For over 2,000 years, Andean condors have been nesting — and pooping — in the same cliffside grotto high in the Andes. This gargantuan pile of guano is now providing…
Category: Animals
This marine biologist is on a mission to save endangered rays
The first time Jessica Pate swam beside a manta ray off Florida’s southern coast, the 8-foot-wide fish flipped belly-up and slowed to watch her. “I was kind of obsessed after…
Mouse hair turns gray when certain stem cells get stuck
Hair might go gray when stem cells with wanderlust have their travels interrupted. Stem cells involved in making the pigment that gives hair its color behave much differently than other…
Here are 5 cool findings from a massive project on 240 mammal genomes
Citations N.S. Upham and M.J. Landis. Genomics expands the mammalverse. Science. Vol. 380, April 28, 2023, p. 359. doi: 10.1126/science.add2209. I. Gallego Romero. Seeing humans through an evolutionary lens. Science. Vol. 380, April 28,…
Pets and people bonded during the pandemic. But owners were still stressed and lonely
If you feel like you bonded with your pet during the pandemic, you’re not alone. Cat and dog owners in the United States gradually grew closer to their pets during…
This elephant peels bananas, but only slightly ripe ones
Do you peel bananas from the top or bottom? One elephant goes with a third option. When handed a slightly browning banana, Pang Pha, an Asian elephant at Zoo Berlin,…
A massive cavern beneath a West Antarctic glacier is teeming with life
The coastal plain of the Kamb Ice Stream, a West Antarctic glacier, hardly seems like a coast at all. Stand in this place, 800 kilometers from the South Pole, and…
Comb jellies have a bizarre nervous system unlike any other animal
Shimmering, gelatinous comb jellies wouldn’t appear to have much to hide. But their mostly see-through bodies cloak a nervous system unlike that of any other known animal, researchers report in…
Northern elephant seals sleep just two hours a day at sea
Northern elephant seals are the true masters of the power nap. On long trips out to sea, the seals snooze less than 20 minutes at a time, researchers report in…
Urchins are dying off across the Caribbean. Scientists now know why
Since early 2022, sea urchins have been mysteriously dying off across the Caribbean. Now scientists say they have identified the main culprit: a type of relatively large, single-celled marine microorganism…
