Feral burros wreck wetlands in the desert national park. But a study found that when mountain lions prey on them, the donkeys may help some terrain thrive.
Tag Archives: your-feed-animals
Modern and Ancient Crickets May Sing the Same Song
With a one-of-a-kind museum specimen, researchers recreated the chirp of ancient cricket relatives that droned alongside the dinosaurs.
Sneeze by Sneeze, Sponges Fill the Seas With Their Mucus
You might be tempted to say “gesundheit,” but the sea creature’s snot helps feed other marine organisms.
Dolphin Strangers Met in the Bahamas. Things Went Swimmingly.
Two research teams round that dolphins could forge strong social bonds with outsiders within a few years
The Mysterious Dance of the Cricket Embryos
A team of biologists and mathematicians studied hours of video to learn how insects take shape in the egg. The secret is geometry.
Splitting T. Rex Into 3 Species Becomes a Dinosaur Royal Rumble
A team of researchers published a rebuttal to an argument advanced by another group earlier in the year. The disagreement over the king of dinosaurs is far from over.
Did Nature Heal During the Pandemic ‘Anthropause’?
Covid precautions created a global slowdown in human activity — and an opportunity to learn more about the complex ways we affect other species.
Why Woodpeckers Don’t Mind Hitting Trees With Their Faces
The birds hammer away, yet they don’t get concussed. Scientists found that assumptions about the animals’ impact-absorbing skulls were wrong.
Who’s Got Two Pseudothumbs and Loves Bamboo? This Panda Bear.
Fossils found in southwestern China give a hint to the development of the panda’s sixth digit — a rudimentary, thumblike bone extension.
A Canine Companion So Nice It (Maybe) Evolved Twice
Two different ancient wolf populations contributed DNA to modern dogs, according to a new study.
The Incredible Journey of Three African Wild Dogs
Three sisters braved lions, crocodiles, poachers, raging rivers and other dangers on a 1,300-mile transnational effort to forge a new dynasty.
Avian Influenza Is Affecting Wild Mammals
As a new version of bird flu spread through North America this spring, scientists began finding the virus in red foxes, bobcats and other mammals.
How Cats Make the Most of Their Catnip High
A new study finds that the feline reaction to catnip and silver vine helps to stave off mosquitoes and other bloodsucking insects.
Before Chickens Were Nuggets, They Were Revered
The origin of the domestic fowl is more recent than previously thought, but it may have taken them thousands of years to become food.
Giraffes May Be Long-Necked for Fights, Not Just Food
Evolutionary theories said giraffes developed their height to get to better eats, but ancestors may have gained the advantage through head-butting battles.
Megalodon Extinction May Have Been Driven by Hungry Great White Sharks
The largest shark that ever lived may have vanished in part because the comparatively smaller great white had a taste for the same prey.
Dinosaurs Started Out Hot, Then Some of Them Turned Cold
Scientists directly measured the metabolic rate of extinct animals, which revealed that some giant dinosaurs became coldblooded.
Watch a Giant Stingray’s Safe Return to Its River Home
The Mekong River is home to enormous and endangered aquatic life. A 400-pound fish’s release shows how some conservation efforts in Cambodia are paying off.
The Michigan Mink Mystery: How Did an Interspecies Outbreak Unfold?
The puzzling coronavirus cases highlight ongoing surveillance challenges and blind spots.
Scientists Uncover a Shady Web of Online Spider Sales
More than 1,200 species of arachnids are part of a largely unregulated global marketplace, according to a new study.
There’s an Animal That Walks on Three Limbs. It’s a Parrot.
Lovebirds — and perhaps other species — seem to confound nature’s strong preference for bilateral bodies.
The Trigger That Makes an Octopus Mom Self-Destruct
Researchers are gaining a better understanding of the biochemical processes that precede female octopuses’ deaths after they lay and then tend their eggs.
‘Mouth Almighty’ Doesn’t Mind When His Cheeks Are Full of Another Fish’s Babies
A study of Australian fish that care for offspring through mouthbrooding shows that things underwater are not always as monogamous as they seem.
An Anaconda’s Play Date With Dolphins Took a Strange Turn
Why were Bolivian river dolphins swimming around with a large predatory snake in their mouths? “There are so many questions,” one researcher said.
Started Out as a Fish. How Did It End Up Like This?
A meme about the transitional fossil Tiktaalik argues that although we did emerge from the sea, we aren’t doing just fine.
