Animals
Winter work shows it really pays to be a smart mountain chickadee
By studying chickadee cognition in the wild, researchers learned smarter birds stay smart in old age, produce more young and have better gut bacteria.
Animals
More Stories in Animals
- Animals
These worms move faster when you give them less space
California blackworms can squeeze through narrow channels faster than they can wriggle across wide ones, a finding that may help with robot design.
- Health & Medicine
Your skin chemistry may affect which mosquitoes most want to bite you
Three species preferred different people based on their skin odor and bacteria. The findings could help make new microbe-based repellants.
- Animals
Monkeys hunt small animals when fruit is scarce
Capuchins hunt and eat small vertebrates more often as plant foods wane. The behavior may help us learn more about humans’ early dietary evolution.
- Paleontology
Once upon a time, insects had 24 legs
A many-legged oddball from long ago helps fill a major gap in the fossil record — and hints at how insects ended up with just six legs.
- Animals
Heat therapy for sick frogs lowers sperm levels
Scientists often use thermal treatment to combat fatal fungal infection in frogs, but it may come at a cost.
- Neuroscience
Motor neurons don’t just move muscles. They may direct that motion too
A fruit fly study shows motor neurons do more than relay commands: They send signals back to the brain and organize movement sequences.
- Animals
A new documentary shows what growing up lion is really like
The thrilling National Geographic series, premiering August 19, follows Kio from lion cub to king.
- Animals
Shrews’ noses grow in winter as their brains shrink
Long-clawed shrews’ snouts temporarily grow larger in the winter. This skull reshaping may be an extreme survival strategy in cold conditions.
- Animals
Snail slime does many jobs thanks to calcium
Snails have five distinct types of mucus, each with its own job. The mollusks tweak calcium secretions to get the chemical mixture just right.
