Lima, Peru — Bats have become the latest mammals susceptible to H5N1, the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus responsible for bird flu. In Peru, over a dozen vampire bats have…
Category: Animals
Trucked-in honeybees may edge out bigger bumblebee foragers
Even in the face of vast fields of flowers, local bumblebees may face the sting of competition when people bring their honeybees to the floral feast. When beekeepers truck their…
Huge relatives of white sharks lived earlier than thought
Some 115 million years ago, a veritable fleet of giant predators prowled the waters near Australia. There were long-necked plesiosaurs, snaggletoothed pliosaurs with massive heads, dolphinlike ichthyosaurs, and now —…
How male seahorses tap into their mothering side
If there were to be a “best dad” award in the animal kingdom, seahorses would be a shoe-in. That’s because males, not females, of these peculiar fish carry their young…
Ancient DNA reveals China’s first ‘pet’ cat wasn’t the house cat
The house cat (Felis catus) slunk into China in the eighth century. But long before that, the ancient Chinese were by no means catless. Leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) might have…
Cuddly koalas had a brutal, blade-toothed close cousin
The koalas clambering around eucalyptus canopies may be cuddly herbivores, but their extinct relatives were horrifying predators. The charismatic marsupials are the closest living relatives of marsupial lions — powerful…
Rats are snatching bats out of the air and eating them
Bats beware. The ability to fly won’t save you from hungry, determined rats. In a first, brown rats were filmed hunting bats by catching them midair. The finding, published in the…
Here’s how Rudolph’s light-up nose might be possible
This time of year, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a nearly inescapable earworm. Rudolph, the old song goes, is bullied for having a nose so bright it glows (like a…
Lions have a second roar that no one noticed until now
The thunderous roar of the MGM lion that has opened Hollywood films for nearly a century has conditioned us to hear the big cat’s call as a blunt declaration: a…
A wolf raided a crab trap. Was it tool use or just canine cunning?
One damp spring evening last year, a wolf hauled a crab trap ashore off the central Pacific coast of British Columbia. The rangy animal made a delectable meal of the…
