she's just an extreme asker."

He looked puzzled. That's when I pulled up this Atlantic article I'd read years ago about how some people are "Askers" and some people are "Guessers" and read it to him.

"Wow," he said after I finished. "That is seriously life-changing."

"Life-changing" is how practically I share this concept with describes it once they understand it. When you hear it explained, it seems so obvious, but it's not something people articulate often.

It's also not particularly scientific. The original Askers vs. Guessers explanation appears to have come from someone's AskMetafilter answer in 2007, but it's since been expanded and expounded upon by various people throughout the years.

Here's the gist of it:

Some people are Askers, and in "ask culture," it's normal and expected to ask directly for the things you want. It's also normal to say no to such requests. Asking culture is upfront, direct, and generally okay with saying no and being told no. If you want something, you simply ask for it without an expectation of any particular answer.

Other people are Guessers, and in "guess culture," you don't ask for things unless you're quite sure the answer will be yes. You might drop hints or make vague allusions to what you want as you try to gauge whether the person would say yes, or even to get an offer without having to ask. If you think the answer might be no, you simply don't ask.

Where Askers and Guessers clash the most is in the saying no part. Askers know sometimes the answer will be no, but they ask anyway. Because Guessers won't ask if the answer might be no, they might assume Askers expect all of their asks to be answered with yes. Saying no is uncomfortable to a Guesser, so being put into the position of having to say no to someone's ask feels rude.

I've had coworkers, family members, and friends say this concept totally changed the way they see and interact with people. Guessers tend to struggle with the bluntness of Askers and feel put off by their directness until they understand that Askers always just ask—the answer doesn't always have to be yes. Askers tend to struggle with the seeming passive aggressiveness of Guessers and get frustrated by their pussyfooting until they understand that asking directly feels rude to them—Guessers just hate putting people in a position of saying "no."

Much has been made about whether Asking vs. Guessing is a family upbringing thing, a cultural thing, or a personality thing, and also about whether one is better than the other. Certainly, some cultures around the world tend to be more direct, while others tend to be less so. The same goes for families, and even certain regions of the country. In my experience as an American, I'd say the U.S. is fairly evenly split between the two tendencies.

Of course, people don't always fit neatly into two distinct categories, and th e relationship we have with people can impact all of this greatly. With people we are close to, we might be more of an Asker than with people we don't know all that well. But overall, understanding the difference between Askers and Guessers can make social situations so much easier to navigate.

For example, let'ss ay you have a coworker who constantly seems to be asking for things or throws ideas your way all the time. They're probably an Asker. They don't necessarily expect you to act on all of their ideas or say yes to what they're asking for. Or let's say you have a neighbor who starts talking about their vacation plans and mentions they're worried about their plants not getting enough water while they're gone. They might be a Guesser who wants to ask you to water for them. They just don't want to ask you directly.

The woman who rented our place was an extreme example of an Asker, and after my husband (who is a Guesser) got that, he found it so much easier to interact with her. He understood she wasn't expecting a yes with every ask, so her questions didn't feel so rude. And sure enough, when he was clear about what we could and couldn't accommodate, she was totally unfazed by the things he said no to.

Life-changing, seriously.

From Your Site Articles

This new tech can stop crimes before they happen, and that's terrifying.

Imagine you're all alone in a low-lit parking lot when a big, white robot rolls up to you and offers its protection.

Congratulations: You just met the Knightscope K5, the latest in pre-crime technology!

Weirder things have happened, right? I mean, not many weirder things, but definitely some weirder things. GIF via Knightscope/YouTube.

It might look like the lovechild of R2-D2 and a Dalek, but the K5 is actually the world's first "autonomous data machine." (At least according to the press materials.)

What this actually means is that it roves around parking lots in Silicon Valley using facial recognition software to identify potential criminals, broadcasting massive amounts of information back to the company's private data center, and generally policing through (admittedly adorable) intimidation.

And what's more, this shiny robot cop can be rented out for as low as $6.25 an hour.

All in a day's work. GIF from "Robocop."

Are you feeling like you're living in the future yet? 'Cause the K5 ain't the only tech that allegedly stops crime before it happens.

Back in 2008, the Department of Homeland Security created the Fast Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST. Originally known as Project Hostile Intent (can't imagine why they changed it?), this data-crunching program uses physiological and behavioral patterns to identify individuals with potential to commit violent crimes.

And in September 2015, Hitachi released its fancy new Predictive Crime Analytics, which uses thousands of different factors from weather patterns to word usage in social media posts to identify when and where the next crime could happen.

"We're trying to provide tools for public safety so that [law enforcement is] armed with more information on who's more likely to commit a crime," explained Darrin Lipscomb, one of the creators of this crime-monitoring technology, in a Fast Company article.