The ‘Ultimate Bird’ Once Prowled the Seas of a Young Japan
Researchers described Annakacygna, a family of flightless ancient swans that were filter-feeders.
‘Snarge’ Happens and Studying It Makes Your Plane Trip Safer
When a bird collides with an airplane, determining its species can help prevent future collisions. To do that, scientists need snarge.
Birds That Build Nests With Domes May Be Doomed
A nest with a roof may provide some birds with more protection. But bird species that build simpler nests may be more adaptable to changing conditions.
Shriek! Slap! Pow! The Small Bat Wins.
In this video of a bat fight, is the tiny one a bully, or is it just meting out justice up the food chain?
How Nature Becomes a Casualty of War
Research on past conflicts suggests that the war in Ukraine could have a profound environmental impact.
Why City Pigeons Are Worth Watching
The humble Columba livia is much more than a rat with wings.
Climate Change Is Hurting Penguins Unevenly in Antarctica
The western side of the Antarctic Peninsula has seen sharp declines in Adélie penguin populations in recent decades. Things look better on the eastern side. Take a tour.
These Birds Form a Trio, but Probably Not a Throuple
Some pairs of cranes in India, known for their monogamous devotion, seem to bring in a third bird to act like a kind of avian au pair.
‘Big John,’ a High-Profile Triceratops, Locked Horns With Its Own Kind, Study Suggests
A team of Italian scientists describe what they believe is a gaping scar from one of these ancient battles on the neck frill of the Triceratops.
These Birds Aren’t Lost. They’re Adapting.
Bird-watchers love to see vagrants, or birds that have traveled far outside their range. But scientists say they have a lot to teach us in a world facing ecological change.
Japan’s Monkey Queen Made It Through Mating Season With Her Reign Intact
Yakei, the 9-year-old macaque who seized power at a preserve, played the field and mated with at least one male, all while managing to maintain her status as her troop’s alpha.
The Search for a Model Octopus That Won’t Die After Laying Its Eggs
A lab in Massachusetts may have finally found an eight-armed cephalopod that can serve as a model organism and assist scientific research.
In the Ocean, It’s Snowing Microplastics
Tiny bits of plastic have infiltrated the deep sea’s main food source and could alter the ocean’s role in one of Earth’s ancient cooling processes, scientists say.
Fossil Holds Clues to How Some Owls Evolved Into Daytime Hunters
The bird, which sought prey in a part of China 6 million years ago, had eyes shaped in a way that suggest it was not nocturnal like most owls living today.
Bobcats With a Taste for Python Eggs Might Be the Guardians of Florida’s Swamp
Cameras captured the wild feline purloining a Burmese python’s eggs, giving hope that the state’s native species are responding to a voracious, invasive predator.
Trilobite Fossils Suggest Cannibalism Is Older Than Once Thought
The “king” of the trilobites was snacking on whatever it could eat some 514 million years ago in the Cambrian era, even shelled creatures of its own species.
Life’s Preference for Symmetry Is Like ‘A New Law of Nature’
Techniques from computer science may help explain the tendency in biology for structures to repeat themselves.
Australia’s Clever Birds Did Not Consent to This Science Experiment
The magpies showed their smarts by helping one another remove tracking harnesses that scientists carefully placed on them.
Wolves, and Misinformation About Them, Make a California Comeback
For the past 10 years, wolves have been steadily returning to the state after being wiped out a century ago. But not everyone is rolling out the welcome mat.
Finding a Retirement Home for 466 Frozen Flatworm Fragments
When researchers end their careers, where do their biological collections go?
Fossil Reveals Secrets of One of Nature’s Most Mysterious Reptiles
The specimen shows that modern tuataras found in New Zealand are little changed from ancestors that lived 190 million years.
Why Don’t All Lions Climb Trees?
Scientists believe that lions everywhere can climb up into branches, but they’re just not very good at it and need help from the right kind of tree.
New Coronavirus Lineage Discovered in Ontario Deer
Scientists also found signs of possible deer-to-human transmission, but there is no evidence that the new lineage poses an elevated risk to people.
They Want to Break T. Rex Into 3 Species. Paleontologists Aren’t Pleased.
The premise, put forth in a new paper, highlights an assortment of tensions in dinosaur paleontology, including how subjective the naming of species can be.
Researchers See ‘Future of an Entire Species’ in Ultrasound Technique
To bring abalone back from the edge of extinction, scientists need to find improved ways of coaxing the snails into reproducing.