The following is an excerpt from The Secret Perfume of Birds: Uncovering the Science of Avian Scent by Danielle J. Whittaker. Copyright 2022. Published with permission by Johns Hopkins University Press. “Birds don’t have a sense of smell, so I don’t understand why you’d study that anyway.” This extraordinary statement, expressed offhandedly by neurobiologist Dr. Jim Goodson while we
Somewhere in the last decade, in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, a parrot learned to pull the lid off of a trash can. First it stood on the edge of the lid and, bending head over heels, pried open a gap with its beak. With the lid in its mouth, it stepped onto the bin’s
Cone snails might seem unassuming, if not beautiful in their colorful shells, but these ocean-floor invertebrates are regular marine murderers. As a fish swims nearby, the predator, which can grow up to 9 inches long, will slowly creep out its tongue-like proboscis. In a flash, the creature will harpoon its meal and pump it full
If you’ve ever done a group project, you’ll know that perhaps the most difficult part is figuring out who is going to do what and trusting everyone to follow through. As it turns out, a species of social spiders might have cracked the code on how to work together while hunting. Last week, researchers from
Interest in squirrels have become increasingly popular in the past few years, especially during the pandemic. Due to the lack of human-to-human interaction, some turned to their dexterous backyard neighbors for entertainment. In fact, if you search “squirrel obstacle course” you’ll find a plethora of videos—some with over 75 million views—documenting the jumps, leaps, and
At dusk in late September and early October, The Wadden Sea National Park on the West Coast of Denmark hosts one of nature’s wildest and most intriguing displays of avian acrobatics. In what’s known, somewhat ominously, as the “The Black Sun” (Sort Sol in Danish), droves of migrating starlings perform seemingly coordinated acts of aerial
THE NATURAL WORLD is not always a calm place. Every day, animals from the ocean floor to the highest treetops struggle to live, breed, and eat. Their existential endeavors make many of our modern stressors seem placid by comparison. But we still seek out signs of serenity in the wild—and if we press the camera
A tiny frog with an impressive snout has been discovered in the Peruvian Amazon, scientists reported this week. The frog makes its home in the basin of the Putumayo River, which runs through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Researchers found the new species during a 2019 expedition to learn more about the basin’s mysterious amphibian
Like many wormy discoveries, this one started with murder. In 2019, a parasitology lab at the University of California, Riverside, was tipped off by a breeder whose tarantulas were ravaged by a mysterious infection. Side effects included “lethargy, anorexia, and tip-toe behavior,” along with “a white discharge in the oral cavities,” according to the researchers’
The tiny, mighty tardigrade can tough out the most extreme environments, surviving in oceans, Antarctic glaciers, lava fields, sand dunes, and, more famously, space. Fondly known as “water bears,” “moss piglets,” and “hardy tardies,” these millimeter-long invertebrates have been found in nearly every habitat on Earth, even nestling in mossy beds or the damp soil
