Animals
- Animals
When a species can’t stand the heat
When temperatures rise, New Zealand’s tuatara produce more males. With global warming, that could leave the ancient reptile species with too few females to avoid going extinct.
- Animals
Explainer: How invasive species ratted out the tuatara
The introduction of rats to New Zealand led to huge population losses of the ancient tuatara. These uncommon reptiles vanished from the mainland. This left isolated populations to survive on several dozen isolated islands.
- Animals
Kangaroos have ‘green’ farts
The farts and belches of these animals contain less methane than do those from other big grass grazers. Microbes in their digestive tract appear to explain the ‘roos lower production of this greenhouse gas, a new study finds.
- Animals
Pythons seem to have an internal compass
The giant, Burmese pythons living in Florida’s Everglades like their adopted home. And new research shows they can find their way back to it if people try to move them somewhere else. Not all snakes will do this.
- Animals
Quieter vibes for city spiders
How much a web vibrates affects how well a spider senses when that web has captured prey. But webs attached to concrete, plastic and other artificial materials vibrate less than do those built on natural materials, such as twigs or leaves.
- Animals
Passing diseases from bee to bee
A study finds that the viruses and parasites that plague honeybees can infect bumblebees too, sickening another important pollinator.
- Animals
‘Crazy’ ant fight
By neutralizing the poison produced by fire ants, ‘crazy’ ants can survive heated battles. And that may help explain why crazy ants are edging out fire ants in parts of the southern United States.
- Animals
We are stardust
Everything making up Earth and what’s now living upon it — from trees and people to our pets and their fleas — owes their origins to the elements forged by ancient stars.
- Animals
Flower loss doomed the mammoths
Woolly mammoths roamed the Arctic until about 10,000 years ago. Why they died out may trace to the vanishing of the mostly flowering plants on which they had been dining.
- Animals
Birds versus windows
Buildings in the United States can be deadly obstacles to flying birds. A new study estimates that as many as 1 billion birds die every year after colliding with windows. And low buildings — not skyscrapers — account for most of those deaths.
- Animals
Sharks become science helpers
Jaws may scare beachgoers. But sharks bring a smile to some environmental scientists, who are using the toothy fishes to collect data on the ocean.
- Animals
Tag, you’re it!
Biologists now deploy a wide range of technologies to track animals. The data these experts collect reveal insights into the behavior of animals that spend much of their lives out of human eyeshot.
