Animals

Animals

Birds may inherit their taste for the town

Tests switching cliff swallow nestlings to colonies of different sizes suggest the birds inherit their preference for group size.

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 […]

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.

Animals

Hide and See

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

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.

Animals

Familiar face calms stressed-out sheep

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

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.

Animals

Will Mr. Bowerbird Fall for a Robot?

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

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.

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 […]

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.

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.