Tourists and researchers often come across wild parrots in the forests of Australia, who curse fluently in impeccable English.
How do these birds, who have never met a human, manage to pick up such foul language? According to ornithologist Jaynia Sladek from the Australian Museum, they learn it from pet parrots that have either escaped from captivity or were intentionally released.
In addition to insults, wild parrots can mimic sounds like saws, axes, and camera clicks. They remember the noises made by tourists, ornithologists, and loggers, not only reproducing them but also teaching them to other birds.
In the Middle Ages, Parrots Were Considered Birds of Paradise
In the Middle Ages, parrots were valuable pets in Europe. They were expensive, and owning such a bird was a sign of prestige. Additionally, parrots were considered pious creatures, appropriate for respectable Christians to keep. This was no mere black cat, the tool of Satan.
He speaks articulate words so that if you don’t see the bird, you would think it is a person speaking, and naturally, he pronounces “Ave.” As for the other words, he needs to be taught.
“Ave” is the first word of the prayer “Hail Mary (Ave Maria).” Because of this, people in the Middle Ages believed that parrots were no less than birds from the Garden of Eden, praising the Holy Virgin with each call. If you have a parrot that screams in the morning, you can think for yourself if its vocalizations resemble Latin prayers.
In ancient times, however, scholars weren’t so impressed with the bird. Pliny, for example, described the parrot like this: “It greets emperors. It speaks the words it hears. Especially lewd when drunk.”
A Parrot Almost Ruined a U.S. President’s Funeral
Parrots’ ability to imitate human speech often tempts careless owners to teach them colorful language. This is an old tradition.
For example, Andrew Jackson, the U.S. president from 1829 to 1837, known for his foul mouth and unruly behavior, taught his African grey parrot named Poll an extensive vocabulary of curse words.
Jackson died at 78 from a heart attack. At his funeral, the bird suddenly began loudly spewing foul language.
Mourners panicked, covered their ears, and called upon the Lord for help.
The troublesome bird had to be removed. According to Reverend William Menefee Norment, who attended the funeral, the parrot “began to curse in the middle of the service and disturbed the people so much that it had to be taken out of the house.”
Knowing Jackson’s fiery temper and fondness for cursing, he likely would have been proud of his pet.
Parrots Are Related to Falcons and Can Be Bloodthirsty
If you’re asked to name relatives of falcons, you’d probably think of hawks and eagles. But you’d be wrong. In reality, parrots are closer relatives, along with songbirds like thrushes and orioles.
This conclusion was made by geneticists from the University of Münster. Although falcons and parrots split millions of years ago, they still share common traits—intelligence and a hooked beak. However, parrots turned to a vegetarian diet, while falcons became predators.
Not all parrots are harmless vegans, though. For instance, the Kea from New Zealand is a true killing machine.
These tough green birds with hooked beaks land on the backs of sheep peacefully grazing in the fields of New Zealand at night and peck out their fat. They leave terrible wounds, which sometimes get infected and lead to the death of livestock.
Farmers tried setting traps, but the parrots learned to deactivate them. Kea use sticks in their beaks to poke at traps, a sign of their remarkable intelligence.
Parrots Saved the Language of an Extinct South American Tribe
In the 1800s, the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt was traveling through the jungles of Venezuela. During his expedition, he encountered a local indigenous tribe from the Carib group. They had a large collection of parrots in bamboo cages, which could speak the local language.
But one of the birds uttered words that no one could understand. Humboldt discovered that this was the language of an extinct tribe called the Atures. The Caribs had fought and wiped out its people. The survivors fled into the jungle and vanished. Only a pet parrot remained, the only being in the world that could speak the language of its lost owners.
Humboldt managed to discern and record about 40 words from the parrot’s chatter, thus preserving a small part of the Atures’ language.
We usually picture a shark as a ferocious carnivorous monster straight out of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws—the great white shark, or Carcharodon. But in reality, not all of these fish devour meat.
For example, whale sharks, giant sharks, and pelagic megamouth sharks feed on plankton.
These gentle giants gather tiny crustaceans in their wide-open mouths and ignore larger prey, much like whales.
But there’s an even stranger case of shark pacifism—the bonnethead shark, or shovelhead shark. While it can’t be called a vegetarian, more than half of its diet consists of plant matter. It swims along the seabed, consuming crabs, shrimp, mollusks, and also algae.
Perhaps this is why the bonnethead shark is only about 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) long. If it ate meat, it would grow bigger and stronger.
Sharks Can Sense a Drop of Blood in the Ocean From Miles Away
It’s often claimed online that sharks can smell blood in the water from miles away and rush toward their prey like torpedoes. Supposedly, even a tiny scratch, a single drop of blood, can attract them. But that’s not entirely true.
