A six-decade breeding experiment with foxes designed to shed light on how wolves became dogs has led to the discovery of genes that favour tame or aggressive behaviour, scientists said Monday. Comparing the sequenced genomes…
Posts tagged animals
Did you know? Bee scent could repel elephants, prevent conflict with humans
Elephants never forget a bee sting. Their eyes and the sensitive, soft tissue inside their trunks are particularly vulnerable to painful stings, and experts believe African elephants(Loxodonta africana) have learned over the centuries to recognize…
RIP: World’s Ugliest Dog dead at age 9
Zsa Zsa’s 15 minutes in the limelight are over: the copiously drooling English bulldog named the World’s Ugliest Dog just weeks ago has died. The nine-year-old canine died in her sleep Tuesday morning, owner Megan…
Conservationists fight to save animals as mass extinction looms
Animal and plant species are vanishing at an accelerating pace around the world — sometimes even before we know that they exist — but conservationists are pushing back against the juggernaut of mass extinction. From…
World’s oldest known spider dies in Australia — of wasp sting
The world’s oldest known spider has died at the ripe old age of 43 after being monitored for years during a long-term population study in Australia, researchers said Monday. The trapdoor matriarch comfortably outlived the…
Popularity of tigers, lions, bears could be their downfall: study
Iconic animals like elephants, tigers, lions and panda bears are everywhere in movies, books and toystores. But their wide pop culture presence skews public perception of how endangered these animals really are, researchers said Thursday….
All the wild horses are extinct: study
All the world’s wild horses have gone extinct, according to a study Thursday that unexpectedly rewrites the horse family tree based on a new DNA analysis of their ancestry. What most people thought were the…
A whale with words: Orca mimics human speech
Her head above water, Wikie the killer whale looks at the human trainer next to her pool, listens, then loudly vocalises: “Hello.” It is not a perfect imitation, but, astonishingly, recognisable. It is the first…
Big cats in evolutionary arms race with prey: study
Lions and cheetah are faster, stronger and no less agile than their prey, but zebras and impalas compensate with a surprising tactic, researchers said Wednesday: slow down, and keep the big cats guessing. Indeed, fleeing…
The Noah’s Ark of animals sent in to space
Three and a half years before Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, a dog called Laika was in 1957 the first living creature to orbit the Earth. The stray from Moscow…