Cave Fish Adolescence Means Sprouting Taste Buds in Weird Places
In eastern Mexico’s underground caverns and streams, a blind fish undergoes a peculiar adolescence: as it approaches maturity, taste buds begin to sprout under its chin and on top of…
Birds Practice Singing in Their Sleep
Scientists had previously observed sleeping birds making movements that resembled lip-syncing. In earlier work, Mindlin and his colleagues implanted electrodes in two Zebra Finches; for a recent study in Chaos, they did the…
How Scientists’ Tender Loving Care Could Save This Endangered Penguin Species
Many penguin species huddle together in massive colonies, but pairs of yellow-eyed penguins go out of their way to be alone, nesting deep in New Zealand’s scrublands and forests out…
Wounded elephant seeks help from safari lodge after being shot by poachers
IF YOU need further proof that elephants are highly-intelligent animals, this is it. Ben, an injured bull elephant - thought to be 30-years-old - gave staffers at the Bumi Hills…
Desperate Elephants Shot With Poison Arrows Travel To Humans For Help
Last month, a wild elephant and two of his friends were attacked by poachers. Wounded by poisoned arrows, they trudged across the African landscape to the one place that could…
It’s a full time job
eating 5,000 ticks a year
Urbanization Is Now One of the Most Dominant Forces of Evolution
When humans settled into larger villages and towns some 12,000 years ago along with the advance of agriculture, wildlife took advantage. Those species “preadapted” to survive in early cities, including…
Raccoons Pass Famous Aesop’s Fable Test—By Upending It
Raccoons are notoriously pesky, but are they as clever as crows? Scientists recently put the masked mammals through the Aesop's Fable test, which measures if animals can discern cause and…
Even Jellyfish Sleep
Do jellyfish dream of gelatinous sheep? No one can say.