Animals

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Animals

Bat bites bird. . .in migration attacks

The largest bat in Europe may hunt down migrating birds.

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.

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.

Animals

Condor chicks hatch in zoo and wild

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

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.

Animals

Fruit flies hear by spinning their noses

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