Camera traps from inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone reveal how the occupation of Russian forces at the site in February and March 2022 altered the behavior of wildlife living in the area.

After the invasion, which involved significant armed conflict inside the exclusion zone, mammals like deer and horses became less active and spent less time moving around at night, a new study reports.

Researchers discovered the changes by comparing footage from camera traps collected during the early months of Russia's 2022 invasion with recordings from the same period a year earlier, before the conflict began. The findings, published Thursday (June 18) in the journal Science, offer a rare glimpse of how animals respond to the immediate disruption caused by warfare.

"I wish the opportunity to analyze how the unfolding invasion affected wildlife ha[d] never happened," Svitlana Kudrenko, who conducted the study as part of her PhD at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in Germany, told Live Science in an email. "Unlike in preindustrial times, current interstate conflicts are highly detrimental for wildlife because of a long list of warfare, often operated remotely."

The study took place in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, a roughly 1,000-square-mile (2,600 square kilometers) area surrounding the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Following the reactor explosion, authorities evacuated the region and restricted most human activity. Over the decades, with little to no human activity, wildlife populations have flourished, turning the zone into a natural laboratory for scientists studying ecosystem recovery and animal behavior.

But in February 2022, Russian forces seized control of the region during the beginning stages of the invasion of Ukraine. Military vehicles, troop movements, weapons being fired and other wartime disturbances suddenly transformed one of Europe's most unusual wildlife refuges into an active war zone.

To investigate the impact, researchers analyzed data from camera traps already operating in the exclusion zone from 2020 to 2022. Studying the ecological effects of armed conflict is difficult because war zones are dangerous and often hard for researchers to access.

By using the existing network of automated cameras, the scientists captured wildlife responses that would have been impossible to record otherwise. In total, the team analyzed almost 2,000 photographs and videos from the exclusion zone to build a picture of behavioral changes in response to the conflict.

The images and footage revealed responses from 11 wild mammal species, ‪showing that some animals changed their behavior during periods of heavier fighting.

Several mammal species — including roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), moose (Alces alces) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) — were less active during the occupation than before the conflict, especially at night, the team reported.

The findings suggest that the impact of conflict can ripple through entire ecosystems. While Russia no longer occupies the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the authors highlighted that this study still shows how animal behavior can adapt to warfare.

Camera traps could become a valuable tool for measuring the environmental costs of conflict and understanding how wildlife copes with sudden human disturbances across the globe, the researchers added.

"Our study highlights the need to develop and implement research and conservation strategies focusing on armed conflict impacts on wildlife and environment in general, especially in areas of conservation importance," Kudrenko said.

What do you know about the animal kingdom? Test your knowledge with our animal quiz!

For years scientists assumed that sloths don't fart — believing the methane produced by their slow digestive system was simply absorbed into their bloodstreams and breathed out through their mouths. But now, researchers have captured what's likely the first-ever footage of a farting sloth.

The video, showing a baby Hoffman's two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) letting rip in a bucket of water, was shared by zoologist and presenter Lucy Cooke (@luckycooke) and wildlife veterinarian Andrés Sáenz Bräutigam (@slothvet.ands) on Instagram on Tuesday (July 15).

"Yes, sloths do fart. And I may have just witnessed the first documented case," Cooke wrote in the post.

Cooke told Live Science that the "sloths don't fart" idea was popularized by biologist Dani Rabaiotti and researcher Nick Caruso's book "Does it Fart?: The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence" (Quercus Publishing, 2017), which highlighted sloths as the only mammals that don't fart.

"I always thought it curious that sloths would 'reabsorb' their intestinal gas into the blood stream, and then breathe it out," Cooke said in an email. "But the author is a biologist and her well-researched book was backed by academic references, which I also checked."

Related: Does It Fart? 10 Fascinating Facts About Animal Toots

But when Bräutigam, a vet at the Toucan Rescue Ranch in Costa Rica who has studied sloths for over a decade, Cooke that these tree-dwellers do indeed toot, she was not surprised. "It was hard to see the advantage of evolving such a torturous mechanism for release. It's not as if sloths have to worry about the social embarrassment of farting!" Cooke said.

Bräutigam said that, contrary to popular belief, sloths are actually very gassy creatures. "Sloths are big fermenters and some of the biggest methane producers out there," he told Live Science via Instagram. "Some studies even claim that they can produce more gas than ruminants like cows (per kg of body weight, a cow is much heavier so they produce much more methane)."

Sloths are actually so gassy that it can make them difficult to study. "If you work with sloths you live with their gas, everywhere on X-rays, interfering with ultrasounds, it can actually be a huge concern," Bräutigam said. "They're so gassy that they even use their stomach gas to float when in the water."

In the wild, sloths mostly live off a diet of leaves, relying on bacteria in their guts to help them break it all down. However, in captivity their diet is often supplemented with vegetables, which Bräutigam said makes them even gassier. "If you [feed them] material that's easier to digest [like vegetables], the bacteria party it up and just create more and more gas," he said. "In this way, gas and the pressure associated with it can be a huge issue."

Unlike cows, which belch out most of their excess methane, sloths have an incredibly strong esophagus, which means they can't vomit or burp. But all this gas still needs to go somewhere. "We learnt that placing a sloth in a warm wet bath for a short time helps stimulate them to do their business and let all that gas loose," Bräutigam said.

And if you're wondering what sloth farts smell like, Bräutigam described them as "silent but deadly."

The finding shows that we still have a lot to learn about these slow-moving creatures. "It's an example of how even peer-reviewed science can get carried away with itself and a reminder that these slow-moving oddballs are still full of surprises. Sometimes quite literally," Cooke said.

Incredibly rare footage has captured a mother snow leopard and her three cubs trudging through thick snow in the mountains of northern Pakistan.

Sakhawat Ali, a gamekeeper at the Central Karakoram National Park in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, spotted the elusive animals on March 13 in a remote village called Hushe after two weeks of tracking their pugmarks [pawprints].

"Spotting four snow leopards is a great joy, as it indicates that the snow leopard population is increasing," Ali told Live Science.

Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are an elusive species of big cat that can be found in mountainous areas across 12 countries in Central and Eastern Asia, and sightings are exceedingly rare. Their white coats render them almost invisible against the snowy mountains they call home, and more than 70% of their habitat remains unexplored, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Since late February, Ali said he had been noticing snow leopard pugmarks around the village. "While I was on the roof of my house, I used binoculars to observe the mountains and spotted a female snow leopard along with her four cubs," he said. "I quickly moved closer and filmed them from a distance of about 250 meters [820 feet]."

Related: 50 of the most endangered species on the planet

Snow leopards are usually solo travellers, so seeing four together is exceedingly rare.

"In the village [of Hushe] we are used to seeing snow leopards, but nobody, not even the elders that I spoke to, have ever seen four snow leopards in one go," Ali told CNN.

Female snow leopards typically have between one and five cubs with each litter, according to WWF. At three months old, the cubs begin to follow their mother out of their dens to learn how to hunt in their environment. However, they stay with their mothers until they are almost 2-years-old, according to San Diego Zoo.

The big cats are considered vulnerable to extinction, with only 4,000 to 6,000 individuals left worldwide, according to WWF estimates.

The Baltistan Wildlife Conservation and Development Organization (BWCDO), which shared Ali's video on Facebook, said the sighting was a positive sign of successful conservation efforts in the Hushe Valley area. However, the species still faces numerous threats.

According to the United Nations Environment Program, poaching, habitat fragmentation, prey depletion and climate change all threaten the snow leopard's existence.

After months on the move, the world's largest iceberg, A23a, has run aground off the remote British island of South Georgia, representatives from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) reported on Tuesday (Mar. 4).

The megaberg, which is roughly the size of Rhode Island, struck shallow waters 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the South Atlantic wildlife haven, the BBC reports, and researchers are keenly observing what it will do next.

"In the last few decades, the many icebergs that end up taking this route through the Southern Ocean soon break up, disperse and melt," Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer at the BAS, said in a statement. "It will be interesting to see what will happen now."

A23a, nicknamed the "queen of icebergs," first broke off from Antarctica's Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. However, it remained tethered to the seabed for more than three decades before it finally began to break free in 2020, according to the BAS.

In 2024, the icy colossus then got stuck again, spinning in one spot for several months just north of the South Orkney Island. But in December 2024 it broke free once more and continued its journey northwards.

When A23a's trajectory towards South Georgia first became apparent in January, experts feared a collision could be catastrophic for the large colonies of penguins, seals and other marine wildlife that live there.

Related: 45-mile-long iceberg slams into penguin refuge in Antarctica, almost causing ecological disaster

If the megaberg stays grounded, Meijers said it is unlikely to pose a significant threat to the local wildlife. But if it moves closer to the island or breaks apart, "it could interrupt their pathway to feeding sites and force the adults to expend more energy to travel around it," he said. "This could reduce the amount of food coming back to pups and chicks on the island, and so increase mortality."

Similar fears were raised in 2020, when the previous world's largest iceberg, A68a, came perilously close to grounding right next to South Georgia before it was eventually ripped apart into many smaller pieces by ocean currents.

However, there could also be an upside to the recent iceberg grounding: "If the berg is stimulating ocean productivity, this could actually boost populations of local predators like seals and penguins," Meijers said.

As well as stirring up nutrients from the ocean floor, megabergs also contain a vast amount of nutrients locked away in their ice. "It's like dropping a nutrient bomb into the middle of an empty desert," Nadine Johnston, a marine ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey, told BBC.

However, Meijers added that, as the berg disintegrates, it might pose a threat to local sailors and fishermen. "Commercial fisheries have been disrupted in the past however, and as the berg breaks into smaller pieces, this might make fishing operations in the area both more difficult and potentially hazardous."

BAS will continue to monitor the effects of this iceberg on the surrounding ecosystem.

Ground squirrels usually eat seeds and nuts, but in a park in California, these cute, furry creatures have turned into carnivorous killers, mercilessly hunting down voles to peel the flesh from their bones.

The unusual new behavior, which researchers caught on camera in Briones Regional Park in Contra Costa County, could be driven by an explosion in vole numbers, according to a new study published Wednesday (Dec. 18) in the Journal of Ethology.

Students have been observing squirrels in Briones Regional Park for 12 years as part of a long-term research project at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the University of California, Davis. In all that time, researchers had never witnessed anything like what they saw in the summer of 2024.

Study lead author Jennifer Smith, an associate professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, co-leads the park research project — called "Team Squirrel." When two students first approached her with a video of the killer squirrels, she didn't know what to make of it.

"I was shocked, in disbelief, and, frankly, very excited to learn more about what was going on," Smith told Live Science in an email. "At first, I questioned whether the squirrels were actively hunting the voles in the area. Team Squirrel made it our mission to document full hunting, killing and consumption events from start to finish using digital photography of these carnivorous squirrels."

Related: Tufted ground squirrel: The Borneo rodent once believed to disembowel deer and feast on their organs

The squirrel family is known to be fairly flexible when it comes to their dinner. California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi) are mostly vegetarian, but they will also eat insects, eggs, hatchling birds and even each other's young, according to the study. However, actively hunting adult mammals still marks a significant shift in the squirrels' behavior.

The team observed the squirrels hunting California voles (Microtus californicus californicus) almost every day between June 10 and July 30, which suggests the behavior became fairly common this year. A typical hunt involved a single ground squirrel chasing a vole down and biting it, often at the neck or head, Smith said.

"Not all hunts were successful, but once captured, the squirrels typically started to eat the head – bones and all – and then move to pull meat from the bones of the voles," Smith added.

In some cases, one squirrel would get a vole, and then another squirrel would come along to try to steal the kill. The study authors noted that this competition over meat led to aggressive interactions between squirrels.

Why are squirrels killing voles?

The squirrel rampage coincided with a boom in the local vole population. Some vole populations are stable, but most increase and decrease over a multi-year cycle, peaking every three to five years, according to the study. Vole numbers in California appear to have peaked this year, with many more voles reported compared with previous years — roughly seven times more than the 10-year average.

The study authors linked the squirrels' new hunting behavior to this sudden increase in vole availability. Smith said that the voles aren't likely to be as abundant next year, so the squirrels are likely to switch back to eating seeds.

Team Squirrel will continue to monitor the squirrels next year to better understand the impact of this hunting behavior.

"Perhaps one of the most fascinating next steps will be to understand the fitness consequences — in terms of survival and reproduction — in response to this carnivorous behavior," Smith said. "Squirrels, like most rodents, are what we call "income breeders." More food, especially a high-quality meat diet, should mean more babies coming out."

When asked about the possibility of squirrels taking on rats, Smith noted that it was possible the squirrels might start hunting other rodents, but it's unlikely to be rats.

"Ground squirrels are roughly 10 times heavier than voles, so this size advantage likely was an important factor contributing to their successful hunting strategy," Smith said. "Rats, on the other hand, are of more comparable size to ground squirrels and equally smart, presenting an even bigger challenge to a ground squirrel."

A gang of orcas off the coast of Mexico have learned how to hunt whale sharks — the world's largest shark species — and their tactics are brutal.

One male individual was present at the majority of these hunting events, researchers say, suggesting he may be driving this predatory behavior.

"The animals have shown us over and over again that they are extremely good at developing highly specialized strategies to target specific prey," Volker Deecke, a professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Cumbria in the U.K., told Live Science in an email. "This is a fascinating behaviour." Deecke specializes in marine mammal biology but was not involved in the new study.

Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are the largest fish in the sea, weighing up to 40 tons (36 metric tons) and usually growing up to 40 feet (12 meters) long, according to the National Ocean Service. The largest of these ocean giants can reach lengths of over 60 feet (18 m) — about as long as a bowling lane.

In comparison, orcas (Orcinus orca), also known as killer whales, rarely surpass 32 feet (10 m), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries. However, researchers have discovered that these formidable predators have developed strategies to take down the marine mammoths. The findings were published Nov. 29 in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

The researchers characterized this new hunting behavior by analyzing photos and video footage from the southern Gulf of California, taken between 2018 and 2024. They observed four such hunting events in total.

Related: Orcas start wearing dead salmon hats again after ditching the trend for 37 years

The orcas started by hitting the whale sharks at high speeds, in order to stun them and turn them upside down. In this position, the sharks were unable to move or escape into deeper water, study co-author Jesús Erick Higuera Rivas, a marine biologist at non-profit research organization Conexiones Terramar, said in a statement.

The orcas then attacked the whale sharks' pelvic area, causing them to bleed out and giving the orcas access to the sharks' nutrient-dense livers.

The researchers didn't actually see the orcas eating their livers, but the organ is known to be a favorite delicacy among orca pods elsewhere.

In three of the four recorded events, a large male adult orca called Moctezuma engaged in the group hunt. The fourth event was orchestrated by females that had previously been spotted with Moctezuma, suggesting he may have been teaching these tactics to other members of the pod. However, this theory has yet to be confirmed.

It is also unclear whether this is a new behavior or if it has been going on for years without detection. "More likely the increase in human activity (and availability of affordable waterproof cameras) has meant that a rare behaviour that has been present for some time is more likely to be detected (and recorded)," Deecke said.

"Studies across the globe have shown that individual killer whale groups and populations specialize on a few prey types that they hunt using very specialized hunting techniques. The fact the animals in the Gulf of California have evolved a strategy to attack and consume whale sharks is therefore not that surprising, but fascinating nonetheless."

For octopuses, changing color burns about as many calories as a human on a 30 minute jog pound for pound, new research suggests.

Octopuses are masters of disguise, changing color at the drop of a hat to startle predators and hide from prey. But the energetic cost of this shade shifting has remained a mystery.

Now, for the first time, biologists have measured how much energy these animals actually use for their total tonal transformations. The finding can tell scientists more about these animals' biology.

"All animal adaptation come[s] with both benefits and costs," study senior author Kirt Onthank, a marine biologist and biology professor at Walla Walla University in Washington, told Live Science. "We know a lot about the benefits of the octopus color change system, but until now we have known virtually nothing about the costs. By knowing the costs of color change to the octopus, we have a better understanding of what types of trade-offs octopuses are making in order to stay hidden."

Like many other cephalopods, octopuses have a special set of small organs in their skin called chromatophores.

Related: How do octopuses change color?

"Each chromatophore is a small, stretchy sac of pigment that has rays of muscles attached to it like spokes of a wheel attached to the hub," Onthank said. "When the muscle[s] are relaxed, the sac of pigment is collapsed to a small point that is generally too small to see. When the muscle[s] contract, they stretch this sac of pigment out over a small patch of skin, and the color inside can be seen."

Each of these chromatophores is like a tiny pixel on a screen. "Octopuses have 230 chromatophores per square millimeter on their skin," Onthank said. "To put this into context, a 4K 13-inch laptop monitor has about 180 pixels per square millimeter."

To change color, thousands of tiny muscles in these pixel-like organs contract. "By controlling each of these chromatophores with their nervous system, they [octopuses] can create very elaborate and impressive camouflage or displays," Onthank said.

In the new study, published Nov. 18 in the journal PNAS, Onthank and first author Sofie Sonner, who conducted the research as part of her master's thesis at Walla Walla University in Washington state, collected skin samples from 17 ruby octopuses (Octopus rubescens) and measured oxygen consumption during chromatophore expansion and contraction. They then compared this to each octopus's resting metabolic rate.

The average octopus used about 219 micromoles of oxygen per hour to fully change color—roughly the same amount of energy they use to carry out all other bodily functions when at rest, the study found.

By scaling up their calculations to match human surface area, Onthank said that, if our species had color-changing octopus skin, we would burn roughly 390 extra calories a day changing color — about the same as completing a 23-minute run.

Octopuses and cephalopods aren't the only animals that can change color. "Rapid color change has evolved independently multiple times across a diverse array of animal taxa, including in amphibians, reptiles, fish, arthropods, and mollusks, which shows its widespread adaptive significance," Sonner told Live Science.

However, cephalopods' color transformations are much quicker and more precise. "Most other animals that can rapidly change color, like chameleons, use hormones to control the system and pigments inside cell[s]," Onthank said. Those methods are slower but probably also use less energy, he added.

The researchers hope to use their system to measure energy expenditure in other cephalopod species, as well as deep sea octopuses, to better understand these energetic trade-offs and, in turn, to gain new insights into octopus biology.

Psychologists know that childhood trauma, or the experience of harmful or adverse events, can have lasting repercussions on the health and well-being of people well into adulthood. But while the consequences of early adversity have been well researched in humans, people aren't the only ones who can experience adversity.

If you have a rescue dog, you probably have witnessed how the abuse or neglect it may have experienced earlier in life now influence its behavior — these pets tend to be more skittish or reactive. Wild animals also experience adversity. Although their negative experiences are easy to dismiss as part of life in the wild, they still have lifelong repercussions — just like traumatic events in people and pets.

As behavioral ecologists, we are interested in how adverse experiences early in life can affect animals' behavior, including the kinds of decisions they make and the way they interact with the world around them. In other words, we want to see how these experience affect the way they behave and survive in the wild.

Many studies in humans and other animals have shown the importance of early life experiences in shaping how individuals develop. But researchers know less about how multiple, different instances of adversity or stressors can accumulate within the body and what their overall impact is on an animal's well-being.

Wild populations face many kinds of stressors. They compete for food, risk getting eaten by a predator, suffer illness and must contend with extreme weather conditions. And as if life in the wild wasn't hard enough, humans are now adding additional stressors such as chemical, light and sound pollution, as well as habitat destruction.

Given the widespread loss of biodiversity, understanding how animals react to and are harmed by these stressors can help conservation groups better protect them. But accounting for such a diversity of stressors is no easy feat. To address this need and demonstrate the cumulative impact of multiple stressors, our research team decided to develop an index for wild animals based on psychological research on human childhood trauma.

A cumulative adversity index

Developmental psychologists began to develop what psychologists now call the adverse childhood experiences score, which describes the amount of adversity a person experienced as a child. Briefly, this index adds up all the adverse events — including forms of neglect, abuse or other household dysfunction — an individual experienced during childhood into a single cumulative score.

This score can then be used to predict later-life health risks such as chronic health conditions, mental illness or even economic status. This approach has revolutionized many human health intervention programs by identifying at-risk children and adults, which allows for more targeted interventions and preventive efforts.

So, what about wild animals? Can we use a similar type of score or index to predict negative survival outcomes and identify at-risk individuals and populations?

Related: Why do some animals adopt other animals' young?

These are the questions we were interested in answering in our latest research paper. We developed a framework on how to create a cumulative adversity index — similar to the adverse childhood experiences score, but for populations of wild animals. We then used this index to gain insights about the survival and longevity of yellow-bellied marmots. In other words, we wanted to see whether we could use this index to estimate how long a marmot would live.

A marmot case study

Yellow-bellied marmots are a large ground squirrel closely related to groundhogs. Our research group has been studying these marmots in Colorado at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory since 1962.

Yellow-bellied marmots are an excellent study system because they are diurnal, or active during the day, and they have an address. They live in burrows scattered across a small, defined geographical area called a colony. The size of the colony and the number of individuals that reside within varies greatly from year to year, but they are normally composed of matrilines, which means related females tend to remain within the natal colony, while male relatives move away to find a new colony.

Yellow-bellied marmots hibernate for most of the year, but they become active between April and September. During this active period, we observe each colony daily and regularly trap each individual in the population — that's over 200 unique individuals just in 2023. We then mark their backs with a distinct symbol and give them uniquely numbered ear tags so they can be later identified.

Although they can live up to 15 years, we have detailed information about the life experiences of individual marmots spanning almost 30 generations. They were the perfect test population for our cumulative adversity index.

Among the sources of adversity, we included ecological measures such as a late spring, a summer drought and high predator presence. We also included parental measures such as having an underweight or stressed mother, being born or weaned late, and losing their mother. The model also included demographic measures such as being born in a large litter or having many male siblings.

Importantly, we looked only at females, since they are the ones who tend to stay home. Therefore, some of the adversities listed are only applicable to females. For example, females born in litters with many males become masculinized, likely from the high testosterone levels in the mother's uterus. The females behave more like males, but this also reduces their life span and reproductive output. Therefore, having many male siblings is harmful to females, but maybe not to males.

So, does our index, or the number of adverse events a marmot experienced early on, explain differences in marmot survival? We found that, yes, it does.

Experiencing even just one adversity event before age 2 nearly halved an adult marmot's odds of survival, regardless of the type of adversity they experienced. This is the first record of lasting negative consequences from losing a mother in this species.

So what?

Our study isn't the only one of its kind. A few other studies have used an index similar to the human adverse childhood experiences score with wild primates and hyenas, with largely similar results. We are interested in broadening this framework so that other researchers can adopt it for the species they study.

A better understanding of how animals can or cannot cope with multiple sources of adversity can inform wildlife conservation and management practices. For example, an index like ours could help identify at-risk populations that require a more immediate conservation action.

