Animals
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- 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.
- Animals
Reef fish get riled when intruders glow red
A male fairy wrasse gets feisty when he can see a rival’s colorful fluorescent patches.
- Animals
Toxic toad infiltrates Madagascar
Asian common toads may have hopped a ride to Madagascar and could pose an ecological risk to the island's native species.
- Animals
Zebra finches can detect variations in human speech
When humans vary the pitch or rhythm of their speech, zebra finches perceive the changes, suggesting that the ability to detect such variations is not linked to language.
- Animals
New salamander stays young at heart
A new salamander species was long mistaken for the juvenile form of another.
- Life
Flightless birds’ history upset by ancient DNA
The closest known relatives of New Zealand’s small, flightless kiwis were Madagascar’s elephant birds, so ancestors must have done some flying rather than just drifting with continents.
- 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
Lizards may scale back head bobbing to avoid predators
Brown anoles may scale back mating signals to avoid being eaten.
- Animals
For upside-down sloths, what goes down can’t come up
Upside-down sloths have to hold their organs up and their food down.
