Animals

Animals

Ant Traffic Flow: Raiding swarms with few rules avoid gridlock

The 200,000 virtually blind army ants using a single trail to swarm out to a raid and return home with the booty naturally develop three traffic lanes, and a study now shows that simple individual behavior makes the pattern.

Animals

Frogs Play Tree: Male tunes his call to specific tree hole

Borneo's tree-hole frog may come as close to playing a musical instrument as any wild animal does. [With audio file.]

Animals

Hawkmoths can still see colors at night

For the first time, scientists have found detailed evidence than an animal—a hawkmoth—can see color by starlight.

Animals

Mad Deer Disease?

Chronic wasting disease, once just an obscure brain ailment of deer and elk in a small patch of the West, is turning up in new places and raising troubling questions about risks.

Animals

Ear for Killers: Seals discern foes’ from neighbor-whales’ calls

Harbor seals eavesdrop on killer whales and can tell the harmless neighborhood fish eaters from roving gangs with a taste for fresh seal.

Animals

Tadpoles kill by supersuction

A high-speed video shows tiny African tadpoles that catch their prey in a manner unlike that used by any other frog larvae: by shooting out a tubular mouth for superfast suction.

Animals

Lizard’s Choice: Mating test pits physique versus domain

When she decides to move in, is it him or is it his real estate?

Animals

Fish Fraud: Cleaners show off before biting clients

Some of the reef fish that make their living by nibbling parasites off other fish may be luring clients into scams by offering free massages.

Animals

Upside Way Down: Video turns fish story on its head

The first video of whipnose anglerfish reveals them swimming upside down and trolling for prey on the 5,000-meter deep ocean floor.

Animals

That special wax lasts after courtship

Sandpipers' special wax for their wings during the breeding season may have less to do with courting a mate and more to do with sitting on eggs.

Animals

Eat the Kids: Are cannibal fish just freshening the O2?

In beaugregory damselfish, males that snack on some of the eggs supposedly in their care may end up benefiting the rest of the egg clutch by making more oxygen available.

Animals

Many fish run on empty

Many fish eat all the time, while some others spend their days going from brief feast to lengthy famine.