Instead of tackling the one stressor that seems to have the greatest effect on a species, this approach could help managers consider how best to reduce the total number of stressors a species experiences.

For example, changing weather patterns driven by global heating trends may create new stressors that a wildlife manager can't address. But it might be possible to reduce how many times these animals have to interact with people during key times of the year by closing trails, or providing extra food to replace the food they lose from harsh weather.

While this index is still in early development, it could one day help researchers ask new questions about how animals adapt to stress in the wild.

This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Rats thrive around humans, for good reason: They feed off crops and garbage and readily adapt to many settings, from farms to the world's largest cities. To control them, people often resort to poisons. But chemicals that kill rats can also harm other animals.

The most commonly used poisons are called anticoagulant rodenticides. They work by interfering with blood clotting in animals that consume them. These enticingly flavored bait blocks are placed outside of buildings, in small black boxes that only rats and mice can enter. But the poison remains in the rodents' bodies, threatening larger animals that prey on them.

My colleagues and I recently reviewed studies from around the world that sought to document wild mammal carnivores' exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides. Many animals tested in these studies were already dead; others were alive and a part of other studies.

Researchers detected rodenticides in about one-third of the animals in these analyses, including bobcats, foxes and weasels. They directly linked the poisons to the deaths of one-third of the deceased animals — typically, by finding the chemicals in the animals' liver tissues.

RELATED: Rat poison harms famous California cougar

Most poisons that these studies detected were so-called second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, developed since 1970. These products are used exclusively in residential and urban areas and can kill a rat or mouse after just one night's feeding. First-generation rodenticides, which typically are used only on farms, require several doses to kill.

These poisons are widely available, and their use is largely unregulated in most countries. Using rodenticides is projected to increase and may be contributing to declines in many carnivore species around the world.

Rising through food chains

When wild animals consume rat poison — typically, by eating a poisoned rat — the effects may include internal bleeding and lesions, lethargy and a reduced immune response, which can make them more susceptible to other diseases. In many cases the animal will die. Sometimes these deaths occur at scales large enough to reduce local predator populations.

We began our review by compiling a list of 34 species known to be exposed to rat poisons. They included members of the weasel and dog families, such as stoats, western polecats and red foxes, along with wild cats and other carnivores.

Some of these predators, such as mountain lions and gray wolves, don't usually hunt rodents. Rodenticides have even been detected in semiaquatic predators such as river otters, which normally eat crustaceans and fish.

It's likely that large carnivores such as wolves are consuming rat poison by eating other poisoned carnivores, such as raccoons and bobcats.

This movement of poisons up the food chain is called bioaccumulation. In the best-known example, bald eagles and other birds of prey were exposed to the pesticide DDT in fish they consumed before the U.S. banned DDT in 1972. Many affected species, including bald eagles, ospreys and peregrine falcons, were drastically reduced for years due to the effects of DDT on their populations.

RELATED: Massive DDT dumping ground found off the Los Angeles coast is bigger than anyone thought

Carnivores at risk

We found dozens of previous studies that attempted to quantify exposure risk, usually by examining animals' habitats. Some studies found an elevated risk of consuming rat poison in urban and agricultural areas, but many also found a high correlation with natural spaces.

For example, a 2012 study found rodenticides in fishers and martens that spent time near illegal cannabis growing sites in Humboldt County, California, where growers were protecting their fields with rat poisons.

Other potential contributors to exposure included the animal's sex and age. All in all, understanding which animals are at risk requires more study.

Most research on this topic is being conducted in North America and Europe. Only a handful of studies to date have focused on South Africa, New Zealand or Australia, although over half of all carnivore species of global concern are found in Asia, Africa or South America.

In Africa, for example, anticoagulant rat poisons could threaten species such as the black-footed cat, which is classified as vulnerable. These poisons are also widely used across Asia, particularly at palm oil plantations. Many wild species live in this type of forested agricultural area, including carnivores that hunt rodents, such as common palm civets and leopard cats.

Our study found that 19% of carnivore species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of threatened species have ranges that overlap entirely or partially with countries where rat poison exposure has been documented in wildlife. However, only 2% of Red List species list rodenticides as a recognized threat, and none are included in the 19% that our review indicates may be threatened by rodenticide exposure. This suggests that wildlife researchers and conservationists are not fully aware of the reach of these poisons.

Kiawah bobcats

I am doing my dissertation research on South Carolina's Kiawah Island, where biologists have detected anticoagulant rodenticides in bobcats. The island's bobcats have been GPS-collared and monitored since the early 2000s in one of the longest multigenerational studies of a carnivore in the world.

In late 2019 and early 2020, three bobcats were found dead due to rodenticide poisoning, including two females that died while giving birth. The bobcat population dropped from an estimated 30 to as few as 10 individual cats. These deaths attracted media attention, spurred efforts to curtail use of poisons on the island and kick-started research to understand how rat poisons were affecting bobcats.

Kiawah is a popular resort destination, but these bobcats have persisted through decades of housing development. Part of my work seeks to tease apart how rodenticides and urbanization are affecting the cats.

In 2020, Kiawah residents volunteered to stop using rodenticides on the island, and the town government carried out public education campaigns explaining the threat to wildlife. Today there are about 20 bobcats on the island, and work continues to end use of rodenticides.

These poisons have contributed to the deaths of other charismatic animals, including urban mountain lions in Southern California and Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from New York City's Central Park Zoo and lived for months in the park. In Europe, rodenticides have been found in the carcasses of Italian wolves.

Rats damage property, contaminate food and spread diseases, so controlling them is a human health concern. However, my research adds to evidence that better control methods are needed to reduce the need for anticoagulant rodenticides.

Community-level efforts like those on Kiawah Island can help. So can cleaning up trash in cities. But better regulation and tracking of rat poison use is likely to be needed in many places around the world.

This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Humans are very good at wiping out wildlife. From dodos, to golden toads, to Tasmanian tigers, many species have succumbed to our unique blend of destruction. But just how many animal species have humans driven to extinction?

Scientists don't have an exact answer to this question, and it's a tricky number to estimate. However, it could be hundreds of thousands.

Let's start with the confirmed extinctions. A total of 777 animals have gone extinct since the beginning of the modern era in 1500, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Some of those extinctions could have been natural, but humans will have had a hand in almost — if not all — of them given how much we've impacted nature, particularly over the last 500 years. Humans began contributing to extinctions thousands of years ago, long before 1500, but scientists weren't around to study those extinctions and there's enough uncertainty surrounding today's extinction rate, so we'll focus on roughly the past 500 years. 

The IUCN has assessed the extinction risk of only about 5% of the world's known species, so there must be many more extinctions that have not been recorded. A 2022 study published in the journal Biological Reviews suggested that as many as 150,000 to 260,000 of all known species could have perished since roughly 1500. 

The numbers were so large, they surprised the study's lead author, Robert Cowie, a research professor at the University of Hawaii. "I thought, jeez, have I made some mistakes in the calculations?" Cowie told Live Science. 

Related: What's the first species humans drove to extinction?

Cowie hadn't made a mistake, but his estimates came with significant caveats. To calculate the figure, his team took a random sample of 200 land snails and, using previous scientific studies and expert consultation, determined how many of the snails had gone extinct. Then, they calculated how many species would have gone extinct if all known species had suffered a similar extinction rate consistently over 500 years. 

The extinction rate they calculated was 150 to 260 extinctions per million species-years (E/MSY) — in other words, 150 to 260 extinctions a year for every million species on Earth. Cowie also looked at extinction estimates for other wildlife groups, including amphibians and birds. The estimates ranged between 10 and 243 E/MSY, but there was a sweet spot. 

"They tend to cluster around about 100 [E/MSY]," Cowie said. "I think that's a more reasonable, not overly conservative, but not overly exaggerated value."

Mystery math

Applying 100 E/MSY to Cowie's 2022 method suggests 100,000 of the roughly 2 million known species have gone extinct over the past 500 years. However, that doesn't account for unknown animal species. 

A 2011 study published in the journal PLOS Biology estimated that there are around 7.7 million animal species. If we take that figure and assume 100 E/MSY over 500 years — subtracting the 3,850 animals that would be expected to naturally go extinct over 500 years with a 1 E/MSY background extinction rate — Live Science's final estimate for the number of animal extinctions caused by humans is 381,150. That's a rough estimate and should be taken with a grain of salt. 

Grain of salt

John Alroy, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University in Australia, is working to quantify diversity and extinction. He told Live Science he believes it's virtually impossible to calculate modern extinction rates. 

"We should be supercautious about trying to nail a number down based on the existing literature," Alroy said. "My feeling is that we don't have a very good fix on the current extinction rate whatsoever." 

To understand the overall extinction rate, researchers need to know how many species there are in the first place, Alroy said. Not only is much of the world's wildlife unknown to science, regardless of estimates, but it's also often concentrated in understudied regions, such as the tropics. To make matters worse, insects have more species than any other animal group, yet we know little about them compared with larger-animal groups such as mammals and birds. 

Although it will be difficult, Alroy proposed estimating the extinction rate using museum data for certain animal groups representative of larger groups and studying how many species they lose over time. "You'd want to know how many species did you have before, [and] how many species did you have after," Alroy said. 

Regardless of the exact rate, Alroy is clear that humans are worsening the extinction rate and that the number of extinctions is much higher than the 777 recorded on the IUCN Red List. 

The broad range of E/MSY estimates put forward in studies so far also have one thing in common: They're all much greater than the natural background rate. That's enough to say humans are harming Earth's biodiversity, according to Cowie. 

"Whether the extinction rate is 100 E/MSY or 20 E/MSY or 200 E/MSY, it's still a lot, and it's still really bad," he said. 

Visitors at a nature reserve in India recently witnessed an incredibly rare sight, when a bear and a tigress confronted each other in a standoff that very nearly broke into a fight.

The scene unfolded in April at Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, a protected area in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state. Visitors on a safari filmed the encounter and posted a video to the social platform X April 30. The video shows a tigress (Panthera tigris) sauntering down a dirt road and then stopping in her tracks when a bear, which appears to be a sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), emerges from the trees ahead. 

The bear wanders across the road and disappears behind long grass as the tigress watches. Moments later, as the tigress strolls on, the bear reappears and chases after her.

"A rarest of rare sight of a bear charging toward a tigress, captured today at Pilibhit Tiger Reserve," Rajiv Kumar Gupta, a retired government official with the Indian Administration Service who witnessed the encounter, wrote in the post.

In the video, the tigress whips around when she hears the bear charging after her, but she does not attack and instead stands her ground. After a few seconds of the two predators facing off, the bear retreats back into the trees.

Related: Huge cheetah that roamed China 1 million years ago would have stood face to face with a tiger

"Apex predators usually have a mutual respect for each other especially if they are of a similar size," Tara Pirie, a lecturer in ecology and conservation at the University of Surrey in the U.K. who was not on the safari at the time of the encounter, told Live Science in an email. "The tiger took time to watch the bear, sizing it up possibly to understand more about it. The bear did not show a particularly aggressive charge from the video so the tiger must have decided it was big enough to stand its ground."

Predators of similar strength and size tend to avoid unnecessary fights, as fighting wastes energy and puts both parties at risk of injury, Pirie said.

In this case, the tigress may have been particularly reluctant to engage in a struggle because she was nursing three young cubs at the time of the encounter and could not "afford any injury," said Jitender Govindani, a professor and member of the academic council at ICBM School of Business Excellence in Hyderabad, India, who witnessed the standoff. Govindani noted the tigress appeared to surrender when the bear charged.

"The tigress lowered her guard and surrendered when the bear got into attack mode," Govindani told Live Science in an email. "Once the tigress surrendered the bear left immediately, as [it] was also not keen to fight and showed aggression just [to] show its readiness to take on the tigress head on if provoked to a fight."

Earlier in April, another tigress and her cubs ambushed and killed a crocodile in Ranthambore National Park, in India's northwestern state of Rajasthan. A video taken by visitors showed the four tigers feasting on the crocodile's carcass.

Hundreds of hammerhead sharks gather around an ancient volcano in the Pacific Ocean, drawn by secret signals radiating from the seabed, a new clip reveals.

The footage, which features in the third episode of Netflix's new wildlife documentary series "Our Living World," shows a school of hammerhead sharks (Sphyrnidae) circling Cocos Island — a volcanic island in the eastern tropical Pacific about 310 miles (500 kilometers) southwest of mainland Costa Rica.

Cocos Island is a known haven for endangered hammerhead sharks, but scientists still aren't sure how and why so many sharks navigate across swathes of ocean to convene there every year.

"We don't really know how these sharks are doing this," Ben Roy, the series producer of Our Living World, told Live Science. "We know that they've got sensors in their heads and we know that these sensors pick up on the magnetic signature of these cool volcanic rocks."

The island formed when lava erupted from an ancient underwater volcano and solidified, until it eventually rose 12,000 feet (3,660 meters) above the seabed.

For the episode, film crews followed a young female hammerhead shark as she left her coastal nursery and traveled 300 miles (480 km) across the Pacific Ocean to the volcanic oasis, where scientists think the sharks assemble to relax, socialize and find a mate. The female instinctively knew the way to Cocos Island thanks to electromagnetic signals emanating from hardened volcanic rocks on the island's slopes.

Related: Watch great white shark get mobbed by gang of seals in 'incredible and surprising' footage

In the clip, the young female joins hundreds of other hammerhead sharks as they form a vortex around the island. At "the actual moment when all those hammerheads aggregate and start to swim in those cyclones," Roy said his team "got lucky with some cracking behavior."

This isn't the first time sharks have been seen mysteriously congregating. Scientists previously documented a hammerhead shark gathering in the tropical waters of French Polynesia, in the South Pacific Ocean, but that assembly attracted only females. 

Our Living World

The hammerhead shark gathering is just one astonishing scene among many featured in the four-part nature series, which premieres Wednesday (April 17) on Netflix. The show highlights the intricate links that support the huge web of life on Earth, from the invisible fungal networks that nourish forest ecosystems to transatlantic clouds of nutrients that blow from Africa to South America and rain down on the Amazon. 

"The links are what makes this series totally different to anything I've been involved with or seen in terms of wildlife nature shows on the TV, because what we've tried to do is tell a story that shows how individual animal lives and animal behaviors are connected to a much bigger picture," Roy said.

In telling these stories, "we were really looking for the wow," Roy said. "We are potentially the first generation to be able to fully grasp the connectivity of what's going on here and potentially the last generation to be able to put that knowledge to good use."

The hammerhead shark assembly footage fulfills every expectation Roy had for the show, he said. "Talking about those 'wow' revelations — for me that was one of them," he said. "Sharks need volcanoes? Who knew!"

Bears in Siberia are wandering around "half-asleep" following abnormally high temperatures this fall, according to the Department for the Protection of Wildlife of the Amur Region.

The bears are ready to hibernate, having accumulated the fat reserves needed to sleep through the winter, but warm temperatures in November have kept them up past their bedtime, the government department said in a translated Telegram post on Nov. 21.

"In some areas, half-asleep bears still walk around the dens," representatives wrote in the post. Bears were spotted traipsing around in a daze a month past the time they usually enter hibernation — toward the end of October, according to the post.

The sleepless bears were mainly males, while females with cubs took to their dens "strictly on schedule," the post said.

Bears normally spend winter asleep in dens, emerging in the spring when food becomes available again. Unlike other hibernating animals, bears decide for themselves when to begin their long seasonal sleep based on a number of cues, including food supply and temperature. Research has linked warmer weather and shorter winters to a reduction in the time bears spend hibernating, with bears leaving their dens 3.5 days earlier with every rise in temperature of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius).

Related: Bear linked to multiple attacks in Japan found dead alongside its final victim 

This fall, the Amur region, which shares a border with China in the Russian Far East, experienced abnormally high and record-breaking temperatures in October and November, The Moscow Times reported. And this could be delaying the bears' hibernation.

Soggy dens could also be to blame, Oivind Toien, a zoophysiologist and research assistant professor at the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, told Live Science in an email. "Temperatures above freezing in wet snowy conditions could cause melt-water to enter dens [and] that could make it uncomfortable for bears to stay in," he said.

Hibernation timing problems appear to impact males more than females and cubs.

"The denning period in females with cubs serves the additional purpose to protect the cubs," Toien said. Bear cubs are more susceptible to frigid temperatures than adults due to their smaller size, as their bodies store less energy and lose heat more quickly, he said.

Cubs also have a higher base metabolism per unit of body mass than adults during both the summer and hibernation months, "so smaller bears might have to be extra careful in not spending extra energy on activity during this transition period into hibernation," Toien said.

Large adult bears, however, can maintain daytime activity during the early winter months by elevating their metabolism when they are on the move, then slowing it down again when they are resting, Toien said. Bears that are wandering around "half-asleep" may have already triggered the physiological transition to a hibernation state, and are thus going about their business with a suppressed metabolism, he added.

Bears in Alaska may also be losing sleep due to warm temperatures, Toien said. "Bears walking around in winter is well known for instance from coastal areas of Alaska," he said. "Both the size of the bears and the mild climate in those coastal areas and continued availability of some food sources might play a role here."

Sleepless bears are especially common in urban areas, where trash cans offer plentiful and accessible food throughout the winter, Toien said. Unlike the bears in the Amur region, those that habitually scavenge on human leftovers don't typically build up fat reserves in preparation for hibernation, he added.

Hunters have killed the longest alligator ever captured in Mississippi in the state's Yazoo River.

The record-breaking animal measured 14 feet and 3 inches (4.34 meters) long and weighed in at 802.5 pounds (364 kilograms), according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP). The previous record for the "longest male alligator taken by a permitted hunter in Mississippi" belonged to a 14-foot, 0.75-inch-long (4.29 m) animal weighing 766.5 pounds (347.5 kg) that hunters captured in 2017 near the western city of Natchez.

Hunters caught the new record-size male on Saturday (Aug. 26) during Mississippi's 10-day alligator hunting season, which kicks off on the last Friday of August each year, according to the MDWFP.

"It was a calm night," Donald Woods, who participated in the hunt, told Clarion Ledger, a Jackson, Mississippi news outlet. "We saw a lot of 8-footers, 10-footers, but that's not what we were after."

Related: Human remains found inside 500-pound alligator. How common are alligator attacks?

The hunters spotted the humongous alligator and got a hook on it around 9 p.m. local time, Woods said, but it took the team seven hours to subdue and kill the beast. "We hooked him eight or nine times and he kept breaking off," Woods said. "It was more mentally exhausting than anything because he kept getting off."

Only after hoisting the alligator onto their boat did the hunters realize how gigantic it was. "We were just amazed at how wide his back was and how big the head was," Woods said. "It was surreal, to tell you the truth."

The team notified MDWFP Alligator Program coordinator Andrew Arnett, who officially measured and weighed the animal before announcing the new record. The hunters posed with their catch at Red Antler Processing, a wild game processing facility in Yazoo City.

Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) are native to the southeastern U.S. and found all across Mississippi. It is illegal to hunt and capture alligators outside of the hunting season and without a special permit from the MDWFP. Permit holders may catch two alligators over 4 feet long (1.2 m) and one over 7 feet long (2.1 m), so as to distribute the hunting pressure across adult and juvenile animals.

The biggest American alligator ever recorded was a 15-foot, 9-inch giant caught in Alabama in 2014 that weighed 1,011.5 pounds (459 kg). Alligators' growth rates slow as they get older and depend on the animal's sex, age and habitat. Male alligators usually grow faster and larger than females, but they rarely exceed 13 feet (4 m) in length. 

Trouble is brewing in Australia's "Croc Country" after a female crocodile was found "fileted," with only her head and spine left behind.

Local tour guides spotted the butchered carcass on May 18 on the banks of the Daintree River, Queensland. The death marks the second mysterious crocodile killing in recent months, following the discovery of a gigantic male with its head torn off on a beach in Cow Bay. 

The latest crocodile corpse was found 5 miles from the site of the beheaded crocodile. 

A local wildlife tour guide told Live Science he received an anonymous phone call from a person claiming they killed both crocodiles to prove that humans are the apex predator. "He knew exactly where her body was left, the exact position, and also said he fileted her up but didn’t want her head as he had the bigger head already," David White, the operator of Solar Whisper Daintree River Crocodile and Wildlife Cruises, said in an email.

The Queensland Department for Environment and Science (DES) said experts were unable to determine the recently killed crocodile's cause of death. Crocodiles in Queensland are a vulnerable species and are protected by law. "It is unlawful to deliberately harm or kill crocodiles or be in possession of a deceased crocodile or parts of a deceased crocodile," a DES spokesperson told Live Science in an email.

When the Daintree River guides first saw the latest carcass, they thought that a male crocodile vying for territory had slaughtered the female. But upon closer inspection, they became doubtful. "Some other guides that saw her remains and some experienced croc people asked for the photos and thought it was strange," White said.

Related: Man survives crocodile attack by prying its jaws off his head. How did he escape such a powerful bite?

White said he last saw the crocodile — a nearly 9-foot-long (2.7 meters) female he had named "Lizzie" — alive on May 11. Her head and spine were found a week later, dumped beside his boat on a riverbank that neither she nor other crocodiles were known to frequent.

White noted it was surprising that Lizzie was missing for a week before the carcass was found, as crocodile carcasses tend to float on the water’s surface or wash up soon after the animal has died. "This river is used a great deal and there was no bloated body."

The clean-picked remains also raised eyebrows. "The state of her body was strange, she was just an intact spine and a face and nothing else," White said. It didn't look as if another crocodile had attacked Lizzie, because they "break off bits by twisting, turning and smashing the prey, so we think that if she was killed by a croc, the head would have been damaged and the spine eaten," White added.

Then came the phone call from someone claiming to have slaughtered both Lizzie and the crocodile in Cow Bay. White said the caller knew details about where Lizzie's remains were found that he had not made publicly available. The caller claimed to have "fileted her like a fish and fed her to his dogs," White said.

Removing a large, mature crocodile from an ecosystem can cause an imbalance in the local croc society. When the headless Cow Bay crocodile was found, Cameron Baker, a postdoctoral researcher at Charles Darwin University in Australia, told Live Science: "It will likely represent a period of social unrest and change in the population as individuals try to determine where they sit in the new social hierarchy resulting from this large male's loss." 

The loss of a female has different implications. Lizzie was a roughly 40-year-old breeding female — "the best mom of any croc on the river," White said. "She once had some runts that never grew and she remained with the creche for seven months instead of the 1-3 months average. She also adopted a baby in a year she didn’t nest and sat with it every day."

The removal of a mature, breeding female from the ecosystem could mean that younger females start nesting sooner, according to a 1989 IUCN report.

White said the other crocodiles on the river seem unsettled of late, but he added this could be due to an ongoing power struggle between two males, including one they initially thought had killed Lizzie. "I am of course worried about all the other crocs on the river," he added. "They are habituated to ignore us, so every one of them is a sitting duck." 

