Animals

  1. Animals

    Elephant Voices

    Elephants are highly social animals and have a well-developed method of communicating with each other. For nearly 30 years, scientists at a national park in Kenya have been studying elephants and their behavior. The researchers have found that these intelligent beasts use more than 70 kinds of vocal sounds and 160 different visual and tactile […]

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  2. Animals

    Poison Source: Toxic birds may get chemical from beetle

    When some poisonous New Guinea birds eat certain tiny beetles, they may be stocking up on the toxic substance they use to defend themselves.

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  3. Animals

    Hide and See

    A new look at fish on coral reefs considers the possibility that all that riotous color has its inconspicuous side.

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  4. Animals

    Dangerous Times: Guppies don’t follow rules for old age

    A study of wild guppies suggests that life in a dangerous place does not automatically push evolution toward rapid aging as previously thought.

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  5. Animals

    Familiar face calms stressed-out sheep

    The sight of the face of a familiar sheep seems to reduce stress in troubled sheep.

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  6. Animals

    When bluebirds fight, bet on the bluest

    The male bluebirds with the bluest (and most ultraviolet) plumage turned out to be the toughest competitors in a study of who won the rights to prime nest boxes.

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  7. Animals

    Will Mr. Bowerbird Fall for a Robot?

    Push a button and she turns her head. But can she turn his?

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  8. Animals

    First mammal joins the eusocial club

    Because naked mole rats exhibit permanent physical traits that distinguish certain castes of a colony, they belong to the same grouping as so-called eusocial insects such as bees, ants, wasps, and termites.

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  9. Animals

    Bird Calls

    The Macaulay Library at Cornell University has the largest collection of animal sounds in the world. More than 67 percent of the world’s birds are represented in the center’s 160,000 recordings, along with sounds made by insects, fish, frogs, and mammals. The Library also archives and preserves a sampling of the behaviors of different animal […]

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  10. Animals

    Separate Vacations: Birds winter apart but return in sync

    Mated pairs of black-tailed godwits may fly off to winter refuges a thousand kilometers apart but can still arrive back at their breeding site the next spring within a few days of each other.

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  11. Animals

    Beat Goes On: Carp heart keeps pace when fish lacks oxygen

    Without oxygen, a Scandinavian fish not only can survive but also maintains a normal heartbeat for days.

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  12. Animals

    Pirates of the Amphibian: Males fertilize eggs of another guy’s gal

    For the first time among amphibians, scientists have found frogs that sneak their sperm onto egg clutches left by another mating pair.

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