This myth has some basis since most sharks have a pretty good sense of smell. They have nostrils on their noses, but these are used solely for detecting scents, not for breathing.
Studies on olfactory receptors show that the best sense of smell is not in the famous great white sharks, but in hammerhead sharks. However, hammerheads are more likely to use their sense of smell to find mates than prey.
A shark can indeed detect blood in the water, but not from a miles away.
Biologist Tricia Meredith from Florida Atlantic University found that sharks’ sense of smell is not supernatural. Tuna and rays have exactly the same level of olfaction, yet they don’t have the reputation of apex predators.
On average, a shark can detect one drop of blood in a billion drops of water, which is about the volume of a typical swimming pool. So if you cut your hand while swimming in one, a neighboring shark might find you.
However, there’s some doubt that sharks are highly attracted to human blood. Blogger and former NASA engineer Mark Rober conducted several experiments in the Bahamas, using his own blood, cow blood, fish oil, and urine to lure predators (just in case sharks had strange tastes).
In the end, the test subjects were much more interested in tuna oil than in mammalian blood. Apparently, marine cuisine is more familiar to them, and they haven’t had much opportunity to taste cows on the ocean floor.
All Sharks Are Large
This is the smallest known adult shark, Etmopterus perryi (Dwarf lanternshark), on the palm of Fish Division collections manager Julie Mounts. Image: Smithsonian
When thinking of sharks, most people picture the great white shark, or Carcharodon, the predator from Jaws. In fact, there are over 400 different species of sharks, and they vary greatly in size, habits, and appearance.
The great white shark can grow up to 6 meters (20 feet) long and weigh almost 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). But there’s an even bigger shark—the whale shark, which can reach up to 20 meters (68.1 ft) in length. As mentioned earlier, it feeds on plankton.
However, the ocean is also home to truly tiny predators that could fit in the palm of your hand.
For example, the dwarf lanternshark only grows to 21.2 cm (8.3 in). There’s also the spined pygmy shark, about 28 cm (11 in) long, and the pygmy ribbontail catshark, which is around 23 cm (9.1 in). These are peaceful, shy fish that pose no danger whatsoever.
The dwarf lantern shark can even glow, thanks to photophores—special organs on its belly. This helps it swim and feed calmly during the day, as other fish looking up think it’s just a glint of sunlight passing by.
Sharks Flip Onto Their Backs Before Biting
In literature, there’s a claim that sharks turn on their sides or backs before biting. For example, in the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, harpooner Ned Land uses this trait to time his strikes.
What’s my harpoon for? You see, professor, sharks are pretty clumsy creatures. To bite you, they need to flip onto their backs…
Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
But this is a myth that could cost a shark hunter their life. Diver and photographer Valerie Taylor from the Royal Geographical Society of Australia filmed marine predators for almost 60 years. She observed their hunting of whales and other marine mammals and says sharks don’t need to flip over to bite.
In survival recommendations for military pilots, experts from the U.S. Air Force Academy also state that a shark can bite from almost any position. They advise crash survivors in the ocean not to rely on its supposed clumsiness.
Sharks Don’t Get Cancer
In collections of “incredible facts about nature,” it’s often claimed that these marine predators never suffer from cancer.
But unfortunately for these fish (and anyone rooting for them), that’s not true. Scientists have documented cancerous tumors in at least 23 species of these predators, including the great white shark.
The myth that these cartilaginous fish are immune to cancer probably originated from a 1983 study.
In it, scientists discovered a substance in shark cartilage that limits the development of blood vessels and, consequently, the growth of tumors. As is often the case, journalists exaggerated and concluded that if cartilage inhibits cancer and sharks are made of it instead of normal bones, they must be immune to tumors. But that’s not the case.
Shark Fins Are Extremely Beneficial
A widespread misconception suggests that various shark parts, such as their fins or cartilage, can cure different diseases, especially cancer. Additionally, they are believed to extend life, boost intelligence, improve potency, and enlarge any body parts you desire.
But this is just a myth. Regardless of what alternative medicine advocates claim, shark cartilage powder or shark fin soup does not cure cancer. Here’s what a shark researcher has to say about it:
Even if sharks didn’t get cancer, eating them wouldn’t cure it. It’s like eating Michael Jordan in hopes of becoming a basketball player.
David Shiffman, Oceanographer, University of Miami.
Moreover, shark fins, which mainly consist of the same cartilaginous tissue, have very little nutritional value. Consuming them is unlikely to improve your health in any meaningful way.
Additionally, researchers from the University of Miami discovered that some shark fins contain significant amounts of mercury and a neurotoxin called BMAA.
Fish are fine with this—they don’t care about such things. However, humans may develop degenerative brain diseases, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), as well as reproductive system issues.
