How do you know if the world’s largest living fish is expecting babies? Not by her bulging belly, it turns out. Scientists thought that an enlarged area on the undersides…
Category: Animals
Invasive yellow crazy ants create male ‘chimeras’ to reproduce
Yellow crazy ants break the rules of reproduction. Every male ant contains separate populations of cells from two distinct genetic lineages, making them “chimeras,” researchers report in the April 7…
WWF campaign targets wild meat consumption to protect public health and nature | Stories
These three countries have some of the highest observed levels of wild meat consumption, which often brings wild mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians into the marketplace and restaurants. Wild meat…
How some beetles ‘drink’ water using their butts
Some beetles “drink” using their butts, and scientists are starting to understand how. Red flour beetles, a major agricultural pest, open their anus to get water vapor in the air…
Capybaras thrive, even near humans, because they’re not picky eaters
Capybaras, the world’s largest rodent, naturally live in vast grasslands, wetlands and rivers throughout South America. Their name literally means grass eater in the Tupi language, which is indigenous to…
Volcanic sulfur may make barn owls grow redder feathers
Life on a volcanic isle appears to give barn owls a blush of red-brown plumage. The high-sulfur environment on such islands influences the birds’ coloration, researchers report March 13 in…
Scientists have now recorded brain waves from freely moving octopuses
For the first time, scientists have recorded brain waves from freely moving octopuses. The data reveal some unexpected patterns, though it’s too early to know how octopus brains control the…
Static electricity helps parasitic nematodes land on victims
LAS VEGAS — Some species of parasitic roundworms can catapult themselves high into the air to latch onto fruit flies and other insects. Experiments now reveal that leaping Steinernema carpocapsae…
This fish could expand what we know about one odd deep-sea ecosystem
Off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica sits a deep-sea chimera of an ecosystem. Jacó Scar is a methane seep, where the gas escapes from sediment into the seawater, but…
Honeybees waggle to communicate. But to do it well, they need dance lessons
In a castaway test setup, groups of young honeybees figuring out how to forage on their own start waggle dancing spontaneously — but badly. Waggling matters. A honeybee’s rump-shimmy runs…