He also said, "A human just can't handle when you get to the tens or hundreds of variables that could impact crime."

Sounds an awful lot like a certain Spielberg action movie starring a pre-couch-jumping Tom Cruise.

Speaking of curious behavioral patterns... GIF from "Minority Report."

So what are we waiting for? Let's use all this awesome new technology to put a stop to crime before it starts!

Except ... it's not "crime" if it hasn't happened, is it? You can't arrest someone for trying every car door in the parking lot, even if you do feel pretty confident that they're looking for an open one so they can search inside for things to steal.

And even then: How can you tell the difference between a thief, a homeless person looking for a place to sleep, or someone who just got confused about which car was theirs?

GIF from "Robocop."

Besides: What if the algorithms used in this pre-crime technology are just as biased as human behavior?

Numbers don't lie. But numbers also exist within a context, which means the bigger picture might not be as black and white as you'd think.

Consider the stop-and-frisk policies that currently exist in cities like New York or the TSA screening process at the airport. Those in favor might argue that if black and Muslim Americans are more likely to commit violent crimes, then it makes sense to treat them with extra caution. Those opposed would call that racial profiling.

As for the supposedly objective predictive robot cops? Based on the data available to them, they'd probably rule in favor of racial profiling.

Author/blogger Cory Doctorow explains this problem pretty succinctly:

"The data used to train the algorithm comes from the outcomes of the biased police activity. If the police are stop-and-frisking brown people, then all the weapons and drugs they find will come from brown people. Feed that to an algorithm and ask it where the police should concentrate their energies, and it will dispatch those cops to the same neighborhoods where they've always focused their energy, but this time with a computer-generated racist facewash that lets them argue that they're free from bias."

See how quickly this spirals downward? GIF from "Robocop."

Pre-crime measures might make us feel safer. But they could lead to some even scarier scenarios.

By trying to stop crimes before they happen, we actually end up causing more crime. Just look at all the wonderful work that law enforcement agencies have already done by inadvertently creating terrorists and freely distributing child pornography.

The threat of surveillance from robots and data analysts might stop a handful of crimes, but it also opens up a bigger can of worms about what, exactly, a crime entails.

Because if you think you have "nothing to hide," well, tell that to the disproportionate number of black people imprisoned for marijuana or any of the men who've been arrested in the last few years for consensual sex with another man. (And remember that not too long ago, interracial sex was illegal, too.)

Do you really want these guys showing up at your house when you're trying to get it on? GIF from "Doctor Who."

Hell, if you've ever faked a sick day or purchased a lobster of a certain size, you've committed a felony.

The truth is, we've all committed crimes. And we've probably done it more often than we realized.

Don't get me wrong. It's certainly exciting to see people use these innovative new technologies to make the world safer. But there are others ways to stop crime before it starts without infringing on our civil rights.

For starters, we can fix the broken laws still on the books and create communities that care instead of cultivating fear. There'd be a lot less crime if we just looked after each other.

human behavior

How human behavior turned these 6 animals into garbage lovers.

Even though they might be pests (to us), it's partly human behavior that made them that way in the first place.

Animals are eating garbage because humans create so much of it. Americans are producing about 268 million tons of waste every year.

1. Raccoons are taking over the world.

2. Wild opossums help keep Lyme disease away.

3. Yellowstone used to be full of trashy bears.

4. Monkeys have learned to commit crimes.

5. New York City's spent millions trying to exterminate rats.

How humans and monkeys are triggered by jealously in the same way.

Could jealously be a evolutionary advantage?

When they looked at the jilted monkey's brain, two areas in particular lit up.

Put together, these areas of the brain appear to show us what Victorian novels, romantic comedies, and reality TV shows have long suspected: Jealousy is intimately tied to monogamy.

So that tail-lashing, lip-smacking monkey might just help us understand ourselves.

The life-changing magic of knowing whether people are 'Askers' or 'Guessers'

This new tech can stop crimes before they happen, and that's terrifying.

Imagine you're all alone in a low-lit parking lot when a big, white robot rolls up to you and offers its protection.

It might look like the lovechild of R2-D2 and a Dalek, but the K5 is actually the world's first "autonomous data machine." (At least according to the press materials.)

Are you feeling like you're living in the future yet? 'Cause the K5 ain't the only tech that allegedly stops crime before it happens.

So what are we waiting for? Let's use all this awesome new technology to put a stop to crime before it starts!

Besides: What if the algorithms used in this pre-crime technology are just as biased as human behavior?

Pre-crime measures might make us feel safer. But they could lead to some even scarier scenarios.

Hell, if you've ever faked a sick day or purchased a lobster of a certain size, you've committed a felony.

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