Shark Fins Grow Back After Being Cut Off
This is false. While some species of fish can regrow lost tails and other body parts, sharks cannot. Their fins are made of cartilage and non-segmented keratinous rays, known as ceratotrichia, which are nearly incapable of regenerating. There are exceptions, such as whale sharks, which can heal even severe wounds, but this is rare.
So, when fins are cut off, the shark is doomed to die from starvation or even suffocation, as their gills can’t function without movement. The poor fish will literally drown in its own habitat.
In short, it’s not worth spending money on shark fin soup: it’s cruel, pointless, and wasteful. A good old perch soup is tastier and more nutritious.
Sharks Cannot Stay Still and Never Sleep
This claim contains a fair bit of truth. Most sharks indeed need to move for fresh water to flow over their gills. But that doesn’t mean they never sleep.
These fish apparently have the ability to swim while asleep. In this state, the shark’s brain rests, while the spinal cord keeps the body moving forward so that the respiratory system continuously receives oxygen from the water.
Greg Skomal, a biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, asserts that great white sharks can sleep or at least doze. In this state, they swim slowly forward with bulging eyes and open mouths.
Moreover, some species, such as reef, carpet, and lemon sharks, as well as the nurse shark, have learned to pull water through their gills by mouth, allowing them to sleep while lying on the ocean floor. They’re fine with that.
Sharks Are Loners
This isn’t always the case: some sharks are quite social. For example, lemon sharks often gather in groups, as it’s easier to hunt and safer together.
They somehow manage to communicate and even teach each other. Seriously, a fish that has figured out the easiest way to catch food can show this to its peers. Young lemon sharks follow adults, learning how to hunt and avoid predators.
Even the toughest and most fearsome sharks, like great whites, can feed together without disturbing one another.
These predators can even play together and socialize, establishing complex hierarchical structures within their groups.
Sharks Are the Biggest Threat in the Ocean
Thanks to horror movies, sharks are considered the scariest marine man-eaters. But statistics show that these fish don’t live up to the hype.
According to the Australian Museum of Natural History, sharks bite humans around 100 times a year. About 10 of these incidents are fatal. Mosquitoes, which transmit various diseases, kill more people in a day than sharks have killed in the last 100 years worldwide.
In fact, you are more likely to be killed by lightning than by a shark.
Sharks don’t hunt humans and don’t see them as a food source, so their attacks are rare and accidental. If anything, stray dog attacks result in twice as many fatalities—and encountering them is far more likely.
On the other hand, humans kill about 100 million sharks each year—for food and medicinal purposes (which don’t work anyway). So, it’s not us who should fear them, but they who should fear us.
Sharks Attack Because They Mistake People for Seals
There’s a myth that sharks kill swimmers for one simple reason: they mistake them for large pinnipeds. And when the predator realizes its mistake, it just spits out its catch.
However, this isn’t true, even though it sounds logical. Sharks often hunt seals and other marine mammals, but they don’t confuse humans with them. They use different tactics: when attacking, they decisively tear and devour the animal immediately, while they explore humans cautiously. Here’s what experts say about this:
I’ve observed more than a thousand attacks by great white sharks on sea lions. If they attacked people the same way they attack pinnipeds, they would rocket to the surface like torpedoes and tear the victim apart. But they approach humans slowly and nonchalantly.
—R. Aidan Martin, Director, ReefQuest Shark Research Center.
Sharks bite people not because they think they’re seals, but because that’s how they explore the world. Instead of touching unfamiliar objects like humans and primates do, these predators bite them. And even if a great white shark bites a diver out of curiosity rather than malice, the victim won’t feel any better.
There’s even a term for this—”exploratory bite.” Sharks frequently test even inedible things with their teeth to figure out what they are because they can’t feel them. They don’t have hands.
When a Shark Attacks, Punch It in the Nose
Just deliver a powerful hook punch to the shark’s nose, and the stunned predator will retreat—this is the advice that circulates on social media, often with variations. Some even suggest biting the shark yourself.
As martial arts masters (or someone else) once said: “If a fight is inevitable, strike first, brother.”
But hitting a shark is one of the dumbest things you can do. These fish are far less sensitive to pain than mammals, so you’re more likely to hurt a bear than a shark. Also, it’s very hard to deliver a damaging punch underwater, even if you’re a boxing champion, because water is much denser than good old air.
Moreover, sharks are apex predators in their environment, so they are not easily scared. Striking first could provoke the fish to retaliate, and it’s unlikely that a human would win such a fight.
Playing dead doesn’t work either, since sharks have an organ called the ampullae of Lorenzini. It allows them to detect electrical fields in the water, especially those created by the nervous system and muscles of living creatures.
So, to convince a shark you’re dead, you’d have to shut off your brain and spinal cord—something hard to do without dying for real. And sharks don’t mind eating carrion.
