Crows are one of the most misunderstood creatures in the animal kingdom. Crows are incredibly smart and creative, and this new report shows just how intelligent they are. Recursive sentences are a key part of language, and researchers have long wondered if animals can grasp this concept. Recursion is what allows us to form long […]
Tag: primates
Outgunned by militants, rangers fear for chimpanzees in southwest Mali
Forestry officer Karim Kamisoko is not at his post. Instead of patrolling Bafing Faunal Reserve in southwestern Mali, he and his fellow rangers are 70 kilometers (43 miles) away, taking shelter from Islamist militants who have seized control of much of this part of southwestern Mali. Bafing Faunal Reserve covers 176,000 hectares (435,000 acres), its […]
Climate Crisis and Deforestation Are Bringing Tree-Dwelling Primates Down to Earth
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance postdoctoral associate Timothy Eppley, Ph.D., was observing southern bamboo lemurs in Madagascar when he noticed something odd. Usually, these lemurs spend their entire lives in the trees. But in places where their forest habitat had been thinned by human activity, the primates would risk descending to the ground to search […]
As Indonesia paints rosy picture for orangutans, scientists ask: Where’s the data?
Dutch biologist Erik Meijaard isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers. In the past 15 years, he’s published some 120 opinion pieces in Indonesian newspapers, many of them critical about the state of conservation in the biodiversity-rich country. But even Meijaard didn’t expect his latest article, which challenged government claims that orangutans in the Southeast Asian nation […]
Habitat Destruction, Poachers and Human-Transmitted Disease Could Erase Progress Made With Endangered Mountain Gorilla
The Mountain Gorilla is one of the 10 most endangered animals on Earth, and it may not be here much longer. For decades, mountain gorilla populations have been dwindling as uncontrolled hunting, disease, habitat loss and the ravages of human conflict have taken their toll. The mountain gorilla are now considered endangered. In the 1980s, […]
Male Dolphins Seen Playing ‘Wingman’ to Help Each Other Find Mates
Humans have long been thought to be distinct from other animals in our ability to form complex, multilevel alliances in order to reach shared goals. However, new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Monday shows that male bottlenose dolphins do the same thing, and they do it for a very […]
Female monkeys with female friends live longer
Female white-faced capuchin monkeys living in the tropical dry forests of northwestern Costa Rica may have figured out the secret to a longer life—having fellow females as friends. “As humans, we assume there is some benefit to social interactions, but it is really hard to measure the success of our behavioral strategies,” said UCLA anthropology […]
A rare discovery of long-term memory in wild frog-eating bats
Frog-eating bats trained by researchers to associate a phone ringtone with a tasty treat were able to remember what they learned for up to four years in the wild, new research has found. The study acquainted 49 bats with a series of ringtones that attracted their attention, and trained them to associate flying toward just […]