Animals
Almost three percent of all Americans suffer from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). But when do you cross the line between a neurotic compulsion to check your email every five minutes and mental illness? Ask the animals.
Popularized by the 2005 movie “March of the Penguins,” emperor penguins could be headed toward extinction in at least part of their range before the end of the century.
Native fence lizards in the southeastern United States are adapting to potentially fatal invasive fire-ant attacks by developing behaviors that enable them to escape from the ants, as well as by developing longer hind legs, which can increase the effectiveness of this behavior.
The global trade in frog legs for human consumption is threatening their extinction, according to a new study by an international team including University of Adelaide researchers.
If you are a mouse on the chubby side, then eating less may help you live longer.
Capt. David Williams, founder of the Deafwhale Society, has pounded the table for almost 20 years trying to tell marine mammal scientists and the entire world that pods of whales strand -- 30 days after experiencing a diving-related injury caused by potent pressure changes induce into the water when the seafloor shifts vertically during an undersea earthquake.
Spitting cobras have an exceptional ability to spray venom into eyes of potential attackers. A new study reveals how these snakes maximize their chances of hitting the target.
Living with a female of its species can extend the reproductive life of a male mouse by a dramatic 20 percent, according to a study reported at the online site of the journal Biology of Reproduction.
An incurable, paralyzing disease in humans is now genetically linked to a similar disease in dogs.
An insecticide used to fumigate termite-infested buildings is a strong greenhouse gas that lives in the atmosphere nearly 10 times longer than previously thought.
You notice it in your everyday life, the bewildering diversity in coat colour among our pigs, dogs and other domestic animals.
Animal species that sleep for longer do not suffer as much from parasite infestation and have a greater concentration of immune cells in their blood according to a study published in the open-access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.
A remarkable new discovery shows the four-eyed spookfish to be the first vertebrate ever found to use mirrors, rather than lenses, to focus light in its eyes.
Human-made light sources can alter natural light cycles, causing animals that rely on light cues to make mistakes when moving through their environment. In the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a collaboration of ecologists, biologists and biophysicists has now shown that in addition to direct light, cues from polarized light can trigger animal behaviors leading to injury and often death.
Researchers have discovered that grazing animals such as deer and rabbits are actually helping to spread plant disease – quadrupling its prevalence in some cases – and encouraging an invasion of annual grasses that threaten more than 20 million acres of native grasslands in California.