The only thing you can do when encountering a shark is to calmly swim away and get out of the water without provoking it. If it grabs you and won’t let go, your best bet is to stick your hand in its gills. Chances are slim, but it might help.
The charming creatures in the picture above are called panda ants due to their unique coloring. However, these insects are neither bears nor ants—they are a type of Chilean wasp.
Male wasps have wings to fly and quickly mate with potential partners. During courtship, they lift the female into the air—a kind of mating dance. The females, however, are wingless and crawl on the ground. After mating, they find the larvae of other insects and inject them with their stinger, which doubles as an ovipositor.
These parasitic wasps lay their eggs directly inside the bodies of their victims so that their offspring can devour the unfortunate hosts from the inside.
The wasp’s sting—or more precisely, its stinger’s puncture—is incredibly painful. Their bright coloring serves as a warning to predators that it’s better not to mess with them.
These creatures are also known as syrphid flies. They belong to a large family of flies related to common household pests. However, they are much more pleasant to look at than scavengers and primarily feed on pollen and nectar.
Like most ordinary flies, hoverflies are harmless and defenseless. But they have found a way to protect themselves—by developing striped markings. After all, no predator in its right mind would want to anger a bee, let alone a large bumblebee with its sharp stingers and painful venom. This coloring protects hoverflies from potential threats.
Also known as the alligator turtle, it got its name due to its extremely powerful jaws and ridges on its shell, resembling an alligator’s back. It inhabits the southeastern United States, mainly in the Mississippi River basin.
This turtle is a skilled fisher. Instead of simply lying in ambush during a hunt, it actively lures prey with its tongue. The tip of its tongue is long, narrow, and resembles a pink worm. The turtle buries itself in the ground at the bottom and sticks out its tongue. When a fish comes closer, the reptile easily bites it in half with its jaws.
An adult turtle can weigh over 100 kg and reach a length of 80 centimeters. Due to its powerful bite, it can sever fingers, so it’s best to avoid putting them near this creature’s mouth.
There is a moth with the scientific name Hemeroplanes triptolemus. In its adult form, it doesn’t have an impressive appearance—just a regular gray butterfly resembling a large moth.
However, in its caterpillar form, this insect is quite memorable. It has developed an unusual defense mechanism—mimicking a snake. The rear part of the caterpillar closely resembles the head of a viper. When it feels threatened, it inflates and raises this part, imitating a snake’s head.
Any bird considering the larva as prey will immediately change course in panic and fly away, as no bird in its right mind would want to confront a viper.
Another butterfly species, Papilio troilus, also knows how to disguise itself as a snake when young. But the caterpillar only imitates a viper after growing and turning green. When the larva is young and brownish, it mimics bird droppings.
Naturally, birds avoid such an unappetizing snack.
Another small insect that tries to resemble a reptile is the Surinam toad bug, also known as the alligator bug. Its front part resembles a lizard’s head.
When the bug feels threatened, it inflates its head and opens its wings, making birds think they are facing a reptile rather than an insect. The bird decides not to bother and leaves it alone.
Interestingly, the bug’s name came about by mistake. Naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian mistakenly thought that its head glows at night, and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus took this assertion at face value and named the insect a lanternfly.
Ant-Mimicking Spider (Myrmarachne)
Image: National Science Foundation, Public Domain
Take a look at this creature. It looks like an ant, doesn’t it? That’s because it wants everyone to think so. In reality, this is not an insect at all but a spider of the species Myrmarachne formicaria. Its method of camouflage is called myrmecomorphy.
In fact, there are more than 300 species of spiders that mimic this appearance.
Why do they do it? Some spiders do it to deter predators. Many insects avoid ants because these fierce little creatures can swarm and overwhelm anything that tries to hunt them. So, various spiders, as well as some bugs, wasps, and flies, choose to imitate ants—making everyone believe they are just as tough and dangerous to mess with.
Other spiders do this to infiltrate ant nests and feed on their supplies and larvae. They then calmly walk out through the main entrance past the guards, mimicking the locals and pretending they belong there.
There’s a catch, though: ants can recognize each other not just by appearance but by scent. Some clever spiders have found a solution. They carry a dead ant from the colony in their jaws, walking around the nest as if they are taking a fallen comrade to the cemetery. It’s like a scene from a stealthy video game in the insect world.
There are fish known as combtooth blennies, and one of their varieties is called the false cleaner fish. These scaly rascals are unmatched in treachery and deceit.
Many large marine creatures like rays, parrotfish, and pufferfish live in symbiosis with a fish called a wrasse. They allow the wrasse to clean algae and parasites off their bodies. As a result, the cleaner fish gets food, while the host fish benefits from improved health and quality of life.
After all, it’s quite unpleasant to have a bloodsucking arthropod clinging to your belly when you’re unable to remove it because you have fins.
