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 *really* do?:
… Read the rest “What do captive flamingos do at night?”“For lots of species
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. Seems that lemurs … Read the rest “Millipedes are medicine.”
SONG: “The Russian Cuckoo Reproduces in the Midnight Sun”.
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Popular Science, 7 May 2018, “Russian cuckoos are taking over Alaska”, as… Read the rest “SONG: The Russian Cuckoo Reproduces in the Midnight Sun”
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 find early signs of TB infections… Read the rest “Trained rats can detect tuberculosis.”
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 from within… Read the rest “Russian cuckoos are taking over Alaska.”
![Growth of Egg of Hen, from De formatione ovi, et pulli / [Fabricius ab Aquapendente]](https://guildofscientifictroubadours.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GrowthofEggofHen.jpg)
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 helped found… Read the rest “Science Art: Growth of Egg of Hen, c. 16th century.”
Funny I should have found this image today, right after discussing Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk (a book bloody and wonderful, including cameos by Merlin Sylvestris,… Read the rest “Science Art: Accipitres, Osprey, Goshawk, &c., 1889”
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 Adelie… Read the rest “The Hidden Penguins of the Danger Islands!”
Big birds haven’t changed too much since 1931.
These are:
Science News gets the answers on what suddenly killed 200,000 saiga antelopes in 2015:
… Read the rest “Here’s what killed all those antelopes on the steppes. It’s warmer now.”“If you come at dawn and dusk, it’s magical,” says E.J. Milner-Gulland, a conservation biologist
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 raptors are picking up burning sticks to… Read the rest “Birds of prey are lighting wildfires. On purpose.”
An owl and a bat, in German and Latin, as presented by Conrad Gessner in Icones Animalium Quadruped Viviparorum et Oviparorum.
This may have been more timely on… Read the rest “Science Art: Ordo Fecundus (Steinfurz und Flidermaus), 1553”
National Geographic (after Nature) introduces us to a brand new mammal species – or new to us, anyway – that tumbled out of a tree in the Solomon Islands. This is the once-mythical,… Read the rest “Welcome, giant coconut rat. Nice to meet you!”
New Scientist gets down with the drum circles of the male palm cockatoos – birds that make their own drumsticks to beat out sexy rhythms:
… Read the rest “Australian birds beat their own drums.”Palm cockatoos are the only species other than
This is the head and neck of a raven, Corvus corax sinuatus, as dissected and drawn by Robert W. Shufeldt.
I look at this and am impressed by the beauty of the anatomy. Then … Read the rest “Science Art: The Myology of the Raven, 1890”
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