Behaviour Gallery

Lie detector test

Lie detector test. Pulse meters on a man'sfingers used for a lie detector, or polygraph, test. Under the subject's hands are the tracesproduced by the polygraph. A polygraph recordschanges in a number of physiological processes, asa series of questions are asked by an examiner. Aswell as measuring heart rate with these pulsemeters, blood pressure and respiration rate arealso measured. The examiner interprets the resultsto determine if the subject demonstrated deceptivebehaviour. The reliability of polygraphs iscontroversial and their evidence is not admissiblein court

© Tek Image/Science Photo Library

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) two breaching in evening light, Moray Firth

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) two breaching in evening light, Moray Firth, Inverness-shire, Scotland, UK, August, sequence 2/2. Photographer quote: A day of overcast cloud cleared in the last ten minutes of sunset spilling golden light through a small gap between the cloud base and hill top. A group of dolphins seized the moment and performed a perfect synchronized leap in the low warm sunlight. And I smiled, sighed with relief, and went home happy! Did you know? The bottle nose dolphins in the Moray Firth are said to be worth more than £4m to the Inverness economy through tourism revenue

Waglers pit viper

Wagler's pit viper ( Tropidolaemus, formerly Trimersus, wagleri ) scenting theair with its tongue. This snake has a broadtriangular head with a pit organ in front of eacheye. The pit organs function in detecting heatgiven off by prey, which may be small mammals orbirds. This venomous snake measures between 60 and100 centimetres in length. Its vivid greencolouration camouflages it against leaves in itstropical rainforest habitat in south-east Asia.The Wagler's pit viper is also called the templeviper

© Gregory Dimijian/Science Photo Library