Animals
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AnimalsWhales feast when hatcheries release salmon
Humpback whales are visiting sites where hatcheries release juvenile salmon in Alaska. It’s a dining bonanza for the huge whales.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsScientists Say: Dire wolf
Dire wolves are an extinct species of wolf that roamed North America from about 300,000 to 12,000 years ago.
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AnimalsThese sharks get help swallowing from their shoulders
Some sharks suck in food by snapping open their jaws. But to gulp it all the way down, they’ve got to give their shoulders a workout.
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AnimalsWhat do animals do during a solar eclipse?
A citizen-science experiment used the Great American Eclipse of 2017 to gather the largest dataset ever of animal responses to a sun-block.
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AnimalsGiant Antarctic sea spiders breathe really strangely
Sea spiders have many bizarre body systems. Scientists have now discovered that they breathe and circulate oxygen in a way never seen before.
By Ilima Loomis -
AnimalsThis tiny animal is apocalypse-proof
Microscopic animals called water bears can survive nearly any kind of apocalypse, from asteroids and nuclear war to exploding stars.
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AnimalsHumpbacks flap their flippers like underwater birds
Surprising new video shows humpback whales flapping their front flippers to move their massive bodies toward their prey.
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AnimalsCould a dragonfly’s wings be alive — and breathing?
Highly magnified image showing what looks like breathing tubes suggests the morpho dragonfly’s wings may be unexpectedly alive.
By Susan Milius -
EnvironmentNight lights have a dark side
Artificial light at night not only affects our view of the night sky, but also has the ability to impair animal behaviors — and probably our health.
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Health & MedicineAnalyze This! Mosquito repellents that work
Spray-on repellents are generally the best at keeping those blood suckers from making you their next meal, new data show.
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AgricultureScientists Say: Domestication
Domestication is the process of deliberately taking a wild organism — a plant or animal for instance — and making it a part of our daily lives.
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AnimalsWildebeest drownings feed a river ecosystem for years
Hundreds or thousands of wildebeests can drown at a time in the Mara River. Those carcasses, however, will feed a succession of other animals.