Biologists at Lund University in Sweden have in a recent study shown that the great tit, a common European songbird, has a tremendous capacity for self-control. Up to now, such impulse control has been primarily associated with larger cognitively advanced animals with far larger brains than the great tit. According to the new results, the...
A calmer horse is just a sniff away
How many ways can you think of to stress out a horse? Trailering, bathing, clipping, vet visits, hoof trims, bridling, saddling -- the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, calming options are not. Thanks to research conducted at the University of Arizona, horsemen and horsewomen have a new tool to help manage equine stress, and it's as...
Researchers are first to sequence rare bacteria that causes rampant tooth decay
Fruit fly larvae can taste ribonucleosides, the building blocks of gene transcripts, according to a new study publishing on August 7 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Hubert Amrein and Dushyant Mishra of Texas A&M Health Science Center and their colleagues. Moreover, the ability to detect ribonucleosides in the environment helps promote the rapid...
Hollow trees host massive moth slumber parties
Unlike social insects such as bees and ants, moths are generally loners. So, when Florida Museum of Natural History lepidopterist Andrei Sourakov spotted a dozen glossy black Idia moths inside a hollow tree, he made a mental note.
After he stumbled across 100 of the same species in another hollow tree, he knew he had picked...
Extinct vegetarian cave bear diet mystery unravelled
During the Late Pleistocene period (between 125,000 to 12,000 years ago) two bear species roamed Europe: omnivorous brown bears (Ursus arctos) and the extinct mostly vegetarian cave bear (Ursus spelaeus).
Until now, very little is known about the dietary evolution of the cave bear and how it became a vegetarian, as the fossils of the direct...
Animals can use muscle as an internal water source
Water is vital for life.
But as our climate changes, the availability of water is also changing, leaving animals with limited or unreliable supplies of this critical resource.
However, a new Arizona State University study published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences shows for the first time that animals may...