All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Fighting Styles: Gene gives flies his, her conflict moves
Switching forms of one gene can make a male fruit fly fight like a girl, and vice versa.
- Animals
Tough policing deters cheating in insects
In insect societies that have tough police, it's coercion, rather than kinship, that's preventing crime.
- Animals
Chicken Speak: Birds pass test for fancy communication
The chicken may be the first animal other than primates that's been shown to make sounds that, like words, represent something in the environment. With audio.
- Animals
Hey, that’s me!
A test with a jumbo-size mirror suggests that Asian elephants may be among the few species that can recognize their own images.
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Birds Beware: Several veterinary drugs may kill scavengers
Scavenging birds worldwide could be at risk of accidental poisoning from carcasses of livestock that farmers had dosed with certain anti-inflammatory drugs.
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Genome Buzz: Honeybee DNA raises social questions
Scientists have officially unveiled the DNA code of the western honeybee, the first genome to be sequenced for an animal with ultrastratified societies.
- Animals
Ivory-billed hopes flit to Florida
There's no photo, but a team of ornithologists says that its sightings suggest that a few ivory-billed woodpeckers still live along the Choctawhatchee River in Florida.
- Animals
Why Play Dead?
Common wisdom dictates that playing dead discourages predators, but researchers are now thinking harder about how, or whether, that strategy really works.
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Horns vs. Sperm: Male beetles on tight equipment budget
A group of dung beetle species that sprout elaborate horns often face trade-offs between horn and testes sizes.
- Animals
Tropical diversity came with time
Species in richly diverse tropics don't evolve faster than do species in temperate zones.
- Animals
Courting Costs: Male prairie dogs seem too busy mating to dodge predators
Male prairie dogs get so distracted during mating season that predators find them easy pickings.
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Wasting Deer: Deer saliva and blood can carry prions
Saliva alone can transmit a brain-destroying disease from one animal to another.
