If I asked you to think of some “scary” or “creepy” animals, what sorts of creatures would you think of? From tiny bats to massive sharks, there are plenty of animals considered by most people to be “creepy” or even somewhat monstrous. Why do we consider these particular creatures to be the scary ones, though? When we spot an animal with sharp teeth or an ominous color palette, it can sometimes be tempting to assume the worst; however, these creatures are often mischaracterized. Many of them are fascinating to study and express some complex social behaviors. While it would be incorrect to say that animals experience relationships or social lives in the same way we do, you might still find some ways to relate to these creepy creatures if you dare to look a little deeper. Let’s take a peek at a few of those animals and some behaviors of theirs that might make them a little less scary.
Vampire bats might just be the most iconic animals associated with scary stories and Halloween- how could they not be with a name like “vampire bat” and a diet of blood? They’re not cruel creatures, though; in fact, vampire bats are known to form strong social bonds with one another and do “favors” for each other. Female vampire bats are known to share food with other females, including both non-relatives and family (Carter and Wilkinson). Humans often share out of companionship or politeness, but bats do so for a somewhat different reason. Most adaptations in organisms occur in order to increase the organism’s fitness, or likelihood of passing down their genetic code to the next generation. If a bat shares food with a family member, who likely shares much of its genetic code, that family member is more likely to survive and pass genetic material it shares with the initial bat onto offspring (Carter and Wilkinson). But, how does sharing food with other bats that may have very few genetic similarities to an initial bat increase fitness? According to a 2015 study, when a female shares food with another, the receiving bat will often share food with the initial food-donating bat in turn when it is in need (Carter and Wilkinson). In this way, vampire bats can increase the chance that they will survive through a shortage of food or other emergency to pass their genes onto their offspring.
Bat social bonds also become stronger over time, much like our own. According to a 2020 study, when forming a new social bond with another bat, vampire bats will start by grooming the other bat. This is much less risky than sharing food since the bat loses far less resources from it. If the other bat returns the grooming, the two bats will begin to groom each other more frequently until eventually becoming sufficiently able to trust that the other will return favors. From this point, the bats will begin to share food with each other, sure enough that their sacrifice of resources will someday be returned in kind (Carter et al.). Vampire bat social bonds even extend to hunting. A 2021 study showed that vampire bats that spend a lot of time together in their roost will interact with each other more frequently than with other bats while they hunt and may even work together to find food (Ripperger and Carter).
Sharks are widely feared and often depicted as monsters in pieces of popular media like Jaws and The Meg. While sharks are highly effective predators and occasionally attack humans, they’re not mindless monsters; in fact, many types of sharks are fairly social and can even learn from each other. According to National Aquarium museum exhibit curator Jay Bradley in a National Geographic article, whitetip reef sharks, like many other fish, don’t sleep the same way we do, instead resting while still awake (qtd. in Gibbens) in areas of water with a powerful current, which helps them to breathe, and with protection from their own predators (Gibbens). Additionally, according to Birch Aquarium spokesperson Caitlin Scully in the same article, while they don’t interact directly with or cooperate much with each other, these sharks do gather in large groups both to rest and hunt (qtd. in Gibbens). When they rest together, it often looks like they’re cuddling! Additionally, certain sharks are able to learn information and behaviors from each other, a phenomenon called social learning. A 2013 study tasked young lemon sharks with touching a target in order to obtain food. Sharks who had not yet performed the task were more capable of performing it successfully when they were allowed to watch experienced sharks touch the target and obtain food from it (Guttridge et al.). Although not all sharks are social creatures in the traditional sense, they’re certainly more social than their reputation as horrible and often solitary monsters would have you think.
Ravens, crows, and other darker-colored members of the family Corvidae (corvids) are often considered omens of bad things to come in horror stories. In the biological community, however, corvids are considered to be some of the most intelligent members of the animal kingdom, and demonstrate some very intriguing social behaviors. According to a 2012, study, captive ravens can begin to form social connections with one another when they aren’t even a year old yet, with the strongest relationships and least fighting occurring between closely related ravens, or kin. Additionally, as young ravens grow older, they tend to take the side of family members in fights between other ravens rather than defaulting to the side of whichever raven started the fight like very young ravens and even some other social species like hyenas. The study also indicated that ravens may favor ravens that they have social bonds with, but are not biologically related to, in fights, but this was not completely confirmed (Loretto et al.). Ravens also sometimes make up with other ravens whom they are close to after fighting with them and are less likely to fight again after reconciling. This is likely because ravens gain many benefits from social relationships with each other, many of which are similar to what vampire bats get out of their relationships (being groomed, sharing food, and even additional fitness in the case of direct relatives). Reconciling with friends they have fought with ensures that neither raven loses those valuable benefits over a simple fight (Fraser and Bugnyar). Finally, ravens can learn certain behaviors by watching other ravens perform them, a phenomenon called social learning. Ravens are particularly good at social learning, however, when they watch their siblings perform a task (Schwab et al.). These “omens of death” don’t just have deep social lives- they’re no bird-brains, either!
So, what did you think? Does knowing that vampire bats share with each other, that sharks “cuddle” with each other, and that ravens can “forgive” each other after a conflict make them all a bit less scary and a lot more fascinating? There’s often a lot more to animals than what meets the eye, or what popular culture likes to portray them as. Don’t get me wrong- I love a good shark horror movie- but the true secret lives of our world’s “creepiest” creatures can be just as interesting.
Works Cited
Carter, Gerald G., et al. “Development of New Food-Sharing Relationships in Vampire Bats.” Current Biology, vol. 30, no. 7, Apr. 2020, pp. 1275-1279.e3. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.055.
Carter, Gerald G., and Gerald S. Wilkinson. “Social Benefits of Non-Kin Food Sharing by Female Vampire Bats.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 282, no. 1819, Nov. 2015, p. 20152524. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2524.
Fraser, Orlaith N., and Thomas Bugnyar. “Ravens Reconcile after Aggressive Conflicts with Valuable Partners.” PLOS ONE, vol. 6, no. 3, Mar. 2011, p. e18118. PLoS Journals, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018118.
Gibbens, Sarah. “Video Shows How Sharks ‘Sleep’ in Large Groups.” National Geographic, National Geographic Partners, LLC, Aug. 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/whitetip-reef-sharks-sleeping-mexico-video-spd?rnd=1697795254296&loggedin=true. Accessed 5 April 2023.
Guttridge, Tristan L., et al. “Social Learning in Juvenile Lemon Sharks, Negaprion Brevirostris.” Animal Cognition, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 55–64. Springer Link, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-012-0550-6.
Loretto, Matthias-Claudio, et al. “Ontogeny of Social Relations and Coalition Formation in Common Ravens (Corvus Corax).” International Journal of Comparative Psychology, vol. 25, no. 3, 2012. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.46867/IJCP.2012.25.03.05.
Ripperger, Simon P., and Gerald G. Carter. “Social Foraging in Vampire Bats Is Predicted by Long-Term Cooperative Relationships.” PLOS Biology, vol. 19, no. 9, Sept. 2021, p. e3001366. PLoS Journals, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001366.
Schwab, Christine, et al. “Enhanced Social Learning between Siblings in Common Ravens, Corvus Corax.” Animal Behaviour, vol. 75, no. 2, Feb. 2008, pp. 501–08. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.06.006.
