With flashy feathers and fancy moves, birds of paradise are already known for extravagant looks. But a trick that boosts that zing has been overlooked by science, until now. In…
Category: Animals
How a puffin patrol in Iceland is saving the iconic seabirds
A small, rocky island off Iceland is home to the world’s largest breeding colony of Atlantic puffins. When breeding season is in full swing, around 1.5 million adults pair up…
The butts of these blowfly larvae mimic termite faces
In the insect world, impostors could be hiding anywhere. When lifting a stone during an expedition in the Anti-Atlas Mountains in Morocco, researchers came across an unusual sight: three blowfly…
How a mushroom coral goes for a walk without legs
A coral walks into a (sand) bar. This may sound like a joke. But new time-lapse photography shows new details of how a squishy, loner coral polyp without legs manages…
In a first, zebra cams reveal herds on the move with giraffes
In the opening scene of The Lion King, animals of every stripe, spot and tusk march in unison across the African plains, bound by an unseen thread of connection. This…
Migrating whale sharks make pit stops at oil and gas rigs
Like rolling into a gas station during a road trip, whale sharks use oil and gas rigs as a pit stop during their migrations of thousands of kilometers across the…
A fungus named after Sir David Attenborough zombifies cave spiders
The new fungus species Gibellula attenboroughii forces reclusive cave spiders to exposed areas, likely to benefit spore dispersal.
Cuttlefish ink may overwhelm sharks’ sense of smell
The main component of common cuttlefish ink — melanin — strongly sticks to shark smell sensors, possibly explaining why the predators avoid ink.
This bird’s eye view of a shark hunt won a photo contest
A school of hardyhead silverside fish (Atherinomorus lacunosus) flees from four blacktip reef sharks near the shore of the Maldives in this aerial photo. Behavioral biologists Angela Albi and August…
A second version of bird flu is infecting cows. What does that mean?
While the risk to humans of exposure from cows or milk remains low, this new flu spillover from birds into cows raises the need for continued surveillance.
