What do captive flamingos do at night?
Science Daily asks a strange question and the University of Exeter gets a strange answer. At night, when the zookeeper is asleep, what do flamingos […]
zoology
Millipedes are medicine.
Currently, my house is being overwhelmed by millipedes – but I’m not sure I’m ready to embrace the solution suggested by this Science Daily story. […]
SONG: The Russian Cuckoo Reproduces in the Midnight Sun
SONG: “The Russian Cuckoo Reproduces in the Midnight Sun”. ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Popular Science, 7 May 2018, “Russian cuckoos are taking over Alaska”, as used […]
Trained rats can detect tuberculosis.
Nice when they’re fighting the spread of disease rather than the other way around. Science News looks into how to train giant, explosive-sniffing rats to […]
Russian cuckoos are taking over Alaska.
Seems a little metaphorical, but it’s really happening. Popular Science reports on a rapid influx of cuckoos from Russia literally taking over American bird populations […]
Science Art: Growth of Egg of Hen, c. 16th century.
From De formatione ovi, et pulli, by Fabricius ab Aquapendente, also known as Hieronymus Fabricius or Girolamo Fabrizio d’Acquapendente. He was an Italian surgeon who […]
Science Art: Accipitres, Osprey, Goshawk, &c., 1889
Click to embiggen Funny I should have found this image today, right after discussing Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk (a book bloody and wonderful, […]
The Hidden Penguins of the Danger Islands!
Science Daily reveals a genuine lost colony… of penguins. Revealed by satellite photos of their poop. Yes, there’s a previously unknown supercolony of 1.5 million […]
Science Art: Australia’s Largest Birds, from What Bird Is That? by Neville William Cayley.
Click to embiggen Big birds haven’t changed too much since 1931. These are: Anseranas semipalmata Pelecanus conspicillatus Casuarius casuarius Cereopsis novaehollandiae Ardeotis australis Grus rubicunda […]
Here’s what killed all those antelopes on the steppes. It’s warmer now.
Science News gets the answers on what suddenly killed 200,000 saiga antelopes in 2015: “If you come at dawn and dusk, it’s magical,” says E.J. […]
Birds of prey are lighting wildfires. On purpose.
Not that we didn’t have enough to worry about, but Science Alert has, uh, alerted us to the science showing that three species of Australian […]
Science Art: Ordo Fecundus (Steinfurz und Flidermaus), 1553
Click to embiggen slightly An owl and a bat, in German and Latin, as presented by Conrad Gessner in Icones Animalium Quadruped Viviparorum et Oviparorum. […]
Welcome, giant coconut rat. Nice to meet you!
National Geographic (after Nature) introduces us to a brand new mammal species – or new to us, anyway – that tumbled out of a tree […]
Australian birds beat their own drums.
New Scientist gets down with the drum circles of the male palm cockatoos – birds that make their own drumsticks to beat out sexy rhythms: […]
Science Art: The Myology of the Raven, 1890
Click to embiggen This is the head and neck of a raven, Corvus corax sinuatus, as dissected and drawn by Robert W. Shufeldt. I look […]