Combtooth blennies pretend to be cleaner wrasses by imitating their behavior and appearance. They approach larger fish, and the unsuspecting host lets them in without a second thought. The blenny then bites a chunk of flesh out of its trusting victim and silently swims away as if nothing had happened.
You might wonder, what could this creature pretend to be? It’s clearly a cat; no one could be fooled by that! And you’re right: the margay, or the long-tailed South American cat, doesn’t attempt to mimic someone’s appearance. It imitates voices.
The margay climbs a tree and starts screaming, imitating the cries of a baby pied tamarin—a type of monkey. The male tamarin, who cares for the offspring in this species, rushes to the branch to check if it’s his baby crying. The margay pounces on the unfortunate monkey, kills it, and eats it. That’s its hunting method.
By the way, this predator can also jump almost 3.7 meters (12 feet) upward. It’s not like your lazy house cat, which, after falling out of a window, can’t figure out how to get back inside.
According to the study, male fruit flies may fail to notice threats, such as predators, when courting or mating with a female.
The research team used a special microscopy technique to study which neurons in the brain of the fruit fly (Drosophila) are activated during courtship. The scientists then created an artificial threat using light and shadow to simulate the presence of a nearby predator.
In the early stages of courtship, such a threat activated specific visual neurons in the male flies’ brains, which interact with nerve cells controlled by the neurotransmitter serotonin. As a result, the insects would abandon their courtship and flee.
As courtship progresses, the rise in dopamine blocks important sensory pathways, reducing the fly’s ability to respond to threats and allowing it to focus on mating, explains neuroscientist Laurie Cazale-Debat in a statement about the study. Thus, in advanced stages of courtship or during mating, male fruit flies ignore dangers and no longer perceive such risks under the influence of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
In such situations, fruit flies essentially decide what is more important: courting or escaping a potential threat. “Dopamine is key to this decision-making process, but dopamine levels are closely tied to the proximity of the goal,” said last author Carolina Rezaval. According to the study, dopamine signaling influences perception based on the target’s proximity, thereby prioritizing between competing behaviors.
“You can see this kind of motivation at play all the time among humans,” adds Lisa Scheunemann of the Free University of Berlin. “Imagine you’re climbing a mountain and you’re close to the summit. If the weather changes and conditions become dangerous, you might disregard that threat because you are so close to your goal.” However, whether this represents a general decision-making mechanism that can also be proven in humans still needs further investigation.
30 hippos, 60 buffaloes, 50 impalas, 100 wildebeest, 300 zebras, 83 elephants: This is just a selection of animals that can now be killed in Namibia. The reason: an enormous drought in the country. The meat of the animals is to be distributed to people who currently lack the most basic necessities.
The animals are to be killed by professional hunters. According to the plan, the animals will come from national parks and areas with sustainable wildlife populations. This affects regions where, according to estimates, the available water resources are being exceeded.
“This measure is necessary and in line with our constitutional mandate to use our natural resources for the benefit of Namibian citizens,” the ministry writes.
Hunger Crisis Due to Drought
The ministry sees this approach as a prime example of how wildlife protection can be beneficial. “We are pleased that we can help the country in this very difficult time when it is absolutely necessary.
The government in Namibia had declared a state of emergency — the country is experiencing its worst drought in years. An analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) organization predicted that from July to September, the situation of the population suffering from food shortages would worsen. This could affect about 1.4 million people, nearly half of the country’s population.
340,000 households were supported with food distributions, water supply, livestock breeding, and seed programs, according to a UN statement from July. However, resources are overstretched and cannot meet the growing need.
Conflicts with Elephants
According to the ministry, about 160 animals have already been killed, which has yielded nearly 60,000 kilograms of meat. The provision of meat improves people’s nutrition and contributes to poverty alleviation.
However, the culling of elephants has another reason: Their number is to be generally reduced to minimize conflicts between humans and the large animals. “Given the severe drought in the country, an increase in conflicts is to be expected if no intervention is made,” the ministry writes.
Recently, American researchers have been seriously looking into the subject (soundboards) to determine if dogs are really communicating or if they are just pressing the buttons mechanically, estimating the most likely response from the owner (in accordance with the button). The results revealed that, indeed, dogs can understand and use the words emitted by the buttons to establish real communication.
In 2020, a sheepadoodle named Bunny became famous when her owner filmed her using a soundboard. At first, Bunny was limited to pressing a specific button when she wanted to go out or relieve herself. Progressively, she expanded her vocabulary.
However, dogs’ amazing ability to communicate like Bunny via voice buttons aroused skepticism from the scientific community. Indeed, the debate is: Do dogs mechanically press the buttons estimating the most likely response of the owner (in agreement with the button), or do they actually understand the meaning of every button?
