Animal Learning and Intelligence News

August 5, 2025

Top Headlines

Did Drunk Apes Help Us Evolve? New Clues Reveal Why We Digest Alcohol So Well

Aug. 1, 2025 — Ape behavior just got a name upgrade — “scrumping” — and it might help explain why humans can handle alcohol so well. Researchers discovered that African apes regularly eat overripe, ...

These Dogs Are Trained to Sniff out an Invasive Insect—and They're Shockingly Good at It

July 17, 2025 — Dogs trained by everyday pet owners are proving to be surprisingly powerful allies in the fight against the invasive spotted lanternfly. In a groundbreaking study, citizen scientists taught their ...

Dogs Can Detect Parkinson’s Years Before Symptoms—with 98% Accuracy

July 16, 2025 — Dogs trained to detect Parkinson’s disease using scent have shown remarkable accuracy in new research. In a double-blind trial, they identified skin swabs from people with Parkinson’s with up to 80% sensitivity and 98% specificity, even when ...

The Fatal Mutation That Lets Cancer Outsmart the Human Immune System

July 2, 2025 — Scientists at UC Davis discovered a small genetic difference that could explain why humans are more prone to certain cancers than our primate cousins. The change affects a protein used by immune cells to kill tumors—except in humans, it’s ...

These Frozen Wolf Cubs Ate a Woolly Rhino—and Changed What We Know About Dogs

June 24, 2025 — Two Ice Age wolf pups once thought to be early dogs have been identified as wild wolves, thanks to detailed DNA and chemical analysis. Surprisingly, their last meals included woolly rhinoceros ...

HIV Vaccine Study Uncovers Powerful New Antibody Target

May 29, 2025 — In the long battle to create an effective HIV vaccine, scientists have made a major leap forward. A new study shows that a series of vaccines can coax the immune system to produce powerful antibodies capable of blocking a wide range of HIV strains ...

This Gene Variant Contributed to the Dietary and Physiological Evolution of Modern Humans

May 22, 2025 — Two of the traits that set modern humans apart from non-human primates are taller stature and a higher basal metabolic rate. Researchers have identified a genetic variant that contributed to the ...

Asian Elephants Have Larger Brains Than Their African Relatives

May 20, 2025 — African elephants are the largest land animals on earth and significantly larger than their relatives in Asia, from which they are separated by millions of years of evolution. Nevertheless, Asian elephants have a 20 percent heavier brain, as ...

Family of Parasite Proteins Presents New Potential Malaria Treatment Target

May 19, 2025 — Researchers have shown that the evolution of a family of exported proteins in the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum enabled it to infect ...

Capuchin Monkeys Develop Bizarre 'Fad' of Abducting Baby Howlers

May 19, 2025 — Animal abduction: Biologists documented five male capuchin monkeys carrying at least eleven different infant howler monkeys -- a behavior never before seen in wild primates. Rise and spread: The sightings were remotely recorded by over 85 camera ...

Evidence of Mother-Offspring Attachment Types in Wild Chimpanzees

May 12, 2025 — A team of researchers has identified distinct mother-offspring attachment types in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus). Drawing parallels with human psychology, the study provides compelling evidence that wild chimpanzee infants, like human ...

The Origins of Language

May 9, 2025 — Wild chimpanzees alter the meaning of single calls when embedding them into diverse call combinations, mirroring linguistic operations in human language. Human language, however, allows an infinite generation of meaning by combining phonemes into ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:01pm EDT

700,000 Years Ahead of Their Teeth: The Carbs That Made Us Human

Aug. 2, 2025 — Long before evolution equipped them with the right teeth, early humans began eating tough grasses and starchy underground plants—foods rich in energy but hard to chew. A new study reveals that this ...

Do Dogs Know Who’s Kind? Scientists Put It to the Test—and Got a Surprise

July 18, 2025 — Despite our strong belief in dogs' ability to sense good from bad in people, new research shows they may not actually judge human character, at least ...

Selfies, Sugar, and Death: How Tourists Are Endangering Elephants

July 18, 2025 — Tourists feeding wild elephants may seem innocent or even compassionate, but a new 18-year study reveals it s a recipe for disaster. Elephants in Sri Lanka and India have learned to beg for snacks ...

Lemurs Age Without Inflammation—and It Could Change Human Health Forever

July 10, 2025 — What if humans didn’t have to suffer the slow-burning fire of chronic inflammation as we age? A surprising study on two types of lemurs found no evidence of "inflammaging," a phenomenon long ...

New Test Unmasks Illegal Elephant Ivory Disguised as Mammoth

June 26, 2025 — Poachers are using a sneaky loophole to bypass the international ivory trade ban—by passing off illegal elephant ivory as legal mammoth ivory. Since the two types look deceptively similar, law ...

Whales Blow Bubble Rings--And They Might Be Talking to Us

June 7, 2025 — Humpback whales have been observed blowing bubble rings during friendly interactions with humans a behavior never before documented. This surprising display may be more than play; it could represent ...

Red Alert for Our Closest Relatives

May 8, 2025 — New report shows drastic decline in endangered primates and calls for conservation ...

Machine Learning Brings New Insights to Cell's Role in Addiction, Relapse

May 1, 2025 — Researchers have applied object recognition technology to track changes in brain cell structure and provide new insights into how the brain responds to heroin use, withdrawal and ...

