Animals

  1. Animals

    Big woodpeckers trash others’ homes

    Pileated woodpeckers destroy in an afternoon the nesting cavities that take endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers 6 years to excavate.

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  2. Animals

    When rare species eat endangered ones

    To cut down on their salmon smolt catch, Caspian terns were encouraged to move from one island to another in the Columbia River.

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  3. Animals

    Oops. New feathers turn out lousy

    Going to the trouble of molting doesn't really get rid of a bird's lice after all.

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  4. Animals

    Stinking decorations protect nests

    The common waxbill's habit of adorning its nests with fur plucked from carnivore scat turns out to discourage attacks from predators.

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  5. Animals

    20/20 lenses coat body of sea creature

    The skeleton of brittlestars doubles as an array of optically precise lenses that rival plastic microlenses designed by engineers.

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  6. Animals

    Smart tags show unexpected tuna trips

    The first report on Atlantic bluefin tuna wearing electronic tags reveals much more dashing across the ocean than expected.

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  7. Animals

    Bat bites bird. . .in migration attacks

    The largest bat in Europe may hunt down migrating birds.

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  8. Animals

    Roach gals get less choosy as time goes by

    As their first reproductive peak wanes, female cockroaches become more like male ones, willing to mate with any potential partner that moves.

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  9. Animals

    Don’t look now, but is that dog laughing?

    Researchers have identified a particular exhalation that dogs make while playing as a possible counterpart to a human laugh.

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  10. Animals

    Condor chicks hatch in zoo and wild

    Newly hatched California condor chicks indicate that reproduction is again taking place in the wild.

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  11. Animals

    Microbe lets mite dads perform virgin birth

    A gender-bent mite—in which altered males give birth as virgins—turns out to be the first species discovered to live and reproduce with only one set of chromosomes.

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  12. Animals

    Fruit flies hear by spinning their noses

    Drosophila have a rotating ear—and odor-sensing—structure that's new to science.

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