“Skepticism comes mainly from two reasons: on the one hand, the history of animal language studies with non-human primates, often conducted unethically and in an anecdotal manner; on the other hand, the fact that these studies become sensational on social media, which is often frowned upon in scientific circles,” declared Dr. Federico Rossano, Cognitive Scientist at the University of California, San Diego and lead author of the study.
A new study led by researchers at the University of California has lifted the veil on this issue, demonstrating that dogs don’t just hope for reactions or react to the signals of their masters.
They are indeed capable of understanding and processing the words produced by the buttons in order to construct contextually appropriate sentences. Dr. Rossano said in a statement: “Here we show that actually [dogs] do pay attention to the [soundboard] words and they produce appropriate behaviours independently of environmental cues and who produces the word”.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers carried out two complementary experiences involving a total of 59 dogs, all trained to use a soundboard. In the first phase of the study, the researchers went directly to the homes of thirty dog owners across the United States. In each home, a team member used stickers to cover the buttons of the dog’s soundboard. Then, another researcher was asked to press a button at random. The latter did not know which button was associated with which word and was also unable to hear the words from the soundboard, in order to prevent them from emitting clues to the dog. The behavior of each dog was recorded.
In the second phase of the research, 29 dogs performed a similar experiment under the direction of scientists at a distance. They pressed one of the buttons or said the word themselves.
As the methodology of the study was pre-recorded, the team was able to describe their methods of collecting variables, and their analysis plans before collecting the latter.
Towards a Better Understanding of Canine Communication
The findings, published in PLOS One, show that dogs responded appropriately, among other things, to the words “play” and “outside”. The researchers also found that dogs seem to understand the words whether they are spoken by their owners or triggered by the push of a button.
However, they did not exhibit food-related behaviors when the owner or a researcher pressed the corresponding button.
“Our results are important because they show that words matter to dogs and that they react to words themselves, and not just the signals associated with them,” Rossano said. He also insisted that this is a preliminary study.
For the moment, the team has limited itself to “scratching the surface of the type of vocabulary that the participants teach these dogs.”
Scientists therefore hope to be able to evaluate concepts in the future, in order to further study the complexities of canine communication. “Future studies will explore how dogs actively use these buttons, including the meaning and systematization of the sequences of button presses,” Rossano concludes.
Better than their reputation: While tarantulas cause fear and rapid heartbeats in many people, biologists have discovered that they are surprisingly popular in the animal kingdom. According to research, these eight-legged hunters maintain symbiotic relationships with a variety of other animals — especially toads and frogs, but possibly also with other spiders and even snakes, termites, and ants. Interestingly, these relationships of tarantulas could also explain why they are so hairy.
Fear of spiders is one of the most commonly cited phobias. Encountering a tarantula (Theraphosidae) with its ten-centimeter-large, hairy body in real life would probably be an absolute nightmare for many people. However, these eight-legged hunters pose no real danger unless you’re a cockroach or grasshopper. Tarantulas are also not averse to small mammals and snakes if they manage to overpower them.
But tarantulas don’t just spread fear and terror in the animal kingdom. There are repeated reports of cases where these eight-legged creatures form close relationships and even symbioses with animals of other species, such as frogs and toads, even sharing their burrows with them. Alireza Zamani from the University of Turku in Finland and his team have now investigated how widespread such phenomena are. As part of a comprehensive literature review, they collected all known observations of tarantula symbioses and analyzed them in a review paper.
The results showed that symbioses with frogs and toads alone, which are collectively known as anurans, have been observed 83 times in tarantulas across 17 countries. “Most of these observations describe the presence of more than one anuran individual either at the entrance or within an occupied terrestrial burrow of a tarantula,” report Zamani and his colleagues. The frogs and toads apparently lived there together with the spider and were not attacked by it.
Win-win in the Shared Living Space
“Obviously, the frogs and toads living in the tarantulas’ shelters benefit from protection against their predators,” explains Zamani. In an experiment from 1980, a tarantula even protected its amphibian roommates from a dangerous snake. But what does the spider gain from this arrangement?
The frogs and toads that the spider allows to live with it feed on insects. These insects, in turn, can be dangerous to the eight-legged hunter itself, but especially to its eggs and young, as the researchers explain. “Anurans offer protection particularly against parasitic flies and predatory ants,” the team writes. Thus, both sides and their offspring benefit equally from this unusual shared living arrangement.
Diverse Roommates
But tarantulas don’t just open their doors to amphibians. As Zamani and his colleagues have discovered, there are also 14 known cases where they shared their burrow with smaller spiders such as harvestmen and whip spiders. However, it’s still unclear to what extent the roommates benefit in each case. The same applies to three cases where a snake was observed in the spider’s burrow without any attacks occurring.
