Many Stranded Bottlenose Dolphins May Be Deaf

Credit to: Pete Markham

In waters from Florida to the Caribbean, dolphins are showing up stranded or entangled in fishing gear with an unusual problem: They can’t hear.

More than half of stranded bottlenose dolphins are deaf, one study suggests. The causes of hearing loss in dolphins aren’t always clear, but aging, shipping noise and side effects from antibiotics could play roles.

Dolphins are a highly social species. They use echolocation to orient themselves by bouncing high-pitched sound waves off of objects in their environment. They also “speak” to one another in a language of clicks and buzzing sounds. Because hearing is so fundamental to dolphins’ survival, losing it can be detrimental.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News

Spiders Have Personality Too

Credit to: Frode Inge Helland

Spiders, like humans and many other species, have their own distinctive characters that help to shape their individual lifestyles, a new study suggests. Depending on the type of spider, the personality differences could help to predict whether the individual frequently pounces and attacks or is more likely to calmly sit around and observe.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News

‘Mysterious’ Cow Mutilations Spur Alien Theories

The mysterious deaths of three cows on a remote Missouri ranch has spawned a variety of weird theories, from Satanic activity to aliens.

Credit to: Chris Talbot

The first mutilated cow was found in December 2011. The cow had obviously been cut on the side of her jaw. Her tongue and ear were gone. The next discovery occurred on July 9. Farmers immediately noticed the udder had been completely removed and the reproductive organs were gone too. Finally on July 19, the third cow was found. Its heart was exposed, its teats were cut off and its tongue was cut out. The cuts all looked surgical with clean, precise incisions. In all three deaths, there was no blood despite the animals’ gaping wounds.

It certainly sounds creepy and mysterious. So what’s going on?

Often so-called “mysterious” wounds are actually created by ordinary predators and scavengers, both large (such as vultures, raven, and crows) and small (such as blowflies and maggots). In many cases, what has been described by ranchers and others as cuts with “surgical” precision turned out to be ordinary decomposition.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News

Cockatoos Ace Carnival Game

Credit to: Juan Tello

Cockatoos have just aced a challenging hidden-object game that’s similar to carnival tricksters hiding an object under one of several nut shells, and then moving the shells around. In order to win, the player has to select the shell hiding the object. Cockatoos, according to the new study, are successful at finding objects long after they can see or smell them. The birds do this on par with a human 4 year old.

The discovery sheds light on how birds — and humans — track the trajectory of objects, the skill that lets us know that tasty snacks are still in a drawer long after they’ve been placed out of sight there. This skill also tells us when and where a car driven into a tunnel will reappear. Children can usually do this after the age of 3.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News

Why Monogamy Evolved in Mammals

Credit to: Matthias Kabel

Male primates may have become monogamous to protect their offspring from being killed by rival males, a new study finds. However, others disagree, saying monogamy evolved in mammals so that males could guard their mates.

Since infants are dependent on their mothers throughout childhood, and since female typically delay further conception while they are nurturing their young, male competitors may see advantages in doing away with babies that their rivals have sired. Researchers examined the prevalence of infanticide across different primate species over time and found links between this threat and the onset of monogamy. However when scientists looked across all 230 species, they saw that infanticide had already evolved by the time monogamy evolved.

Another study suggests monogamy evolved to allow males to protect females. The findings suggest that for species in which females lived alone in large territories to avoid competition for food and other resources, males were unable to defend multiple females, and therefore became monogamous.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News

Rat Laughs Off Cancer

Credit to: John Trainor

The latest possible cure for cancer may come from the world’s longest living rats, which laugh off the disease with a super sugar molecule called HMM-HA, new research finds.

The discovery really is sweet, as humans might be able to boost their HA power, improving their chances for longevity and warding off cancer. MM-HA prevents cancer and aging because it stops cells from overcrowding and forming tumors, according to scientists from the University of Rochester and the University of Haifa.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News

‘Dolly’ Scientist Says Mammoth Should Be Cloned

Credit to: Tracy O

The astonishingly well-preserved blood from a 10,000-year-old frozen mammoth could lead to mammoth stem cells, said the scientist responsible for Dolly, the world’s first cloned animal — and might ultimately lead to a cloned mammoth.

Scientists say there are two main methods for turning an ancient pile of mammoth bones and blood into a living, breathing creature. The two scientists focused on were the use of elephant eggs to grow an embryo — similar to the process that led to Dolly — and the creation of embryonic mammoth stem cells.

A growing chorus of scientists have been targeting the mammoth for so called “de-extinction” in recent years, at the same time that others argue against tampering with Mother Nature’s plans. Bringing back a dead species raises a host of issues, wrote two ethicists recently.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News

Elephants Out-Compete Rhinos at Salad Bar

Credit to: Ryan Harvey

Elephants get first dibs at the African savannah salad bar, which may force rhinos to dine on lower quality food and a more limited diet.

When elephants abound in an ecosystem, a South African study found that black rhinos tend to eat more grass than in nearby areas with fewer elephants. Grass contains more fiber per the amount of energy it contains, and thus provides rhinos with less nutrition per pound than other floral food sources.

However, when African elephants are absent, an analysis of rhino poop found evidence that the horn-headed herbivores devour a wider variety of vegetation, including leaves from shrubs, succulent plants and liana vines.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News

Less Ice Equals More Seal Strandings

Credit to: John De Long

Harp seals mate and rear their young on the sea ice off the east coast of Canada in the spring and move north as the weather warms. But increasing numbers of seals are ending up stranded along the U.S. East Coast, as far south as the Carolinas, far away from where they should be at this time of year.

As ice levels in the North Atlantic have declined, the number of seals that have wound up on beaches, either dead or in poor health, has increased, new research shows. The threat posed by the decline of sea ice in Alaska has led two species of seals, ringed and bearded seals, to be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Boveng told LiveScience.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News

Animal Police

Credit to: 111 Emergency, Flickr

Around the world, animals are hard a work preventing crime. Here are some examples of security animals:

1. An elite gaggle of geese “police,” is now employed to ward off troublemakers in China’s rural Xinjiang province.
2. A homeowner in Thailand has not been burglarized in 15 years, thanks to two crocodiles that have lived outside of his house for that same period.
3. Honeybees can sniff out land mines from up to 3 miles away. Using sugar syrup irresistible to the bees, mixed with the smell of explosives, scientists have trained the honeybees to look for hidden mines. Bees have very keen detection abilities, normally used to find flowers.
4. A pride of lions reportedly protected a 12-year-old girl in Ethiopia after she had been abducted and beaten by men attempting to force her into an arranged marriage.

For more information about the content discussed in this article visit: Discovery News