All Stories by Susan Milius
- Plants
Team corners culprit in sudden oak death
After 5 years of mystery, California pathologists announced they may have identified the cause of a new tree disease called sudden oak death.
- Animals
Careful Coots: Do birds count their eggs before they hatch?
A coot may tally the eggs in her nest, a rare example of an animal counting in the wild, suggests a new study.
- Animals
Secret Signal: Fish allurement that predators don’t see
In a rare demonstration of secret messaging in animals, a swordtail fish uses ultraviolet courtship signals that are invisible to a predator.
- Animals
At last, a bird that nails killer chicks
For the first time, researchers have found a bird species—Australia's superb fairy-wren—that reacts when all its own chicks disappear and a giant imposter takes their place.
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After West Nile Virus
As biologists try to estimate the impact of West Nile virus on wildlife, it's not the famously susceptible crows that are causing alarm but much rarer species.
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- Animals
Techno Crow: Do birds build up better tool designs?
Researchers surveying tool use by New Caledonian crows propose that the birds may be the first animals besides people shown to ratchet up the sophistication of their technology by sharing design improvements.
- Animals
Ants lurk for bees, but bees see ambush
A tropical ant has perfected the un-antlike behavior of hunting by ambush, but its prey, a sweat bee, has developed some tricks of its own.
- Animals
Fish That Decorate: Females prefer nests with pizzazz
If scientists give foil strips to male stickleback fish, the fellows carry them back to their nests for decoration, and it turns out that females seem to like guys with lots of shiny stuff.
- Animals
Vampire bats don’t learn from bad lunch
For the first time, a mammal has flunked a controlled test for developing a food aversion after getting sick just once, and that unusual creature is the common vampire bat.
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Wasps: Mom doesn’t like you best
Female wasps that found a colony together show no favoritism toward their own offspring when the adults feed larvae.
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Excuse me, dear, which octopus are you?
Male blue-ringed octopuses get pretty far along in their courtship before they determine whether their partner is a female.
