Animals
Trucked-in honeybees may edge out bigger bumblebee foragers
The finding could guide beekeepers to keep hives out of most vulnerable areas of the Irish heathlands.
Animals
More Stories in Animals
- Animals
Ancient DNA reveals China’s first ‘pet’ cat wasn’t the house cat
The modern house cat reached China in the 8th century. Before that, another cat — the leopard cat — hunted the rodents in ancient Chinese settlements.
- Animals
Cuddly koalas had a brutal, blade-toothed close cousin
Ancient collagen preserved in the bones of extinct Australian mammals is revealing their evolutionary relationships, leading to some surprises.
- Life
Rats are snatching bats out of the air and eating them
The grisly infrared camera footage records a never-before-seen hunting tactic. It may have implications for bat conservation.
- Physics
Here’s how Rudolph’s light-up nose might be possible
Simple chemistry could give the reindeer his famously bright snout. But physics would make it look different colors from the ground.
- Animals
Lions have a second roar that no one noticed until now
A machine learning analysis of wild lion audio reveals they have two roar types, not one. This insight might help detect where lions are declining.
- Animals
A wolf raided a crab trap. Was it tool use or just canine cunning?
Video from the Haíɫzaqv Nation Indigenous community shows a wolf hauling a crab trap ashore. Scientists are split on whether it counts as tool use.
- Animals
This parasitic ant tricks workers into committing matricide
Newly mated parasitic queen ants invade colonies and spray their victims with a chemical irritant that provokes the workers to kill their mother.
- Animals
40,000-year-old woolly mammoth RNA offers a peek into its last moments
Ancient RNA from Yuka, a 40,000-year-old woolly mammoth preserved in permafrost, can offer new biological insights into the Ice Age animal’s life.
- Oceans
Deep-sea mining might feed plankton a diet of junk food
An analysis of mining plumes in the Pacific Ocean reveals they kick up particles sized similarly to the more nutritious tidbits that plankton eat.
