For anyone who is not an avid birder, easily distinguishing between the chatter of different birdsongs in your garden or on a nature trail can be difficult - and identifying individual bird songs, impossible. It's hard to know where to begin, but familiarising yourself with 10 easily recognisable songs here in the UK is a … Continue reading Learn 10 Memorable Bird Songs
Animal Behaviour
Vampire Bats: Do They Really Drink Blood?
Read time: 5 min The short answer: yes! Vampire bats do indeed consume blood, hence the name - but these are not the evil winged creatures that popular culture would have us believe. Vampire bats are actually very interesting animals, and although they have become synonymous with Hallowe’en, nightmares, and all things that go bump … Continue reading Vampire Bats: Do They Really Drink Blood?
Types of Spider Web
Read time: 10 mins Have you ever seen a spider web so geometrically precise that it made your mind boggle? Spiders are skilful architects, and many construct webs that are among the most beautiful works of structural perfection in the natural world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNtSAQHNONo Unless you're an araneologist, you probably won't have paid much attention to … Continue reading Types of Spider Web
Predators, Prey and Pupil Shape
Read Time: 2 mins Did you know that vision is different between predator and prey animals? Most predators have front-facing eyes, which give them a large binocular visual field and superior depth perception for accurate spatial localisation when zooming in on their prey. Herbivores, on the other hand, often have lateral orbits and an almost … Continue reading Predators, Prey and Pupil Shape
Nature’s Invisibility Cloak: Astonishing Symbiosis Between Bobtail Squid and Vibrio Fischeri
Read time: 2 mins Forget the ethereal glowing world of James Cameron's Avatar, here on Earth we have plenty of our own bioluminescent creatures and the effects can look magical. Organisms have evolved this ability for various reasons like attracting mates, escaping predation, scanning for prey and even to communicate. Creatures with this ability can … Continue reading Nature’s Invisibility Cloak: Astonishing Symbiosis Between Bobtail Squid and Vibrio Fischeri
Dugong Mystery: World’s Second Largest Group Discovered off Qatar
Read time: 2 minutes The world's second-largest population of dugongs, a marine mammal that mainly eats underwater grass, has recently been discovered in waters off the coast of Qatar. Also known as "sea cows", these amazing animals can live for roughly 70 years and are 8 - 10 ft long; known to perform tail stands … Continue reading Dugong Mystery: World’s Second Largest Group Discovered off Qatar
Cooperative Hunting in Moray Eels and Grouper Fish
Read time: 5 minutes Symbiotic relationships are a fascinating occurrence in the animal kingdom, and can be a sight to behold in species deemed the most unlikely of allies. For most of us, when we think of mutualistic inter-species relationships we conjure images of remora fish hitchhiking on sharks, oxpecker birds stationed atop hippos or … Continue reading Cooperative Hunting in Moray Eels and Grouper Fish
Featured
The Complexity of Animal Emotions: What Are They, and How Can We Measure Them?
Read time: 20 minutes What you will learn in this article: How do scientists view animal emotions? What are Cognitive Bias Tests, and what can the brain tell us? Are animal emotions sentient experiences? As the dominant species on our planet, we are quick to anthropomorphise. We readily assign human emotions to much of the … Continue reading The Complexity of Animal Emotions: What Are They, and How Can We Measure Them?
Molecules to Mammals 