A typical roundworm measures roughly 2.7% of the average length of a Bengal tiger or weighs just three-millionths of one percent of the largest of the world’s big cats. Though these parasites do not pose a major threat to Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris), researchers across South Asia, the cat’s native range, warn that parasitic infections […]
Category: Wildlife
“That puzzled us quite a bit.” Scientists found another astonishing thing about narwhals after X-raying their tusks
An international team of researchers has solved the mystery of how narwhal tusks acquire their twisted structure. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications. Narwhals are often called the ‘unicorns of the seas’, and not without reason. Back in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the narwhal tusk was often sold as a unicorn horn. The mythical […]
Superb fairywrens disappearing in Australia’s capital: Conserving insects could help save them
If you sit in an Australian park or garden for long enough, chances are you might catch a flash of brilliant feathers out of the corner of your eye: the superb fairywren. With its bright blue and soft brown plumage, it was voted Australia’s “bird of the year” in 2021, “narrowly defeating the tawny frogmouth […]
It’s covered in terrifying quills so, what could possibly eat a porcupine?
Can any animals eat porcupines? Surely not as porcupine quills present an impenetrable thicket to most predators. But these backward-pointing defences are only effective if the rodent can keep its assailant to its rear. What animals can eat porcupines? In North America, pumas and fishers (marten-like mammals) are skilled porcupine predators, outmanoeuvring their quarry to launch their attacks from the […]
Vietnam seizes 1.2 tons of ivory, plus big cat bones, hidden in timber shipment
Authorities in Vietnam have intercepted more than a ton of elephant ivory along with big-cat bones in a shipment from the Republic of Congo. Gia Lai provincial authorities announced that the haul of 1,193 kilograms (2,630 pounds) of ivory and 79.3 kg (175 lb) of bones was uncovered at Quy Nhon Port in early August. […]
They should be enemies… but what these 2 animals do for each other has amazed experts and left them speechless
Many mammals indulge in mutual grooming to remove ticks and other parasites from their fur and skin but, aside from the occasional intriguing anecdote, it is unheard of for one mammal species to groom another. But Andy Plumptre of the Wildlife Conservation Society reports that just such cross-species co-operation regularly occurs between warthogs and banded mongooses […]
Judge rules 2,000 Catalina Island deer can be killed to save native plant species
Locals and tourists have long fawned over Catalina Island’s mule deer population. For nearly a century, the ungulates have roamed the land’s waterfronts and woodlands, so comfortable around humans that it is not uncommon to spot deer roaming downtown Avalon. But that sight will soon disappear, after a judge this week paved the way for […]
“It thrusts its spear into the cavity, killing or severely wounding any dozing animal inside before pulling out its skewered quarry…”
Did you know there are animals that use weapons to kill? The chimpanzees that live in the savannahs of Senegal are such animals. There is considerably less food available in this arid habitat than in the forests occupied by other populations, so the great apes of the savannah have learned to fashion and use spears to take advantage of […]