Desert ants in Tunisia smell in stereo, sensing odours from two different directions at the same time. Pigeons, rats and even people may also smell in stereo, but ants are the first animal known to use it for navigation
An invasion of giant squid in Orange County has fishermen and women hitting the waters off Newport Beach, angling for an unusual catch. The squid, some up to 60 pounds and 4 feet long, were first caught Thursday afternoon, and anglers began making twilight expeditions Friday night to catch the nocturnal sea creatures, which spend daytime close to the ground and rise to the surface at night
For every 300 Muscovites, there’s a stray dog wandering the streets of Russia’s capital. And according to Andrei Poyarkov, a researcher at the AN Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, the fierce pressure of urban living has driven the dogs to evolve wolf-like traits, increased intelligence, and even the ability to navigate the subway
Aurochs were immortalised in prehistoric cave paintings and admired for their brute strength and elephantine
size by Julius Caesar. But despite their having gone the way of the dodo and the woolly mammoth, there are plans to bring the giant animals back to life. The huge cattle with sweeping horns which once roamed the forests of Europe have not been seen for nearly 400 years. Now Italian scientists are hoping to use genetic expertise and selective breeding of modern-day wild cattle to recreate the fearsome beasts which weighed around 2,200lb and stood 6.5 feet at the shoulder. Breeds of large cattle which most closely resemble Bos primigenius, such as Highland cattle and the white Maremma breed from Italy, are being bred with each other in a technique known as back-breeding
. At the same time, scientists say they have for the first time created a map of the auroch’s genome, so that they know precisely what type of animal they are trying to replicate
A deep-sea snail shell’s ability to withstand heavy blows could inspire new generation of body armour. Crysomallon squamiferum, commonly known as the scaly-foot gastropod, was discovered in 1999 in the Kairei black smoker
field on the Central Indian Ridge, at a depth of 2420 metres
Alligators and birds share a breathing mechanism which may have helped their ancestors dominate Earth more than 200 million years ago. Research published in the journal Science found that like birds, in alligators air flows in one direction. Birds’ lung structure allows them to breathe when flying in low oxygen, or hypoxic, conditions. This breathing may have helped a common ancestor of birds and alligators thrive in the hypoxic period of the Triassic
Swedish hunters have begun culling wolves for the first time in 45 years after parliament ruled that numbers needed to be reduced again. More than half the quota of 27 may have died on the first day alone with nine shot dead in Dalarna and up to nine killed in Varmland, Swedish radio says. Hunters have until 15 February to complete the cull, which will leave Sweden with an estimated 210 wolves. Some 10,000 hunters were reported to be planning to take part in the hunt
Researchers believe they have identified the source of fatal tumours that threaten to wipe out the wild population of Tasmanian devils
The Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, was officially declared extinct in 2000 when the last-known animal of its kind was found dead in northern Spain. Shortly before its death, scientists preserved skin samples of the goat, a subspecies of the Spanish ibex that live in mountain ranges across the country, in liquid nitrogen. Using DNA taken from these skin samples, the scientists were able to replace the genetic material in eggs from domestic goats, to clone a female Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo as they are known. It is the first time an extinct animal has been cloned. Sadly, the newborn ibex kid died shortly after birth due to physical defects in its lungs. Other cloned animals, including sheep, have been born with similar lung defects. But the breakthrough has raised hopes that it will be possible to save endangered and newly extinct species by resurrecting them from frozen tissue
Scientists have identified a novel antifreeze molecule in a freeze-tolerant Alaska beetle able to survive temperatures below minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike all previously described biological antifreezes that contain protein, this new molecule, called xylomannan, has little or no protein. It is composed of a sugar and a fatty acid and may exist in new places within the cells of organisms
How far would you go to help save an endangered animal? How about allowing someone to jab ink into your skin with tiny needles, 150 times a second? That’s exactly what hundreds of volunteers signed up for last weekend at ExtInked, where people came from far and wide to have one of Britain’s most endangered species permanently tattooed on their body, making them a life long ambassador for that species
Rhino poaching around the world is on the rise despite efforts to protect the animals. The global surge in the illegal trade has been driven by demands from Asian medicinal markets, the study by conservationists concluded. It suggests that a decline in law enforcement is the main reason for the rise in poaching in Africa. The report found that 95% of rhino poaching in Africa since 2006 had occurred in Zimbabwe and South Africa
An online database, ArachnoServer, will catalogue the venom components of hundreds of spiders and help scientists investigate how their toxins could be used, for example as natural insect sprays or painkillers
An ambitious plan to map the genomes of 10,000 vertebrates has been unveiled, which could change the way we treat disease, protect ecosystems and understand human development. Scientists say the proposed genomic zoo
is the largest study of its kind ever attempted and aims to answer questions about vertebrate evolution and the role of genes
Scientists have engineered a more intelligent rat, with three times the memory length of today’s smartest rats. Reseachers bred transgenic over-expression of the NR2B gene, which increased communication between the rat’s memory synapses. Activating a crucial brain receptor for just a fraction of a second longer produces a dramatic effect on memory, as proven by the rat’s longer memories of the path through a maze — via Slashdot
Despite a 30-year lifespan that gives ample time for cells to grow cancerous, a small rodent species called a naked mole rat has never been found with tumours of any kind — and now biologists at the University of Rochester think they know why. The findings show that the mole rat’s cells express a gene called p16 that makes the cells claustrophobic
, stopping the cells’ proliferation when too many of them crowd together, cutting off runaway growth before it can start. The effect of p16 is so pronounced that when researchers mutated the cells to induce a tumour, the cells’ growth barely changed, whereas regular mouse cells became fully cancerous
A spider that dines almost exclusively on plants has been described by scientists. It is the first-known predominantly vegetarian spider; all of the other known 40,000 spider species are thought to be mainly carnivorous. Bagheera kiplingi, which is found in Central America and Mexico, bucks the meat-eating trend by feasting on acacia plants
Scientists at the University of Utah have developed an adhesive with many possible medical uses, including repairing bone fractures, based on a glue produced by the sandcastle worm. The announcement was made at the August meeting of the American Chemical Society. The worm creates a complex water-based mortar to create a home from grains of sand and bits of shell. The adhesive can stick to wet surfaces and doesn’t dissolve at certain pH levels, making it ideal for medical applications. Once it has done its job, it can become water-soluble and dissolve
In the never-ending battle to protect computer networks from intruders, security experts are deploying a new defence modeled after one of nature’s hardiest creatures — the ant. Unlike traditional security devices, which are static, these digital ants
wander through computer networks looking for threats, such as computer worms
— self-replicating programs designed to steal information or facilitate unauthorised use of machines. When a digital ant detects a threat, it doesn’t take long for an army of ants to converge at that location, drawing the attention of human operators who step in to investigate. The concept, called swarm intelligence, promises to transform cyber security because it adapts readily to changing threats
Chimpanzees ambushing and eating colobus monkeys, great white sharks leaping clean out of the ocean to catch their prey and the first footage of an entire snow leopard hunt are just some of the wonders of nature made available by the BBC as it opens up its vast archive of wildlife footage online today. Over 500 video clips have been made available to view on the BBC’s web site, along with audio and an introduction from Sir David Attenborough
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