Animals

  1. Animals

    Mom bears more sons when she gets extra bouquets

    When researchers spiff up a male starling's courtship by delivering some extra bouquets to his mate on his behalf, the couple tends to produce more sons than usual.

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  2. Animals

    Policing egg laying in insect colonies

    Kinship by itself can't explain the vigilante justice of some ant, bee, and wasp workers.

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  3. Animals

    How dingoes got down under

    DNA analysis suggests that Australia got its famous dingoes from a very few dogs brought along with people fanning out from East Asia some 5,000 years ago.

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  4. Animals

    Time to revise right whales’ family tree?

    A statistical analysis of DNA from nearly 400 right whales around the world suggests there may be three species of Eubalena, not just two—a conclusion that may boost conservation efforts.

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  5. Animals

    Really big guys restrain youth violence

    Importing six full-grown bull elephants into a park of youngsters stopped killing sprees by young males.

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  6. Animals

    Anybody know this fish?

    A 2-month marine-biodiversity survey of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge concluded this week, bringing home much data and some novel specimens.

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  7. Animals

    Whys Guy

    Interested in seeing an exploding watermelon, using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream, or knowing why a hurricane spins? Physicist Mats Selen of the University of Illinois has appeared regularly on a local morning TV program to demonstrate a wide variety of physical and chemical phenomena. View video clips of these entertaining presentations. Requires Windows […]

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  8. Animals

    Trail Mix: Espionage among the bees

    Tests with two kinds of stingless bees suggest that the more aggressive species uses scent-based espionage to target raids on the milder species' food.

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  9. Animals

    A first for mammals: Tropical hibernating

    The fat-tailed lemur, the first tropical mammal documented to hibernate, exploits local heat spikes to save energy during the long snooze.

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  10. Animals

    Sparrows Cheat on Sleep: Migratory birds are up at night but still stay sharp

    During their fall migration season, white-crowned sparrows sleep only about a third as much as they do at other times of the year without becoming slow-witted.

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  11. Animals

    Ultrasound alarms by ground squirrels

    Richardson's ground squirrels may occasionally use ultrasound when calling out in response to a disturbance.

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  12. Animals

    Why does a buddy help another male flirt?

    The sidekick male in the two-bird courtship display of lance-tailed manakins has to leave when the mating starts but may reap delayed benefits in real estate and performance practice.

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