Tiny “fingers” can help polar bears get a grip. Like the rubbery nubs on the bottom of baby socks, microstructures on the bears’ paw pads offer some extra friction, scientists…
Category: Animals
Bizarre aye-aye primates take nose picking to the extreme
Aye-ayes are true champions of nose picking. A new video offers the first evidence that these nocturnal lemurs of Madagascar stick their fingers up their noses and lick off the…
Insect swarms might generate as much electric charge as storm clouds
You might feel a spark when you talk to your crush, but living things don’t require romance to make electricity. A study published October 24 in iScience suggests that the…
Mountain lions pushed out by wildfires take more risks
Mountain lions have no interest in people, or the built-up areas we enjoy. But after a 2018 wildfire in California, local lions took more risks, crossing roads more often and…
Honeybees order numbers from left to right, a study claims
Like many humans, honeybees seem to prefer their numbers ordered from left to right. Honeybees trained to recognize a specific number tend to fly left when given two side-by-side options…
Some seabirds survive typhoons by flying into them
Some seabirds don’t just survive storms. They ride them. Streaked shearwaters nesting on islands off Japan sometimes head straight toward passing typhoons, where they fly near the eye of the…
Cooperative sperm outrun loners in the mating race
Even sperm gotta stick together. Bull sperm swim more effectively when in clusters, a new study shows, potentially offering insight into fertility in humans. In simulated reproductive tracts of animals…
Tree-climbing carnivores called fishers are back in Washington’s forests
Holding an antenna above his head, Jeff Lewis crept through an evergreen forest in the Cascade mountains, southeast of Seattle. As he navigated fallen fir logs and dripping ferns, he…
Video captures young mosquitoes launching their heads to eat other mosquitoes
A kind of teenager mosquito can suddenly shoot its head forward from its body — stretching its neck into a skinny cord — to bite into another youngster. And that’s…
‘Wonderful nets’ of blood vessels protect dolphin and whale brains during dives
If you look at parts of the circulatory system of whales and dolphins, you might think that you are looking at a Jackson Pollock painting, not blood vessels. These cetaceans…