Adorable marsupials that look like "mini kangaroos on steroids" are bouncing back in southern Australia after disappearing from the region for more than 100 years.

Brush-tailed bettongs (Bettongia penicillata), also known as yalgiri in the language of the local Narungga People, are energetic creatures that once hopped and darted across much of the Australian mainland. Over the last two centuries, their numbers have dwindled due to predation by foxes and feral cats, as well as habitat loss. Now only a few thousand survive in pockets of Western Australia, in sanctuaries and on islands. But recently, the mini marsupials have made a comeback in the south after being reintroduced by conservationists.

"They're like a little, ankle-sized kangaroo — a mini kangaroo on steroids if you like," Derek Sandow, an ecologist with the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board in South Australia, told the French News Agency (AFP). "They've got really powerful hind legs, they carry their young in their pouch, like a kangaroo does, but they're only a kilo and a half (three pounds)."

Sandow is part of a team of wildlife researchers that have tagged and reintroduced 120 brush-tailed bettongs to the Yorke Peninsula, near Adelaide, since August 2021, in the hope that the population might recover. The new arrivals were translocated from nearby Wedge Island and from the Upper Warren region of Western Australia and the latest release was coordinated with Noongar and Narungga Traditional Owners, according to WWF Australia.

"On the southern Yorke peninsula, we've actually got geography on our side," Sandow told ABC Radio Adelaide. "We've got a foot-shaped peninsula, ocean on three sides. We've built a predator management fence across the ankle, just to slow the movement of foxes and cats, but we're operating in a working landscape, so there's towns and farms, and we're trying to demonstrate that with a reduction of these threats, we can actually bring back these really vulnerable native species."

Related: Mammals with pouches are 'more evolved' than humans — sort of 

Recent monitoring shows that the tiny, furry animals are thriving on the peninsula. The researchers trapped 85 brush-tailed bettongs and found that 40% were untagged, meaning they had been born since the reintroduction. Almost all the females they caught had young in their pouches. "We're getting great results," Sandow told ABC Radio Adelaide.

Brush-tailed bettongs may be cute, but they are merciless when it comes to their young. 

A female carrying a baby in its pouch will fling it out if a predator chases after them to divert its attention, sacrificing the joey so she can escape. "It sounds like horrible parenting," Sandow told AFP. Brush-tailed bettongs breed continuously and females can give birth to three young each year that each spend up to 98 days in the pouch. "They can basically have their baby ready to go in their back pocket, and then replace it," Sandow said. 

If their populations can recover, these tiny marsupials could considerably re-shape and enhance the landscape, Sandow said. "A little bettong can move tons of soil per year. So they dig in the ground, they create little micro habitats for water infiltration for seeds to establish." Brush-tailed bettongs never drink water and stay away from green plants too, preferring fungus, bulbs, seeds, insects and resin.

To keep track of brush-tailed bettongs, the researchers have an unexpected trick up their sleeve. "Most native fauna — and the yalgi is no different — are a sucker for peanut butter," Sandow told ABC Radio Adelaide. "When we're actually trying to trap these animals to do health checks or do population sampling, peanut butter is our secret weapon."

The tiny creatures don't discriminate between smooth or crunchy, Sandow added.

Residents of New South Wales, Australia, have spotted two extremely rare albino echidnas in the space of just two weeks.

Geoff Hadley found one of the all-white, quill-covered creatures on a road in the Bathurst region, according to ABC News. He helped the echidna cross safely before reporting the sighting to local council officials, who revealed the animal in a social media post on May 1.

"Meet Raffie, Bathurst's rare albino echidna," Bathurst Regional Council staff wrote on Facebook. "We thought he is just too beautiful not to share, and particularly rare with only a handful of the egg-laying mammals, or monotremes, ever sighted in Australia."

Echidnas are one of two known mammals in the world (along with platypuses) whose females lay eggs but also produce milk. Short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus) are common throughout temperate Australia and lowland New Guinea, while long-beaked echidnas (three living species belonging to the genus Zaglossus) only live in the highlands of New Guinea, according to the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment.

Eleven days after the first sighting, Australia’s Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) published images and a video of a second albino short-nosed echidna that appeared to have been hit by a car and sustained minor injuries in New South Wales.

Related: Ancient platypus-like fossil could rewrite the history of egg-laying mammals 

"This rare albino echidna, nicknamed Mr Spike, was released into WIRES' care recently after a suspected motor vehicle collision," WIRES staff wrote in a Facebook post on May 12. "Luckily he sustained only a few minor grazes and was given the all clear after a couple of days in care with local WIRES volunteers who then released him back into the bushland near where he was found."

Albinism is a genetic condition that interferes with the body's production of melanin, the main pigment that colors animals' skin, fur, feathers, scales and eyes. Melanin is produced in cells called melanocytes; these cells are present but not fully functional in animals with albinism, making them appear partially or completely white. 

Short-beaked echidnas that don't have albinism vary in color, from light brown in the hotter, northern regions to dark brown further south and black in Tasmania, according to the Department of Planning and Environment. Although they are widely distributed in New South Wales, echidnas are rarely seen in the wild due to their shy, reclusive nature. 

"An albino echidna is a rare sight," Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) wrote in a Twitter post on May 22, 2022, alongside a video of another albino echidna that was found last year. "Spotting a non-albino echidna is also pretty uncommon," officials added. 

Although it is difficult to determine exactly how rare albino echidnas are, John Grant, a spokesperson for WIRES, told ABC News that the rescue organization had cared for just three or four in the decade he's worked there. 

Earlier this year, scientists solved the mystery of how echidnas beat the heat Down Under: The spiny creatures blow snot bubbles to keep their noses wet and cool. Quirkier still, males have four-headed penises and can ejaculate 10 times in a row without significant pause.

Bathurst Regional Council cautioned members of the public not to approach echidnas, as this could interfere with the creatures' natural behavior. "If you see Raffie out, please feel free to take a couple of snaps but do not approach, touch, or try and contain him," staff wrote in the Facebook post. "It is important to leave wildlife alone, as you could risk them losing their scent trail or leaving young unattended in the burrow."

Nature's captivating giants are on display on a scale like never before in "Big Beasts," a brand new documentary series available to watch today on Apple TV+.

The 10-part spectacle will bring viewers up close and personal with the world's biggest, most astounding creatures. For a taste of what you can expect to see, Live Science has a short exclusive clip that will leave you wanting more.

The exclusive clip takes viewers on an immersive journey to underwater worlds. Get ready for a deep dive into the Pacific ocean, which contains over half of the water on Earth and is home to marine giants. The full episode promises to dazzle audiences with footage of the world's biggest fish, deadliest sharks and most enigmatic sea creatures.

The short teaser follows a whale shark before cutting to stunning footage of a sunfish and great white shark. It promises an encounter with a legendary sea monster whose tentacles you'll see pulsing as it hides away from sight.

"Being big comes with the most unexpected challenges and that's where we found some of our best material," executive producer and Emmy Award winner Tom Hugh-Jones told Live Science. "A lot of our stories are quite family-friendly — they're looking at what it's like to be a mom or a dad or a kid."

Narrated by Marvel star and Emmy nominee Tom Hiddleston, the series will transport viewers across oceans and continents, from the freezing poles to tropical rainforests, to bring them face to face with the largest living animals.

Related: Watch stunning preview of 2nd season of Apple TV+ award-winning show 'Prehistoric Planet' 

"The most challenging part of filming 'Big Beasts' was capturing the world from giant animals' perspective," Hugh-Jones said. "Giant animals are hard to get close to, sometimes dangerous to get close to, and we had to use all sorts of clever technology in order to put the cameras in unexpected angles."

The series captures rare and astounding footage of more than 160 species in 17 different countries, including fan-favorites like orangutans, tigers and grizzly bears. "My favorite moment is the grizzly bear fight," Hugh-Jones said. "The crew came back with this fight between two big male bears, which I think was the most intense, aggressive and impressive fight that any of the wardens, and the scientists or the camera people had seen, and it all played out almost too close for comfort."

Viewers can also expect poignant, jaw-dropping sequences featuring giant otters, gorillas and gray whales, all filmed using cutting-edge techniques and surprising angles to render the natural world in all its splendor.

"Filming animals in unfamiliar ways has really helped us get a new perspective of what life is like and how big animals face a bigger challenge," co-producer Bill Markham told Live Science. "Spend some time with them and realize their challenges are the same as ours."

"In the end, the biggest animals on this planet are a sign of how healthy our planet [is], and it's amazing that these animals still exist in a world that's changing so fast," Hugh-Jones said. "I hope, in a soft way, that people will learn to admire and cherish them."

Filmed over four and a half years, "Big Beasts" was produced by Plimsoll Productions with Tom Hugh-Jones and Emmy nominees Grant Mansfield and Martha Holmes executive producing. Big Beasts has ten episodes in total – the first four are available to stream now on Apple TV+, with two new episodes releasing each week up until May 19.

An idyllic beach in Australia turned into a nightmare scene earlier this week, when locals discovered an enormous, beheaded crocodile rotting in the sand.

Some residents think the mutilation could have been an act of vengeance following a recent spate of crocodile attacks against humans along the Queensland coast between Port Douglas and Cooktown, according to news.com.au. But it's still unclear how the 13-foot-long (4 meters; including the head) giant died, according to the Queensland Department for Environment and Science (DES).

The carcass was in such a state of decay that staff were unable to conduct a necropsy, the government agency said. "Due to the state of decomposition, it cannot be determined if there has been any human interference," the DES told Live Science in a prepared statement. "It may be that the crocodile was decapitated (pre- or post-mortem) due to natural predation."

Some locals, however, doubt that another crocodile decapitated the enormous animal and suspect that it was slaughtered in a trophy killing.

"The DES claim is absolutely ridiculous," Tom Chalmers Hayes, a crocodile photographer and conservationist who went to the scene following reports of the dead animal, told Live Science in a message on social media. "I was with the body for three hours and there is absolutely no marking to suggest a crocodile has killed this male and torn it up, very clear machete marks are on the body and around the neck area where the head has been removed."

Related: Giant 14-foot-long crocodile found with human remains in stomach 

The headless crocodile was found on Cow Bay Beach, north of the Daintree River. Based on its size, the large male is considered an "icon" crocodile under Queensland's conservation laws, which means that it is more strictly protected than smaller individuals. Herpetologists estimate it was at least 30 to 40 years old and a top predator.

The loss of a gigantic male like this one could unsettle the social order of other crocodiles in the area. "As we're only beginning to understand the social system of crocodiles, it is difficult to predict how the removal of a single large male crocodile will impact the remaining crocodiles in the area," Cameron Baker, a postdoctoral researcher at Charles Darwin University in Australia who is not involved in the beheading investigation, told Live Science in an email. "However, it will likely represent a period of social unrest and change in the population as individuals try to determine where they sit in the new social hierarchy resulting from this large male's loss."

Conflict could arise between several males vying to replace the dead individual, although crocodiles may not be as territorial as scientists once thought, Baker said.

The killing could also have a ripple effect on the coastal ecosystem. "As top predators, crocodiles potentially play several crucial roles in their environment," Baker explained. "For instance, by limiting the population density and behavior of their prey species, crocodiles inadvertently enhance the survival of their prey's prey. As such, the removal of crocodiles through hunting may unintentionally alter the composition of the ecosystem, reducing its overall health and productivity."

Crocodiles in Queensland have come back from the brink of extinction since the 1970s, when hunters killed them for their skins, according to a 2020 DES report. But they are still listed as a vulnerable species by the DES under the state's Nature Conservation Act 1992.

The beheading follows three serious but non-fatal crocodile attacks on people in the area since February. The last incident occurred on April 8, when a nearly 15-foot-long (4.5 m) croc repeatedly bit a man and nearly drowned him at Archer Point, south of Cooktown. The man managed to escape by sticking his fingers in the animal's eyes.

After decades of Sir David Attenborough taking us to extraordinary hidden wonders across the globe, he returns to the British Isles to explore the amazing wildlife of Britain. He takes viewers through delicate ecosystems and sheds new understanding on even the most familiar British landscapes. 

Wild Isles features episodes focusing on woodlands, grasslands, freshwater and ocean environments, with viewers getting a unique look at the plants and animals living in each. It also demonstrates how humans play a role in these ecosystems. 

The series was released in five parts. A separate film exploring the human impact on wildlife was produced but didn't air on TV as a sixth episode — more on that controversy below. The entire series is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer in the U.K. Those in the U.S. and other countries can catch Wild Isles on Amazon Prime Video from April 21.

How to watch Wild Isles

This series is perfect for a relaxing afternoon, stimulating the imagination by digging into landscapes such as hay meadows and backyard woodlands with spectacular photography. Less of a travel-focused wanderlust than some of the past Attenborough/BBC productions, this is a more eye-opening educational series. While still as spectacular as any of the past docuseries have been, this one feels much more at home and intimate to Attenborough. 

The first five episodes were released weekly from March 12 to April 9, 2023, and are now fully available to stream on BBC iPlayer for U.K. residents. You can register for a BBC account to access the episodes free and on-demand with a valid U.K. postcode and a TV license. An extra film titled "Saving Our Wild Isles" is also highly recommended, though relegated to the "Extras" section of Wild Isles on BBC iPlayer.

Wild Isles is available in the U.S. and around the world on Amazon Prime Video from April 21, Amazon Studios announced on April 6. The streaming service will have all five episodes from the series but not the Saving Our Wild Isles film. The Amazon deal will give Prime users in more than 240 countries access to Wild Isles. However, it's only available on BBC iPlayer in the U.K.

Watching abroad using a VPN

If you're outside of the U.K. (either living abroad or on holiday) and want to watch Wild Isles on BBC iPlayer, it can be accessed through a Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPNs mask your location online and can access region-specific content depending on where the host server is located. There are many VPN options available, but we recommend ExpressVPN for a multitude of security options at a very reasonable price. 

Wild Isles trailer

The official trailer for Wild Isles was released back in February, 2023, and is available via the BBC YouTube channel. The one-minute trailer demonstrates how entirely personal this endeavor is to Attenborough. Its initial presentation makes the viewer believe that we are exploring some faraway ecosystems before revealing that "it's home." Preconceived notions of the British Isles wildlife disappear as the familiar up-close and sweeping photography teases the various environments to be explored in this series. 

What is Wild Isles?

With such a long and storied career, this project from Attenborough feels like he is finally coming home to show us how spectacular his own backyard can be. One of the lines in the trailer is: "If you know where to look." This line seems like a theme of the series. It takes familiar, and sometimes mundane, vistas and turns them into a vast array of wildlife. 

The series is a stunning nature documentary first and foremost, but special time and consideration are also given to why British wildlife is struggling. Vital commentary about deforestation, agriculture and fishing brings much more meaning to each episode. The show does a particularly effective job of utilizing time-lapse satellite photography to demonstrate tangible changes to ecosystems over a short period of time. It also doesn't shy away from addressing the impacts of climate change and how that affects everything from individual species' survival to our entire planet's precious equilibrium. 

The last ten minutes of each episode also has an additional on location mini documentary. These final minutes are devoted to sharing behind-the-scenes insight into how one of the segments of the episode was filmed.

Spoiler free recommendations

If you only have time for one of the five original episodes aired and available, then you should try the first episode: Our Precious Isles. It's a great episode that highlights a variety of ecosystems and wildlife. The separate Saving Our Wild Isles film is also a must-watch, particularly for U.K. viewers. That explores the current risks and threats to local wildlife.

For those with an interest in the technology and process behind filming these stories, it is worth just watching the last ten minutes of each episode. These on location segments are stand-alone, but watching the entire episode makes them more impressive.

Wild Isles episodes

Episode one: Our Precious Isles

Episode one: Our Precious Isles is a stunning catch-all episode that explores the varied wildlife that exists in Britain's landscapes. From sea to sky, to land and cliffsides, this episode highlights orcas and seals, pollinating insects and predatory plants, and puffins and gulls. It's an exploration of the food chain and ecosystem dependencies across varied environments from all corners of the Isles. 

Beyond the flora and fauna, the episode also examines the unique geology of the British Isles and how the varied temperature across the latitudes affects the habitats. Seated among a puffin colony, Attenborough makes an impassioned plea for protection and consideration of the Isles. The on location behind-the-scenes content focuses on filming an orca pod near Shetland in Scotland. 

Episode two: Woodland

Episode two: Woodland looks at the incredible diversity within the British Isles' woods over varied seasons and reveals the entertaining drama hidden within. Most of the episode is spent in Scotland's forests, though the Forest of Dean in England is also explored. With few predators in Britain's woodlands, the episode examines the unique hierarchy and freedom many animals have to source their food. 

Britain has a history of extensive deforestation and as the woodlands fight for survival, as do the animals within. This episode mostly focuses on birds and deer, with some additional appearances by wild boars, squirrels, and a vast sub-surface web of mushrooms. The on location segment highlights the filming process for both a family of eagles in Scotland and starlings at night in Cornwall. 

Episode three: Grasslands

Episode three: Grasslands reveals the creatures that create and hide within the grasslands of the British Isles. These classic vistas and rich open landscapes that cross all the countries of the Isles are filled with a surprisingly dramatic habitat. The importance of the wildflowers and their roots on the coastal landscape is highlighted alongside the various birds and bugs that live within. 

This episode uncovers history and mystery in the British Isles landscapes, from Southern Ireland to the Scottish Outer Hebrides to Southern England. A particular highlight in the episode is two red deer bucks battling for dominance. The on location segment highlights the filming of wild eagles hunting, a feat never captured in the British Isles before. 

Episode four: Freshwater

Episode four: Freshwater takes us on a journey following the course of fresh water from source to sea. This episode introduces a variety of wildlife that live in, on, and throughout the rivers, lakes, and lochs of the British Isles. From the upstream migration of Atlantic salmon to beavers slowing the flow of rivers, it shows how wildlife and freshwater systems are inextricably linked.

A focus on the chalk streams provides insight into this precious system and what makes it so important. With wonderful nighttime photography, toads and bats get their time to shine. The episode also examines the rich wildlife and ecosystems on mudflats where rivers meet the sea. The on location segment highlights the filming of migrating salmon and the new methods that were used in the process.  

Episode five: Ocean

Episode five: Ocean focuses on the unique environment that makes the British Isles well, isles. The episode spans the length of the entire British Isles, looking at the importance of oceans and how they impact life on land. Starting on the coastline, we get to see gray seals on the beach at Norfolk. Moving to the shallows introduces viewers to seagrass and its ability to host a variety of wildlife while also storing carbon. The episode then moves to deeper waters and up the coastline.

Episode five manages to showcase a variety of environments, and makes you forget that this is all surrounding a small body of islands. The on location segment highlights the ocean team and their camera work up and down the coastline.

What about episode six?

There has been much discussion and confusion as to whether there is an "episode six" of the Wild Isles series. Most of Attenborough's recent docuseries have consisted of six episodes. IMDB lists six episodes, with the final one titled "Saving Our Wild Isles'' scheduled for broadcast on April 9. 

The Guardian reported that the BBC had declined to air this episode as scheduled from fear of backlash due to its themes of human-caused destruction of nature. However, the BBC strongly denied this and stated that it acquired the film separately for its on-demand service BBC iPlayer and never intended to air it as a sixth episode.

Despite this confusion, the heartfelt Saving Our Wild Isles can now be found, albeit not obviously, in the "Extras" section of the Wild Isles page on BBC iPlayer. Here is a direct link: Watch Saving Our Wild Isles now on BBC iPlayer.  

A dingo recently attacked a 6-year-old girl while she was paddling in a shallow lagoon in Australia, holding her underwater and repeatedly biting her head.

The wild dog attacked the girl on K'gari, also known as Fraser Island, on April 3. The child is in stable condition, having suffered three puncture wounds around her ear. Rangers with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) believe the dingo responsible was an untagged male. 

"It's believed the young tourist was swimming in shallow water on the eastern side of the island when the dingo tried to grab onto her," LifeFlight rescuers said in a statement. "The animal repeatedly held her underwater for a few seconds before nearby family members were able to get the dingo off her."

Authorities reported a second dingo attack on a toddler on Friday (April 14) in Karijini National Park, in Western Australia, 932 miles (1,500 kilometers) north of Perth. The boy suffered serious but non life-threatening injuries before his mother managed to fight the animal off.

Dingoes (Canis dingo) are part dog, part wolf. They are Australia's largest carnivorous mammals and typically hunt rabbits, kangaroos, wallabies and wombats — but not humans. 

"Generally dingoes go about their lives and stay clear of people," representatives of QPWS, which is investigating the mauling, said on its website. "From time to time, dingoes may come close and some encounters can turn to tragedy."

Related: Humans are practically defenseless. Why don't wild animals attack us more?

K'gari is home to roughly 200 wild dingoes, according to the QPWS. They live in packs of up to 12 animals that patrol defined territories, but their curiosity occasionally draws them into tourist locations, where close encounters can turn nasty.

The QPWS urges visitors to clear away scraps of food and to never feed dingoes, as they may become increasingly habituated and emboldened in the presence of humans. Research suggests the availability of human food can reduce dingoes' aggression towards each other and lead to larger numbers of animals foraging together.

If they can regularly access human leftovers, dingoes may come to associate humans with food and try to steal items that they perceive as a meal. A survey of dingo attacks on K'gari between 2001 and 2015 found that more than half of the incidents involved a "chase," where a person was walking or running after a wild dog to retrieve a stolen possession. This may trigger a defensive response from dingoes and has led to aggressive group attacks, according to experts writing in The Conversation. 

Although uncommon, dingo attacks on children are often linked to food — if a baby is left sitting on a picnic rug and dogs try to pinch some food, for example — or due to defensive interactions sparked by toddlers playing or running around, according to the QPWS. Altogether, there have been 33 incidents of dingoes nipping, mouthing or biting people since 2018, according to the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.

In December 2022, a dingo repeatedly bit a 5-year-old boy on the head, arm and buttocks in a remote camping area on K'gari. The last fatal attack on the island was in 2001, when two dingoes mauled a 9-year-old boy to death after he and his brother happened upon the dogs and tried to run away.

A creepy portrait of a crocodile keeping a watchful, yellow eye from a mud pool is the grand prize winner of the 2022 World Nature Photography Awards (WNPA), which honored the most evocative shots from thousands of entries in a variety of categories. The photo was taken in Zimbabwe by Jens Cullmann of Germany, who won the award for World Nature Photographer of the Year and scooped top prize for Animal portraits..

"This photograph is the result of my staking out the largest pool in Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe, at a time when an extended drought had reduced the pool to rapidly-drying mud," Cullmann told the WNPA. "I had to be very careful not to disturb the crocodile, even though it was buried in dry mud. They will launch themselves with tremendous speed and power at any animal foolish enough to come too close."

From underwater wonders to spectacular landscapes, here are the 2022 winners in each category.

