Imagine it is unbearably hot where you live. The rain clouds are nowhere in sight and you wish you could escape to a cooler climate, somewhere on the hills. In fact, you set out the very next day, only to find that the road that would take you to the hills is gone. In its […]
Bees Can Connect Symbols To Numbers Just Like Humans
If you show a first grader the symbols 1,2,3,4 he or she would quite easily be able to tell you that these represent the numbers one, two, three and four. Interestingly, if you show a honeybee the same symbols, the bee too might give a knowing buzz of recognition and understand that those symbols represent […]
Elephants Can Make Joints From Their Trunk To Pick Food
It is a nose that can be used as an arm, a hand, a straw, a hose or even to call out your friends. Now researchers have found out how elephants can use their trunks with so much dexterity especially to pick up small objects with ease. Elephants can turn their trunk into a bone-like […]
Bees Stop Buzzing During Solar Eclipse
The North American total solar eclipse of 2017 was a landmark event. Attracting both lay people and scientists in droves, it saw many people turn their gazes to the sky. For a group of researchers however, the elements of interest were bees. For the first time, the behavior of bees in solar eclipses was tracked […]
Caught In Their Silky Web
Did you know there is a spider found in India that looks exactly like an ant, a mimicry that helps the spider save itself from predators? There is also a spider from the genus Lycosa that lives in the leaf litter near water bodies. To save her eggs from drowning,the mother spider carries them on […]
Scientist Finds An Unusual Bond Between Himalayan Bears And Langurs
It was fruiting season of Acorns in the pristine Himalayan alpine forests of the Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary. Researcher Himani Nautiyal was on a field trip to observe the Central Himalayan Langur (Semnopithecus schistaceus)Â and their interactions with livestock, when she observed an interaction of a very different kind. A Himalayan black bear was prowling in the […]
Arabica or Robusta Coffee? These Researchers Asked the Birds!
It’s an age-old debate for coffee lovers. Which is better: Arabica beans with their sweeter, softer taste, or the bold, deep flavor of Robusta beans? A new study by WCS, Princeton University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison appearing in the journal Scientific Reports has taken the question to unlikely coffee aficionados: birds. The researchers, led by WCS […]
To Breed or Not to Breed? Migratory Butterflies of India Make Smart Choices, Finds a New Study
Quick Notes Butterflies of peninsular India that undergo a bidirectional migration every year choose a reproductive pause to conserve energy. Migrating and non-migrating female butterflies have distinct morphological and physiological differences. A non-reproductive state helps migratory butterflies to use energy for the exhaustive 300 km migration journey from Western to Eastern Ghats. Post migration the […]
Humpback Whales Learn Songs Like Humans
Quick Notes Humpback whales can learn songs in segments – verse by verse – like humans Songs are not passed on from generation to generation but learnt from peers as a social learning Songs may be remixed over time, with old and new songs with similar structure pattern mixed together Humpback whales learn songs in […]
The Search Is On For ‘25 Most Wanted’ Animals On The Planet
The Himalayan Quail is a bird from the upper Himalayas in India which was last seen in 1876. The pink headed duck a mysterious duck with pink head and neck was last spotted in 1949. Just like these two there are at least 1200 other species globally that exist and are not really extinct but […]
A Simple Test Just Proved Again How Smart Elephants Are
My pet labrador’s favourite play of the day is to stand in front of the mirror and look at himself. What’s amusing is the way he always tries to look behind or beyond the mirror and sometimes even threaten the ‘dog’ he is face to face with, with a growl. I know, he is very […]