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…
Category: Animals
This parasitic ant tricks workers into committing matricide
Overtaking a throne sometimes takes a touch of matricide. Some newly mated ant queens sneak into other ant colonies and spray their queens with a liquid that sends workers into a…
40,000-year-old woolly mammoth RNA offers a peek into its last moments
Ancient RNA from Yuka, a 40,000-year-old woolly mammoth preserved in permafrost, can offer new biological insights into the Ice Age animal’s life.
Deep-sea mining might feed plankton a diet of junk food
Mining the seafloor for valuable metals could send dangerous ripples through ocean food webs. Tiny floating plankton, the base of the food web, can accidentally ingest particles of sediment kicked…
AI eavesdropped on whale chatter. It may have helped find something new
Dolphins whistle, humpback whales sing and sperm whales click. Now, a new analysis of sperm whale codas — a unique series of clicks — suggests a previously unrecognized acoustic pattern.…
This fly’s flesh-eating maggot is making a comeback. Here’s what to know
After a decades-long hiatus, new world screwworm populations have surged in Central America and Mexico — and are inching northward.
Woodpecker hammering is a full-body affair
Hidden beneath all their rum-pum-pumming, woodpeckers are quietly grunt-grunt-grunting. The birds exhale with each strike, much like a tennis pro groaning through a stroke. Elaborate coordination between those breaths and…
Mosquitoes infiltrated Iceland. Will they survive the winter?
Iceland’s first mosquitoes are poised to face a frosty test. Winter is coming, and it’s uncertain whether these newcomers might stick around until spring. The Nordic island, previously one of…
Deep Antarctic waters hold geometric communities of fish nests
Scientists found thousands of patterned fish nests in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, boosting calls for marine protected areas.
Polar bears provide millions of kilograms of food for other Arctic species
In a single year, one polar bear can leave roughly 300 kilograms of prey for other animals to dine on. Altogether, the carnivores provide 7.6 million kilograms of carrion for…
