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Hunters are having a blast in northern California, with a simple purpose: hunt as many coyotes as possible. As you could guess, the event’s organizers tried to keep it as secretive as possible, but the local press estimated over 200 hunters participated in the (more or less) annual event. Opponents of the hunt – which […]
For years scientists have been studying the salmon migration path, which is one of the most fascinating, yet dangerous. Once it’s born in its freshwater breeding location, the salmon heads for salt water in the ocean, before it returns to its exact freshwater stream of birth in order to restart the process – a journey that lasts […]
For the past twenty years there’s been a debate whether the mammal explosion that eventually made the class of animals dominant on Earth happened before or after the end of the dinosaur reign. Scientific papers and various evidence supporting both views have surfaced along the years, but a recent massive study conducted by a collaborative […]
Overfishing is a dramatic problem in most areas of the oceans, and many people are desperately trying to protect what’s left of the ecosystems; thankfully though, the European Union has approved a major reform by an enormous majority. The European Parliament was having its say in the on-going attempt to shake up Europe’s controversial Common […]
Stereo sensing is a highly important skill that most animals possess that creates a directional perspective. Not all senses are stereo, however, in some animals. For instance, humans have stereo vision and hearing, however no stereo smell – the latter being a trait that not too many animals possess. The common mole has been found […]
Her name is Wisdom, and she’s absolutely awesome! She’s the world’s oldest known living wild bird, at 62, and she produced a healthy living chick, surprising the entire world. It’s remarkable enough that she reached this age, with the lifespan for the typical albatross being somewhere between 30 and 40 years, but giving birth, and […]
The Eurasian Jays are among the most intelligent birds studied thus far by biologists, belong to the corvids, a group of birds that also includes crows. The latter are especially gifted, as they’ve been observed making use of tools, associate faces with behavior and even recognize when a fellow crow has died. Quite crafty fellows. […]
Researchers at The Rockefeller University and Paris University 13 have been studying a peculiar, yet highly fascinating ant species called Cerapachys biroi. The scientists were startled to find that many ants who had stepped out of line and laid eggs at an improper timing were executed by other ants belonging to the same colony, in order to […]
Your work is appreciated, and we are thankful for it! If you have any stories or anything at all from your work, be sure to share it with the rest of us – we’ll definitely post it. As a small symbol of our appreciation, here’s a picture of a badger and a fox cub who […]
Owls are fascinating animals, but by far their greatest trick is turning their heads at 270 out of the 360 degrees. If we (or any mammal) would attempt this, we would cut the blood supply to our brains and pass out. But as it turns out, the bird’s bone and vascular structures are smart enough […]
Birds may not be the smartest bunch out there, but man do they know how to navigate! Pigeons can get around towns and even continents with stunning accuracy – except for a particular spot in New York. Whenever homing pigeons were launched from that particular spot, they would always get lost. They could easily go […]
We love cats so much, with their fluffy fur and cuddly personality, that we sometimes forget just how deadly of a predator they really are. According to a new study, they are responsible for the deaths of between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals annually. The study, which was published in Nature […]
It is generally believed that a cloned animal is identical to its host from where cells were initially harvested, however this may be wrong. Researchers at the National Veterinary Institute at the Technical University of Denmark have provided evidence that suggests cloned pigs are just as genetically varied as normally bred pigs, supporting the idea that […]
Is someone chopping onions? Common dolphins have been seen to aid a dying companion, trying as hard as they could to support him and help him breathe. This is the first time that a group of dolphins has been observed trying to aid a dying companion; five individual dolphins formed a raft with their bodies […]
Pound for pound, spider silk is one of the strongest materials in the world; it’s about five times stronger than a piano wire – and a piano wire has to put up with a lot of pressure. Researchers have long tried to develop materials which mimic the remarkable properties of spider silk, but only now […]
Presumably, of course, since this news piece has only been delivered by an Iranian state-owned and controlled news outlet, and has yet to be confirmed by an independent source. Apparently, the Iranian space program successfully launched a live monkey into space, after the capsule in which the animal was housed reached an altitude of 75 miles, […]
Dung beetles just climbed another ladder on the animal coolness scale – they are the only known species to navigate via the Milky Way. The tiny insects can orient themselves to the bright stripe of light generated by our galaxy, and move in a line relative to it, according to experiments conducted in South Africa. […]
