Wild Things
The weird and wonderful in the natural world
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Fish-eating spiders are the stuff of nightmares
Spiders that feast on fish can be found on every continent but Antarctica, a new review finds.
- Animals
Mosses hitch rides on the wings of birds
Seeds may travel from far north to south hidden in the feathers of migratory birds.
- Animals
It’s hard being a sea otter mom
The energy requirements of lactation may explain why some female sea otters abandon their young.
- Animals
Deadly bat disease gets easier to diagnose
White-nose syndrome in bats can be spotted with UV light, scientists have found.
- Animals
Bird dropping disguise proves to be effective camouflage
Several species of spiders and other animals mimic bird poop.
- Animals
Beware the pregnant scorpion
Female striped bark scorpions are pregnant most of the time. That makes them fat, slow and really mean.
- Oceans
Dusk heralds a feeding frenzy in the waters off Oahu
Even dolphins benefit when layers of organisms in the water column overlap for a short period.
- Animals
Otters provide a lesson about the effects of dams
A dam created a new habitat, but that habitat’s lower quality kept otter density low.
- Plants
Island life prompts evolution of larger plant seeds
In 40 species of plants, the island versions of seeds were larger than mainland counterparts, perhaps to keep the seeds from being lost at sea.
- Animals
Mice really do like to run in wheels
When scientists stuck a tiny wheel out in nature, wild mice ran just as much as their captive counterparts do.
- Animals
How an octopus keeps itself out of a tangle
The suckers on an octopus stick to just about anything, except the octopus itself. Scientists think they’ve figured out why.
- Animals
Winds predict deadly jellyfish blooms
A change in the winds flowing over Australia’s Great Barrier Reef coincides with reports of the potentially fatal Irukandji syndrome.