Social 'Hippie' Spiders Don't Believe in Labels: Study Challenges Long-Held Assumptions About Animal Personalities

May 1, 2025 — Scientists suggest social spiders are more about going with the flow than sticking to a role, after new research challenges the idea of fixed ...

Rhythmically Trained Sea Lion Returns for an Encore -- And Performs as Well as Humans

May 1, 2025 — Animal research on biomusicality, which looks at whether different species are capable of behaving in ways that show they recognize aspects of music, ...

Zoo Life Boosts Object Exploration in Orangutans

Apr. 30, 2025 — A new study comparing wild and zoo-housed Sumatran orangutans reveals that life in a zoo significantly alters how orangutans interact with their environment. Researchers analyzed over 12,000 ...

Elephant Instead of Wild Boar? What Could Have Been in Europe

Apr. 28, 2025 — Even under today's climatic conditions, the long-extinct straight-tusked elephant could still live in Europe. This is the conclusion of a recent study. For this finding, the research group ...

Evolution of Pugs and Persians Converges on Cuteness

Apr. 28, 2025 — Through intensive breeding, humans have pushed breeds such as pug dogs and Persian cats to evolve with very similar skulls and 'smushed' faces, so they're more similar to each other ...

How Activity in Earth's Mantle Led the Ancient Ancestors of Elephants, Giraffes, and Humans Into Asia and Africa

Apr. 21, 2025 — What roils beneath the Earth's surface may feel a world away, but the activity can help forge land masses that dictate ocean circulation, climate patterns, and even animal activity and ...

Personality Test for Bees

Apr. 17, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that honey bees from the same colony have different preferences in terms of defensive behavior. While some are still hesitating, others are already ...

Primate Mothers Display Different Bereavement Response to Humans

Apr. 15, 2025 — Macaque mothers experience a short period of physical restlessness after the death of an infant, but do not show typical human signs of grief, such as lethargy and appetite loss, finds a new study by ...

Dogs Could Help Predict Valley Fever Spread in Humans

Apr. 10, 2025 — Dogs could help predict valley fever spread in humans. A new study finds a strong correlation between occurrence of dog and human ...

Man's Best Friend May Be Nature's Worst Enemy, Study on Pet Dogs Suggests

Apr. 10, 2025 — New research into the overlooked environmental impact of pet dogs has found far-reaching negative effects on wildlife, ecosystems and ...

Do 'Optimistic' Versus 'Pessimistic' Medical Detection Dogs Perform Differently?

Apr. 9, 2025 — A new, exploratory study has revealed statistical links between the performance of medical detection dogs and their scores on behavioral and affective tests, finding that more 'optimistic' ...

Six Ape Genomes Sequenced Telomere-to-Telomere

Apr. 9, 2025 — Comprehensive reference genomes have now been assembled for six ape species: siamang (a Southeast Asian gibbon), Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, gorilla, bonobo and chimpanzee. Areas of their ...

How Can Science Benefit from AI? Risks?

Apr. 4, 2025 — Researchers from chemistry, biology, and medicine are increasingly turning to AI models to develop new hypotheses. However, it is often unclear on which basis the algorithms come to their conclusions ...

3-D Printed Skin to Replace Animal Testing

Apr. 3, 2025 — A research team is developing a 3D-printed skin imitation equipped with living cells in order to test nanoparticles from cosmetics without animal ...

Monkeys Are World's Best Yodellers -- New Research

Apr. 2, 2025 — A new study has found that the world's finest yodellers aren't from Austria or Switzerland, but the rainforests of Latin America. The research provides significant new insights into the ...

New Insight Into Factors Associated With a Common Disease Among Dogs and Humans

Apr. 1, 2025 — For dogs housed at Texas kennels, age and fecal score are important factors for screening for subclinical Giardia ...

How Elephants Plan Their Journeys: New Study Reveals Energy-Saving Strategies

Mar. 26, 2025 — A new study has revealed that African Elephants have an extraordinary ability to meet their colossal food requirements as efficiently as possible. Data from over 150 elephants demonstrated that these ...

A Hit of Dopamine Tells Baby Birds When Their Song Practice Is Paying Off

Mar. 25, 2025 — By watching the ebb and flow of the brain's chemical signals, researchers are beginning to disentangle the molecular mechanisms underlying the intrinsic motivation to learn. In a new study of ...

Chimpanzees Act as 'Engineers', Choosing Materials to Make Tools Based on Structural and Mechanical Properties

Mar. 24, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that chimpanzees living in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania employ a degree of engineering when making their tools, deliberately choosing plants that provide ...

Boosting Brain's Waste Removal System Improves Memory in Old Mice

Mar. 21, 2025 — Aging compromises the lymphatic vessels surrounding the brain, disabling waste drainage from the brain and impacting cognitive function. Researchers boosted lymphatic vessel integrity in old mice and ...

Insomniac Fruit Fly Mutants Show Enhanced Memory Despite Severe Sleep Loss

Mar. 20, 2025 — Fruit fly mutants that have severe sleep deficits perform better at olfactory learning and memory tasks, according to a new study. The paradox of enhanced memory despite sleep loss could be explained ...

Brain Imaging Reveals Surprises About Learning

Mar. 19, 2025 — By revealing for the first time what happens in the brain when an animal makes a mistake, researchers are shedding light on the holy grail of neuroscience: the mechanics of how we learn. The team ...