All Stories by Susan Milius
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Did males get bigger or females smaller?
It's time to stop assuming that standard gender differences in birds come from males getting bigger rather than from females getting smaller.
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Things That Go Thump
There's a whole world of animal communication by vibration that researchers are now exploring.
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Chemical SOS not just for farm, lab plants
The chemical screams for help that scientists have detected from agricultural plants under attack by pests in lab settings have now been heard in the wild.
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Phew! Orchid perfume turns revolting
Orchids that can smell so alluring that bees try to mate with them can also smell repulsive to the insects.
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Consumer survey: Caged mink value water
Even after 70 generations in captivity, caged American mink still seem to miss the swimming they would do in the wild.
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Baboon rumps signal quality of motherhood
The size of the swellings on a female baboon’s rump match her physical prowess for motherhood, a rare case of reproductive-quality advertisement in females.
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Quoll male die-off doesn’t fit pattern
Males of a ferretlike marsupial called a quoll die off after one mating season-unusual behavior that suggests the need for new theories of why such deaths occur after mating.
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Stick insects: Three females remain
An Australian expedition locates three females of a big, flightless stick insect species thought to have gone extinct.
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Why Fly into a Forest Fire?
Scientists puzzle over why some wasps and beetles race to forest fires.
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Roach females pick losers with good scents
Male Tanzanian cockroaches lose fights if they have too much of a particular pheromone, but females find it alluring.
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Can visiting a plant ruin an experiment?
Merely walking up to a plant and handling its leaves may skew outcomes in studies of predators attacking plants.
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Inbred cattle don’t look bad at all
A herd of feral cattle that hasn't had new blood for at least 300 years seems to have avoided the genetic risks of inbreeding.
