When large and warty cane toads were first brought to Australia nearly 100 years ago, they had a simple mission: to gobble up beetles and other pests in the sugarcane fields. Today, though, the toads ...
For centuries, unusual animal behavior before earthquakes has been reported worldwide. Livestock becoming restless, wildlife ...
Scientists have recorded same-sex behavior across many animal groups, including mammals, birds, and reptiles. Still, the meaning of that behavior depends on the species and the context. Behavior that ...
Why is it that a squirrel may calmly take food from a picnic table while a deer runs as if its life depends on it at the snap ...
Science has treated same-sex sexual behavior as an “evolutionary conundrum” because it (generally) doesn’t help animals to reproduce, thus ensuring that their genes get passed down and their species ...
A tiger walks the same worn groove along the edge of its exhibit like a broken record. A parrot methodically plucks out its own feathers until bare skin shows through. To a casual visitor, these can ...
During the height of the COVID pandemic, headline stories were peppered with photos of deserted streets from the world’s largest metropolises. Universities quickly began to resemble ghost towns, as ...
Scientists studying the behavior of wild octopuses off the coast of Australia have made a strange discovery, with the creatures caught hurling silt, algae and even shells at one another. The finding ...
Some of the foundational studies in the field were neither ethical by today’s standards nor replicable. But we can do better. Unfortunately for both the field and the dogs themselves, the truth is ...
A dog gives a protective bark, sensing a nearby stranger. A cat slinks by disdainfully, ignoring anyone and everyone. A cow moos in contentment, chewing its cud. At least, that’s what we may think ...
Can bullying behavior ever be stopped? For the last half decade or more our attention to the very real suffering that bullying causes has led to an entire industry focused on “bullies.” Yet for all ...