 Related: Best wildlife photography cameras 2023 

Behavior - Amphibians and reptiles

Norihiro Ikuma of Japan captured this otherworldly scene of two Japanese stream toads (Bufo torrenticola), also known as Honshū toads, looking over long strings of toad eggs as one toad rides on the other's back. These animals are endemic to Japan and only come down from the mountains of Owase in Mie to the river when it is time to spawn. 

Behavior - Birds

This male hooded merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) is heading straight for the camera lens, where photographer Charles Schmidt was patiently waiting for the bird to take off in Huntley Meadows Park, Virginia. "Ducks will often begin swimming more quickly when they are preparing to fly," Schmidt told the WNPA. "I saw that they began to swim more quickly and thus was prepared to catch them taking off. I was lucky that they headed directly towards me!" 

Behavior - Invertebrates

This red crab (Grapsus adscensionis) was photographed by Javier Herranz Casellas on La Gomera, in Spain's Canary Islands, just as a wave hit the rock where it was perched. The crab was looking for small crustaceans and plants to feed on when a thin veil of water streamed over its back, giving it a distinct Spider-Man-like appearance. 

Behavior - Mammals 

Hidetoshi Ogata photographed a rarely seen behavior of six Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) cozying up in a huddle during the lactation season on Japan's Awaji Island. It takes just one embrace between a mother and her baby to entice other female and male monkeys to join a huddle, which can sometimes include more than 30 individuals and is thought to encourage grooming and cuddling behavior. 

Animals in their habitat

Sascha Fonseca, from the United Arab Emirates, set up a camera trap on the snowy peaks of the Indian Himalayas to snap this rare picture of a snow leopard (Panthera uncia). "I captured this image during a 3-year DSLR [digital-single-lens reflex] camera trap project in the Ladakh region of northern India," Fonseca told the WNPA. "The mystery surrounding the snow leopard always fascinated me. They are some of the most difficult large cats to photograph in the wild. Not only because of their incredible stealth, but also because of the remote environment they live in." 

Black and white

Ernoult Alain of France photographed this Lesser Antillean iguana (Iguana delicatissima), which looks like it's rubbing its tummy after a big meal, on the Caribbean island of Grenada. The image captures, in stunning detail, the scales and folds of this endemic lizard's skin as the animal stretches its neck. 

Nature art

Coral spawning underwater is a tricky event to capture, as it happens only for a few minutes, at a certain hour on a single night of the year. Tom Shlesinger of Israel captured the rare moment when thousands of corals cast their egg-and-sperm bundles into the open water, resulting in an artistic composition of what looks like a balloon-filled night sky. The bundles are carried away by sea currents and mix so that the sperm fertilize the eggs in the water. 

Nature photojournalism 

Nicolas Remy captured this heartbreaking photo of an Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) with bad injuries caused by a boat propeller in Australia's Port Kembla. Marine mammals such as whales, seals and sea lions are frequently hit by boats of all sizes, often resulting in injury and, sometimes, death. 

People and Nature

To take this photograph, Virgil Reglioni of Norway abseiled down into the depths of a glacier at night. "This is how it feels to be inside the glacier's guts," he told the WNPA. "Not many people would even dare to go in there, where it is deep, cold, loud and wet. And that is the whole purpose of this photograph; pushing your limits to capture what few people will ever experience at night. Abseiling down felt incredible, as the more we penetrated into this dark monster, the more the fear rises up. The setup was simply impressive, and I did feel amazing just being hanging into that moulin with about 30 meters [100 feet] of dark void under my feet and my hanging tripod in the air." 

Planet Earth's landscapes and environments

This panoramic shot of the Milky Way crowning Grand Teton was U.S. photographer Jake Mosher's reward for climbing to the top of Wyoming's Table Mountain on a clear spring night. Towering 13,775 feet (4,199 m) high, Grand Teton is the highest peak in the Teton Range.

"On June 17th, 2021, I hiked, snowshoed and climbed to the 11,000-foot [3,400 m] summit of Wyoming's Table Mountain to photograph the Milky Way over Grand Teton Peak," Mosher told the WNPA. "While these iconic mountains have been photographed tens of thousands of times, I wanted to show an entirely unique view of them. I was treated to one of the most spectacular displays of airglow that I've ever seen — similar to the aurora and created by photo-charged particles, but spanning much of the horizon." 

Plants and fungi

Julie Kenny of Australia captured sheep tracks surrounding a fallen tree in this evocative shot. "The tree is seen as a sacred symbol, which carries significant meanings in both religious and spiritual philosophies," Kenny told the WNPA. "From above, the surrounding sheep tracks combined with the fallen tree reminded me of the Tree of Life. While the aerial perspective focuses on the earth, you can see the pooled water in the sheep tracks reflecting hints of blue from the sky. While this represents many different things, for me it communicates the interconnection of all things, beginnings and endings, the cycling of life." 

Underwater

Positioning the camera to focus on a blue sea star (Linckia laevigata), Adriano Morettin of Italy photographed a couple of color-coordinated harlequin shrimps (Hymenocera picta) in Lembeh Strait in Indonesia. Female harlequin shrimps grow larger than males do — up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) long. 

Urban Wildlife

Vladislav Tasev of the United Kingdom spotted this male common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) perching on the doorstep of its new street-lamp home in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria.

"I took the picture at sunset to see the rust, the lamps and the bird in natural light," Tasev told the WNPA. "The photo was taken in the town of Stara Zagora near the Thracian University, in an abandoned parking lot near a small forest." 

A new report has painted a grim picture of the future for wildlife in the U.S.: Up to 40% of animal species and 34% of plant species are at risk of going extinct in the country, and up to 41% of U.S. ecosystems are at risk of range-wide collapse, meaning they could be lost forever.

NatureServe, a conservation group focused on biodiversity in North America, released the report Feb. 6. The report ranks all U.S. species on their risk of being wiped out. The categories include secure, apparently secure, vulnerable, imperiled, critically imperiled and possibly extinct; any species in the last four groups are considered to be "at risk of extinction." The rankings are based on more than 50 years of data collected by NatureServe, using a network of more than 1,000 scientists. 

"The data reported by NatureServe is grim," U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., told Reuters. It is "a harrowing sign of the very real problems our wildlife and ecosystems are facing." 

NatureServe President Sean O'Brien said the report's conclusions were "terrifying," but he hopes it will help lawmakers understand the urgency of passing new protections, Reuters reported.

Related: Which animals could go extinct by 2050? 

The animals most at risk are snails, with 75% of freshwater snails and 74% of terrestrial snails at risk of extinction, followed by freshwater mussels (65% at risk), crayfish (55% at risk), shrimps (48% at risk) and bees (37% at risk). Freshwater species seem to be particularly vulnerable due to an increase in waterway pollution and damming activity, the report authors wrote.  

Among the broader major animal groups, amphibians are the worst off, with 42% at risk, followed by fish (35% at risk), reptiles (22% at risk), mammals (18% at risk) and birds (12% at risk). 

Some of the most notable animal species listed as critically imperiled include the red wolf (Canis rufus), the recently cloned black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), the Mississippi gopher frog (Lithobates sevosus), the highly inbred Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis), Kemp's Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii), the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and Rice's whale (Balaenoptera ricei), which was only discovered in 2021.

Among plants, cacti are the most threatened group, with 48% at risk, followed by orchids (27% at risk), trees (20% at risk) and grasses (19% at risk). Some notable at-risk plants include the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula), which is imperiled, and the maple leaf oak (Quercus acerifolia), which is critically imperiled. The scientists wrote that plants will be particularly vulnerable in the future because they do not receive the same level of conservation funding as animals do. 

The most imperiled ecosystems are tropical forests, tropical grasslands and tropical cliffs, with 100% of each category being at risk of range-wide collapse, followed by tropical savannas (88% at risk), temperate grasslands and temperate forests (40% at risk).

The highest concentration of at-risk species and ecosystems are located in California and Texas, as well as parts of the Southeast. 

Habitat degradation, land conversion, pollution, climate change and invasive species are the main threats to U.S. wildlife.

The report will help conservationists protect U.S. wildlife by zeroing in on where help is needed the most, researchers wrote.

"If we want to maintain the panoply of biodiversity that we currently enjoy, we need to target the places where the biodiversity is most threatened," O'Brien said. "This report allows us to do that."

Only female wasps carry the equipment necessary to sting predators and inject them with toxins. It's therefore widely thought that male wasps are completely defenseless — but now, a study shows how some male wasps can escape certain death using nonvenomous but extremely spiky genitalia. 

Two thin, retractable "genital spines" lie on either side of the male mason wasp's (Anterhynchium gibbifrons) phallus. Some wasps use such spines to hold females in place during mating, but male mason wasps don't appear to do so, at least not in laboratory settings, according to a new study published Monday (Dec. 19) in the journal Current Biology. Instead, the wasps brandish their spiky phalluses only when confronted with a perceived predator — like the hand of a human scientist.

Study co-author Misaki Tsujii, a student in the Graduate School of Agricultural Science at Kobe University in Japan, was studying the life cycle of mason wasps when she felt a sudden "pricking pain" in her finger. She'd been handling a male wasp, which she'd believed to be harmless, and was surprised at the sensation, she told Live Science in an email.

Tsujii and her coauthor Shinji Sugiura, an associate professor in Kobe University's Graduate School of Agricultural Science, designed an experiment to see if the wasps could use their genitals to fend off predators they might encounter in the wild. They brought Japanese tree frogs (Dryophytes japonica) into the lab, placed them in containers with male mason wasps, set up cameras and waited.

Related: Cannibal wasp babies eat their siblings, because nature is brutal 

When the tree frogs hinged open their mouths to gobble up the wasps, the insects responded by snapping at the frogs with their mandibles and stabbing the frogs with their genital spines. Most of the wasps' defensive efforts were in vain, however, as nearly 65% of the insects were ultimately eaten. But in 35.3% of cases, the tree frogs spat out the struggling wasps and let them be. 

The team repeated this experiment with male wasps whose genitals had been removed and found that all the genitalia-less insects were quickly swallowed, although the wasps continued to bite at the frogs with their mandibles. 

"Therefore, genital spines of male genitalia appear to play a role in preventing tree frogs from swallowing male wasps," the authors wrote. 

The effectiveness of the males' genital spines pales in comparison to female wasps' true stingers, the team found. For starters, tree frogs were about half as likely to attempt to eat the female wasps in the first place, and when they did attack, they spat out the females about 87.5% of the time.

The scientists also exposed both male and female mason wasps to a second predator, the black-spotted pond frog (Pelophylax nigromaculatus). However, this frog was impervious to both the male's and female's defenses and quickly gobbled them up. 

"Pond frogs may have a high sting tolerance," Sugiura told Live Science in an email. "A previous study reported that a pond frog could eat even a venomous hornet." In addition, pond frogs live on the ground and encounter mason wasps less frequently than tree frogs do, as the wasps' favorite flowers grow on tree-climbing vines. So mason wasps may not be under strong pressure to evolve defenses that work against pond frogs.

The authors suspect that many other male wasps with "pseudo-stings" on their genitalia use the spikes for self-defense, Sugiura said. This hypothesis isn't new — it can be found in the Encyclopedia of Insects (Academic Press, 2009) — but it hasn't been formally tested in experiments with different wasp species, the team noted in their report.

From affectionate foxes to ruby-eyed frogs and flamboyant flamingos, the shortlist of photographs selected for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award display the natural world in all of its awesomeness. 

Run by the Natural History Museum, London, the People's Choice Award is open to voters worldwide, who can choose their favorite image at the contest website until Feb. 2, 2023. The winner will be showcased at the museum until the photography exhibit closes in July 2023.  

Highway hyena

A spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) pauses in the flash of a remote camera. U.K. photographer Sam Rowley captured this photo outside the city of Harar, Ethiopia, where hyenas eat refuse left by humans, including rotting meat and bones. This hyena is the lowest-ranking member of a local group known as the Highway Clan.  

Among the flowers 

Canadian photographer Martin Gregus caught this bucolic image near Hudson Bay, where this polar bear (Ursus maritimus) cub was gamboling amid a patch of fireweed. Gregus used a remote camera placed at ground level to mimic a young bear's-eye-view of the scene.  

That’s the spot 

South African photographer Richard Flack captured this slice of guinea fowl life in Kruger National Park. As he watched a flock of crested guinea fowl (Guttera pucherani), one began to scratch the other's ear. The recipient of these attentions stood motionless with its mouth open, as if to say, "that's the spot!" 

"It's not often you get to capture emotion in the faces of birds . . . but there was no doubt — that was one satisfied guineafowl!" Flack said in a statement accompanying the image. 

Fishing for glass eels 

Eladio Fernandez of the Dominican Republic captured this otherworldly image over the course of several nights in order to highlight the plight of European eels (Anguilla anguilla). These eels migrate from coastal Europe to the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic to spawn, and their young — known as glass eels for their transparent appearance — are fished as a delicacy. However, the eels are critically endangered, making this unregulated fishery problematic for the species' future survival.  

A golden huddle 

China's Minqiang Lu took this photograph in the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi province, the last place on Earth where endangered golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) live in the wild. Lu hiked for over an hour in 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius) to capture this shot of two females and a male snuggling together for warmth.  

Caribbean crèche 

Pink flamingos are silhouetted against a sapphire sky in this shot taken at Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, on the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Photographer Claudio Contreras Koob, from Mexico, stayed a distance from this flamingo nursery, where babies are always guarded by alert adults.  

Wasp attack 

Roberto García-Roa of Spain focused his lens on the very small in this image of a pompilid wasp and Ctenus spider doing battle. Pompilid wasps sting spiders, paralyzing them and dragging them back to their nests to feed their young. In this image taken in Peru, the wasp has just won the battle and is preparing to drag the paralyzed spider away.  

Unlucky for the cat 

Sebastian Kennerknecht, from the U.S., took this picture of an Andean mountain cat (Leopardus jacobita), stuffed and hanging in a shed, in Abra Granada, Argentina. The endangered cat is respected in the region as a guardian of the mountains, but its body is also considered a charm for the fertility of livestock, so the cats are sometimes hunted and killed.  

The elusive golden cat 

Kennerknecht had better luck with wildcats in Uganda, where he captured this image of one of the rarest cats on Earth, an African golden cat (Caracal aurata). There are very few high-resolution images of African golden cats in the wild; Kennerknecht captured this shot through sheer persistence. After fleeing the area to avoid a charging forest elephant, he and a biologist friend returned to set up a camera trap. The effort paid off.  

The frog with the ruby-eyes 

What ruby eyes you have! Spanish photographer Jaime Culebras captured this image of a female Mindo glass frog (Nymphargus balionotus) in the Río Manduriacu Reserve in the foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes. The frog sat calmly as Culebras set up his equipment to the soundtrack of male glass frog calls.  

Caught by the cat 

Using a trail cam, Polish photographer Michał Michlewicz tracked a steady stream of activity into this abandoned barn in the village of Radolinek, Poland: a badger, a martin, a fox and lots of cats. This domestic cat had caught and killed a chaffinch. 

Head to head 

Spanish photographer Miquel Angel Artús Illana had been following five musk oxen (Ovibos moschatus) — a male, a female and three calves — through Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park in Norway when the little family came across another little herd. Illana expected the males to stand off, but the weaker of the two backed down quickly. However, to the photographer's surprise, the two females engaged in a brief but fierce scuffle, caught on camera here.

 Covid litter 

A young perch ended up tragically trapped by a discarded surgical glove in a canal in The Netherlands. This incident triggered a scientific study on the impact of COVID-19-related trash on wildlife.

Life and art

Spanish photographer Eduardo Blanco Mendizabal planned ahead for this shot of a graffito cat and a real gecko. Knowing that the decorated wall in his hometown of Corella was a common place to see geckos, Mendizabal came out with a camera to wait for the perfect shot. When a gecko perched above the cat's nose, he got it.  

Red and yellow

This gorgeous shot of a gull was taken on the Japanese island of Hokkaido by French photographer Chloé Bès, who braved the cold to capture the minimalist shot. 

Holding on

Nature's harsh side is highlighted in this photograph of a female leopard (Panthera pardus) that had just killed a mother baboon in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park. The baboon baby clung to its mother as the leopardess walked back to her own baby. The leopard cub then played with the baboon infant for an hour before killing it — a brutal hunting lesson for the young cat.  

Heads or tails? 

American photographer Jodi Frediani was offered a spot near the bow of a boat in Monterey Bay, California by a friendly stranger and captured this image of three northern right whale dolphins (Lissodelphis borealis). The dolphins were frolicking in the boat’s bow wave on an unusually calm day at sea.  

Portrait of Olobor 

This lion (Panthera leo), named Olobor is one of five in the Black Rock pride of Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve. Spanish photographer Marina Cano lowered her camera out of her vehicle to capture this regal shot of Olobor against a black background — the land had recently been burned by local Maasai herdsman to stimulate new growth. 

Coastline wolf

A female gray wolf (Canis lupus) trots along the shoreline of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. British photographer Bertie Gregory was in a dinghy searching for black bears when he spotted this lone female. Gregory set up a remote camera ahead of the wolf's path and then got out of the way, triggering this shot when the wolf walked by.  

Night encounter

Photographer Sami Vartianinen, from Finland, spent a magical 45 minutes watching this badger (Meles meles) trundle about in a forest near Helsinki. As Vartiainen waited quietly about 23 feet (7 meters) away, the badger scratched, sniffed, rested on the ground and finally headed off into the night to find food.  

Snowshoe hare stare 

Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado was quiet the day that photographer Deena Sveinsson, from the U.S., went on a snowy hike and captured this image of a camouflaged snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus). Sveinsson was hiking home when she saw the hare crouched against the snow.  

Fox affection

Two foxes (Vulpes vulpes) nuzzle each other affectionately on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Photographer Brittany Crossman reported that this was the tenderest moment she'd ever witnessed between adult foxes.  

A tight grip 

A male Bargibant's seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) looks more like a video game character than a living animal in this shot by photographer Nicholas More. More captured the image off the coast of Bali. The seahorse, which measures only about 0.8 inch (2 centimeters) long, was gestating young, which hatch as tiny versions of their parents after two weeks.  

World of the snow leopard 

A snow leopard is framed against the stunning mountains of northern India in this image, which was captured by a remote camera set by German photographer Sascha Fonseca. Fonseca ran a three-year project setting up bait-free camera traps in the Indian Himalayas in the region of Ladakh. There are likely fewer than 10,000 snow leopards (Panthera uncia) left in the wild, and these elusive cats are a rare sight, given their cold, high-elevation habitat.  

 A fox's tale 

The sad story of this fox in Bristol, England, highlights the impact that humans can have on wild animals. This young fox sustained an injury after getting tangled in construction netting. Sympathetic humans put out food for the animal, which was struggling to hunt, including the chicken leg seen in this image. After five months, she was captured, treated for her wounds and released back into the wild. But just six months after that, she was hit by a car and killed.  

Bats are known for making high-pitched calls that they use for echolocation. But bats are also capable of producing extremely low-pitched growling sounds much like the snarling vocals of death metal singers — and now, scientists know how bats do it.  

Like death metal vocalists, bats achieve these low frequencies by using what are known as false vocal folds, said Jonas Håkansson, a postdoctoral researcher who studies bat vocalization at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense and the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

"What helps them growl are the ventricular folds, also called false vocal folds, that sit above the true vocal folds," he told Live Science. False vocal folds are thick folds of mucous membrane that appear in the larynxes of most mammals; "these vibrate at a comparatively low frequency and thus produce audible sounds (growls)," Håkansson explained. Such sounds are hardly ever uttered by humans — except by trained Mongolian throat singers and, of course, death metal vocalists. 

And now, bats can be added to the list of guttural performers.

Researchers recently examined this unusual vocal ability in Daubenton's bats (Myotis daubentonii), which live across Europe and Asia and have a wingspan of about 9.8 inches (25 centimeters), according to Animal Diversity Web. The scientists reported their findings Nov. 29 in the journal PLOS Biology.

To understand the vocal range of these tiny bats, the researchers captured the first-ever footage of bat vocal cords in action, using extracted bat larynxes that they animated with flowing air to simulate bronchial pressure. They then filmed the larynxes at rates of up to 250,000 frames per second. The high-speed footage revealed that sounds produced by the false vocal folds were very low-pitched, in the range of 1 to 5 kHz.  

Related: Bats tell predators to 'buzz off' — literally

The research team also learned that the bats' vocal range was broader than they expected, spanning seven octaves. For comparison, humans — and most other mammals — can manage only three or four octaves. (Singers such as Prince, Mariah Carey and legendary Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, who have ranges of four to five octaves, are rare exceptions.) What gives the bats a high-frequency boost is membranes that extend from the vocal cords and measure no more than 0.0004 inch (10 micrometers) thick — a feature that humans lack.

Some primates do have these larynx membranes, but humans are thought to have never developed them or lost them at some point in our evolutionary past, according to the study.

"The high-frequency calls used for echolocation are produced by the vocal membranes," Håkansson said. "These are thin membranes that sit at the end of the vocal folds. Due to their low mass, they can oscillate at very high frequencies and thus produce the high-frequency calls," which the scientists measured at frequencies ranging from 10 to 20 kHz. The combination of these delicate membranes and thicker folds is what allows bats to display such an impressive range in their vocalizations, he said.

Why bats make death metal growling noises is not yet understood, the scientists reported. However, Håkansson and his colleagues noted that the bats would start to growl when they were crowded together, perhaps expressing aggression or annoyance. 

"If you handle bats, like when netting, or when you observe them in groups, they will make these sorts of sounds," said Håkansson, though the exact reason remains a mystery.

Nevertheless, it's still pretty metal.

Wolves infected with behavior-altering parasites are more likely to become pack leaders, or abandon their packs altogether, according to an analysis of more than 200 gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled parasite, pulls on the puppet strings of its hosts, goading them into pursuing risky behaviors.

"We identified a substantial increase in the odds of dispersal and of becoming a pack leader, both risky behaviors," in wolves that showed signs of T. gondii infection in their blood, the authors wrote in the study, published online Nov. 24 in the journal Communications Biology. 

"These two life history behaviors represent some of the most important decisions a wolf can make in its lifetime and may have dramatic impacts on gray wolf fitness, distribution" and the overall rate of births and deaths within a population, the scientists reported. 

Toxoplasmosis — the disease caused by a T. gondii infection — is everywhere. While T. gondii can only sexually reproduce and complete its life cycle in felids (members of the cat family), it is perfectly at home in any warm-blooded host — including about 33% of all humans and more than 10% of the U.S. population. A healthy immune system is usually enough to keep the disease’s symptoms at bay, and people who are not immunocompromised seldom experience anything more daunting than minor flu-like symptoms during acute infection. But T. gondii can have a lasting impact; a handful of studies have found that chronic infection can lead to increased testosterone levels and behavioral changes in humans. 

