Animals

  1. Animals

    Male butterflies are driven to drink

    Monarch butterflies that winter in California, especially males that had a demanding day, search out dewdrops as a water source.

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  2. Animals

    Flight puts the fight back into crickets

    Researchers are just discovering what gamblers in China have known for centuries—flying can make a losing cricket fight again.

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  3. Animals

    When Ants Squeak

    In the past 20 years, researchers studying sound communication in ants have discovered a sort of ant-ernet, zinging with messages about lost relatives, great food, free rides for hitchhikers, caterpillars in search of ant partners, and impending doom.

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  4. Animals

    Bees log flight distances, train with maps

    After decades of work, scientists crack two problems of how bees navigate: reading bee odometers and mapping training flights.

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  5. Animals

    Slithering on Air: Flying snakes glide through the treetops

    The paradise tree snake flies by flattening its body and slithering through the air.

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  6. Animals

    Strong Medicine: Over-the-counter remedy snags snakes

    Acetaminophen—the active ingredient in Tylenol—vanquishes brown tree snakes, the bane of Guam.

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  7. Animals

    Hyena androgens exact high cost

    Blocking androgens for spotted hyenas before they're born shows that the exposure of a female fetus to male hormones normally takes a heavy physical toll when females bear their own pups.

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  8. Animals

    Deer littermates have different dads

    Twin fawns may not have the same dad—the first time multiple paternity has turned up in a large, free-ranging hoofed mammal.

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  9. Animals

    Dragonfly Glitter

    Dragonflies bring a lot of glitter to glamour shots. Texas A&M’s entomology program offers a variety of stunning images to illustrate the considerable diversity of dragonfly species. A video captures a female laying eggs, and a sequence of images shows how junior grows up. Go to: http://stephenville.tamu.edu/~fmitchel/dragonfly/index.html

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  10. Animals

    Redder is healthier in squawking birds

    When barn swallow nestlings open wide for food, their parents may be looking for the healthiest throats.

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  11. Animals

    Why don’t racing horses fry their brains?

    Lumpy sacs bulging out of a horse's auditory tubes may solve the mystery of how such an athletic animal keeps its brain from overheating during exercise.

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  12. Animals

    Altruistic Sperm: Mouse gametes team up to power one winner

    The sperm of wood mice hook together by the thousands to form high-speed teams racing toward an egg, even though only one of the pack will get the prize.

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