Animals
- Animals
Zebra stripes may be mainly defense against flies
The function of zebra stripes may not be for camouflage or cooling, a new analysis finds.
- Animals
As their homes warm, salamanders shrink
Many species of salamanders respond to climate change by getting smaller.
- Animals
Giant pandas like sweets, but prefer the natural ones
Despite sustaining themselves on bamboo, which isn't very sweet, giant pandas will indulge in a bit of sugar, if they can.
- Animals
Bats’ dinner conversation may go over your head
Hunting big brown bats do more than echolocate. When male bats compete for a single prize, they send social calls to keep other bats at bay.
- Animals
Skewed gender ratios turn bird world into a soap opera
Infidelity, divorce and polygamy become more common among birds when one sex is rarer and has more choice in partners.
- Animals
Mama frog’s care includes a gift of poison
Strawberry poison frog tadpoles get defensive chemicals through unfertilized, nutritious eggs provided by mom.
- Animals
A parasitic cuckoo can be a good thing
Great spotted cuckoo chicks show that brood parasites may benefit their hosts.
- Animals
Owl monkeys’ fidelity linked to males’ quality of parenting
The evolution of animals’ sexual fidelity is probably linked to the intensity of male care, the researchers suggest.
- Animals
Like a boomerang, relocated python comes back again
Burmese pythons, which have invaded the Everglades, can find their way home when people move them dozens of kilometers.
- Genetics
Giant moa thrived before people reached New Zealand
Humans probably caused the extinction of giant wingless birds called moa in New Zealand, DNA evidence suggests.
- Animals
How to count a sea turtle
Trends, not absolute numbers, matter more when it comes to conservation efforts for sea turtles.
- Animals
There’s plenty of bling in the natural world
Beetles that look like solid gold are just the start to jewel-like and metallic looks in nature.