Related: The weird tale of a larger-than-life wolf that outran the law, almost

And we're not alone. Rodents infected with the parasite produce a surplus of testosterone and are less afraid of cats, Live Science previously reported. Hyenas with toxoplasmosis are more likely to tussle with African lions, according to a 2021 study published in Nature Communications; and chimpanzees carrying T. gondii are unafraid of leopards, their natural predators, scientists reported in 2016 in the journal Current Biology. 

Yellowstone's gray wolves became acquainted with T. gondii by wandering the same volcanic wilderness as infected cougars (Puma concolor) and eating feline feces, according to the new study. The researchers examined nearly three decades’ worth of data on wolves that had been captured, released and monitored at Yellowstone. They discovered that infected wolves were more likely than uninfected wolves to engage in risky behaviors, such as abandoning their families to start new packs, and were twice as likely to assert themselves as pack leaders, which often entailed picking perilous fights with other would-be top dogs.

But toxoplasmosis is not all glory, independence and power struggles. Pregnant wolves suffering acute infection can miscarry a litter, and wolves that are unafraid of a fight are more likely to suffer fatal injuries. The study authors also raised the possibility that infected wolves put the entire pack at risk by fearlessly leading fellow wolves into cougar territory where they too may become infected. 

"This study demonstrates how community-level interactions can affect individual behavior and could potentially scale up to group-level decision-making," the authors wrote. "Incorporating the implications of parasite infections into future wildlife research is vital to understanding the impacts of parasites on individuals, groups, populations, and ecosystem processes."

It's no wonder that, with so many arms, octopuses turn out to be great pitchers. They can even target other octopuses with bits of seafloor debris — and score a direct hit.

For the first time, researchers have observed the famously brainy cephalopods deliberately hurling clumps of sand, bits of algae and even shells at each other, though they don't actually toss with their arms as people do. Rather, they use their arms to gather projectiles and then propel them using jets of water expelled from a siphon under their arms. Scientists captured video footage of this unusual behavior in gloomy octopuses (Octopus tetricus) in Jervis Bay on the southern coast of New South Wales in Australia and described their findings Nov. 9 in the journal PLOS One.  

"In some cases the projected material hits another octopus, or another object (a fish or a camera)," the scientists wrote in the study. 

After examining 24 hours of footage recorded on stationary underwater cameras in 2015 and 2016, the study authors identified 102 examples of about 10 octopuses picking things up and throwing them. Often, the objects flew up to several body lengths away from the thrower.

"Doing this underwater, even for a short distance, seems especially unusual and quite hard to do, making this an even more striking behavior," study co-author David Scheel, a professor of marine biology at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage, told Live Science in an email.

The octopus behavior that scientists captured on video is unusual for animals — just a few types of social mammals are known to throw things at each other, the researchers reported (footage credit: Godfrey-Smith et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0).

Related: Octopuses may be so terrifyingly smart because they share humans' genes for intelligence

Both male and female octopuses would throw debris, though two females performed about 66% of all the throwing. As for what motivated the octopuses to start hurling debris, around 32% took place while the octopuses were cleaning their dens. But 53% of the silt chucking happened during an interaction with another octopus, a fish or one of the cameras. 

Other octopuses got pelted by the lobbed debris in 17 cases. In some incidents, the target would raise an arm right before a missile launched, "perhaps in recognition of the act in preparation," the scientists wrote. "Octopuses in the line of fire ducked, raised arms in the direction of the thrower, or paused, halted or redirected their movements."

But were the throwers intentionally trying to hit their octopus targets?

"The throws during interactions differed from throwing when other octopuses were not present," Scheel said. "Throws that hit an apparent target were a bit different, in ways suggestive of aiming, from throws that did not hit," hinting that debris flinging was targeted.

Humans typically teach toddlers that throwing things is not the best way to communicate. But for other animals that live in close-knit communities — such as chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys and dolphins — chucking objects at members of the same population can serve as an important social cue, according to the study.

Octopuses are known to be extremely dextrous and capable of manipulating diverse objects. For example, the veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) stacks and carries coconut shells, which it uses to build a "mobile home." But octopuses, as a rule, are not social creatures; they typically live alone, and when they encounter other octopuses, they sometimes fight them or even eat them.

However, in recent decades, a growing body of evidence suggests that octopus interactions in some species are more complex than once thought — and throwing things may be one way the animals communicate, the scientists reported. 

In the regions of Jervis Bay where gloomy octopuses live, food and materials for shelter are plentiful; outside these patches of suitable habitat, resources are scarce. This could explain the unusual density of octopus populations there, which would, in turn, increase the number of encounters between creatures that would probably prefer to be the only octopus in town. Therefore, throwing debris may be a way for these normally solitary creatures to manage interactions with their octopus neighbors — including unwanted sexual advances, the researchers wrote.

The Devils Hole pupfish is small, blue and incredibly endangered. It also may be the most inbred creature on Earth. 

All 263 wild Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) live in one location: a 10-foot by 20-foot (3 by 6 meters) cavern in the middle of Devils Hole in Nevada, a detached part of Death Valley National Park, one of the hottest places in the world. Their cavern oasis, located just 50 or so feet (15 meters) below the desert floor, is at least 500 feet (152 m) deep (scientists have yet to find the bottom) and stays at a balmy 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) year-round. The species has lived there, isolated from all other pupfish, for at least 1,000 years, and possibly as long as 20,000 years, according to the National Park Foundation. 

That isolation has led to some very dramatic genetic consequences, scientists reported Nov. 2 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. They found that Devils Hole pupfish genomes are 58% identical, on average — "the equivalent of five to six generations of full sibling matings," said Christopher Martin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley and senior author of the new study. That's enough to make the infamously inbred Habsburg dynasty look wildly diverse.

Related: 'Hell fish' likely killed by dinosaur-ending asteroid is preserved in stunning detail

For the new study, the researchers sequenced the genomes of eight Devils Hole pupfish, as well as one preserved specimen from the 1980s. They found that the fish were missing some seemingly important genes. For example, they lacked a gene normally involved in producing sperm — one that causes infertility if knocked out in other species. "It's kind of surprising that they're even able to reproduce at all," Martin told Live Science.

The fish had also lost a gene that helps other types of pupfish survive in low-oxygen environments — a surprise, given that the warm, stagnant pool they call home is very deoxygenated. At the moment, it's unclear to what degree the absence of these genes is harming the pupfish's overall health. 

"The genome is a complex place," Martin said. He and his team plan to study the fishes' genetics in greater detail to determine what, exactly, each of their genes is doing and how they're compensating for genomic losses.

The intense inbreeding observed in the fish is likely due to their geographic isolation, coupled with multiple population bottlenecks in recent years. In the past two decades alone, the population nearly crashed twice — dipping to 38 individuals in 2006 and as low as 35 in 2013, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This unique fish was one of the first species to be officially added to the Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1967, which was later folded into the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Since then, thanks to considerable conservation efforts — including the construction of a 100,000-gallon (379,000 liters) replica of Devils Hole that houses a separate captive-bred pupfish population — the species has survived, though it has not always thrived.

"They're still in a precarious situation," Martin said. "But the good news is that human interventions and accidents haven't really made the population worse than it was … I don't think they're doomed."

To survive, animals compete for resources, be it food, mating partners or territory. But a ground breaking recent study shows chimpanzees and gorillas form friendships, some lasting at least 20 years. They play, eat and socialise together.

It is the first study of its kind to see such long-term, peaceful associations between apes. A team of scientists led by Crickette Sanz from Washington University, US, made this discovery using over 20 years of data from the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo.

We know many animals are fiercely territorial, including chimpanzees and gorillas. Both species will defend their territories from other groups. Chimpanzees kill members of other chimp groups who stray into their territory. And between 2014 and 2018, researchers found that group of chimpanzees in Gabon, Central Africa, had killed young gorillas and even saw a female chimpanzee eating an infant gorilla.

So, I was surprised to hear from the new study that the two ape species sometimes form lasting unions. The fact that these species can live peacefully in one area for decades, and be dinner for the other in another region is fascinating.

Hanging out

Young adult male primates tend to be more outgoing and inquisitive than other members of their troop. In the new study, scientists found juveniles would often seek out particular members of the other species to play, sometimes travelling long distances (over 300 metres) alone to do so.

Mixing with another group of your own or another species can be risky. But both species were relaxed around one another instead of alert to attack. The study also found chimpanzee and gorilla females with young offspring also bonded with each other, as did the whole spectrum of age ranges. Chimpanzees were even seen mimicking the classic gorilla chest beat. Neither species ever made alarm calls when they encountered each other.

Food orientated friendships

The next task now for researchers is to pick apart what exactly is different between the behaviour of the chimpanzees and gorillas in the home ranges in the Republic of Congo and Gabon (about 1,000km apart).

Chimpanzees and gorillas eat similar foods and most of the amiable interactions the scientists recorded in the Republic of Congo were of the apes feeding in fig and other fruit trees.

Why would you tolerate someone gatecrashing your buffet? Figs are high energy and a prized resource. The trees fruit for only four to five days. And fruiting is asynchronous (meaning they fruit at random). If gorillas or chimpanzees find ripe ones perhaps they are better off tolerating one another than wasting energy chasing each other away. Combining knowledge or staying close enough to eavesdrop on what the others are doing could give them an advantage too. Chimpanzees tend to eat much more fruit than gorillas. Yet these gorillas in the Republic of Congo have a higher fruit diet than normal which could help explain their unusually chummy behaviour around the local chimpanzees.

I’ve got your back

Leopards are predators of both species so it pays to have as many eyes on the lookout as possible. Both species even responded to the predator alarm calls of the other. They shared information about predators and feeding sites.

Many other species work together to evade predators. Antelope, wildebeests and zebra gather in their thousands every year to travel together across Tanzania and Kenya in search of good grazing and safe places to breed. And we do see alliances between other monkey species too, such as putty-nosed and Diana monkeys of the Taï National Park, in Ivory Coast in West Africa, usually to increase feeding opportunities or predator detection.

These discoveries could give clues about how humans may have evolved. Different species of ancient humans may have also showed cross-species tolerance and friendships despite similar overlaps in diet and competition. Skeleton hybrids of different human species have been found. Friendships can also reduce stress for humans and owning a pet can boost mental health. So it would be fascinating to see if apes enjoy these benefits from having a buddy of another species too.

Don’t take apes for granted

For all we know these interactions could be more common than reported. In places where chimpanzees and gorillas share habitats researchers often only study one or the other species. The species which is not used to people will often flee on sight of the research team. Researchers often work with species for years before they become used to people.

Chimpanzees are considered endangered while gorillas are listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of threatened species. The study shows how full of surprises our close relatives are and how important it is to preserve the natural world so that their fascinating behaviours are not lost before we even learn of them.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The longest-living animals are equipped with traits to hold off, and sometimes even stop or reverse, the aging process. While humans may have an "absolute limit" of 150 years, this is just a blink of an eye compared with the centuries and millennia that some animals live through.

The true age champions live in water, often at great depths where conditions are stable and consistent. Scientists can't record the birth and death of every member of a species, so they typically estimate maximum life spans based on what is known about a species' biology. From old to oldest, here are 13 of the longest-living animals in the world today.

13. Saltwater crocodiles: 120+ years old

If they survive to adulthood, saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) normally live for over 70 years. Accurate information on their maximum lifespan is largely lacking. However, records of two especially long-lived crocs suggest they can live to over 120 years.

Cassius — the world's largest captive crocodile — is believed to be up to 120 years old. He was captured in 1984 on a cattle ranch southwest of Darwin, Australia, and has been kept at the Marineland Crocodile Park on Green Island ever since. He was 16 feet, 10 inches (5.13 meters) at the time, leading experts to estimate he was between 30 and 80 years old. As of 2023, he was thought to be up to 120 years old. Cassius is also still growing, providing scientists with "serious knowledge on longevity," Toody Scott, a crocodile keeper who looks after Cassius previously told Live Science.

Related: The secrets to extreme longevity may be hiding with nuns... and jellyfish

Another long-lived saltwater crocodile is Mr Freshie, who lived between 120 and 140 years, experts estimate. The crocodile was caught in North Queensland by Steve Irwin and his father in 1970 and moved to the Australia Zoo, where he lived for 40 years until his death in 2010. He was estimated to have been around 100 when he was captured, according to the Courier Mail.

12. Seychelles giant tortoise: 190+ years old

Tortoises are famed for their longevity. The oldest living land animal is a 190-year-old Seychelles giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea hololissa) named Jonathan. The tortoise lives on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean after having been brought there by people from the Seychelles in 1882. Jonathan's age is an estimate, but a photograph of him taken between 1882 and 1886 shows he was fully mature — at least 50 years old — in the late 19th century, Live Science previously reported.    

On Jan. 12, 2022, Guinness World Records announced that Jonathan was the oldest tortoise ever. "He is a local icon, symbolic of persistence in the face of change," Joe Hollins, Jonathan's veterinarian, told Guinness World Records at the time. 

Giant tortoises need to live a long time so they can breed repeatedly and produce plenty of eggs, because many of their eggs are eaten by predators. Their ability to quickly kill off damaged cells that normally deteriorate with age may help tortoises live so long, Live Science previously reported.  

Related: Tiny white tortoise baby is the 'first of its kind' 

11. Red sea urchins: 200 years old

Red sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) are small, round invertebrates covered in spines. They live in shallow coastal waters off North America from California to Alaska, where they feed on marine plants, according to Oregon State University. Researchers used to assume that red sea urchins grew quickly and had modest life spans of up to about 10 years, but as scientists studied the species in more detail, they realized these urchins continue to grow very slowly and, in some locations, will survive for centuries if they can avoid predators, disease and fishers.  

The red sea urchins found off Washington and Alaska probably live more than 100 years, and the longest-living individuals in British Columbia, Canada, may be around 200 years old, according to a 2003 study published in the journal Fishery Bulletin. 

Related: Mysterious 'blue goo' at the bottom of the sea stumps scientists

10. Bowhead whale: potentially 200+ years old

Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) are the longest-living mammals. The Arctic and sub-Arctic whales' exact life span is unknown, but stone harpoon tips found in some harvested individuals prove that they comfortably live over 100 years and may live more than 200 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The whales have mutations in a gene called ERCC1, which is involved with repairing damaged DNA, that may help protect the whales from cancer, a potential cause of death. Furthermore, another gene, called PCNA, has a section that has been duplicated. This gene is involved in cell growth and repair, and the duplication could slow aging, Live Science previously reported. 

Studying these long-lived whales could provide hints about how to prolong human life. "My own view is that different long-lived species use different tricks to evolve long life spans, and there aren't many genes in common," João Pedro de Magalhães, an expert in aging science at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., previously told Live Science. "But you do find some common pathways, so there may be common patterns." 

Related: Natural rates of aging are fixed, study suggests

9. Rougheye rockfish: 200+ years old

The rougheye rockfish (Sebastes aleutianus) is one of the longest-living fish, with a maximum life span of at least 205 years, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. These pink or brownish fish live in the Pacific Ocean from California to Japan. They grow up to 38 inches (97 centimeters) long and eat other animals, such as shrimp and smaller fish, according to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, an independent advisory panel that assesses the statuses of species threatened with extinction in Canada. 

A 2021 study published in the journal Science looked at the genomes of 88 rockfish species, including rougheye rockfish, and found genetic calling cards for longevity, including DNA repair pathways that may help ward off cancers. A longer life span allows the rockfish to grow larger and produce more young. 

Related: Is fish caught off Alaska 200 years old?

8. Freshwater pearl mussel: 250+ years old

Freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) are bivalves that filter particles of food from the water. They live mainly in rivers and streams and can be found in Europe and North America. The oldest known freshwater pearl mussel was 280 years old, according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. These invertebrates have long life spans thanks to their low metabolism.

Freshwater pearl mussels are an endangered species. Their population is declining due to a variety of human-related factors, including damage and changes to the river habitats they depend on, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Related: Seattle mussels test positive for opioids

7. Greenland shark: 272+ years old

Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) live deep in the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. They can grow to be 24 feet (7.3 meters) long and have a diet that includes a variety of other animals, including fish and marine mammals such as seals, according to the St. Lawrence Shark Observatory in Canada.

A 2016 study of Greenland shark eye tissue, published in the journal Science, estimated that these sharks can have a maximum life span of at least 272 years. The biggest shark in that study was estimated to be about 392 years old, and the researchers suggested that the sharks could have been up to 512 years old, Live Science previously reported. The age estimates came with a degree of uncertainty, but even the lowest estimate of 272 years still makes these sharks the longest-living vertebrates on Earth, Julius Nielsen, a researcher at Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, previously told Live Science.  

Related: 100-year-old Greenland shark that washed up on UK beach had brain infection, autopsy finds

6. Tubeworm: 300+ years old

Tube worms are invertebrates that live on the ocean floor. Bacteria in their tubes create sugars from chemicals, which they absorb as food, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Dive and Discover website. Some tube worms live around hydrothermal vents, but the longest-living species are found in colder, more stable environments called cold seeps, where chemicals spew from cracks or fissures in the seafloor, according to the Exploring Our Fluid Earth website hosted by the University of Hawaii. 

A 2017 study published in the journal The Science of Nature found that Escarpia laminata, a cold-seep species of tube worm in the Gulf of Mexico, regularly lives up to 200 years, and some specimens survive for more than 300 years. Tube worms have a slow metabolism and few natural threats (such as predators), which has helped these creatures evolve such long life spans. 

Related: Wonderland of iridescent worms and hydrothermal vents found off Mexican coast

5. Ocean quahog clam: 500+ years old

Ocean quahog clams (Arctica islandica) inhabit the North Atlantic Ocean. This saltwater species can live even longer than the other bivalve on this list, the freshwater pearl mussel. One ocean quahog clam found off the coast of Iceland in 2006 was 507 years old, according to National Museum Wales in the U.K. The ancient clam was nicknamed Ming because it was born in 1499, when the Ming dynasty ruled China (from 1368 to 1644). 

"In the colder waters surrounding Iceland the Ocean Quahog has a slower metabolism and so grows slowly and may even live for longer than 507 — scientists just haven't found an older one yet!" Anna Holmes, curator of invertebrate biodiversity (bivalves) at National Museum Wales, wrote on the museum's website in 2020. 

Related: 1 billion sea creatures cooked to death in Pacific Northwest

4. Black coral: 4,000+ years old

Corals look like colorful, underwater rocks and plants, but they are actually made up of the exoskeletons of invertebrates called polyps. These polyps continually multiply and replace themselves by creating a genetically identical copy, which over time causes the coral exoskeleton structure to grow bigger and bigger. Corals are therefore made up of multiple identical organisms rather than being a single organism, so a coral's life span is more of a team effort. 

Deep-water black corals are among the longest-living corals. Black coral specimens found off the coast of Hawaii have been radiocarbon dated to be 4,265 years old, Live Science previously reported. 

Related: We finally know why Florida's coral reefs are dying, and it's not just climate change

3. Glass sponge: 10,000+ years old

Sponges are made up of colonies of animals, similar to corals, and can also live for thousands of years. Glass sponges are among the longest-living sponges on Earth. Members of this group are often found in the deep ocean and have skeletons that resemble glass, hence their name, according to NOAA. 

A 2012 study published in the journal Chemical Geology estimated that a glass sponge belonging to the species Monorhaphis chuni was about 11,000 years old. Other sponge species may be able to live even longer. 

Related: 300-year-old Arctic sponges feast on the corpses of their decaying, extinct neighbors

2. Turritopsis dohrnii: potentially immortal

Turritopsis dohrnii is called the immortal jellyfish because it can potentially live forever. Jellyfish start life as larvae before establishing themselves on the seafloor and transforming into polyps. These polyps then produce free-swimming medusas, or jellyfish. Mature T. dohrnii are special in that they can turn back into polyps if they are physically damaged or starving, according to the American Museum of Natural History, and then later return to their jellyfish state.

The jellyfish, which are native to the Mediterranean Sea, can repeat this feat of reversing their life cycle multiple times and therefore may never die of old age under the right conditions, according to the Natural History Museum in London. T. dohrnii are tiny — less than 0.2 inch (4.5 millimeters) across — and are eaten by other animals, such as fish, or may die by other means, thus preventing them from actually achieving immortality.

Related: Thousands of jellyfish swarm near Israel, mesmerizing images reveal

1. Hydra: potentially immortal

Hydra is a group of small invertebrates with soft bodies that slightly resemble jellyfish and, like T. dohrnii, have the potential to live forever. These invertebrates are largely made up of stem cells, which continually regenerate through duplication or cloning, so these animals don't deteriorate as they get older. They do die under natural conditions because of threats such as predators and disease, but without these external dangers, they could keep regenerating forever. 

"They don't seem to age, so potentially, they are immortal," Daniel Martínez, a biology professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California, who discovered the hydra's lack of aging, previously told Live Science. 

Related:  Here's the secret to how 'immortal' hydras regrow severed heads

Originally published on Live Science Aug. 16, 2021, and republished Oct. 28, 2022.

A female lion at the Topeka Zoo in Kansas has grown a mane, an extremely rare phenomenon. 

Zuri, an 18-year-old lioness, started sprouting the mane in late 2020. She is part of an all-female pride at the zoo, the last male having passed away in October 2020. But lion experts say the mane growth likely has little to do with Zuri trying to step into a male pride leader's pawprints. 

"I don’t think there's really any kind of evolutionary [reason for this], either lack of males or too much competition with other females or anything like that," Kris Everatt, a conservation scientist for the global wild cat conservation organization Panthera, told Live Science. "I think it’s just a random event."

It's not unheard-of for female lions to sprout manes, though it is very unusual. The phenomenon has occurred a few times at zoos around the world, including a 2011 case in South Africa and a 2018 case at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Females in the wild have also been known to grow manes, with five cases reported from Botswana in a 2016 paper in the Journal of African Ecology.

Related: In photos: The lions of Kenya's Masai Mara

In the case of the wild lions, there was no hormonal or DNA data to explain the mane growth, Craig Packer, a biologist and founder of the Lion Center at the University of Minnesota, told  Live Science in an email. By comparison, the Oklahoma City Zoo's maned female showed an overproduction of androstenedione, a hormone the body uses to produce the masculinizing hormone testosterone.

Topeka Zoo vets have not ordered specific hormone tests for Zuri, the zoo's animal curator Shanna Simpson told Live Science. The lioness has passed all of her standard health screenings, and hormone tests aren't a typical part of the check-up, Simpson said. 

"We've done a full work-up on Zuri and we don't have any reason to believe she has any kind of cancer" or other serious conditions, Simpson said. Unless the lioness starts to show signs of illness, the zoo plans to keep tabs on her without any invasive testing. 

Zuri began sprouting a mohawk-like tuft of fur not long after the zoo's male died, Simpson said. Her mane has since filled in, but isn't as full as an adult male lion's. 

"She just basically looks like an awkward teenage male lion," Simpson said. 

