Year in Review Life

These are our favorite animal stories of 2024

Pigeons that do somersaults, snakes that fake death with extra flair and surprised canines are among the organisms that enthralled the Science News staff.

Beluga whales like this one at Connecticut’s Mystic Aquarium sport a blob of forehead fat called a “melon.” The cetaceans contort the melon into different shapes, possibly to communicate with each other.

Paul Souders/Getty Images

By Darren Incorvaia

6 hours ago

From superpowered bees to theatrical snakes, these reports from the animal kingdom drove us wild in 2024.

Mighty morphin’ beluga blobs

You can learn a lot about a beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) by watching its forehead. During social interactions, belugas in captivity mold their melons — fat deposits on the head used for echolocation — into five distinct shapes (SN: 6/1/24, p. 9). Scientists suspect that the squishy shapes are purposeful communications and hope to investigate whether wild belugas manipulate their melons too.

Feathered flourishes

Persian poems say that domestic parlor roller pigeons (Columba livia) do backflips on the ground because they’re happy — but the real reason comes down to their genes. A researcher has narrowed down the cause to 300 genes, with five confirmed to play a part in the bizarre behavior (SN: 4/20/24, p. 4). Meanwhile out in the wild, Japanese tits (Parus minor) flutter their wings to tell mates to enter the nest first, a type of gestural communication usually seen only in primates (SN: 4/20/24, p. 10).

A brownish-red roller pigeon does backward somersaults from left to right across a white background. — Parlor roller pigeons like this one have a movement disorder that prevents them from flying. At least five genes are involved in making the birds do backward somersaults, new research suggests.Copyright Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah

Playful pets

Say the name of your dog’s favorite toy, and she might be disappointed if you produce a different plaything instead. When shown an unexpected toy, pet dogs’ brains generate a signal that in humans indicates surprise, suggesting pooches may form mental images of objects (SN: 4/20/24, p. 11). And dogs aren’t the only pets who love a good time; a survey of over 900 cat owners revealed that many felines play fetch — but only when they feel like it (SN: 2/10/24, p. 5).

A white, gray and tan dog with electrodes on its head lies on a bed — Electrodes on dogs’ heads picked up signals of surprise when an unexpected toy appeared, results that suggest dogs form mental concepts of nouns. Grzegorz Eliasiewicz

Solving mammoth mysteries

The last woolly mammoths died out 4,000 years ago on Wrangel Island, off the coast of Siberia. A slow decline due to inbreeding has largely been blamed for their demise. But a new analysis of 21 mammoth genomes suggests the Wrangel population was surprisingly robust and likely died from a natural disaster instead (SN: 8/10/24, p. 9). Speaking of mammoth DNA, researchers found that genetic material from a freeze-dried, 52,000-year-old mammoth had been preserved so well in Siberian permafrost that researchers could determine which genes were active before the animal died. (SN: 8/24/24, p. 16).

Un-bee-lievable superpowers

Is there anything bees can’t do? Peering into the brains of honeybees (Apis mellifera) revealed that the insects can detect the scent of lung cancer on a patient’s breath (SN: 7/13/24, p. 10). Not to be outdone, queen common eastern bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) have an astonishing power of their own — they’re surprisingly waterproof. While hibernating underground, the sleeping monarchs can survive floods even if they’re submerged underwater for a full week (SN: 4/16/24).

A black and yellow common Eastern bumblebee queen is perched upside down on a pink apple blossom. — Common eastern bumblebee queens (*Bombus impatiens*), like the one seen here visiting an apple flower, are remarkably resilient to flooding when hibernating in their underground chamber, new experiments show.Nigel Raine

Leaping leeches

Legends of “flying leeches” have fueled a centuries-long debate among biologists on whether the worms can leap. But a 2017 cell phone video (shown below) by a researcher may provide answers. The video captures a leech in Madagascar seemingly taking a giant leap, coiling up and then launching itself off of a leaf and onto the ground below (SN: 7/13/24 & 7/27/24, p. 11). Whether the leech’s airborne escapade counts as a jump may puzzle scientists for centuries to come.

Fake it ’til you make it

A penchant for overacting can doom a young thespian’s career, but for the dice snake (Natrix tessellata) it actually pays off. When caught by a predator, these legless reptiles sometimes go overboard to feign death, thrashing around and covering themselves in poop before dramatically sticking out their tongues and filling their mouths with blood. Using all of these tricks rather than just one or two seems to decrease the time needed to play dead before a predator moves on (SN: 6/15/24, p. 11).

A photo of a greenish-brown dice snake with blood in its mouth — Some dice snakes fake death by filling their mouth with blood (shown) and smearing themselves in musk and poop — a trifecta of tricks that may help the snakes quickly escape predators. Michal Fuglevic/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Got milk?

Mammals have cornered the market on milk (the word “mammal” comes from milk-producing mammary glands, after all), but a wormlike amphibian has its own twist on the drink. Ringed caecilians (Siphonops annulatus) feed their offspring a nutritious, milklike liquid that’s prepared in the reproductive tract (SN: 4/6/24, p. 10). Mother caecilians also offer their own skin to their younglings as a snack. Milk and cookies, anyone?

A photograph a ringed caecilian female with gray skin, and her pink-skinned babies wrapped up in her tail — Ringed caecilian females (one shown, with smaller, pink young) feed their babies a fat-rich fluid similar to mammal milk that’s made in the reproductive tract.Carlos Jared

Tun-acious tardigrades

Tardigrades are famously resilient. The minuscule animals can withstand blasts of X-rays and even the vacuum of space by curling up into a ball, slowing their metabolism and turning their insides into glass. Experiments that bombarded the tiny beasts with hydrogen peroxide have now revealed what triggers this dormant “tun” state: chemical changes to an amino acid in the tardigrades’ proteins (SN: 2/10/24, p. 10). A similar chemical process helps midges, a type of fly, survive extreme dehydration, suggesting it may be a survival technique broadly across the animal kingdom.

a tardigrade, which is a tiny eight-legged animal that resembles a bear, glows purple — Tardigrades, like this one stained with a dye to show its internal organs, can survive extreme conditions while dormant. Scientists have discovered the chemical signal that causes the animals to hunker down and wake up again.A.L. Smythers *et al*/ *PLOS ONE* 2024 (CC-BY 4.0)

A helping frog finger

Many animals try to woo mates with special fragrances, but some poison frogs get up close and personal with it. While mating, males of two species grasp females’ faces with engorged, pheromone-laced fingers (SN: 8/24/24, p. 10). Researchers think the chemicals might help get females ready to deposit eggs.