After Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico in 2017, monkeys living there forged new bonds to share a suddenly scarce resource: shade. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that were willing to hang…
Category: Animals
Many frogs glow in blue light, and it may be a secret, eerie language
In the dim twilight hours, many frogs may be capable of emitting a faint green or orange glow. A survey of hundreds of frogs in South America shows that far…
The newfound Los Angeles thread millipede is ready for its close-up
Despite living in the entertainment capital of the world, the Los Angeles thread millipede has avoided the limelight. But when researchers spotted it, they knew they’d found a creature worthy…
Playful behavior in rats is controlled by a specific area of their brains
Rats are extremely playful creatures. They love playing chase, and they literally jump for joy when tickled. Central to this playfulness, a new study finds, are cells in a specific…
How geometry solves architectural problems for bees and wasps
Honeybees and yellow jackets don’t look much like mathematicians — for one thing, they’re smaller. But collectively, the insects can solve a common architectural conundrum using a geometric solution that…
Some African birds follow nomadic ants to their next meal
COIMBATORE, India — To better understand Equatorial Guinea’s tropical birds, ornithologists Luke Powell and Patricia Rodrigues scan the ground rather than the trees. They are searching for nests of driver…
Some birds are using antibird spikes to build their nests
Luis Melecio-Zambrano is the summer 2023 science writing intern at Science News. They are finishing their master’s degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where they…
Explore the past, present and future of ‘Eight Bears’
Eight BearsGloria DickieW.W. Norton & Co., $30 Bears have long been considered family. “Stories of a familial bear exist in almost every human culture that shares territory with the animal,”…
Rats sense the wind with antennae-like whiskers above their eyes
Many rodents use whiskers to feel their way around their world. But rats appear to take this one step further, using special, antennae-like whiskers above their eyes to sense subtle…
These researchers are reimagining animal behavior through a feminist lens
When Ambika Kamath was a graduate student in evolutionary biology at Harvard University, she knew one thing for sure: She wasn’t going to research anoles, the lizards that her adviser,…
