All Stories by Susan Milius
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Baboon rumps signal quality of motherhood
The size of the swellings on a female baboon’s rump match her physical prowess for motherhood, a rare case of reproductive-quality advertisement in females.
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Quoll male die-off doesn’t fit pattern
Males of a ferretlike marsupial called a quoll die off after one mating season-unusual behavior that suggests the need for new theories of why such deaths occur after mating.
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Stick insects: Three females remain
An Australian expedition locates three females of a big, flightless stick insect species thought to have gone extinct.
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Why Fly into a Forest Fire?
Scientists puzzle over why some wasps and beetles race to forest fires.
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Roach females pick losers with good scents
Male Tanzanian cockroaches lose fights if they have too much of a particular pheromone, but females find it alluring.
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Can visiting a plant ruin an experiment?
Merely walking up to a plant and handling its leaves may skew outcomes in studies of predators attacking plants.
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Inbred cattle don’t look bad at all
A herd of feral cattle that hasn't had new blood for at least 300 years seems to have avoided the genetic risks of inbreeding.
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Genetic search for an equine Eve fails
Genetic analysis suggests an unusual history for modern horses: lots of independent domestications instead of the usual few.
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Cloned gaur born healthy, then dies
The first cloned gaur, a rare, Asian oxlike creature, died when only a few days old but proved the technique worked.
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Infection divides two wasp species
Two tiny wasp species provide the best evidence yet that infection by Wolbachia bacteria can play a role in forming species.
- Plants
The bladderwort: No ruthless microbe killer
A carnivorous plant called a bladderwort may not be a fierce predator at all but a misunderstood mutualist.
- Plants
Dead pipes can still regulate plants’ water
Physiologists say they have demonstrated for the first time that dead xylem cells in plant plumbing can control water speed.
