(Natural News) Do octopuses experience dreams? A viral video of an octopus changing its color during its slumber brought up interesting questions about the neural activity in its many “brains” during sleep periods. Octopuses can alter the color and texture of their skin in the blink of an eye. Sometimes, they rely on their color-changing […]

(Natural News) It’s the attack of the “clone” spiders! South American researchers discovered enough nearly identical species of spiders in Colombia to fill a new genus, which got named in honor of the iconic stormtroopers from the Star Wars movies. Dubbed Stormtropis, the new genus joins the bald-legged spiders (family Paratropididae). The arachnids flourish throughout […]

(Natural News) In the African island of Madagascar, bats leave their tropical rainforest and descend upon the ricefields cultivated by human farmers to devour plant-eating insect pests. Their organic pest control service may help persuade locals to preserve the forests instead of razing them. Every year, humans cut down one percent of Madagascar’s rainforest cover. They cultivate the cleared land to […]

(Natural News) Researchers have laid to rest earlier fears that the population of puffins in the U.K. was going down. They reported that the total number of birds in the Farne Islands actually increased by nine percent – they have merely moved to different areas of the island group. At first, the National Trust grew […]

(Natural News) Animals are able to understand and use numbers on a rudimentary level. They apply this understanding to important tasks, such as foraging and managing resources, which ensure their survival. So far, only humans and a few animal species have demonstrated the ability to do complex arithmetic operations. But a new study conducted by researchers from France and Australia show […]

(Natural News) Mussels often end up getting contaminated by the vast amount of microplastics that pollute the oceans. A new study showed that the animals successfully expel most of the tiny plastic fibers from their bodies. Microplastics are present in every part of the world’s oceans, even remote areas that are thousands of miles away from the nearest human presence. […]

(Natural News) The cute hamsters found in most pet stores and many children’s bedrooms may harbor the key to treating Alzheimer’s disease. Spanish researchers investigated the ability of the golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) to get rid of harmful protein structures that appear in its brain during hibernation – structures that happen to be associated with Alzheimer’s and […]

(Natural News) “Getting in touch with your wild side” is taking on a whole new meaning, now that we know chimps communicate in an astonishingly “human-like” way. Scientists say that while these clever primates may not be able to speak, their sign language follows many of the same patterns and rules used in human communication. […]

(Natural News) A species of big rat from Africa possesses an incredibly sensitive nose that can sniff out the presence of deadly tuberculosis and equally dangerous landmines. Researchers recently uncovered more information about the reproductive habits of these useful animals, which can help them breed the notoriously finicky rodents in captivity. The African giant pouched […]

(Natural News) Bees are not the only pollinating insects in danger of disappearing from the face of the Earth. The population of monarch butterflies in California has dwindled to alarming levels after the destruction of so much of their natural habitat. A recent study by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation warns that the number of […]