Mammals
Ethiopia's Exotic Monkeys
High in the Simien Mountains, researchers are getting a close-up look at the exotic, socially adventuresome primates known as geladas
December 2009 |
By Abigail Tucker
Crawling Around with Baltimore Street Rats
The “urban ecosystem” serves as a research lab for scientist Gregory Glass, who studies the lives of the Charm City’s rats
November 18, 2009 |
By Abigail Tucker
Nine Species Saved From Extinction
Last week, the U.S. government took the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) off the endangered species list. The birds' numbers had been depleted first by feather hunters and then by the pesticide DDT. But the pelicans made a comeback, starting with the 1972 ban on DDT, and now there are more th...
November 17, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
White Coat on a Black Bear
Generally, having white fur is only good if you live in a white environment. The arctic fox, for example, would probably be eaten pretty quickly if it lived in Florida. Likewise, black bears that inherit two copies of a recessive gene for a white coat tend not to live very long, becoming victims of...
November 09, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Falklands Wolf: A Darwin Mystery Solved
When Charles Darwin's reached the Falkland Islands on his famed voyage, he discovered there a "large wolf-like fox" found nowhere else in the world. "As far as I am aware," he would later write in The Voyage of the Beagle, "there is no other instance, in any part of the world, of so small a mass of...
November 04, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Alaska's Great Wide Open
A land of silvery light and astonishing peaks, the country's largest state perpetuates the belief that anything is possible
November 2009 |
By Pico Iyer
Why Do Some Females Have Horns?
Greg Laden is guest-blogging this week while Sarah is on vacation. You can find his regular blog at Scienceblogs.com and Quiche Moraine.We are talking mainly about bovids (cattle and antelope), which grow horns over their lifetime, and deer, which grow antlers every year. In most well known bovids ...
October 02, 2009 |
By Greg Laden
Denver’s Street-Smart Prairie Dogs
Researchers explore why members of one species are thriving in urban areas while rural populations dwindle
October 02, 2009 |
By Morgan E. Heim
Rare Kitty Caught on Film
Biologists aren't certain how many African golden cats (Profelis aurata) remain in central Africa. The IUCN Red List places the the cat in the "Near Threatened" category, saying that there are probably around 10,000 or so left, though that is little more than an educated guess. People are more like...
September 21, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Gorillas Hunted for Bushmeat in Congo
About two western lowland gorillas are killed and sold in local markets as bushmeat each week in the region of Kouilou in Congo, according to an undercover investigation. It may not sound like much, but it represents about 4 percent of the local population each month, and half of the population eac...
September 16, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Is Yawning Contagious for Chimpanzees Too?
Watch the video above. Did you yawn? Contagious yawning occurs when someone around you yawns and you yawn in response. It's an involuntary response. Humans do it, and so do chimpanzees. In chimps, researchers have linked the behavior with empathy, so researchers studying empathy in chimps sometimes...
September 15, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Morocco's Extraordinary Donkeys
The author returns to Fez to explore the stubborn animal's central role in the life of this desert kingdom
September 2009 |
By Susan Orlean
Seven Threatened Cats You May Not Know
The big cats get all the attention, it seems. Lions, tigers and cheetahs are all threatened, but they are not the only cat species whose populations are in danger. Here are seven small cat species under threat:Black-footed cat (Felis nigripes)Lives in: the steppes and savannas of southern AfricaEat...
August 17, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Orangutans Use Leaves to Sound Bigger
An orangutan will produce an alarm call known as a "kiss squeak" when it encounters a predator like a snake or a human. The kiss squeak is produced by drawing a sharp intake of air through pursed lips (see this video for an example). Sometimes, though, an orangutan will take a branch, strip the lea...
August 06, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Humans Steal Food From Lions
Stealing a meal from a lion, on first thought, seems like a bad idea. Lions kill people. But this might not be such a bad strategy, and it could have been one that helped early humans to obtain protein and survive. It might also be a practice that continues in Africa today, according to biologists ...
July 28, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Is My Cat Right- or Left-Handed?
I tried an experiment this weekend, inspired by a new study about the handedness of cats. Psychologists from Queen's University Belfast in North Ireland, in a study published in Animal Behaviour, conducted a series of experiments on 42 kitties to discover if they are left- or right-pawed.In two of ...
July 27, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Hominids’ African Origins, 50 Years Later
Before Mary Leakey’s discovery of hominid fossils in East Africa, many experts thought that human ancestors evolved in Asia
July 23, 2009 |
By Laura Helmuth
Lion Prides and Street Gangs
Unlike every other species of cat, lions are social animals that live in groups. They gather in prides that consist of 1 to 21 females and their offspring and 1 to 9 males. But why they do so has been a mystery. One popular hypothesis has been that the female lions come together to hunt cooperative...
July 01, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Humans Don’t Have the Last, or Only, Laugh
Anyone who has visited a zoo can attest to the human-like qualities of our close relatives. Whether you’re watching chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans or gorillas, it’s the facial expressions and social interactions that most make them appear similar to humans. Now researchers have evidence of anothe...
June 10, 2009 |
By Ashley Luthern
Howl at the Moon for Science
The Wolf Inquiry Project is looking for a few dozen people who wouldn’t mind spending a summer night in the North Woods of Maine howling for wolves and coyotes. This “howling survey” aims to discover if wolves have recolonized the state of Maine.Scientists know that coyotes are out there, but they’...
May 28, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
