Mammals News

June 3, 2025

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May 29, 2025 — Whether you are lucky enough to have a cat companion or must merely live this experience vicariously through cat videos, Felis catus is a familiar and comforting presence in our daily lives. Unlike most other feline species, cats exhibit sociality, ...

Coastal Alaska Wolves Exposed to High Mercury Concentrations from Eating Sea Otters

May 28, 2025 — Scientists show that wolves that are eating sea otters in Alaska have much higher concentrations of mercury than those eating other prey such as deer and ...

Nearly Five Million Seized Seahorses Just 'Tip of the Iceberg' in Global Wildlife Smuggling

May 28, 2025 — Close to five million smuggled seahorses worth an estimated CAD$29 million were seized by authorities over a 10-year span, according to a new study that warns the scale of the trade is far larger ...

Oldest Whale Bone Tools Discovered

May 27, 2025 — Humans were making tools from whale bones as far back as 20,000 years ago, according to a new study. This discovery broadens our understanding of early human use of whale remains and offers valuable insight into the marine ecology of the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:49pm EDT

Megalodon: The Broad Diet of the Megatooth Shark

May 26, 2025 — Contrary to widespread assumptions, the largest shark that ever lived -- Otodus megalodon -- fed on marine creatures at various levels of the food pyramid and not just the top. Scientists analyzed ...

Different Phases of Evolution During Ice Age

May 23, 2025 — Cold-adapted animals started to evolve 2.6 million years ago when the permanent ice at the poles became more prevalent. There followed a time when the continental ice sheets expanded and contracted ...

Climate Change Poses Severe Threat to Bowhead Whale Habitat

May 22, 2025 — New research examining 11,700 years of bowhead whale persistence throughout the Arctic projects that sea ice loss due to climate change will cause their habitat to severely contract by up to 75 per ...

Surprise Baby Whale Sightings Reveal There's Still Much to Learn About Humpbacks

May 20, 2025 — Humpback whales are not always born in tropical waters, new research has shown -- challenging long-held assumptions about their breeding and ...

Wild Orangutans Show Communication Complexity Thought to Be Uniquely Human

May 16, 2025 — Researchers have found that wild orangutans vocalize with a layered complexity previously thought to be unique to human communication, suggesting a much older evolutionary ...

World's Largest Bat Organoid Platform Paves the Way for Pandemic Preparedness

May 15, 2025 — Until now, most research has used either generalized cell samples or organoids made from just one type of tropical fruit bat, and only from a single ...

Scientists Track Down Mutation That Makes Orange Cats Orange

May 15, 2025 — Many an orange cat-affiliated human will vouch for their cat's, let's say, specialness. But now scientists have confirmed that there is, in fact, something unique about ginger-hued domestic felines. ...

Marsupial Research Reveals How Mammalian Embryos Form

May 14, 2025 — Researchers have revealed insight into why embryos erase a key epigenetic mark during early development, suggesting this may have evolved to help form a ...

Genome of Near-Extinct Northern White Rhino Offers Hope for Reviving the Species

May 14, 2025 — The northern white rhinoceros is one of the rarest animals on Earth, with just two females left and no natural way for the species to reproduce. Now, ...

Not All Orangutan Mothers Raise Their Infants the Same Way

May 13, 2025 — Sumatran orangutan mothers differ from one another in how they behave with and take care of their infants and how flexibly they adjust their mothering behaviors as their infants grow. Whilst mothers ...

Red Alert for Our Closest Relatives

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

Mammal's Lifespans Linked to Brain Size and Immune System Function, Says New Study

May 8, 2025 — Why do cats generally live longer than dogs? New research suggests that longer lifespans of mammals like cats could be linked to their bigger brains and more complex immune ...

More Social Parrots Have a Better Vocabulary

May 6, 2025 — For social animals, communication is a key that unlocks the benefits of group living. It's well known that animals with more complex social lives tend to have more intricate ways of ...

Gorilla Study Reveals Complex Pros and Cons of Friendship

May 5, 2025 — Friendship comes with complex pros and cons -- possibly explaining why some individuals are less sociable, according to a new study of ...

Antivenom Neutralizes the Neurotoxins of 19 of the World's Deadliest Snakes

May 2, 2025 — By using antibodies from a human donor with a self-induced hyper-immunity to snake venom, scientists have developed the most broadly effective antivenom to date, which is protective against the likes ...

Invasive Rats and Rainforest Mammals Are Sharing Gut Microbes as Urban Areas Grow

May 1, 2025 — As urban development continues to creep further into Earth's oldest and most diverse rainforests, a study reveals native and invasive small mammals aren't just adapting to their changing ...

Once Bitten, Animals Develop Resistance That Shrinks Tick Population

Apr. 30, 2025 — Just in time for tick season, new research is shining a light on how animals develop resistance to tick bites, which points toward the possibility of developing more effective vaccines against the ...

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 ...

When Sea Stars Fall, Sea Otters Rise: Sea Otters Benefit from Prey Boom Triggered by Loss of Ochre Sea Stars

Apr. 30, 2025 — In 2013, a sea star wasting syndrome decimated populations of Pisaster along the west coast of North America and along the Monterey Peninsula in California, where this study was conducted. The orange ...

Palatable Versus Poisonous: Eavesdropping Bats Must Learn to Identify Which Prey Is Safe to Eat

Apr. 29, 2025 — Scientists found that the fringe-lipped bat, known to eavesdrop on frog and toad mating calls to find its prey, learns to distinguish between palatable and unpalatable frogs and toads through ...

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 ...

'Extremely Rare Event': Bone Analysis Suggests Ancient Echidnas Lived in Water

Apr. 28, 2025 — New research questions the evolutionary history of some of our most peculiar ...

How Changes in Lemur Brains Made Some Mean Girls Nice

Apr. 21, 2025 — If there was a contest for biggest female bullies of the animal world, lemurs would be near the top of the list. It's the ladies who get their way and keep males in line. In one branch of the ...

Sugar-Mimicking Molecule Central to Virulence of a Common Crop Disease

Apr. 17, 2025 — In plants, the space between cells is a key battleground during infection. To avoid recognition in this space, a strain of the bacterial tomato disease Pseudomonas syringae manipulates plants by ...

First Confirmed Footage of a Colossal Squid -- And It's a Baby!

Apr. 16, 2025 — An international team of scientists and crew on board Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor (too) was the first to film the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) in its natural ...

Studying How Seals Adapt to Extreme Environments Could Lead to Benefits in Human Reproductive Health

Apr. 15, 2025 — Wild animals that have acquired adaptions to maximize their reproductive output in some of the world's most extreme conditions may provide answers to some of the most pressing problems in the ...

Southern Shrews Shrink in Winter

Apr. 15, 2025 — Newly published research shows that the masked shrew, a small, mole-like mammal found in the Appalachian Mountains, shrinks its body and braincase to conserve energy during winter ...

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 ...

Prehistoric Rhinos Lived in Super-Herds

Apr. 9, 2025 — Rhinos that flourished across much of North America 12 million years ago gathered in huge herds, according to a new ...