In some places, termites and dangerous army ants also come and go in the tarantulas’ burrows. These are actually known for attacking and eating a variety of arthropods. However, they usually spare the tarantulas and their young, as the collected observations suggest. They probably only help themselves to the remains of the eight-legged creatures’ last meals in the burrow and, as a side effect, give it a thorough “cleaning”, which also benefits the spider.
Mystery of Spider Hairs Solved
The cleaning crews in the spider’s burrow are not completely harmless, though. Individual ants occasionally attack the spider itself, despite the abundance of food remains, but they never get far, as Zamani explains: “The dense hair covering the tarantula’s body makes it difficult for ants to bite or sting the spider. Therefore, we believe that the hairiness might have evolved as a defense mechanism.
“This hypothesis is supported by the observation that cats and dogs, animals with a highly developed sense of smell, tend to flinch and move away when they sniff a tarantula,” says Zamani. However, solid scientific evidence for this chemical defense is still lacking.
These days, the heat wave that has come to stifle the earth is not receding. If despite this, you attempt the adventure of leaving your home and looking up, you’ll notice that the birds also seem to be hot.
From seagulls to chickens, including pigeons, birds keep their beaks wide open, and sometimes even stick out their tongues. How can this funny expression be explained?
It is actually a thermoregulation mechanism, which allows birds to lower their body temperature during heatwaves. For them, it’s a matter of life and death: heat episodes cause high mortality among chicks.
Birds Stick Out Their Tongues
Opening the beak leads to the expiration of hot air: simply put, the bird ventilates itself. So far, it’s just like us.
But why on earth stick out the tongue, condemning themselves to an appearance that borders on the ridiculous? It’s another means to fight against the overheating of the body. By putting its tongue in contact with the ambient air, the bird tries to cool its blood vessels. The cooled blood then irrigates the rest of the body and lowers the thermometer. Practical, especially since birds cannot sweat.
Finally, one might rightfully wonder why birds, if they want to cool off, don’t fly away to cut through the fresh air. But like us, who don’t really feel less hot when we run, birds must exert a colossal effort to fly.
There’s a question you might not have realized you had, but it’s one that many people are curious about—and it’s been gaining traction online. Let’s settle it once and for all: do penguins have knees?
The short answer is yes, penguins do have knees. Their legs include a femur, tibia, and fibula, just like ours. In fact, when it comes to bone structure, penguins are more similar to us than to other birds.
Let’s dive into the biology of it all—and as a bonus, we’ll explore more about the morphology of these fascinating birds.
What Are Penguin Knees Like?
X-ray images show what penguin knees look like. They were hiding under their fur the whole time. Photo: New England Zoo
Penguins’ legs appear short because their skin conceals much of their bones, including their knees. Beneath a dense layer of feathers and skin, they have a femur, tibia, and fibula, arranged similarly to the bones in your leg. If this sounds confusing, the X-ray images below should help clarify.
Because of this, penguins have a distinctive way of walking. Imagine wearing an oversized shirt pulled down over your knees, leaving only your ankles and feet visible. If your bones were structured like this, you’d also walk with a “waddle.”
While it may look inefficient, this swaying gait is actually the most energy-efficient way for penguins to walk. Due to their short legs, they take smaller, quicker steps, which require their muscles to work harder. The side-to-side sway helps them use the momentum from one step to power the next, conserving energy.
Swimming Champions
You might be wondering: if penguins’ legs make it difficult to walk on land, why are they like this? Well, penguins are designed for swimming, not walking.
Penguins’ bodies are streamlined to move efficiently through water—similar to how an airplane or bird’s body is aerodynamic for cutting through air with minimal resistance. For penguins, long legs would create unnecessary drag, making swimming more difficult and energetically costly.
Since penguins spend about 75% of their time in the water, it’s logical that their bodies are adapted for swimming rather than walking. Their torpedo-shaped bodies, with cylindrical torsos, small heads, short legs with webbed feet, and short, wide wings, are all designed to enhance their swimming ability, allowing them to move at high speeds underwater.
These adaptations are part of what sets penguins apart from other birds.
If you recall your biology classes, you might remember that most birds have pneumatic bones—porous and hollow, capable of storing air. This makes their skeletons lighter, which is crucial for flight.
However, since penguins need to swim rather than fly, they can’t have light bones, or they would float. Instead, their bones are solid and heavy, helping them stay submerged while they hunt for fish.
The Knees of Birds
On the left, a penguin skeleton. On the right, human leg bones. Can you see the similarity? Photo: New England Zoo
Another key difference is in penguins’ feet. Unlike other birds, which walk on their toes as if on tiptoe, penguins walk with the soles of their feet fully supported on the ground.
This distinction helps clarify a common misconception: birds’ knees don’t bend backward. You may have seen a flamingo, heron, or another long-legged bird and noticed a joint that appears to bend backward.
