A male orb-weaving spider catapults off a female after mating. Survival could mean another chance to fertilize her eggs. A male orb-weaving spider catapults off a female after mating. Survival could mean another chance to fertilize her eggs. Rudyard Kipling famously observed in a 1911 poem that “the female of the species is deadlier than […]
Figaro the cockatoo displays his “primate level” combination tool-using skills by playing a cockatoo version of “golf, ” and choosing the correct hole for a cashew reward. Two other cockatoos figured out different tool-using techniques to achieve the same result. (Goffin Lab) Figaro the cockatoo displays his “primate level” combination tool-using skills by playing a […]
A chimp named Suzee inspects a wound on the foot of her adolescent son, Sia, then catches an insect out of the air, puts it in her mouth, presses it between her lips, and applies it to the wound while the girl daughter, Sassandra, observes her. (Alessandra Mascaro) In November 2019, Alessandra Mascaro was observing […]
(credit: MIT Press) “What makes machines, animals, and people smart?” asks the subtitle of Paul Thagard’s new book. Not “Are computers smarter than humans? or “will computers ever be smarter than humans?” or even “are computers and animals conscious, sentient, or self-aware (whatever any of that might mean)?” And that’s unfortunate, becausethough most people are […]
Enlarge (credit: EyeEm / Getty Images) Bees manage some impressive feats. They not only remember the location of good food sources, but they’re able to communicate this information to their peers. They also care for the hive’s young and organize attacks against intruders. It’s easy to overlook that they’re brilliant at construction. Almost every honeycomb […]
Enlarge (credit: National Park Service) When people flush their old prescription (or off-prescription) drugs, the compounds invariably make their way into the waters nearby. The same is true even when people using these chemicals urinate them into the sewage system. Once there, these compounds—from prozac to cocaine—can end up in the bodies of aquatic creatures. […]
Enlarge / Gimme five! New University of Arizona study finds puppies are wired to communicate with people. “There’s definitely a strong genetic component, and they’re definitely doing it from the get-go.” (credit: Anita Kot/Getty Images) That special social bond between dogs and humans might be a genetic trait that evolved as dogs became domesticated and […]
Enlarge / Like most cats, nothing delights Ariel more than an empty box in which to lounge. This might tell us something about feline visual perception of shapes and contours, per a new study in Applied Animal Behaviour Science. (credit: Sean Carroll) It is a truth universally acknowledged—at least by those of the feline persuasion—that […]
Enlarge / A common cuttlefish, Sepia officianalis, in the Marine Resources Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA. A new study finds the cuttlefish can delay gratification—a key feature of the famous “marshmallow test.” (credit: Alexandra Schnell) Certain species show a remarkable ability to delay gratification, notably great apes, corvids, and parrots, while […]
“Nice burrow you’ve got there. I need it.” Patrick Green at the University of Exeter filmed this struggle between mantis shrimp. Size matters into the small-but-mighty mantis shrimp, that reveal a marked taste for burrows in coral rubble using amounts that closely fit their particular body dimensions or are only a little bigger –in other […]