University of Cincinnati biologist George Uetz long suspected the extravagant courtship dance of wolf spiders made them an easy mark for birds and other predators.

But it was only when he and colleague Dave Clark from Alma College teamed up with former University of Minnesota researcher Tricia Rubi and her blue jays that he could prove it.

For a study published in May in the journal Behavioural Processes, Rubi trained a captive colony of blue jays to peck at buttons to indicate whether or not they saw wolf spiders (Schizocosa ocreata) on video screens.