Zuri seems more feisty since sprouting her furry new neck accessory, Simpson added, and has been growling, snarling, and roaring more often. 

At eighteen years old, Zuri has well exceeded the lifespan of a lion in the wild, prompting Everatt to speculate that perhaps the lioness might be experiencing hormonal shifts due to extreme age. In zoos, lions' median life expectancy is 14.5 years, Simpson said, so Zuri is ancient even for a lion in captivity. As is typical of many older felines, Zuri is experiencing early-stage kidney disease, which is currently being held in check by diet and medication, Simpson said. Zuri also has some arthritis, for which she takes pain medications. 

"We have no reason to believe she’s unhealthy in any way with what’s going on with this faux mane," Simpson said. "She’s just very weird-looking."

Nature is dramatic, majestic … and sometimes pretty silly. The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards celebrates this lighter side of the natural world. The 2022 finalists include fighting meerkats, barfing fish, and bears who are just over it. 

This young proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) in Sukau, Borneo, objects to being included.  

Jumping Jack

A red squirrel appears to be perfecting its martial arts moves in this shot captured during a rainstorm in the Netherlands. The frozen-in-time droplets lend a "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" feel to this shot by photographer Alex Pansier.

It's all kicking off  

A wallaby seems to swing its partner round and round in this shot by photographer Michael Eastwell. Eastwell was visiting Cape Hillsborough in Queensland, Australia, when he caught this sunrise shot of two wallabies playing or fighting on the beach. 

What do you mean "smile"?! I am smiling!  

Awkward school photo, anyone? This lioness at Olare Motorogi Conservancy in Kenya was yawning and making odd faces when she looked straight at Finnish photographer Alison Buttigieg's camera. Buttigieg caught the big cat's fake "smile" at the perfect moment. 

Hello, everyone!  

Czech photographer Miroslav Srb ran across this friendly raccoon on a Florida beach. He fed it shrimp. It waved at him. It was cute. (But fair warning: Feeding wild raccoons is not advisable, as the animals can carry rabies.) 

Say Cheeeeese! 

A gray triggerfish (Ballistes capriscus) hams it up for the camera off the island of Faial in the Azores — sort of. In fact, according to Spanish photographer Arturo Telle Thiemann, these fish are somewhat aggressive. "In this case, they didn't attempt to bite me, but the domeport of my camera housing ended up with some scratches," Thiemann said in a statement. 

Not so cat-like reflexes 

A 3-month-old lion cub crash-lands as it tries to get out of a tree in the Serengeti of Tanzania. The little lion spent some time looking for the right spot for a dismount, U.S. photographer Jennifer Hadley said in a statement; but it was probably his first time in a tree, and the landing didn't go so well. "He was just fine though after landing on the ground," Hadley said. "He got up and ran off with some other cubs." 

Buckaroo! 

Vince Burton of the U.K. caught this zebra kicking up its heels in Kenya.  

I'm gonna strangle you! 

 South African photographer Emmanuel Do Linh San observed these roughhousing meerkats at South Africa's Kalahari Trails game reserve. "In the photo that I have selected, there is no aggression between individuals, but rather an interaction that reminds us of humans when one of your friends jokes about you and you pretend to strangle them, and in response, they open their mouth like a simpleton," he said.  

Excuse me ... Pardon me!  

  A duckling uses a turtle-lined log as a bridge at Juanita Bay Park in Kirkland, Washington. "[T]he duckling fell off after a few turtle crossings, it was cute," photographer Ryan Sims said in a statement.  

I see you! 

 An owlet peeps out of a pipe in Bikaner, India. Photographer Arshdeep Singh captured this shot on the last day of a wildlife photography trip. "It was really funny when he came out and looked at me straight," Singh said in a statement. When the owl closed one eye, Singh caught the skeptical look on camera.  

Funny walk  

 "Whoa, whoa, wait!" A swan seems to be chasing down a taxicab in this shot from Maksimir Park in Zagreb, Croatia. According to photographer Bojan Bencic, the swan was in a tussle with another swan in the park and was chasing it across a frozen pond.  

Your picnic's mine!  

 "OK, OK — you can have the cooler." This cassowary got its way one day in Etty Bay in Queensland, Australia, when it plopped down on a picnic blanket and scared away the human picnickers. "Armed with dagger-like claws and often being territorial and aggressive towards intruders, cassowaries command respect, and most people keep a safe distance from them," photographer Lincoln Macgregor said in a statement. "I spent several days photographing and documenting their behaviour at Etty Bay, where these wild birds regularly come into contact with humans and have become comfortable approaching people." 

Shark moose  

Don't let the goofy look on this bull moose's face fool you. Male moose can weigh up to 1,400 pounds (635 kilograms) and stand 6 feet (1.8 meters) at the shoulder, according to the New York State Conservationist. Is this one smiling or getting ready to attack? Maybe don't stick around to find out.  

Misleading African viewpoints 

In this photo from South Africa's Kruger National Park, a trick of perspective makes it look like the heron (standing on the back of a hippo) is about to become a bite-size snack for a yawning hippo.  

Mom life 

Monkey moms have those moments, too. A baby long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis) clings to its mother, who seems to be wishing for a spa day.  

Curtain call 

A black bear cub makes a dramatic flourish in this photograph taken in Wisconsin. The little bear was having a blast playing with a stick, according to photographer Dave Shaffer.  

Lisper squirrel 

Photographer Lee Zhengxing of China encountered this little squirrel while climbing a mountain in Zhuque National Forest Park. Instead of fleeing, the squirrel paused on the edge of the cliff and kept staring at the intruders.  

You can't see me, can you? 

A little owl plays hide-and-seek with photographer Lukas Zeman in Senoklass, Bulgaria. The owl was perched in the chimney of an old, collapsed house. 

Diving guillemot 

A guillemot seeks a safe landing in the U.K.'s Farne Islands. "The Guillemots were arriving with fish for their young and seemed to just dive into the middle of the horde of young ones," photographer Corinne Kozok said in a statement.  

Keep calm and keep your head 

"Um… you seem to be missing something." A king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) ponders its seemingly headless comrade at Volunteer Point in the Falkland Islands.  

Fight back  

Bears fishing for salmon in Alaska sometimes make the job look effortless, snapping fish out of the current with ease. And sometimes, it's not so simple. "This salmon decided to punch the bear in the face rather than be lunch," said photographer John Chaney. 

Barf 

Dutch photographer Paul Eijkemans caught this Picasso triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus) vomiting up coral residues in Marsa Shagra, Egypt. 

Football dream 

A Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii) plays with a pine cone in Ontario, Canada.  

Too much sun 

A brown bear (Ursus arctos beringianus) gets all tuckered out at Kurile Lake in Kamchatka, Russia. This brown bear subspecies is found only on the Kamchatka Peninsula and nearby islands. Italian photographer Paolo Mignosa captured this photo of the bear and several others playing near a river.  

Gotta scratch that itch 

A ground squirrel scratches an itch at Merced National Wildlife Refuge in California. Photographer Kevin Lohman caught a series of this squirrel scratching from its head to its back.  

A giant mosasaur with teeth like a killer whale ruled the oceans around Morocco towards the end of the Cretaceous period, a new study finds.

The extinct predator, named Thalassotitan atrox, grew to about 30 to 33 feet (9 to 10 meters) long and likely fed on any other marine reptiles it came across, including fellow mosasaurs. The name Thalassotitan comes from the Greek words "thalassa" and "titan," meaning "sea giant," and the species name atrox translates to "cruel" or "merciless," according to the study.   

Researchers discovered fossilized skulls, jaws and other remains that they used to identify T. atrox near Casablanca in western Morocco, an area that was underwater during the Cretaceous period. 

The researchers found that the teeth of T. atrox were often chipped, broken or worn down, suggesting the species damaged them while violently attacking and biting through the bones of prey. 

Mosasaurs went extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs after a giant asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago. The new finds add to a fossil record in Morocco that shows the ocean there was teeming with rich and diverse life before the asteroid hit.

"They tell us how life was rich and diversified just before the end of the ‘dinosaur era’, where animals had to specialise to have a place in their ecosystems," co-author Nour-Eddine Jalil, a collection manager at the Palaeontology Research Center at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, said in a statement. "Thalassotitan completes the picture by taking on the role of the megapredator at the top of the food chain."

Related: An 18-foot-long sea monster ruled the ancient ocean that once covered Kansas 

Mosasaurs were a diverse group of marine reptiles distantly related to modern lizards and snakes. They ruled the world's oceans for millions of years when dinosaurs dominated on land. A 2014 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS estimated that one mosasaur specimen from a different species in Russia called Mosasaurus hoffmanni was about 56 feet (17 meters) long.

The new species, therefore, wasn't the biggest mosasaur, but it was still a top predator and filled a similar role in its ecosystem to killer whales (Orcinus orca) and great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) today, according to the statement.

Most mosasaurs had long jaws and slender teeth, but T. atrox evolved a shorter, wider muzzle that increased its bite force and short, conical killer whale-like teeth that could endure the increased forces when biting large prey, according to the study.  

The researchers found fossilized bones of at least three other mosasaurs in the same rock beds as T. atrox that showed signs of acid damage, suggesting these mosasaurs were digested in the stomach of T. atrox and spat out again.

The study was published online Aug. 24 in the journal Cretaceous Research.

Originally published on Live Science.

Monkeys in Indonesia get their rocks off using actual rocks, supporting what's known as the sex toy hypothesis, a new study finds.  

Researchers studying long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) found that the monkeys repetitively tapped and rubbed their genitals with stones to pleasure themselves, according to the study first reported by New Scientist. This finding provides further evidence for the sex toy hypothesis, proposed by the same researchers in an earlier study, that presents the activity as a form of tool-assisted masturbation.

The team found that males and females of different age groups all used stones to play with themselves, but there was some variation among the groups: Female monkeys were pickier about the stones they used, while young males engaged in the activity the most. Researchers watching the monkeys usually didn't have to wait long to observe the behavior.

"You do see this genital stone tapping and rubbing quite regularly," lead author Camilla Cenni, a doctoral candidate at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, told Live Science. "They are not, of course, constantly doing it, but if you stop and see them and they start playing with stones, they are likely going to do it."

Related: 'Monkey gang' member executed in Japan as marauding macaques run amok

Some macaque populations regularly manipulate stones as part of their behavioral repertoire, seemingly as a form of play. They carry stones around, rub them on surfaces and bash them together. This stone manipulation is likely cultural, because its only seen in certain populations, Cenni said.

The "self-directed tool-assisted masturbation" described in the new study likely stems from this wider stone use. However, it's been documented in only one population of macaques in Bali, Indonesia. 

"When we talk about tool use in animals, we normally think about survival-dependent instances," Cenni said. For example, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use stones to crack nuts so they can eat them. "There is an increasing number of studies that are suggesting that using objects as tools doesn't have to be a matter of survival. This is clearly an example." 

The new research builds on a study led by Cenni and published in the journal Physiology & Behavior in 2020. The study first proposed the sex toy hypothesis in male macaques, while the new research looked at males and females and their potential motivation. 

Young males spent significantly more time engaging in the activity than mature males did. Mature males, in fact, were the least partial to stone masturbation, possibly because they had access to mature females. However, there was a lot of variation among individual macaques of both sexes. "Within those groups, you have monkeys that do it way more than others," Cenni said.

The monkeys were urban-dwelling macaques living in and around the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in the town of Ubud. They are free-roaming and fed by people. The researchers suggested that the feeding might relax pressures on the monkeys to forage, leading them to engage more in the stone behaviors. In other words, they have more time on their hands than other monkeys, and they choose to spend it with the stones.  

The study was published online Aug. 4 in the journal Ethology. 

Originally published on Live Science.

Almost all sea turtle hatchlings are emerging from their eggs as females on some Florida beaches because of heat waves exacerbated by climate change, Reuters reported on Aug. 2.

Five different sea turtle species are found in Florida, including loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas), according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Bette Zirkelbach, manager of the Turtle Hospital in the Florida Keys, told Reuters that scientists haven't found any male sea turtles for the past four years. So, what's going on? 

Temperature plays a major role in determining the sex of developing sea turtles. Unlike humans, whose sex determination is largely controlled by the X and Y sex chromosomes, turtle's sex ratios are determined by the temperature at which their eggs are incubated. Higher temperatures at incubation produce more females.

Climate change raises the temperature of nesting sands, causing the sex ratios of turtles to skew toward females, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Introducing too many females and not enough males into the turtle populations could reduce the animals' ability to reproduce when the turtles reach adulthood, increasing their risk of local extinction.

Related: Wildfires blaze in London during record heatwave

The strange sex ratio phenomenon isn't just affecting Florida. A 2018 study published in the journal Current Biology found that green sea turtles had a 99% female sex bias on warmer, northern Great Barrier Reef nesting beaches and a 65% to 69% female sex bias on cooler, southern beaches Down Under. 

While the skewed sex ratio could be damaging for sea turtles, having more females than males isn't necessarily all that unnatural. Sea turtle nests that are 90% female aren't uncommon and only a few males may be needed in a population to fertilize eggs, Insider reported. However, there wouldn't be any fertilization if all males disappeared. 

The temperature threshold for determining the sex of sea turtles is 81.9 degrees Fahrenheit (27.7 degrees Celsius), according to NOAA. Turtles incubated below 81.9 F hatch male and turtles incubated above 81.9 F hatch female, while fluctuating temperatures above and below this threshold produce a mix of males and females.

The process is called temperature-dependent sex determination and it affects a variety of animals, including crocodiles, many fish and some lizards. Scientists aren't certain, but they have theories as to why some animals have their sex determined this way and others don't.

"Our best guess is that temperature-dependent sex determination originated because reptiles do not have parental care and the eggs are in close interaction with the environment," Diego Cortez, a biologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, told Live Science in 2021. "We also know that elevated incubation temperatures speed up the development of embryos. So, the sex that is linked to higher incubation temperatures will hatch earlier." 

Temperature-dependent sex determination may also allow mothers to control the sex of their offspring, such as by laying eggs in cooler or warmer spots, if there is a need for more males or more females within that animal's population and species, Live Science previously reported. 

A 2020 study of loggerhead turtles published in the journal Climatic Change highlighted other problems that can arise with increased incubation temperatures. In Cabo Verde (also called Cape Verde), a country of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the researchers found that 33% more embryos perished when incubation temperatures reached 90.1 F (32.3 C) than when incubation temperatures hovered around 85.5 F (29.7 C). The researchers also found that hatchlings incubated at high temperatures were smaller in size and more likely to be killed by crabs on their way to the ocean. 

In other words, hot temperatures can be lethal for developing turtles and reduce their survival chances when they do hatch. 

Originally published on Live Science.

A colossal, creamy yellow woodlouse relative that has a vague resemblance to Darth Vader has been discovered deep below the ocean surface in the Gulf of Mexico, a new study finds. 

At more than 10 inches (26 centimeters) long, the creature is 2,500% larger than common roly polies, or woodlice (Oniscus asellus) that are found chewing on decaying matter in most people's backyards. This blond behemoth is the latest addition to a group of about 20 deep-sea crustaceans in the genus Bathynomus that live in the benthic zone, the deepest reaches of the ocean, according to a statement. 

Bathynomus species are sometimes called the "Darth Vader of the Seas," perhaps because their heads share similarities with the "Star Wars" character's helmet, Live Science previously reported. If that's the case then "vanilla Vader" might be an appropriate name for this pale new addition to the genus. 

Researchers identified the species from a single specimen caught off the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico in 2017, and they named it Bathynomus yucatanensis after the region. Bathynomus members look similar, and researchers originally assumed the individual was a known species called B. giganteus, one of two previously identified species that inhabit the Gulf, until a genetic analysis suggested it was an unknown species sharing the same waters. 

"The ecological diversity of the Gulf of Mexico may be more complex than [previously] thought," study lead author Huang Ming-Chih, an associate professor at the National University of Tainan in Taiwan, told Live Science in an email. 

Related: Massive 'Darth Vader' sea bug pulled from waters near Indonesia

Bathynomus species are isopods, an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice. Scavenging in the deep ocean, Bathynomus species are rarely seen by people. The specimen from the Gulf of Mexico used to identify B. yucatanensis came from a baited cage trap set at about 2,000 feet to 2,600 feet (600 to 800 meters) below sea level. 

The Enoshima Aquarium in Japan kept the specimen under the assumption it was B. giganteus until Huang obtained it as part of research investigating Bathynomus. Huang analyzed the specimen's DNA and found that it differed from B. giganteus in the sequence of two genes — cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) and 16S rRNA. A second specimen from the aquarium that underwent the same analysis produced a match for B. giganteus, further suggesting the first specimen was something different. 

"I was skeptical," Huang said. "Since Enoshima Aquarium in Japan only purchased B. giganteus, I always thought it was B. giganteus." Huang studied the morphology of the specimen with two other experts. They found that the specimen with different genes was shorter and more slender than B. giganteus, with longer antennae and a body shape that more closely resembled an inverted triangle. What's more, the newly identified species' creamy yellow coloration differentiated it from its grayer cousins. From these morphological differences and the genetic analysis, the team concluded that it was a newfound species. 

Both species have the same number of spines at the ends of their bodies, called pleotelson spines, that the researchers infer are an expression of age and maturity. The researchers noted this similarity makes it easy to misidentify B. yucatanensis. 

Given that B. yucatanensis is so similar to B. giganteus, it's likely that the two share a common ancestor, the researchers wrote in the study.

The study was published online Wednesday (Aug. 10) in the Journal of Natural History. 

Originally published on Live Science.

"Prehistoric Planet" sends viewers back in time on a guided tour of the Cretaceous period with Sir David Attenborough, in a documentary series that reimagines familiar dinosaurs such as the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex and introduces lesser-known creatures like the charming owl-like Mononykus. 

The show portrays the extinct creatures moving and behaving with a level of realism that has never been seen before in movies or television. And if you draw back the curtain and peer backstage, you'll find the work that went on behind the scenes of the groundbreaking series is almost as impressive as the dinosaurs themselves, from perilous treks in the desert to Sherlock Holmes-like deductions of dinosaur anatomy and behavior. 

"Prehistoric Planet" debuted on Apple TV+ on May 23, and all the episodes are now available to stream. This is our behind-the-scenes coverage of the show, so if you don't want to know how the sauce was made, check out our "Prehistoric Planet" preview instead.

The series paired the BBC Studios Natural History Unit — the group behind award-winning nature documentaries like "Planet Earth" (BBC 2006) — with the Moving Picture Company's visual effects team, which has worked on 3D animated movies like “The Lion King” (Walt Disney Pictures, 2019). This combined team went to extraordinary lengths to make "Prehistoric Planet" feel as authentic and close to a modern nature documentary as possible. 

"Everything starts with the fossil record," showrunner Tim Walker told Live Science at a behind-the-scenes press tour. The team studied ancient landscapes and vegetation to find modern habitats that could pass for the Cretaceous period so they could film in real-world locations. "It's surprising that now, 66 million years on, that there's a lot of things that are very similar to what they were then," Walker said. 

Related: Cretaceous dinosaurs come to life in stunning footage from 'Prehistoric Planet'

From searing deserts to lush jungles, the habitats that dinosaurs called home often still exist in some form today. The film crews traveled to these locations and used life-size physical objects, such as cardboard cutouts and 3D-printed puppets, as stand-ins for the long-extinct dinosaurs. 

These dino stand-ins were a point of reference for the filmmakers and special effects team, enabling the creators to see how much space the animals would take up and how they would move in their environments. Some animals were far too big to be puppets or cutouts — imagine walking through the desert carrying enormous, long-necked sauropods made out of cardboard — so the team used long boom poles and drones to capture the eye-line and scale of really giant creatures. 

"Just because there are no animals there to film doesn't mean you don't go through hardships," Walker said. The crew encountered deadly venomous snakes and the footprints of lions in their faux-Cretaceous scenes. They were so committed to authenticity that before the team decided where to place their cameras they considered how living dinosaurs might react to human observers. 

"You could never ask the camera person to go and stand in front of a T. rex 'cause he would eat them!" executive producer Mike Gunton said at the press tour. "So, you have to stand back."

The crew didn't just have cameras and stand-in models; they were also equipped with laser-shooting light detection and ranging (lidar) scanners for modeling environments, and high dynamic range (HDR) imaging equipment to measure light, enabling visual effects specialists to recreate natural environments and lighting in 3D space when adding the CGI dinosaurs. 

The visual effects team designed the dinosaurs on computers, starting with skeletons based on fossil scans, and then adding muscles and skin. The appearance, motion and behavior of the dinosaurs were inspired by evidence from paleontology, contemporary biology and other scientific disciplines such as biomechanics — the study of biological structures and mechanisms that control how animals move. 

Gunton described their approach as being like "Sherlock Holmes," pulling together information from various sources and threading it together with the help of scientific advisors. A scene in the "Deserts" episode highlights how animators used this approach to show viewers the unexpected: two sauropods in the genus Dreadnoughtus wrestling and stabbing each other with deadly looking arm spines. 

"These are big, apparently docile, herbivorous animals," Gunton said. "Yet on their forelimbs are these two massive great spikes. Now they don't use those for picking their nose!"

When the fossil evidence didn't have all the answers, the team used a scientific technique known as phylogenetic bracketing. This practice enabled them to infer the likelihood of unknown dinosaur traits — such as vocalizations or other kinds of social behavior — based on the characteristics of related animals in their family tree, or of unrelated animals with a similar lifestyle. 

For example, the team looked at crocodiles, iguanas and birds for inspiration when animating the movement of a T. rex's head during a courtship scene in the “Freshwater” episode, and the creators referenced large herbivores such as elephants and rhinos to inform the movements of extinct herbivores such as Dreadnoughtus.

"Everything we do in the visual effect process, we are trying to replicate reality," visual effects supervisor Elliot Newman said at the press tour. "There's no better way of doing that than looking at real things." 

“Prehistoric Planet” is available to stream on Apple TV+. 

Originally published on Live Science.

Triops are a group of freshwater crustaceans commonly called tadpole shrimp or dinosaur shrimp. They look like ancient armored tadpoles, a look they've rocked for hundreds of millions of years. The word "Triops" means "three eyes" in Greek, and the group is so named because they have two main compound eyes and a third simple organ called an ocellus eye that helps them detect light. 

The animals are not shrimp, which is a name usually reserved for marine crustaceans in the order Decapoda (Triops are in the order Notostraca). But like shrimp, Triops — one of two genera in its own family and order — live in water. In fact, Triops have adapted to an extreme life in temporary freshwater or slightly salty pools that may only last a few weeks before drying out.

Are Triops dinosaurs?

Triops' appearance hasn't changed much since the group first emerged in the Devonian period (419 million to 359 million years ago), according to Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. This ancient and morphologically consistent lineage led some people to call the creatures "living fossils," a term that's also commonly used to describe deep-sea fish called coelacanths (SEE'-lah-kanths) and horseshoe crabs — another animal that looks a bit like Triops. 

