All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Big woodpeckers trash others’ homes
Pileated woodpeckers destroy in an afternoon the nesting cavities that take endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers 6 years to excavate.
- Animals
When rare species eat endangered ones
To cut down on their salmon smolt catch, Caspian terns were encouraged to move from one island to another in the Columbia River.
- Animals
Oops. New feathers turn out lousy
Going to the trouble of molting doesn't really get rid of a bird's lice after all.
- Animals
Stinking decorations protect nests
The common waxbill's habit of adorning its nests with fur plucked from carnivore scat turns out to discourage attacks from predators.
- Ecosystems
Streamers could save birds from hooks
A test on active longline fishing boats finds that an inexpensive array of streamers can reduce accidental deaths of seabirds by more than 90 percent.
- Animals
Smart tags show unexpected tuna trips
The first report on Atlantic bluefin tuna wearing electronic tags reveals much more dashing across the ocean than expected.
- Animals
Bat bites bird. . .in migration attacks
The largest bat in Europe may hunt down migrating birds.
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The trouble with small male spiders
A test of an old view of sexual cannibalism—that it's a way of rejecting suitors—finds that small males lose out, but not from attacks by females.
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Funnel-web males send knockouts in air
Male funnel-web spiders seem to waft some kind of gas toward females that renders the females limp, enabling the males to mate without being eaten.
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River dolphins can whistle, too, sort of
In the most elaborate attempt so far to eavesdrop on Brazil's pink river dolphins, researchers have detected what may be a counterpart to seafaring dolphins' whistles.
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Do parents with extra help goof off?
When researchers stepped in to help feed baby sparrows, the parents did not slack off but brought even more food.
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New robot frog gets into fights
Researchers have finally managed to build a robot frog that can provoke male frogs to attack.
