Land Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 6, 2023

Scientists may have finally figured out how elephants got their incredible trunks

Elephants have astonishing trunks that are strong, dexterous and flexible. Now, scientists may have finally worked out how Earth's largest living land animals evolved their charismatic proboscises. Elephant trunks are marvels of evolutionary biology. They can be more than 6.5 feet (2 meters) long and have more than 40,000 individual...

Feb 23, 2024

Watch a rare pink albino elephant baby playing by a waterhole in adorable footage

Heartwarming footage has captured a rare pink elephant playing with another calf in a waterhole in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Elephants are typically gray, but this small calf, which belongs to the genus Loxodonta, has pink skin and fair hair, as a result of an inherited condition called albinism...

Mar 5, 2024

'They are very well aware of their agency': Elephant calf burial ritual discovered in India

Asian elephants bury their calves with their legs poking out of the ground, researchers have observed. The calves were 1 year old or less and were transported to premade burials of sorts — irrigation drains on tea estates in India — by herd members, before being placed in holes and...

Nov 25, 2016

Dogs Remember Even the Stupid Things We Do

Dogs pay more attention to us than previously thought, with new research showing that they remember our actions and other events even when the occurrences didn't hold any particular importance at the time they happened. The discovery, reported in Current Biology, adds dogs to the short list of other animals...

Dec 19, 2016

Anxiety May Give Dogs Gray Hair

Just like human hair, dogs' fur can go gray if they're going through tough times, a new study finds. Young dogs whose owners rated them as anxious and impulsive were more likely to have prematurely gray muzzles than dogs that were not regarded as anxious or impulsive, the researchers found....

Jan 18, 2017

Good Widdle Doggie! Baby Talk Works Only for Puppies

Do you use baby talk to fuss over your dog? If your pup is still young, then the childish chatter may help, but older dogs don't care about that high-pitched cooing, a new study finds. To determine how dogs react to human speech, researchers in the new study first recorded...

May 31, 2017

Dog 'Scientist' Sits on Editorial Board of Medical Journals

A Staffordshire terrier named Ollie has an unusual second job — he moonlights on the editorial board of seven different medical journals. Ollie's nom de plume is Dr. Olivia Doll, and according to her CV, she's an expert in canine massage and holds a degree from Subiaco College of Veterinary...

Jul 19, 2017

Rare Human Syndrome May Explain Why Dogs are So Friendly

(Inside Science) -- When it comes to sheer friendliness, few humans can match the average dog. But people with Williams syndrome may come close, their unusual genetics granting them a puppyish zeal for social interaction. Now, scientists have found that extreme friendliness in both species may share common genetic roots....

Aug 16, 2017

Who's a Blue Boy? Indian Dogs Tinted by Polluted River

Dogs of a different color have been spotted roaming the streets of Navi Mumbai in India, according to news reports. At least five bright blue dogs have been seen in the industrial area of the city, and a polluted river may be to blame, the Hindustan Times reported on Aug....

Aug 24, 2017

Rabbit, Dog, Human: How One Bacterial Infection Spread

A woman in Arizona died from an infection called rabbit fever, despite never coming into contact with any rabbits, according to a recent report of the woman's case. The 73-year-old woman first got sick on June 6, 2016, and died five days later from severe breathing problems, according to a...

Sep 7, 2017

African Dogs Vote by Sneezing

African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) once flourished from the mountainous areas of sub-Saharan regions to the deserts of Africa. Now endangered, these pack-living relatives of domesticated dogs still have a population in Botswana, where researchers like Neil Jordan — a research fellow at the University of New South Wales Sydney...

Sep 11, 2017

Puppies Are 'Likely Source' of Outbreak That Has Sickened Dozens in US

Could that doggy in the window make you sick? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today (Sept. 11) that it is investigating an outbreak of Campylobacter — a type of bacteria that causes diarrhea — linked with puppies sold at Petland stores, a national pet store chain. So...

Oct 19, 2017

Your Dog Doesn't Want Just Your Food — He Wants Your Attention

Your dog may be trying to tell you something. From an inquisitive head tilt to puppy dog eyes, the expressions of our canine companions may be their attempts to communicate, a new study finds. In the study, researchers examined how dogs' facial expressions changed in response to human attention or...

Oct 19, 2017

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: It Helps Them Consolidate Memories

Want to teach an old dog new tricks? Try letting your pet take a nap. New research finds that dogs consolidate new memories in sleep, just like humans do. The study used electroencephalography (EEG), a technique that measures electrical activity in the brain via the scalp, to track snoozing dogs'...

Nov 6, 2017

Puppers! Our History with Canines Unfolds in 'Science Comics: Dogs'

For more than 15,000 years, people and dogs have lived and worked together. But the canines that we see today look and behave very differently from their wolf ancestors. The story of how once-wild wolves transformed into domestic dogs — and to the hundreds of breeds currently recognized by the...