Scientists used to consider one Triops species, Triops cancriformis, as being the same animal seen in 250 million-year-old fossils. That would mean Triops cancriformis had survived to the present day from the Triassic period (about 252 million to 201 million years ago) when dinosaurs first emerged — hence the name "dinosaur shrimp." However, a 2013 study of Triops DNA published in the journal PeerJ found that the current species evolved within the last 25 million years. 

"Living fossils evolve like any other organism, they just happen to have a good body plan that has survived the test of time," study lead author Africa Gómez, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Hull in England, said in a statement at the time. "A good analogy could be made with cars. For example, the Mini has an old design that is still selling, but newly made Minis have electronic windows, GPS and airbags: in that sense, they are still 'evolving', they are not unchanged but most of the change has been 'under the hood' rather than external."

Related: This 'ancient' monster fish may live for 100 years

Where do Triops live?

The Triops group is found on every continent except for Antarctica. The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) recognizes 13 different species in the Triops genus, including the Australian tadpole shrimp (Triops australiensis) in Australia, Triops emeritensis in Europe and northern Asia, and Triops maximus in Africa. The U.S. has two native species: Newberry tadpole shrimp (Triops newberryi) and summer tadpole shrimp (Triops longicaudatus). 

Summer tadpole shrimp have the widest distribution of all the Triops species and are found throughout the U.S. (except for Alaska), Canada, the Caribbean, Japan and some Pacific Islands, though humans likely introduced them to Japan and the Pacific Islands, according to the University of Michigan's BioKids website. 

How big do Triops get?

Triops usually grow to be no more than a few inches in length. For example, summer tadpole shrimps reach about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) long, and this is still considered quite large for Triops, according to BioKids. Australian tadpole shrimp are larger and max out at about 3.5 inches (9 cm) long, according to the Western Australian Museum.  

How do Triops breed?

Because Triops' water habitats are only temporary, they mature quickly and go from eggs to breeding adults in two to three weeks, according to Buglife, an invertebrate conservation charity in the U.K. Triops are hermaphrodites, which means each individual has both sexual organs, but they can also reproduce sexually and even produce offspring from unfertilized eggs. This flexibility when it comes to reproducing helps each generation of Triops give rise to another in extreme environments, including deserts. 

Triops' eggs may enter "diapause," which is a state of dormancy in which the eggs stop developing and dry out. Diapause allows the eggs, and the Triops inside, to survive when their watery pools evaporate in arid conditions. The eggs may stay in diapause for up to 27 years, waiting for water to return so they can hatch, according to Buglife. 

Related: 100 million-year-old fairy shrimp reproduced without sex, rare fossils reveal

When conditions are favorable, these animals can suddenly hatch in large numbers. For example, hundreds of Triops emerged in an ordinarily dry ceremonial ball court — a circular walled structure — at Wupatki National Monument in northern Arizona in 2021, Live Science previously reported. 

"We knew that there was water in the ball court, but we weren't expecting anything living in it," Lauren Carter, lead interpretation ranger at Wupatki National Monument, told Live Science at the time. "Then a visitor came up and said, 'Hey, you have tadpoles down in your ballcourt.'" 

The "tadpoles" were Triops that hatched after a monsoon created a temporary lake in the ball court. After they've hatched, Triops live up to 70 days in the wild and 90 days in captivity, according to BioKids. 

What do Triops eat

Triops are very adaptable and have a varied diet that includes scavenging floating organic material in their pools and hunting things like zooplankton and insect larvae. When food is scarce, they may even eat each other. Summer tadpole shrimps are a pest in rice fields because they eat young crops and make crop water muddier so less light reaches the plants, according to Central Michigan University.

Birds, especially waterfowl, eat Triops. The threat of predation is so great for Triops that they tend to be solitary, because potential predators are more likely to see and eat a group of them, according to BioKids. 

Are Triops endangered?

Four species of Triops face extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Triops gadensis, Triops baeticus and Triops vicentinus are endangered and Triops emeritensis is critically endangered. All four species live on the Iberian Peninsula in Spain and Portugal, and are threatened by human activities such as development and agriculture. 

The IUCN hasn't assessed either of the species found in the U.S. However, Newberry tadpole shrimps are classified as "secure" — not at risk of extinction — according to NatureServe, a non-profit based in Virginia that collects data on North American wildlife.  

Additional resources

To view a map of where Triops is found across the world, check out the Encyclopedia of Life website. To learn more about how Triops longicaudatus survive in the U.S., watch this short YouTube video by Zion National Park. For more information about Triops, check out "Timeless Triops: A Prehistoric Creature" (Lori Adams Photo, 2014).

Originally published on Live Science.

Asian elephants, like their African cousins, seem to mourn their dead, sometimes even carrying their lost infants in their trunks for days or weeks, new research finds. 

Whether elephants understand death in the same way humans do is unknown — and probably unknowable. But Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are social creatures, and the new research adds to the evidence that they experience some sort of emotional response when they lose one of their own.

"Understanding elephants' response to death might have some far reaching effects on their conservation," study co-authors Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and Nachiketha Sharma of the  Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, wrote to Live Science in an email. "We have personally observed that when people witness an elephant responding to a dead kin, there will be some sense of relatedness, compassion and empathy towards the species. Therefore, anything which instantly connects people might pave the way for coexistence in elephant ranging countries." 

Death ritual

African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana) have long been observed reacting emotionally when a herd member dies. They might approach the body and touch it with their trunks, kick at the corpse or stand nearby as if on guard. Asian elephants, however, are less well-understood. They tend to live in forested habitat, so they are harder to observe in the wild than savanna-dwelling African elephants.

Related: The longest living animals on Earth

"They can be 100 feet [30 meters] away from you, and you might not see them because the forest is so dense," said Brian Aucone, the senior vice president for life sciences at the Denver Zoo, who was not involved in the new study. .

To get around this, Pokharel, Sharma, and their co-author Raman Sukumar, all of the Indian Institute of Science at the time, turned to YouTube, where remarkable animal videos are a staple. They searched the site for keywords related to Asian elephants and death, and uncovered 39 videos of 24 cases between 2010 and 2021 in which one or more Asian elephants were seen reacting to the loss of a herdmate. Eighty percent of the videos showed wild elephants, 16% captive elephants and 4% semi-captive elephants (typically, semi-captive elephants are animals that work in the timber industry or in tourist parks in Asia).

Some of the most striking behaviors seen in the videos occurred when a calf died. In five of the 12 videos showing a deceased calf, a female adult — likely the mother — was seen carrying the calf. Based on the state of decomposition of the corpse, it appeared that this carrying behavior went on for days or weeks.

Indian Forest Service ranger Parveen Kaswan uploaded one such video in 2019, showing an Asian elephant dragging the body of a calf across a road in what he likened to a "funeral procession" in a post on Twitter at the time.

"I think they're holding on and trying to grasp what has happened, and there's something happening there with their interaction with their offspring, just like it would be with us," Aucone said of the behavior.

Other common elephant reactions seen in the videos included restlessness or alertness when near the corpse; exploratory movements such as approaching or investigating the body; or touching and smelling. Elephants communicate through scent, Aucone said, so the sniffing is not surprising. In 10 cases, the elephants tried to lift, nudge or shake the body, as if to attempt to revive their lost comrade. In 22 cases, they seemed to stand vigil over the body.

"We've seen some of this before ourselves," Aucone told Live Science. When the zoo euthanizes older elephants due to illness or infirmity, the staff give herdmates a chance to say goodbye, Aucone said. The survivors often sniff the deceased elephant or lay their trunks by its mouth, a social behavior.

Animal grief

Elephants aren't the only social creatures that react to death, especially to the death of babies. Orca mothers have been observed pushing their dead calves around, as have dolphins. In 2018, an orca female named Tahlequah off the coast of Washington held on to her lost baby for 17 days. Other female orcas were seen huddled around Tahlequah and her dead newborn in the hours after the baby's death in what looked like a circle of grief. Ape and monkey mothers sometimes carry around dead infants for weeks or months.

In the case of the elephants, which are devoted to caring for their young, the mother-calf bond is fundamental, Pokharel, Sharma and Sukumar wrote in the study, published Wednesday (May 18) in the journal Royal Society Open Science. This is true of primates, as well, Pokharel and Sharma told Live Science.

"[T]he mother-calf/infant bonding in both elephants and primates have some striking similarities as both nurture their young until they become strong enough to forage and defend themselves," they wrote. "Therefore, this long lasting bond between mothers and calves/infants may potentially motivate mothers to respond towards their unresponsive calves. It is very difficult to predict the exact causations and functionality behind the dead infants carrying. But, some of the YouTube videos certainly provide evidence that some species may have some sense of death awareness."

Originally published on Live Science.

A yellow robot named "ECHO" is helping scientists in Antarctica to keep tabs on some of the continent's penguin residents. 

At Antarctica's Atka Bay, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are monitoring a colony of about 20,000 emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) with the help of a hybrid rover that's partly autonomous and partly remote-controlled. 

The four-wheeled robot is part of a 30-year-long WHOI program that launched in 2017, called "Monitor the health of the Antarctic marine ecosystems using the emperor penguin as a sentinel," or MARE for short. The MARE project monitors emperor penguins and uses them as indicators of overall ecosystem health in Antarctica. The project documents how well the penguins adapt to climate change and its impact on the abundance and distribution of the fish they eat, WHOI representatives said in a statement 

ECHO's purpose is to remove any human presence from penguin surveys, as counting and cataloging thousands of birds is time-consuming and can stress the animals, according to WHOI. 

Related: Here's why a new penguin colony in Antarctica is cause for concern

To make ECHO the perfect penguin monitoring vehicle, scientists equipped the 3-foot-tall (0.9 meter) rover with lidar (light detection and ranging) and GPS technology to navigate autonomously. ECHO carries sensors that help researchers monitor the penguin colony's numbers and track individuals' movement and behavior. 

For example, a radio frequency identification (RFID) antenna scans tiny RFID tags that WHOI researchers implanted in penguin chicks when the youngsters were about five months old. Since the MARE project began, researchers have tagged around 300 penguin chicks each year, according to WHOI. Once ECHO is in range of a penguin's RFID tag — about 34 inches (86 centimeters) away — the robot can retrieve information about overall fitness and breeding status, as well as oceanographic data from when the penguin was in the sea. A 360-degree camera enables scientists to identify individual penguins that ECHO encounters, and GPS data reveals the extent of the penguins' distribution and their habitat hotspots. 

Researchers at WHOI modified ECHO from a Husky robot kit created by the robot-manufacturing company Clearpath Robotics. The robotics company awarded WHOI the Husky kit in 2020, Clearpath representatives said in a statement. Prior to ECHO, MARES project data was collected using handheld RFID scanners and human observations. 

The data ECHO collects is transmitted over WI-FI to the Single Penguin Observation and Tracking Observatory (SPOT) research center. Located near the German Antarctic research base Neumayer Station III, SPOT can also carry out penguin observations, using 16 high-resolution cameras capable of pinpointing individual penguins within the colony, according to WHOI. 

Emperor penguins have no natural predators in Antarctica, so they are good study subjects for scientists looking to understand how animals are affected by ecosystem fluctuations caused by climate change.

However, the birds' survival in a warming world is uncertain. A study published in 2021 in the journal Global Change Biology reported that the rapid decline of Antarctica's ice could cause that emperor penguins to become "quasi-extinct" by 2100 — meaning that although there might still be individual penguins alive, the species as a whole would be doomed to extinction. 

"Biodiversity in the Southern Ocean is so small, compared to more temperate regions of the world, that losing any species there is kind of devastating," Daniel Zitterbart, an associate scientist at WHOI, told CNN.

WHOI researchers plan to extend ECHO's data collection efforts to include the penguins' foraging and reproductive behaviors, as well as what happens inside a penguin huddle — a social behavior in which the colony huddles together to stay warm and conserve energy. To infiltrate the penguin huddle, researchers plan to put ECHO inside a 3D-printed replica of a block of ice. ECHO and its icy disguise would then be placed in the path of a forming huddle, which typically happens in winter after the breeding season, while the male birds are brooding their eggs. This disguise would enable ECHO to collect penguin data while the birds are in close contact with each other, according to WHOI.

Originally published on Live Science.

The Cambodian government recently asked people to stop picking a rare carnivorous plant that, when viewed from a certain angle, looks a lot like human male genitalia.

The Cambodian Ministry of Environment shared images on Facebook of three women snatching up pitcher plants and posing with them, and ministry officials requested that members of the public leave the rare plants alone, Cambodian news website the Khmer Times reported.

"What they are doing is wrong and please don’t do it again in the future!" The Ministry of Environment wrote on May 11 in the Facebook post. "Thank you for loving natural resources, but don’t harvest so it goes to waste!" 

Some news websites have reported that this plant is Nepenthes holdenii, but it's actually a closely related species called Nepenthes bokorensis, Jeremy Holden, a freelance wildlife photographer who first discovered N. Holdenii, and François Mey, a botanical illustrator who described both species, separately told Live Science.  

Related: Here's how plants became meat eaters

N. holdenii and N. bokorensis are similar in appearance and both only occur on nearby mountain ranges, which may explain the confusion. However, N. holdenii is the rarer of the two species and only a few researchers know where to find it.   

"My plant [N. holdenii] grows at a few secret locations in the Cardamom Mountains," of southwestern Cambodia, Holden said. "Bokorensis occurs on the far more accessible Phnom Bokor, which has undergone extensive development in recent years."

The Ministry of Environment's Facebook post and photos were responding to a video filmed on May 11 that showed the women picking the plants, according to Newsflare, a website that buys and licenses videos. This isn't the first time the government has issued a warning against harming the phallic and photogenic plants; senior officials at the ministry asked tourists not to pick N. bokorensis and N. holdenii in a statement in July 2021, because the activity could drive the plants to extinction.    

Nepenthes plants survive in low-nutrient soil by supplementing their diet with live insects, using their nectar and a sweet scent to attract prey. "When you smell a bokorensis pitcher, it smells sweet — just like a candy," Mey said.

Insects feed on nectar around the mouth of the plants' modified leaves that, when mature, resemble pitchers. When insects fall inside the pitchers, they drown in digestive fluids and the hungry plants absorb their nutrients. A pitcher plant's phallic resemblance is most pronounced when Nepenthes' leaves are still developing and the pitcher is closed. 

The natural habitats of carnivorous pitcher plants in Cambodia have declined due to agricultural expansion on private lands and the growth of the tourism industry into protected areas, according to a 2021 study in the Cambodian Journal of Natural History. 

Mey noted that while the phallic appearance of the plants is "fun," picking them could jeopardize their survival. 

"If people are interested, even in a funny way, to pose, to make selfies with the plants, it's fine," he said. "Just do not pick the pitchers because it weakens the plant, because the plant needs these pitchers to feed."

Originally published on Live Science.

An unidentified monkey spotted in Borneo is a rare hybrid between two different species that are competing for forest space, a new study suggests. 

Researchers concluded that the "mystery monkey" is likely the offspring of a proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) and a silvery langur (Trachypithecus cristatus) — two distantly related species that share the same habitat. 

Coronavirus restrictions prevented the researchers from investigating the forest where the monkey lives, so instead the scientists analyzed photos that began appearing on social media in 2017. The monkey was initially photographed as a juvenile, but more recent photos from 2020 reveal that the animal is now a mature female and may have an infant of her own.

"She appeared to be nursing a baby," study co-author Nadine Ruppert, a primatologist at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (Science University of Malaysia), told Live Science in an email. "We were all in awe, it was quite surreal." 

Related: These endangered monkeys kept getting hit by cars. Scientists had a clever solution. 

While different species typically don't produce viable offspring if they mate, very closely related species may occasionally interbreed in the wild to create hybrids. For example, northern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca leonina) and southern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) interbreed in certain parts of Thailand, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). However, interbreeding species are typically similar and belong to the same evolutionary group, or genus — proboscis monkeys and silvery langurs do not.

The hybrid monkey was spotted near the Kinabatangan River in Malaysian Borneo (the island is divided among three nations: Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia), where the ranges of proboscis monkeys and silvery langurs overlap. But these two monkey species are visibly very different. 

Adult proboscis monkeys have pinkish faces with elongated noses, while adult silvery langurs have black faces with shorter, flatter noses. Probosicis monkeys are also larger. A male proboscis monkey can grow up to 30 inches (76 cm) long and weighs 44 to 53 pounds (20 to 24 kg). Silvery langurs only reach about 22 inches (56 cm) long and weigh 14.5 pounds (6.6 kg) on average, according to the New England Primate Conservancy.

Both species live in groups composed of a dominant male and multiple females and their offspring. Males born into these groups are pressured to leave once they mature to start groups of their own, or take over another group. However, habitat decline is limiting the areas where these dispersing males can go, according to Ruppert.

"We concluded from the observations that the photographers made that male proboscis monkeys are mating with female silver langurs in the area and that there are mixed groups where female proboscis monkeys even take care of silver langur babies," Ruppert said.

Male proboscis monkeys may be using their larger size to oust langur males and take over langur groups. The researchers suspect that the "mystery monkey" in the photos is the offspring of a male proboscis monkey and a female langur because it shares characteristics of both species. For example, her nose is pronounced like a female proboscis monkey, but not as elongated, and her face has a gray tinge. 

Most hybrids born from different species are sterile and unable to produce offspring, which makes the so-called mystery monkey and her baby even more unusual. It's possible she was allomothering — or taking care of another female's infant — but the photos showed that she had swollen breasts associated with lactation, which indicates the offspring was her own.

As unique and intriguing as the discovery appears to be, there's a downside. "It’s tragic that both species now cramp together in the remaining narrow riparian forest patches surrounded by oil palm plantations, where they compete for food and mating opportunities," Ruppert said. "I hope that people will start talking about her, not as an attraction, but as a 'flagship' animal of the area that needs to be protected, and with her, her two parent species and their habitat." 

The study was published April 26 in the International Journal of Primatology. 

Originally published on Live Science.

On April 30, beachgoers in Kommetjie, South Africa encountered a rare sight: a giant squid carcass glistening on the sand at Long Beach. 

"It was incredible to see," Alison Paulus, a Cape Town resident and founder of the wildlife conservation organization Volunteer and Explore, told Live Science in an email. "The body was around 2.2 meters [7.2 feet] alone, then with the tentacles and arms I'm sure it would have stretched to 3.5 meters [11.5 feet]."

Giant squids are among the most elusive animals on the planet. They live at ocean depths between 1,000 to 3,000 feet (300 to 1,000 m) and only rarely rise to the sea surface. For centuries, the only information scientists had about these creatures came from studying beached carcasses or remains found in the bellies of sperm whales — the first photos of a live giant squid weren’t captured until 2004, according to National Geographic. 

Spotting a giant squid on a South African beach is rare, though not unheard of. A beautifully preserved baby giant squid washed up near Cape Town in 2020, the Washington Post reported. Another adult specimen that washed ashore in the same area in 1992 was just over 30 feet (9 m) long, Devon Bowen, a digital manager at Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, told the South African news site Independent Online (IOL).

Related: What's the difference between arms and tentacles?

This squid beached at night after sustaining injuries, possibly from an encounter with a commercial boat or fishing vessel. "We could see a long gash above its tentacles which we presume was from a boat propeller," Paulus said. Investigation by wildlife professionals revealed that the animal was a female. "I would say that she was most likely struck by a ship while she was at the sea surface," Jon Friedman, a wildlife officer from the Cape of Good Hope Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), told IOL. 

Friedman estimated that the squid was around two years old when she died. Giant squids can live for up to five years and reach lengths of 43 feet (13 m), though most top out around 36 feet (11 m), according to Smithsonian. 

By the time SPCA officials reached the scene, local fishers had already removed the squid’s eyes, beak, and portions of its tentacles. Most of what remained of the carcass was then chopped up by the SPCA and thrown back into the sea, though officials sent some tissue samples off to Cape Town's Iziko South African Museum for DNA analysis. The museum currently holds the remains of 19 other giant squids, IOL reported. 

Paulus was disappointed that the body did not make it back to the museum, but said that her family was thrilled to see the squid while it was still intact. "I have two small sons who are crazy about wildlife, so we went down straight away to see," she said.

Originally published on Live Science.

A California family unexpectedly discovered that they had been sharing their home with a family of five bears — an adult female and four cubs. The bears recently emerged from underneath a home in Lake Tahoe, where they had been hibernating for the winter.

The BEAR League — a volunteer-led bear conservation organization and rescue service — described the bear's emergence on April 19 in a Facebook post. 

In the post, the group mentioned that the female bear had three 9-month-old cubs of her own, and had "adopted" an orphaned bear cub that was about the same age. Before the winter began last year, the now five-member bear family found an "unsecured crawl space opening" beneath a home in Lake Tahoe, California, where they hibernated for the season.  

Related: Mysterious brain infection makes bears act 'like friendly dogs'

Throughout the winter, the home's human residents heard "some odd rumbling and snoring-like noises" beneath their floors, but were unable to identify the source of the sounds — until the bear family awoke and "prepared to exit" from the crawl space, according to the post,

The residents promptly called the BEAR League for assistance. That was when the organization's volunteers discovered that there were multiple bears under the house, BEAR League Executive Director Ann Bryant told the Huffington Post. 

Upon arrival, BEAR League volunteers entered the crawl space and created a lot of noise to "encourage" the bear family to vacate, according to KTVU FOX 2. 

BEAR League volunteers are trained to handle such interactions safely, as they are frequently contacted in the spring to assist homeowners who acquired bear "roommates" over the winter, KTVU reported. 

"They were just waking up," Bryant told KTVU. "We got the mother out, and she called to the babies, and they came."

Three species of bears are native to North America, but the Tahoe bears were black bears (Ursus americanus) — the only wild species in California, and there are approximately 25,000 to 35,000 bears in the state, according to the California Department of Fish and Widlife. 

Black bears can weigh up to 500 pounds (227 kilograms) and during the summer months they spend almost 20 hours each day eating vast quantities of  nuts, fruits, insects, and small mammals, fueling up for the coming winter months, according to the Conservation Society of California. 

According to the North American Bear Center, a bear and wildlife education facility in Ely, Minnesota, black bears begin seeking or building dark, cozy winter dens from September to October. They look for rock crevices, caves and hollow trees — and in some rare cases,a home's crawl space. Once in the den, as the bear prepares to hibernate, its body temperature decreases and its active heart rate falls from 80 to 100 beats per minute to 50 to 60 beats per minute. 

Black bears will hibernate for several months before reemerging in the spring. In March 2022, the Lake Tahoe Interagency Bear Team, a partnership between the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California State Parks, Nevada Department of Wildlife, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and the USDA Forest Service, asked Lake Tahoe residents to anticipate increased bear activity as the animals emerged from their winter dens, according to the Tahoe Daily Tribune. 

