Three Ways It Could Make A Mark:

1.) Wings flapping, markers attached to arm

2.) Pull tail or activate arm with hinges,

3.) Claws squish together and make mark 

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1.) Peregrine Falcon   source

- It lives in the open country, cliffs (mountains to coast); sometimes cities. Over its wide range, found in wide variety of open habitats, from tundra to desert mountains. Often near water, especially along the coasts, and migrants may fly far out to sea.

- One of the world's fastest birds; in power-diving from great heights to strike prey, the Peregrine may possibly reach 200 miles per hour. 

- Often hunts by flying very high, then stooping in spectacular dive to strike prey out of the air. Large prey may be knocked out of the air, fed upon on the ground where it falls. 

- Often hunts by flying very high, then stooping in spectacular dive to strike prey out of the air. Large prey may be knocked out of the air, fed upon on the ground where it falls. 

- It eats mostly birds. Feeds on a wide variety of birds. 

- Pigeons are often favored prey around cities, and ducks and shorebirds often taken along coast; known to take prey as large as loons, geese, large gulls, and as small as songbirds. 

- Also eats a few small mammals, seldom insects, rarely carrion.

- It is very territorial and courtship displays include high circling flight by male, spectacular dives and chases by both sexes. 

- Male feeds female. Breeding Peregrines defend the immediate area of the nest from intruders, but hunt over a much larger area. 

- Nest site is usually on cliff ledge, sometimes in hollow of broken-off tree snag or in old stick nest of other large bird in tree.

Locomotion, Reproduction, Courtship Displays, Aggression, Feeding

1.) - Red Panda   source   -  

- Red bearcat (not closely related to giant pandas)

- They are bamboo eaters native to the high forests of Asia

- Adult red pandas weigh between 8.2 and 13.7 pounds, males and the females look the same

- Red pandas are generally quiet, but at close proximity, subtle vocalizations such as squeals, twitters and huff-quacks can be heard. They may also hiss or grunt. Predators include leopards and jackals.  

- They climb trees or rocks and blend in to hide from attack.

- The red panda eats bamboo, similarly to the giant panda, but it only likes the roots and the leaf tips.

- Bamboo constitutes 85 to 95 percent of the red panda's diet.

- Red pandas breed from January through March in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, breeding season is June-August.

- Can live as long as 22 years.

2.) - Gray Wolf   source   -  Going with pack/being aggressive 

- Wolves play a key role in keeping ecosystems healthy. They help keep deer and elk populations in check, which can benefit many other plant and animal species.

- Eat ungulates (large hoofed mammals, elk deer moose...)

- There are an estimated 7,000 to 11,200 gray wolves in Alaska, 3,700 in the Great Lakes region and 1,675 in the Northern Rockies.

- Was exterminated in the US in 1930's but have are present in certain states and Canada

- They live, travel and hunt in packs of 7 to 8 animals on average. Packs include the mother and father wolves (called the alphas), their pups and older offspring. Develop very strong bonds with their pack.

- Wolves have a complex communication system ranging from barks and whines to growls and howls. While they don't actually howl at the moon, they are more active at dawn and dusk, and they do howl more when it's lighter at night.

- Breeding season occurs once a year late January through March. Pups are born blind and defenseless. The pack cares for the pups until they fully mature at about 10 months of age when they can hunt on their own.

3).  Atlantic Puffin   source   -  Feeding behavior 

- Lives in Northeast America near coastal and offshore waters, open sea. 

- Colonial; breeds in burrows and among rocks of sea islands. 

- Favors cool or cold waters off North America. Outside of breeding season usually well offshore, even far out in mid-ocean. 

- Nests on islands where nesting sites provided by soil for burrows or crevices among rocks.

- At its colonies, the bird may fly back to its nest carrying a dozen small fish lined up in its bill.

- Forages while swimming underwater. Does most foraging within 50' of surface, but can dive to about 200'. 

- Diet includes fish, crustaceans. Food brought to young in nest is mostly small fish, especially sand lance, herring, capelin, cod, many others. 

In this studio students will observe and gain knowledge of animals and their instinctual and learned behaviors from a biological point of view and abstract the behavior into a mechanism which will record the data visually.

Students will work with a biologist and artist form the Art-Bio collaborative to learn observation, characterization and functions behind behaviors and how to record and document them. We will then simulate the behavior in an abstract object which will also record the behavior via its motion. Students will also have a dual exhibition with the MassArt Bio-Lab in which they will present and share both their mechanisms and the data it rceates.