Week Four Reflection

This week, I narrowed down my research topic to focus on Canines. While I am not completely certain on the Canine species, I am leaning towards foxes. I'm intrigued by their reputation for cunning and intelligence, traits that have earned them the label of being sly creatures. I want to learn more about that behavior. Foxes are also known to be adaptive, which I believe their behavior plays into.

I followed the Urban Fox Watcher (@urbanfoxwatch) as their profile is all about foxes in urban locations. I watched many adorable videos of foxes meddling in backyards; it is really interesting to watch foxes interact with each other and their environment. This profile also photographs foxes they find in their travels, which tells me that foxes can survive in many different environments.

One Twitter post I found to be especially interesting is by Lawrence Zhu (@LawrenceZh98875), about some dogs expressing ADHD-like symptoms. This post really stood out to me because I hope to study neurodevelopment disorders in my future, which includes ADHD. Even thought I could not open the actual article (the link did not open on my device), It was interesting to read about how social disorders are also present in other species.

Lawrence wrote a detailed Twitter Thread about the article, which tested the Akita Inu dog breed. While this article only demonstrates a hypothesis, there are findings that a dog's environment and genetics that can cause them to have ADHD-like behavior. Here is a link to the thread if you would like to read it: Observed Presence of ADHD in Domestic Dogs

I myself wrote a Twitter Thread about a fox's hunting technique that involves them leaping into their prey; this is called "mousing". I read an article discussing whether foxes have the ability to detect the Earth's magnetic field and use it to hunt. This article introduces Jaroslav Červený and his research on this topic. He found that foxes find prey at a much higher rate when leaping north-east; foxes have an innate ability to detect where north-east is. This is an interesting hypothesis and is worth a read: Read here

I also spent time responding to my fellow classmates. While I have responded to multiple, Kaitlyn Mer (@KatilynMer04) posted about dogs behavior while mourning. This was so sad to read about.

Overall, I believe I am making steady process in my research journey!