Animals
- Animals
Sparrows Cheat on Sleep: Migratory birds are up at night but still stay sharp
During their fall migration season, white-crowned sparrows sleep only about a third as much as they do at other times of the year without becoming slow-witted.
- Animals
Ultrasound alarms by ground squirrels
Richardson's ground squirrels may occasionally use ultrasound when calling out in response to a disturbance.
- Animals
Why does a buddy help another male flirt?
The sidekick male in the two-bird courtship display of lance-tailed manakins has to leave when the mating starts but may reap delayed benefits in real estate and performance practice.
- Animals
Farmer ant species may have lost all its males
A fungus-growing ant may be the first ant species known to have no power of sexual reproduction.
- Animals
Jumping spiders buzz, thump when dancing
Some jumping spiders, long considered visually oriented animals, turn out to utilize seismic communication for a successful courtship.
- Animals
Hot Bother: Ground squirrels taunt in infrared
California ground squirrels broadcast an infrared signal when confronting a rattlesnake.
- Animals
Thoroughly Modern Migrants
Butterflies and moths are causing scientists to devise a broader definition of migration and this has raised some old questions in new ways.
- Animals
A tale of new whiskers
A newly discovered, featherweight tree mouse with an unexpected evolutionary past has survived widespread habitat destruction on the Philippine island of Luzon.
- Animals
Well-Tuned Bats: These animals are what they hear
Two studies of bats find that neighbors can live in virtually different worlds because their echolocation calls are tuned to detect different prey.
- Animals
Turtle Trekkers: Atlantic leatherbacks scatter widely
Satellite monitoring of leatherback turtles in the Atlantic show that these animals range widely instead of sticking to "turtle corridors."
- Animals
Red Sweat: Hippo skin oozes antibiotic sunscreen
The hippo version of sweat, which is red-orange, contains pigments that can block microbial growth and some ultraviolet light.
- Animals
Toxin Takeout: Frogs borrow poison for skin from ants
Scientists have identified formicine ants as a food source from which poison frogs acquire their chemical weapons.
