(PHOTO:Frédéric Theunissen)

For spotted hyenas, it seems, laughter encodes crucial information. Two zoologists who studied a group of the animals in captivity found that the pitch of a hyena’s “giggle” indicated how old it was, while the frequency of “notes” in its laughter told others in its pack whether it was a dominant or subordinate animal. What we hear as hysterical amusement may actually help hyenas sort out rights to food or summon others to their aid.

You can read the article, published in the open access journal BMC Ecology, here and, more importantly, listen to hyenas giggling here, here, here, and here.

(PHOTO: Great Ape Trust.)

Although apes are physically capable of pointing with a finger, scientists had always believed they did so with no particular meaning in mind—that their gestures, in other words, were empty. But a new study of bonobos, a species of great ape native to the Democratic Republic of Congo, suggests that if captive apes are reared in a human culture, in which pointing is carried out with specific intent, they can learn to use the action just as people do: to direct attention, indicate choices, and express ideas. Guess they never met my mother—she always told me pointing was rude.

For more, including a video of bonobos pointing at their preferred human companion, go here.

P.S. If you haven’t yet heard the most recent Radiolab episode about primates raised as humans, you really should. Kanzi, a bonobo from the Great Ape Trust, makes an unforgettable appearance in it.

P.P.S. We recently talked about other human-like things apes can do.

(PHOTO: NPR)

NPR just filed a charming story about how crows can recognize individual human faces—and built an interactive game in which to answer, once and for all, the burning question: Can I recognize individual crows?

(I tried. I kind of can, but not as easy as it looks at first glance.)

Check out the full story for an explanation of why crows are better at inter-species face recognition than we are.

A Bristol University poll shows cat owners are more likely to have a university degree than dog owners. Ha. 

(PHOTO: C.G. Farmer, Science/AAAS)

So, you know how birds breathe continuously? How air comes in through their nostrils and travels in a complicated one-way circuit through the respiratory system, passing fresh oxygen along to blood vessels and exiting again without ever turning around on the same path? Meaning birds get fresh oxygen all the time (unlike the rest of us poor suckers), even when they’re breathing out? Well, it’s all true. And until this week, everyone thought birds were the only ones who did.

But no! Alligators started the one-way breathing trend. Alligators! And they passed it along. How did the scientist studying this question, one C.G. Farmer, find this out? I’m so glad you asked.

1) She “pumped air in and out of lungs removed from four dead alligators,” watching the direction of its flow. Cool.
2) She “pushed and pulled water with tiny fluorescent beads through the lungs” of yet another dead alligator, “making movies showing the unidirectional flow.” Movies! So cool!
3) She “performed surgery on six anesthetized alligators,” inserting flow meters into their lungs. Uh. Dude. Indiana-Jones cool.

Much more fascinating detail on the study and its serious scientific implications for evolutionary biology here.

IMAGE: Diving trumpeter swans, by Debby Kaspari


Via a friend of a friend, I came across this utterly charming, illustrated account of one birder’s participation in this year’s 110th annual Christmas Bird Count. First established by conservationists as a way of subverting the holiday tradition of hunting on or around Christmas, the count sees thousands of citizen-scientists swarming out into the fields, tallying birds. This year at least 10,433,200 birds were counted (reports are still coming in). 

(PHOTO: Dr. Kevin McCracken)

There comes a time in every science writer’s career when one must write about glass duck vaginas and explosive duck penises. That’s how Carl Zimmer opens this post from his Discover magazine blog The Loom. It only gets better from there. And there’s video.

My old colleague at New Scientist - a man who actually proposed to his now wife using a troupe of trained golden retrievers - has found another use for this handy band of canines: teaching physics.

It’s amazing how the distinction between an electron shell and cloud comes alive through blurry puppy fur!

Watch and enjoy. Next I would like them to explain the quadratic formula.

Photographer Andrew Zuckerman is hoping to replicate the 2007 success of his book Creature with his new book Bird. In both, he shoots wild creatures in a studio setting, against brilliant white backdrops and with what feels like a stunning intimacy. Speaking to Wired in 2007, Zuckerman explained a little about how he does these shoots:

All subjects required their own special planning and customized approach based on their size or behavior. When capturing fish and birds I occasionally used a device that would allow the animal’s movement to trigger the exposure; this was through a custom-built delay system connecting a laser beam to a strobe light — which, when crossed, signaled the exposure. These images were made with little to no ambient light: The digital back would be exposing darkness until the animal hit its mark.

For more, check out the official site for Bird. 

PHOTO:

This morning, since it was unseasonably warm and beautiful in Chicago, I sipped a cup of coffee by Lake Michigan. While I was there, I enjoyed the company of a pleasant-seeming ladybird that decided to join me. Imagine my surprise when, sighing gently over the pretty creature, I decided to read a little about it this evening and came across the following horrifying headline from the British newspaper the Daily Mail: Vile-smelling foreign ladybirds set to invade homes this winter!

Turns out that the ladybird species Harmonia axyridis, native to East Asian countries like Japan, Korea, and China, was introduced into Britain and the United States in the early 20th century as a useful agricultural pest-killer, and has been wreaking havoc ever since. During the fall and winter, the tiny (and very cute, at least judging by the one that crawled onto my leg this morning) creatures swarm in huge numbers and invade homes in the UK and certain regions in North America. The ladybirds are just trying to get away from the cold, but apparently people whose homes they fly into don’t find that just cause for the visitations. The worst part, it seems, is that when alarmed they give off a substance scientists delightfully call “reflex blood,” which not only stinks to high heaven, but causes allergic reactions in some people when inhaled. Phew. I guess it’s not surprising the Mail calls them “mini-beasts.”

I’ve never heard of or seen a ladybird invasion, myself. Have you? If so, do tell. I’m fascinated.