Light affects how hard some bugs work. Ants may dig more tunnels in the dark than in the light. The results show if darkness changes how hard ants work.

Animals respond to the world around them by choosing certain foods over others. When ants encounter five different flavors, they crowd around one and nearly ignore the rest. The sweet bread draws the most ants by far, showing that taste drives their behavior.

Mealworms spend most of their lives underground in darkness, so color might seem irrelevant to them. Yet when placed in a container lined with four strips of colored paper — blue, red, green, and yellow — a clear preference appears. Blue wins almost half the time at 49%, and mealworms tend to return to it after visiting other colors. One possible reason is that blue absorbs the most light of the four colors, so mealworms seeking darkness may head toward whichever surface looks darkest.

Animals act on strong preferences when given a choice between environments. Most crayfish choose darkness over light when given the option. Dividing an aquarium into a bright side and a dark side reveals how crayfish respond to that choice.

Access to resources directly shapes how territorial animals become. When hamsters share a single set of food, water, and a running wheel, confrontations add up fast. Pairs in double-layer cages — each level with its own resources — fight far less often. Counting every confrontation across eight hours reveals just how much competition over a single set of resources drives aggressive behavior in small animals.

Animals act and respond to objects in their environment in different ways. When four species each spend time with the same five items, every species is drawn to the shiny ornaments. Beyond that shared response, each one picks different favorites, showing that behavior varies across species even under identical conditions.