The Lake Tahoe Interagency Bear Team advises that Tahoe residents and visitors should  never approach a wild bear, and if a bear is in the vicinity people should increase their distance from the animal — but you should never run or act aggressively towards the bear. 

"People really need to make sure their crawl space openings are closed and secured before bears go inside," Bryant told the Huffington Post. "especially in the fall, when they are looking for hibernation dens." 

Originally published on Live Science.

Dingoes are Australia's largest land predator, but their evolutionary history has been shrouded in mystery and debated for decades. Now, a new study finds that they are genetically somewhere between a wolf and a modern domestic dog.

Researchers sequenced the genome of a "pure" dingo puppy that was discovered alive by a roadside in the central Australian desert, according to a statement released by La Trobe University in Melbourne. When compared with the DNA of domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and a wolf (Canis lupus), the dingo pup’s DNA identified dingoes as an "intermediary" between wolves and domestic dog breeds, researchers recently reported

“It gives us much clearer insight into how the dingo evolved, which is fascinating from a scientific point of view, but also opens up all sorts of new ways to monitor their health and ensure their long-term survival,” study co-author Bill Ballard, a professor of evolutionary genomics at La Trobe University, said in the statement. 

Scientists suggest that humans brought the ancestors of modern dingoes to Australia between 5,000 and 8,500 years ago, but it's not clear where these ancient dogs were in the domestication process when they first arrived. Modern dog breeds weren't introduced to Australia until 1788, so dingoes were also separated from other dogs for thousands of years.

Related: 11 weird desert animals

Dingoes are apex predators and have been top of the food chain in Australia since Tasmanian tigers (Thylacinus cynocephalus) disappeared from mainland Australia at least 2,000 years ago (Tasmanian tigers survived on the island of Tasmania until 1936, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature). Dingoes may have contributed to the extinction of Tasmanian tigers by competing with them for food, according to the Australian Museum. 

After arriving in Australia, dingoes' ancestors adapted to eat marsupials, including kangaroos, as well as reptiles. One difference between dingoes and most domesticated dog breeds is that dingoes — like wolves — have only one copy of the amylase-producing gene AMY2B, which breaks down starch. This reduces dingoes' ability to digest starch and suggests that dingoes have a protein-rich diet, as wolves do. By comparison, most domestic dog breeds have multiple copies of AMY2B, so they can handle a starch-rich diet that is more similar to a human diet. 

Today, dingoes interbreed with feral dogs — domestic dogs living in the wild — further complicating their status. A 2015 study published in the journal Molecular Ecology found widespread hybridization between dingoes and domestic dogs, potentially threatening dingo survival and disrupting their role in the Australian ecosystem.

The study was published April 22 in the journal Science Advances.

Originally published on Live Science.

The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct species of bird that once lived on Mauritius, an island off the coast of Madagascar. Dodos, distant relatives of pigeons and other doves, are often referenced as an example of human-caused extinction. 

Flightless, slow to reproduce and confined to a single island, dodos were vulnerable to the arrival of humans and rats, as well as the introduction of domesticated animals in the late 1500s. About a century later, all that remained of the dodo were a few paintings and written descriptions, along with a small collection of bones.

What did dodos look like?

The dodo was a heavyset, gray-brown bird with tiny wings, strong legs and a large beak. It stood up to 27 inches (70 centimeters) tall and weighed 28 to 45 pounds (13 to 20 kilograms), according to a 2004 study in the journal Biologist. Males were slightly larger than females; compared with modern wild turkeys and swans, dodos were shorter but heavier. 

Dodos were driven to extinction long before photography could capture their likeness, and no taxidermied specimens of the birds survive. Paleontologist Julian Pender Hume, a research associate at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, told Vice that the so-called taxidermied dodo on display at NHM is made of goose and swan feathers that were glued to a plaster model by a man who had never seen a dodo. For evidence of what dodos actually looked like, modern researchers must turn to historical paintings and other artworks, as well as descriptions from early Arab and European visitors to Mauritius, and such records were not always accurate.  

One European artist in particular, 17th-century Flemish painter Roelant Savery, is largely responsible for the rotund image of the dodo that proliferated in other artwork and cartoons. Savery's roly-poly dodo led many to perceive the birds as slow, stupid and clumsy, but evidence from dodo bones suggests that the birds were nimble animals that could outpace humans over rocky terrain, Hume said. According to the NHM, the dodo had a large brain and well-developed olfactory glands, indicating that contrary to its popular reputation, it was relatively intelligent and likely had a keen sense of smell.

Where did dodos live?

Dodos lived on the subtropical volcanic island of Mauritius, now an independent state made up of several islands in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius is located about 700 miles (1,100 km) from Madagascar, off the southeast coast of Africa.  

Mauritius and its neighboring islands harbored no permanent human population before the Dutch East India Company established a settlement there in the 1600s, according to the Stanford University Department of Anthropology. By then, previous visitors to the island had already introduced so many predators that dodos no longer roamed the beaches and mountains. Later, deforestation removed much of the dodo's woodland habitat, researchers reported in 2009 in the journal Oryx. 

Why did the dodo go extinct?

The dodo went extinct through a fatal combination of slow evolution and fast environmental changes, according to National Geographic. Highly specialized to its environment, the flightless and slow-to-reproduce species was vulnerable to the sudden introduction of predators in its once-safe island home.

For millions of years before human explorers set foot on Mauritius, the island had no large, land-based predators. Wildlife on Mauritius evolved to fill various ecological niches, but these isolated species were slow to respond to newly arrived threats from across the ocean, National Geographic reported.For example, dodos were said to have no fear of humans who landed on their island beaches, so the birds were easily caught and killed by hungry Dutch sailors.

And it wasn't just humans who consumed the dodos. Rather, a host of introduced species — including rats, pigs, goats and monkeys — likely caught and ate dodos and their eggs, according to a 2016 study in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Tragically for the dodos, each devoured egg represented a female dodo's only chance for reproduction that year. But for the new arrivals on the island, those nutritious, easy meals were conveniently located within easy reach on the forest floor. If any of the precious eggs survived and hatched, the introduced animals likely outcompeted juvenile and adult dodos for a limited food supply, Hume wrote in 2006 in the journal Historical Biology. 

Today, the dodo is officially listed as extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

When did the dodo go extinct?

The dodo's official date of extinction isn't certain. Unlike the thylacine, also called the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), a species whose last known individual died in captivity in 1936, dodo populations dwindled far from human observation, roughly around 1662, according to a   2004 study published in the journal Nature. Some researchers, however, point to reports of dodos on Mauritius in the late 1680s, Live Science reported in 2013. In the Nature study, researchers used a statistical method to estimate the extinction of the dodo, pushing the date  to as late as 1690. 

Could we bring back the dodo?

It's unlikely that we'll see a dodo walking the Earth again anytime soon, according to evolutionary molecular biologist Beth Shapiro, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

There are a number of reasons why dodos would be complicated to resurrect, Shapiro told Live Science: They're not good candidates for cloning, because there are very few sources of dodo DNA; bird reproduction is really complicated; and there isn't necessarily a habitat for them to go back to.

"When most people think about de-extinction, they're imagining cloning," Shapiro said. Cloning, the process that created Dolly the sheep in 1996 and Elizabeth Ann the black-footed ferret in 2020, creates an identical genetic copy of an individual by transplanting DNA from a living adult cell into an egg cell from which the nucleus has been removed. Adult cells contain all the DNA needed to develop into a living animal. Egg cells then use that DNA as a blueprint to differentiate themselves into the many kinds of cells — skin, organs, blood and bones — the animal needs.

But no living cells from dodos exist, nor have they existed for hundreds of years. Instead, Shapiro said, you'd have to start with a closely related animal's genome and then tweak it to resemble that of a dodo. 

For example, mammoths are also extinct, and scientists haven't found any living mammoth cells. But mammoths were very closely related to modern Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), so researchers such as George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston, are attempting to bring mammoths back from extinction by creating a hybrid mammoth, with some mammoth genes replacing part of the elephant genome in an elephant egg cell. However, there are likely millions of genetic differences between the genome of an Asian elephant and that of a mammoth, according to Shapiro. At best, researchers can only hope to produce an animal that has some mammoth features, rather than resurrecting an extinct species. 

As for the dodo, its closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica), a much smaller and more colorful flying bird found on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India; the Malay Archipelago; the Solomon Islands; and the Republic of Palau, an island country in the western Pacific Ocean. But whereas mammoths and Asian elephants are pretty closely related (they evolved from a common ancestor 5 million years ago), it's been more than 20 million years since the dodo and the Nicobar pigeon had any common ancestors. Genetic differences between the two bird species are therefore much greater, making it more difficult to create a successful hybrid in the lab, Shapiro said.

In 2022, Shapiro dropped an unexpected dodo bombshell when she acknowledged, in response to an audience question at a Royal Society webinar, that she and her colleagues had successfully sequenced the entire dodo genome. The research has not been peer-reviewed yet, but Shapiro was taken aback by the public and press' excited response to her unintended announcement. The team intends to publish the research in the future.

Reconstructing the dodo genome was no easy feat. First, Shapiro and her team had to find intact dodo DNA, buried in bone marrow that had survived hundreds of years in Mauritius' warm and humid environment (and likely tropical cyclones as well). Then, they had to sort out which recovered DNA belonged to the dodo and which belonged to fungi and bacteria that had invaded the bones as they decomposed.

But that success does not guarantee the resurrection of the dodo. Even with a fully reconstructed dodo genome, researchers face another substantial problem: bird reproductive systems. 

Whereas mammals produce egg cells that scientists know how to harvest and manipulate, bird egg cells are tricky. In order to find and replace a bird egg’s DNA, researchers would have to safely and non-destructively locate the microscopic nucleus of the egg, which could be floating anywhere inside of a bulky egg yolk. Finding the tiny packet of genetic material is like "looking for a white marble in a pool of milk," Ben Novak, a lead scientist with the de-extinction conservation group Revive & Restore, told Audubon magazine. So, replacing that genetic material with altered DNA to produce a clone is impossible, Novak said. In his own research on passenger pigeon de-extinction, the strategy is to alter bird gonads instead. By changing the sperm and eggs produced by parent birds, the researchers hope to produce offspring with the desired genes. 

Even if scientists managed to revive dodos, the island where they once lived is a very different place nowadays. Deforestation, invasive species and human habitation would make it impossible to reintroduce the dodo without major intervention. "If we haven't first solved the problem that caused their extinction in the first place," Shapiro said, "it might not be worth spending all the energy and effort it would take to bring them back."

Additional resources

To learn more about the risks of extinction, read "Beloved Beasts" (W. W. Norton & Co., 2021) by Michelle Nijhuis, which tells the story of the modern movement to preserve Earth's vulnerable species. If you're curious about de-extinction, check out this Wall Street Journal article about scientists who are working to bring species back from the dead. Last, check out this 2021 paper published in the journal Historical Biology on the changing face of the dodo. The paper explores the effects that books and media like Alice in Wonderland have had on the dodo's reputation and renown long after its disappearance.

Bibliography

Angst, D., A. Chinsamy, L. Steel, & J. P. Hume. (2017). Bone histology sheds new light on the ecology of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus, Aves, Columbiformes)." Scientific Reports, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08536-3

Cheke, A. (1987). The legacy of the dodo—conservation in Mauritius. Oryx, 21(10), 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300020457

Dissanayake, R. (2004). What did the dodo look like? Biologist, 51(3), 165–68. https://www.academia.edu/11619405/What_did_the_dodo_look_like

Fritts, R. (2021, April 28). The surprising reason scientists haven't been able to clone a bird yet. Audubon. https://www.audubon.org/news/the-surprising-reason-scientists-havent-been-able-clone-bird-yet

Stanford University Department of Anthropology. (n.d.). Mauritanian Archaeology: History. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://mauritianarchaeology.sites.stanford.edu/history

Hume, J. P. (2006). The history of the dodo Raphus cucullatus and the penguin of Mauritius." Historical Biology, 18(2), 69–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912960600639400

Hume, J. P., Martill, D. M., & Dewdney, C. (2004). Dutch diaries and the demise of the dodo. Nature, 429(6992), 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02688 

International Union for Conservation of Nature. (2016, October 1). Dodo: Raphus cucullatus. IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22690059/93259513 

Kiberd, R. (2015, March 17). The dodo didn't look like you think it does. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/vvbqq9/the-dodo-didnt-look-like-you-think-it-does

Parker, I. (2007, January 14). Digging for dodos. The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/01/22/digging-for-dodos

Pavid, K. (n.d.). Recreating the lost world of the dodo. Natural History Museum. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-lost-world-of-the-dodo.html

Rijsdijk, K. F., Hume, J. P., De Louw, P. G. B., Meijer, H. J. M., Janoo, A., De Boer, E. J., Steel, et al. (2015). A review of the dodo and its ecosystem: Insights from a vertebrate concentration Lagerstätte in Mauritius. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 35(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2015.1113803

Shapiro, B., Sibthorpe, D., Rambaut, A., Austin, J., Wragg, G. M., Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P., Lee, P. L. M., & Cooper, A. (2002). Flight of the dodo. Science, 295 (5560),  1683–1683. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.295.5560.1683

Originally published on Live Science.

Spanish police have seized more than 1,000 taxidermy animals that were part of a private collection worth around $32 million in what they have described as "one of the largest ever" illegal wildlife busts in Europe. Almost half of the specimens recovered are either listed as endangered or have already been declared extinct.

Officers from Spain's Civil Guard seized the collection o from a massive warehouse in the town of Bétera near Valencia in Eastern Spain, according to a statement released on April 10. 

In total, officials recovered 1,090 taxidermy specimens, including entire elephants, white rhinos, cheetahs, leopards, lions, crocodiles, tigers and a polar bear, as well as 198 elephant tusks. The team also found other items, including stools that appeared to be made from elephants' feet and chairs upholstered with crocodile skin, according to a video by ABC News. 

Related: Man caught at Mexican border allegedly had more than 50 reptiles stuffed into his clothing

The officials said 405 of the specimens belong to species that are illegal to trade internationally under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The collection also included a scimitar oryx, which was declared extinct in 2000, and an addax, a type of antelope that is functionally extinct in the wild, which means there as so few left that it is almost a certainty they will eventually disappear.  

The collection is estimated to be worth around $31.6 million (29 million euros) on the black market, according to the statement. 

The interior of the warehouse, which is around 538,000 square feet (50,000 square meters), looks like a natural history museum in images; some of the walls are painted with vistas from some of the animals' natural habitats, and some specimens were housed in glass display cases. The warehouse also contained basic living quarters and two boats, according to the statement.

The owner of the property has been the target of a major international investigation since November 2021 but has not been arrested. However, he continues to be investigated for wildlife smuggling, according to the statement. 

Originally published on Live Science.

Light pollution, or photo pollution, is the presence of excess artificial light and is the result of urbanization and industrialization. It is only one of the many forms of pollution on Earth, alongside plastic waste, greenhouse gases and sewage. 

Light pollution can have serious implications for our environment and even our health. Street lighting, domestic and commercial lights, vehicles and security lights all contribute to the creation of a dome-like shield of light pollution called skyglow, according to the International Dark-Sky Association. 

Along with skyglow, light pollution consists of glare, light trespass and clutter. Glare relates to light that can cause direct visual discomfort, whereas light trespass is light that escapes from sources such as bedroom windows. Clutter is the excessive grouping of lights. 

Light pollution can also be amplified by other types of air pollution, such as smoke and dust. This is because these types of pollution can scatter light in all different directions and brighten the sky even further.

Affects on astronomy and night vision

One of the immediate effects light pollution has on our environment is to obscure our view of the true night sky, according to telescope manufacturer Celestron. Without the presence of artificial light, the night sky is awash with celestial bodies, far away galaxies and constellations. However, if you’re looking up from the belly of a big city, you’d be unable to see many of these night sky objects.

Around 99% of people living in Europe and America live under skies that are almost 10% brighter than they would naturally be, according to the BBC. This also means that a large portion of the population doesn’t use the full potential of their eyes. 

The retina of the human eye can naturally adjust its light-sensing cells to acclimate to very low-light conditions, to allow some sort of night vision, according to the Duke University. But because of light pollution, 37% of people living in America don’t use their night vision, according to the BBC. 

To monitor and characterise light pollution, American astronomer John E. Bortle created the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, which measures the brightness of the night sky at different locations. The scale measures our ability to observe celestial objects, such as planets and stars, under the interference of skyglow. 

Health risks

Other than depriving us of a starry star, there are many more implications to excess use of artificial light, such as throwing the human body's natural cycle out of whack.

Circadian rhythms are a group of physiological and neurological changes that occur in the body over a 24-hour-period. Collectively they’re also known as our body clock and is related to our sleep-wake cycle, according to Harvard University. 

Once the Sun has gone down and we are exposed to low light, our bodies naturally release a hormone called melatonin. Melatonin is released from the pineal gland in the brain and helps to increase tiredness and regulate sleep cycles, with peak production occurring in the early hours of the morning, according to the UK's National Heath Service (NHS). 

However, light pollution has been found to curb melatonin production in humans, even at low levels. This can result in disturbed sleep, impact our immune system and responses to stress. It has also been suggested that melatonin disruption by way of light pollution is connected to the increased risk of hormone-related cancers, such as breast or prostate cancer, according to journal Environmental Health Perspectives.  

The circadian rhythm doesn’t only affect humans, but most other living things. In studies of the European perch, researchers have found that even at the lowest light intensities disrupted melatonin production within the fish, according to the journal Environmental Pollution. 

Implications on wildlife behaviour

Along with health issues, light pollution can interfere with the behaviours of wildlife. Nocturnal predators such as bats are among the most affected by light pollution. These flying mammals are well adapted to hunting at night and actively avoid illuminated areas. 

Unfortunately, their insect prey is attracted to light sources, which leads to barren hunting grounds for bats, according to the Bat Conservation Trust. Also, when sources of artificial light are placed outside a bat's roost, it can prevent them from ever leaving and lead to them starving. 

While studying the reproductive cycle of wallabies, researchers have also found that births were weeks earlier among wallabies living near a lightly polluted area, such as a naval base, than those living in more rural areas, according to the Journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 

The study found that the use of outdoor light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which emit wavelengths in the blue spectrum of light, suppresses melatonin five times more than traditional outdoor light.

For newborn turtles, the presence of artificial lighting can make the difference between life and death, according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy. As turtle hatchlings emerge along sandy beaches, their natural instinct is to scurry to the ocean bathed in moonlight. However, street and commercial lights along the coast can confuse the hatchlings and cause them to move inland where they are often eaten or killed by car traffic.

Additional resources

For more information about light pollution, check out "The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light" by Paul Bogard and "Fighting Light Pollution: Smart Lighting Solutions for Individuals and Communities" by The International Dark-Sky Association. 

Bibliography

• The International Dark-Sky Association "Light pollution", accessed April 2022. 
• John E. Bortle, "The Bortle Dark-Sky Scale", accessed April 2022. 
• Celestron, "What is light pollution and how does it affect views through my telescope?", February 2022. 
• Rebecca Morelle, "Light pollution 'affects 80% of global population'", BBC, June 2016.
• Duke University, "Eyes have a natural version of night vision", Science Daily, September 2018. 
• Samantha Tracy, "I Can’t Sleep… Can you turn off the lights?", Harvard University, accessed April 2022. 
• NHS, "Melatonin for sleep problems", accessed April 2022. 
• Angela Spivey, "LIGHT POLLUTION: Light at Night and Breast Cancer Risk Worldwide", Environmental Health Perspective, Volume 12, December 2010. 
• Franziska Kupprat, et al, "Can skyglow reduce nocturnal melatonin concentrations in Eurasian perch?", Environmental pollution, Volume 262, July 2020. 
• Bat Conservation Trust, "Lighting", accessed April 2022. 
• Kylie A. Robert, et al, "Artificial light at night desynchronizes strictly seasonal reproduction in a wild mammal", Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Volume 282, October 2015. 
• Sea Turtle Conservancy, "Information About Sea Turtles: Threats from Artificial Lighting", accessed April 2022. 

A rare Greenland shark that washed up on a U.K. beach could be at least 100 years old, but experts aren't sure why it became stranded.

The dead shark was first spotted on the sand in Newlyn Harbour, Cornwall, on the southwest coast of England, on March 13. But before experts could examine it, the tide came in and took the carcass back out to sea, according to Cornwall Wildlife Trust Twitter posts. 

The shark was then rediscovered floating off the coast of Cornwall on March 15 by a recreational boating company called Mermaid Pleasure Trips and was brought back to shore. Greenland sharks are rarely sighted in the U.K., and this is the country's second recorded Greenland shark stranding.  

"Even though it's a sad event when these beautiful, spectacular animals do strand on our beaches, it's such a valuable opportunity for us to study them," Abby Crosby, a marine conservation officer who manages the marine strandings network at the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, told Live Science. 

Related: The weirdest creatures to wash ashore

Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) live in the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans up to 8,684 feet (2,647 meters) below the surface, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A 2016 study published in the journal Science estimated that these sharks could live at least 272 years, but scientists still have much to learn about the elusive species.

The shark that washed up in Cornwall was a juvenile female that measured 13 feet (4 m) long and weighed 628 pounds (285 kilograms). Although researchers have yet to determine the shark's age, Greenland sharks typically become sexually mature when they're around 150 years old, according to the 2016 study. The animals continue to grow as they age, and adults can be up to 24 feet (7.3 m) long, according to the St. Lawrence Shark Observatory (ORS).  

James Barnett, a veterinary pathologist from the Cornwall Marine Pathology Team, carried out a postmortem of the shark on March 16 for the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP), a national program that partners with Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Marine Strandings Network. 

"It looked like it probably live-stranded," Barnett told Live Science. In other words, the shark was still alive when it washed up, and it died on the beach. "It obviously hadn't eaten for some time," Barnett said. "The stomach was totally empty." 

Barnett noted that the shark showed possible signs of septicemia, an infection in the blood, but it's not yet clear why the shark wasn't eating and ended up in shallow waters off Cornwall. There are a variety of reasons, including disease, that can explain why marine animals become stranded and die on beaches, but the movement of ocean currents and other marine conditions also play a part in bringing living and dead animals to shore.

"The majority of our strandings are common dolphins and porpoises, and they would have all died within a kilometer [0.6 mile] of our coastline, if that," Crosby said. Because Greenland sharks usually swim far from the coast, the likelihood of one being swept in by the right current and weather conditions is really rare, she added. 

Barnett said this is the first time a Greenland shark has been given a necropsy in the U.K., to his knowledge. "They are a species that we just don't encounter," he said. Samples taken from the shark will help inform Greenland shark research, such as studies investigating their life history and diet, Rob Deaville, project manager for CSIP at the Zoological Society of London, said in a statement.  

Originally published on Live Science.