A genetic change allowed wolves to make the transition from wild beasts to domesticated animals, with a starch-rich diet and less meat. Researchers from Sweden, Norway and the United States compared the DNA code of wolves to that of domesticated dogs. “Our findings show that the digestive system of dogs have adapted to be able […]
Clear and solid steps have been taken in the past few years to cancel research, experiments and drug testing on chimps, a practice which is still legal in only two countries in the world: the US and Ghana. Recently, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) was advised to retire its decade-old, 360 chimpanzee-strong colony to a […]
The Very Large Array radio telescope network in New Mexico recently captured this amazing view of a 20,000 year old nebula that intriguing enough is shaped like a manatee – the famous and adorable sea cow native to the greater Gulf of Mexico – in its favorite position: floating on its back with its fins across […]
A new study from researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, found that indeed shellfish, like crabs or lobsters that are typically cooked alive in horrid conditions, feel pain as well. The findings raise significant ethical discussions, warning the food and fish industry of its ill ways of killing live seafood. “On a philosophical point, it […]
Scientists have stumbled upon a new species of flying frog – on the ground. While hiking in 2009, not far from Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam, “we came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log,” said Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Upon further inspection, […]
Chimpanzees have the same sense of fair-play as humans do, explain researchers who played the Ultimatum game with them – it’s the first time such a trait was observed in a non-human species. Playing a fair game The Ultimatum game is a simple game often used in economy game theory in which the two players […]
Researchers who had performed the first high detail 3-D reconstruction of early tetrapod (four-legged animals) backbones claim the first land based animals moved by dragging themselves around the ground much in the same way modern day seals behave. The scientists used the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble to bombard 360-million year old fossils with high […]
Sharks are the ultimate predators, comfortably sitting at the very top of the food chain; but even they have their enemies (the biggest one being us, of course), especially when they’re small – nobody fears a small shark. But even in their defenseless period, sharks have managed to find a way to adapt. Australian researchers […]
We’ve featured countless research here on ZME Science where important scientific and technological advancements were made after scientists sought inspiration from nature, be them high-tech surfaces (butterfly) or robots (leaping lizard). Recently, researchers at Canada’s University of Sherbrooke managed to improve LED efficiency by 55% after they applied a coating etched with a profile similar to that […]
Scientists and broadcasters announced for the first time that they have captured footage of the extremely elusive giant squid in its own habitat. Japan’s National Science Museum succeeded in filming the deep-sea creature at a depth of more than half a kilometer, but so far, the footage hasn’t been made public. In order to accomplish […]
Just like we build crossings to enable us to pass natural obstacles, wildlife crossings allow animals to pass human-made barriers. They’re useful not just because they protect wildlife from being hit by cars, but also because they connect habitats fragmented by human activity. Wildlife crossings are not new practice in habitat conservation, but so far there […]
Spiders are truly remarkable creatures, but some of them are absolutely unique! This time, biologists working in the Amazon have found a spider that builds elaborate replicas of himself from leaves, debris and insects to confuse predators. The art of deceit From afar, it could mislead even the most experienced eye, hanging in the center […]
Labelled as an outcast by the rest of Santa’s sleigh pulling reindeer, Rudolph the red-nose reindeer, though mocked off, is indispensable and without him Christmas might not make it to every house from all corners of the globe. With his very shiny nose, Rudolph guides Santa’s sleigh even through the harshest of weather, but exactly why […]
Researchers had already known that dogs can sniff out hospital superbug Clostridium defficile from stool samples of patients, but now, a really cute beagle has been trained to sniff out the bacteria from the air in the hospital. C. difficile infection generally occurs in patients who have been recently admitted in hospitals and were previously […]
Biologists have identified a new species of small nocturnal primates, part of the slow loris family, in Borneo’s forests. Don’t be fooled by its cute grim though, this tiny critter packs a punch, as its bite is poisonous and can cause harm to humans. Nevertheless, barely as it was discovered, scientists issued a warning to environmental agencies […]
It may not be the Pandora, but James Cameron dove into one of the most fascinating environments from our planet: the Mariana trench, the deepest point on the face of the Earth. The scientists involved in the project presented the first results at the American Geophysical Union meeting (where else?) in San Francisco. They explained […]