Since this joint is mid-leg, it’s often mistaken for a knee, but it’s actually the bird’s ankle.
As mentioned, birds’ legs have the same bone structure as ours—femur, tibia, and fibula. In birds, the femur (thigh bone) is typically shorter, so the knees are tucked up against the body, hidden beneath the wings and feathers.
What is sometimes mistaken for the tibia and fibula is the tarsometatarsus—a unique fusion of ankle and foot bones found only in birds and some dinosaurs.
Most birds, then, walk on their toes. Since their feet extend to the middle of their legs, what looks like a backward-bending knee is their ankle.
So yes, penguins do have knees. They’re just hidden within the body to aid in swimming.
A new study published in “Nature” shows that the avian flu variant of the H5N1 virus currently circulating in cows can also infect mice and ferrets. According to the study, the virus replicates in the mammary glands and lungs of these mammals, among other places, and can be transmitted to other animals through milk or breath. This also reveals a possible route of infection to and between humans. The current virus variant thus poses a greater pandemic risk than earlier strains.
The H5N1 virus, originating from Asia, has been circulating in various bird species for several years and has already killed millions of wild birds and livestock worldwide. In recent years, some mammalian species have also occasionally become infected. In spring 2024, milk cows in the United States were reported to have been infected with a highly pathogenic mutant of the avian flu virus H5N1, resulting in reduced milk production. The virus spread rapidly within the herds. Shortly after, there were isolated reports of humans, cats, and poultry becoming infected with the virus through contact with the sick cows on farms.
How exactly H5N1 managed to jump species was previously unclear. It is suspected that the virus may have jumped from sick birds to cows, and from there to other cows, humans, and other animals through contaminated milking equipment or contact with infected mammary glands.
The virus was detected in cow’s milk, among other places. However, if the milk is pasteurized, the virus particles are not infectious, as previous studies have shown. Transmission through breathing is also considered possible, as the virus was also detected in the cows’ noses.
How Does the Virus Behave in Other Mammals?
A team led by Amie Eisfeld from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has now examined in more detail how the current H5N1 variant behaves in other mammals. The virologists also wanted to assess whether the avian flu virus has already adapted to mammals and how great the risk is for further human-to-human transmission and thus for an expansion of the pandemic.
For this purpose, the researchers used influenza viruses from the milk of an infected cow in New Mexico, as well as older strains of H5N1 that had not previously been discovered in cows. They fed various test animals with contaminated milk or had them inhale virus-containing fluid and then examined how the viruses were transmitted and replicated.
Mice and ferrets were used, which are common model animals for influenza diseases in mammals in research.
Transmission Through Milk Most Likely
The analysis showed that both the older and newer versions of the H5N1 viruses were transmitted to the mammals studied. The mice and ferrets were infected both through milk and through the respiratory tract. Unlike the cows showing few or no symptoms, the infected animals became sick or died. The viruses spread throughout the animals’ bodies. The lungs, mammary glands, and nipples were also affected.
The infected mice also effectively passed on the avian flu viruses to their offspring through breast milk, as the virologists found. The viruses were also partially transmitted to other test animals through the fine droplets that all mammals exhale.
However, these animals did not become seriously ill – possibly because the viral load was rather low with this type of transmission, as the researchers report.
Eisfeld and her colleagues conclude that the most likely and previously underestimated route of transmission of the avian flu virus H5N1 from mammal to mammal is through the mammary glands and milk. The respiratory tract plays a subordinate but still important role in infection between mammals.
H5N1 Can Also Infect Human Cells
The virologists then tested on cell cultures whether the H5N1 viruses from cows could jump back to birds and whether they could infect humans. They found that the viruses can indeed bind to the sialic acid receptors in the respiratory tracts of birds and humans. Earlier strains of H5N1 that were not found in cows could not do this.
These findings suggest that the H5N1 variants currently circulating in cows in the United States are more contagious for mammals, including humans, than earlier strains. They have either adapted better to our physiology in cows or already before and could be infectious to us through the respiratory tract as well. “The bovine HPAI H5N1 virus possesses properties that may facilitate infection and transmission in mammals,” the virologists write. This discovery “represents a paradigm shift and increases the pandemic potential of these viruses.”
How Likely Is an Avian Flu Pandemic Among Humans?
The avian flu virus H5N1 is generally transmissible to humans and can lead to mild to severe respiratory diseases or even death in us. However, infection of humans by birds or cows has been rather rare so far. This could change soon with the currently rampant variant, as the study suggests. This also increases the danger of transmission among humans.
However, how effective and rapid a direct transmission of the avian flu variant H5N1 from human to human and thus a pandemic would be is not clear from the study. To find this out, viruses from infected farm workers now need to be examined, according to Eisfeld and her colleagues.
