Land Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 7, 2023

Pablo Escobar's 'cocaine hippos' top 200, twice as many as we thought

Thirty years after Pablo Escobar's death in 1993, the notorious cartel leader's cocaine hippos are still wreaking havoc in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. A new study of the invasive mammals' population in Colombia revealed there could be double the number experts previously estimated, Nature reported. A study...

Jun 10, 2023

Koalas are both endangered and so plentiful they're causing problems. How'd that happen?

Koalas present something of a paradox. They are a poster child for imminent extinction, at risk from deforestation, climate change and bushfires. Yet, where I live in South Australia, they are so abundant they are in danger of eating themselves out of house and home. How is it that koalas...

Jun 11, 2023

Why do horses sleep standing up?

If you've ever passed by a field of horses at night, you've probably noticed that they rarely lie down to sleep. So why do these mammals sleep standing up? The answer is one of survival: Horses slumber while standing to balance their need for sleep against the ever-looming threat of...

Jun 12, 2023

Rabid moose found 'stumbling, drooling profusely' is 1st case ever recorded in Alaska

Scientists have confirmed the first ever case of rabies in an Alaska moose after a diseased animal stumbled into a small community and charged at residents while drooling profusely. The moose was euthanized shortly after it wandered into Teller, western Alaska, on June 2. The moose was unbalanced, stumbling, drooling...

Jun 16, 2023

Viral video of deer eating a snake isn't as weird as you might think

It makes for disturbing viewing: In a 22-second video shared recently on Instagram, a white-tailed deer locks eyes with the camera as it nonchalantly slurps up a dead snake like it's a strand of spaghetti. The somewhat unnerving scene, filmed by Texas-based Trey Reinhardt, provoked alarm across social media about...

Jun 26, 2023

Flying squirrels in China have discovered a clever new trick to store nuts for longer

Flying squirrels in China have developed a clever way to hide their nuts — chewing grooves in them so they can be stored between tree branches. The unusual behavior, seen in two species in the tropical rainforests of Hainan Island, may preserve the critters' food for longer than burying the...

Jun 28, 2023

See the moment a 28-year-old lab chimp glimpses the open sky for the 1st time

Vanilla, a 28-year-old chimpanzee, has lived her entire life in captivity without an unobscured view of the sky. But now, a heartwarming new video shows the great ape seeing the sky for the first time at an island chimp sanctuary in Florida. For a portion of her early life, Vanilla...

Jul 26, 2023

Buddhist ritual saves exotic fish from slaughter — only for 'adventurous' Tibetan otters to feast on them instead

A Buddhist ritual has created an all-you-can-eat buffet for otters living near rivers on the Tibetan Plateau, new research suggests. Fangsheng, meaning life release, is the religious practice of saving and releasing animals that were destined to be slaughtered. Buddhist texts recommend the ritual as a way of paying back...

Aug 9, 2023

Bison are being introduced to the Russian Arctic to replace extinct woolly mammoths. But why?

Scientists have introduced bison to the Russian Arctic to take on the role of extinct mammoths and help restore ancient ecosystems. Twelve plains bison (Bison bison bison) have arrived at Ingilor Nature Park, a protected area covering more than 2.2 million acres (900,000 hectares) in the northern Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area....

Aug 31, 2023

Critically endangered donkey with stripy 'zebra legs' born in UK zoo

One of the world's most endangered animals, an African wild ass — which looks like a donkey with zebra legs — has been born at a zoo in the U.K., raising hopes for its species' continued survival. African wild asses (Equus africanus) are a species of donkey native to Eritrea,...

Sep 6, 2023

Scientists finally figured out what's making German wild boars radioactive, and it's not just Chernobyl

After puzzling scientists for decades, researchers have finally figured out what's making Bavaria's wild boars radioactive, even as other animals show few signs of contamination. Turns out, the animals are still significantly contaminated with radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons detonated over 60 years ago — not just from the Chernobyl...

Oct 21, 2023

Takins: Strange, mountain-dwelling mammals with mythical golden fleeces

Name: Takin (Budorcas taxicolor); four subspecies: Bhutan takin (B. taxicolor whitei); golden takin (B. taxicolor bedfordi); Mishmi takin (B. taxicolor taxicolor); and Sichuan takin (B. taxicolor tibetana) Where it lives: Alpine zones and forested valleys in Asia, ranging through areas of Bhutan, Myanmar, northern India, central and southern China and...

Oct 27, 2023

Chimps go through menopause. That could shed light on how it evolved in humans.

Wild female chimpanzees in Uganda live well past the point when they can reproduce and probably go through menopause similar to humans, a new study has found. The finding raises fresh questions about why humans experience menopause. Until now, humans were one of only three animal species known to go...

Oct 27, 2023

22,000-foot volcano summit is home to Earth's highest-dwelling vertebrates, study confirms

The hostile, snow-capped tops of volcanoes in the Andes are home to the world's highest-dwelling vertebrates, new research confirms. The finding that small mammals live 22,000 feet (6,700 meters) above sea level challenges assumptions about the limits of vertebrate life, researchers told Science magazine. In the past, scientists repeatedly found...

Nov 2, 2023

Can rats 'imagine'? Rodents show signs of imagination while playing VR games

Do lab rats have the ability to imagine, like humans do? A new study says yes. Rats may be capable of a type of imagination that's crucial for route planning, research from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) suggests. Although the creative arts spring to mind when we think of...