If current climate change trends continue, rising sea levels could prove devastating for low lying coastal areas around the globe, placing the biodiversity at extremely high risks. Islands are especially threatened by rising sea levels, and this study conducted on the Hawaiian islands offers the most detailed and multifaceted assessment available of how island biodiversity […]
If things continue to move in this direction, a few decades from now, we will be living in a world with only a handful of tigers: just over 3000 tigers remain in the wild today! But if you think other species have it much better, then, you’d better take a seat. Africa’s lions have lost […]
We could go on about what free will is until dusk and still not reach a conclusion. Indeed, philosophers have been theorizing free will for thousands of years, but haven’t we neglected an important aspect? There seems to be a general consensus that free will is entirely a human trait, but what of other animals? […]
In 1982, a local resident of Bletchingley, about 20 miles south of London, found the remains of a pigeon while cleaning his home’s chimney. Among the remains, the man found a red cylinder that contained a single sheet of paper marked with 27 codes, each comprised of 4 to 5 characters, delivered through the famous British Pigeon […]
As urban city environments continue to spread, more and more research is being done to measure the effects human pollution of all sorts is affecting the local wildlife. Researchers from the University of Bielefeld in Germany have recently released the results of a study focused on the mating tunes of grasshoppers. They found that the city-boy […]
which your pet seems to actually understand what you’re telling him – no matter how silly the actual act of speaking to a dog might seem to you. Whether its catching a ball or climbing up ramps or chairs to get to your bed, dogs learn to understand commands.. The fact that dogs can identify and […]
Sharks are in a dire position right now, with their numbers decreasing by the millions each year. However, conservationists failed to win new protections for threatened sharks in the Atlantic Ocean at the annual meeting of a major international fisheries commission; they still have hope for following years though, because for the first time, the […]
Autism is a condition we’re just starting to learn about, and currently, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects up to 1 in 110 people. The problem here is that while some drugs do treat some symptoms, none can deal with the social deficits common to ASD in humans. As it turns out, mice, can be autistic […]
There’s a rather common image that might pop inside someone’s head when thinking of penguins – an entire flock of such animals, standing very close together, keeping themselves warm as they confront extreme sub-zero antarctic temperatures. Don’t be fooled, though. According to the results of a mathematical simulation that modeled penguin huddling, the penguins stick […]
It’s the already a clichee: the big, international company wants to do some highly profitable operations, threatening the native wildlife and environment. This time, the corporate behemoth is Northern Dynasty Minerals, of British Columbia, who teamed up with other companies, and now name themselves the Pebble Partnership. In the other corner lies native groups, […]
In a remarkable medical feat, physicians at Cambridge University have restored movement in the hind legs of 23 dogs after they transplanted nerve cells from the animals’ noses. The results suggest that the procedure might hold similar promising prospects for humans suffering from spinal cord injuries. The researchers used 34 pet dogs for their experimental procedure, of […]
They may not take up surfing or start drinking or just being weird around cupcakes, but chimpanzees go through mid life crisis too – just like humans. A survey of 508 great apes in captivity published today shows that the animals just get the blues from the late 20s to mid 30s, and their […]
The world’s oceans are teeming with life, a new census estimating almost 1 million species out there; but marine life is declining, with the main causes being overfishing, ocean acidification and coastal damage. Avoiding a crisis The new numbers are just estimates, but they are much lower than previous studies, which put the number of […]
Law-makers in Canada and the US are making moves to restrict rat poisons based on blood thinners as studies show that the toxins accumulate in birds of prey and other animals. Blood thinning and rats For many people, rats are the worst pets, and they will use all sorts of methods to get rid of […]
Single cell amoebae can remember, make decisions and anticipate change, urging researchers to redefine what we perceive as intelligence as soon as possible. For gardeners, they are usually a pest, for some hikers, a nice view, and for researchers, they are protists, a taxonomic group reserved for “everything we don’t really understand,” says Chris Reid […]
As one of the largest countries in the world, Brazil is home to one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. At the same time, however, it also boosts a number of unique species currently threatened with extinction. Recently, scientists have embarked on a quest to clone wild animal species under threat of obliteration […]
What would you like with your burger? Some anaphylaxis, maybe? No? How about nausea, stomach cramps, indigestion, vomiting, diarrhea, congestion, sneezing, headaches or asthma? If this would happen to me, I would definitely say pass. What does this have to do with a tick or with anything for that matter, one might ask. As it […]
