Video from excited ecotourists shows how orcas manage an unlikely feat of predation: killing a massive whale shark. And that’s just one of the killer whales’ conquests. Four videos of…
Category: Animals
This ‘hidden figure’ of entomology fought for civil rights
On the drive to school, at the first sign of trouble, “she made me get on the floorboard,” says the older son of pioneering Black entomologist Margaret S. Collins. He’s…
For adult chimps, playing may be more important than previously thought
You are never too old to play — a maxim that even adult chimpanzees seem to follow. Young chimpanzees are already known to get many benefits from playing. But it…
Clams use fiber optics to channel sunlight to symbiotic algae
In a discovery that blurs the line between biology and technology, scientists have found that heart-shaped clams use fiber optic–like structures to channel sunlight through their shells in much the…
Stray DNA is all around us. It could revolutionize conservation
On a warm, sunny day in April, biologists David Duffy and Jessica Farrell prepare to motor down the Matanzas River on a small boat to catalog the area’s aquatic life.…
A twisted protein sheds light on chronic wasting disease in deer
The misfolded proteins responsible for a fatal neurological illness in deer have a twist. The first detailed structure of an infectious prion that causes chronic wasting disease, or CWD, reveals…
Bees flying near cars are dying by the millions, a roadkill study suggests
Tens of millions of bees are likely being killed each day by vehicles — and that’s just in the western United States, a new study finds. The paper, published online…
Putting vampire bats on treadmills reveals an unusual metabolism
Vampire bats have become such specialized bloodsuckers that they metabolize their food more like some blood-feeding flies than like other known mammals, a new experiment shows. The common vampire bat…
Why finding bird flu in a U.S. pig for the first time is raising new worries
At least one pig has picked up bird flu amid an outbreak in poultry on a backyard farm in central Oregon. While the infection appears limited to one farm so…
A single enzyme can alter the vibrant colors in parrot plumage
One enzyme has a key role in determining whether parrots’ rainbow plumage emerges in vibrant reds, yellows or greens, a new study shows. Parrot feathers flaunt an array of colors,…
