One kind of Australian moth looks to the stars on its voyage to a summertime refuge. Stellar cues from the Milky Way’s bright band may help Bogong moths (Agrotis infusa)…
Category: Animals
Fewer scavengers could mean more zoonotic disease
Scavengers often get a bad rap — hyena giggles are nefarious, crows gather in “murders” and the naked necks of vultures speak for themselves. But the bodies of the dead…
This spider’s barf is worse than its bite
A single drawing from a 94-year-old scientific paper has revived interest in one of the more roundabout ways a spider preps its dinner. First swathe a fruit fly or other…
Preemptively cutting rhinos’ horns cuts poaching
Rhino poaching may be substantially reduced by removing the reason so many rhinos are poached in the first place: their highly valued horns. Dehorning rhinos dramatically drops the poaching rate…
Probiotics helped great star corals fend off a deadly disease
Great star corals in the grip of disease have been saved with probiotics — beneficial bacteria that attack or displace invading pathogens or possibly trigger immune responses to them. What’s…
Flamingos create precise water vortices in a shrimp-hunting frenzy
Tornado-generating beaks and whirlpool-stirring feet help flamingos transform shallow waters into shrimp-swirling death zones — corralling agile prey with the flair of a Las Vegas stage act and the efficiency…
Aussie cockatoos use their beaks and claws to turn on water fountains
On a hot day, a few glugs from a park drinking fountain can be a major relief — and some of Sydney’s cockatoos agree. The brainy city-dwelling parrots have figured…
How luna moths grow extravagant wings
For the first time, biologists have linked the ribbony “tails” streaming from big, green luna moths’ hind wings with, of all things, a cozy climate. Those dangling wing tails rank…
Genetics might save the rare, elusive saola — if it’s not already extinct
It’s not looking good for the saola. If it still exists, it is one of the world’s rarest large mammals — a deerlike creature from the mountainous rainforests of Vietnam…
Bedbugs may have been one of the first urban pests
The earliest cities may have had plenty of parasitic, six-legged tenants. Common bedbugs (Cimex lectularius) experienced a dramatic jump in population size around the time humans congregated in the first…
