This Saber-Tooth Predator Was Likely One of The First True Carnivores

If you’ve ever lived with a cat, you’ve probably received a painful chomp from your beloved furball’s pointy canines at least once. But 42 million years ago, your kitty’s teeth would have looked very different: Evolution was only just honing the teeth of cat-like animals to a deadly sharp tip for piercing and shredding flesh. … Read more

Predators Have Evolved to Not Overexploit Their Resources. Can Humans Do The Same?

People have been trying to understand how predators and prey are able to stay balanced within our planet’s ecosystems for at least 2,400 years. The Greek author Herodotus even raised the question in his historical treatise Histories, written around 430 BC.   And when Charles Darwin published in 1859 his revolutionary theory of evolution in … Read more

Fear of predators means sparrows struggle to raise chicks to adulthood

Sparrows on a collection of Canadian islands change their behaviour when they fear predators are nearby, and an experiment shows this reduces their ability to raise their offspring to adulthood Life 7 February 2022 By Luke Taylor Song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) in British Columbia, Canada Jess Findlay/BIA/Minden/Naturepl.com The fear of predators alone is enough to … Read more

In the wild, robot vacuum cleaners have no natural predators

Josie Ford Va va vacuum Like many people who have difficulty distinguishing science fact from fiction, Feedback is anticipating with trepidation the rise of the sentient machines. We see the story recently reported by the BBC, “Robot vacuum cleaner escapes from Cambridge Travelodge”, as a kind of low-budget prequel. “The automated cleaner failed to stop … Read more

This Adorable Jumping Spider Can’t Actually See Its Own Most Vivid Color

Jumping spiders may have exceptional eyes, but one adorable species seems to have a curious lack in the vision department. New experimental evidence suggests that a jumping spider called Saitis barbipes has no photoreceptors capable of perceiving the color red.   What makes this so strange is that S. barbipes – like many jumping spiders … Read more

The Weirdest Eyes in The Animal Kingdom See a World We Can’t Imagine

When you view the world a certain way, it’s easy to forget not everyone has the same vision. We do mean that quite literally. Aside from philosophical considerations of the subjective experience of color, different organisms have evolved to view the world differently, with eye structures and configurations optimized for various kinds of existence.   … Read more

Australian wildlife: Reintroductions help threatened mammals recover

Conservationists are reintroducing threatened mammals to their former ranges with fences to keep out cats and foxes Environment 29 December 2021 By Alice Klein A greater bilby scavenging at night cbstockfoto / Alamy Stock Photo Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world, having lost 34 mammal species in the past 200 years. … Read more

Watch fish make a shimmering wave to avoid predators | Science

Some of the most stunning examples of animal behavior seem to be driven by predators. A massive cloud of starlings darting away from a hawk that looks like swirling plume of smoke, for example. Or a shiny school of sardines twirling as dolphins circle around. Biologists have long believed such behavior confuses predators, giving each … Read more

Adult fireflies started glowing for sex, not to avoid predators | Science

The glow of the firefly is as mysterious as it is alluring. Scientists have long argued over why the trait evolved in these adult beetles: Was it to deter predators—or identify mates? A new study argues for the latter, finding the ability arose more than 130 million years ago, tens of millions of years before … Read more

Polar bears: Extreme lack of sea ice in Hudson Bay puts predators under pressure

Sea ice in Canada’s Hudson Bay has been unusually late to form, raising fears over the impact on polar bears that hunt for seals on the ice Environment 6 December 2021 By Adam Vaughan A lone polar bear along Hudson Bay Cindy Hopkins / Alamy An extreme lack of sea ice in Canada this winter … Read more