National Harbor, Md. — Looking at face patterns in photos of more than 11,000 kinds of ants struck entomologist Clint Penick as a fine pandemic-lockdown project for his students. From…
Category: Animals
Reindeer multitask by chewing cud and sleeping at the same time
In this busy holiday season, many of us multitask. Arctic reindeer are no exception. Reindeer can eat and sleep at the same time, a new study suggests. This timesaving strategy,…
The Endangered Species Act is turning 50. Has it succeeded?
While growing up in California in the 1980s, Winifred Frick never saw a condor in the wild. The population of North America’s largest bird, Gymnogyps californianus, had dwindled to nearly…
50 years ago, the U.S. Navy enlisted sea lions and other marine mammals
Excerpt from the December 22, 1973 issue of Science News
These are our favorite animal stories of 2023
From birds repurposing antiavian architecture to jellyfish that can learn, here are dispatches from the animal kingdom that we went wild for in 2023. Intelligent jellies No brain? No problem.…
Here’s how spiders that go overboard use light to find land
Biologist Brian Gall was flinging stowaway spiders out of his kayak when he noticed an interesting pattern: After landing on the water’s surface, the arachnids quickly darted to the nearest…
Here are 5 questions about the mystery dog illness making news
Saima Iqbal is the fall 2023 science writing intern at Science News. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, where she studied the history of medicine, conducted research on…
When do cats play fetch? When they feel like it
In news that probably won’t surprise cat owners, cats that play fetch do it on their own terms. Fetching felines tend to dictate when a fetching session begins and when…
A new species of hedgehog stands out for its short spikes
Initially mistaken for one of its close relatives, a group of small, spiky mammals in eastern China has now been identified as a new species: the eastern forest hedgehog. Researchers…
Why do some lizards and snakes have horns?
Horns aren’t just for rhinos and cattle. A fair number of snake and lizard species have heads adorned with spiky, scaly accessories. But how the reptiles snag food may determine…
