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When elephants play, they rapidly copy one another’s trunk and head movements — a form of bodily mimicry resembling the contagious smiles and laughter seen in humans
14+ hour, 36+ min ago (842+ words) Elephants at play do more than chase, spar and wrestle with their trunks. In a study of African savannah elephants, a player that saw a companion perform a...
The ancient Greeks calculated the circumference of the Earth around 240 BCE, using nothing more than a stick, the sun, and the distance between two Egyptian cities
2+ day, 7+ hour ago (582+ words) Published July 17, 2026 Some time around 240 BCE, a librarian in Alexandria worked out the size of the planet from the length of a single shadow. His only equipment was an upright stick, a clear day, and a figure for the distance…...
A gray wolf's rear teeth can generate more than twice the bite force of a domestic dog's, and the skull geometry behind it helps the predator process the bones of elk-sized prey
2+ day, 8+ hour ago (569+ words) The gray wolf's bite is powerful, but the familiar 1,200 psi figure needs context before it can be compared with a domestic dog's. Published July 17, 2026 A wolf does not have one bite-force number that applies everywhere in its mouth. A bite…...
Cuttlefish passed a version of the marshmallow test, waiting up to two minutes for a better meal, and the ones that held out longest also learned fastest
2+ day, 17+ hour ago (26+ words) A 2021 experiment offered common cuttlefish an immediate snack or a wait for their favorite prey. They waited, and their patience tracked how quickly they learned....
A bar-tailed godwit flew 7,250 miles nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand, going more than eight days without landing, eating or drinking
3+ day, 1+ hour ago (240+ words) A female bar-tailed godwit fitted with a satellite transmitter left western Alaska and flew 11,680 kilometers, about 7,250 miles, straight across the Pacific Ocean to the North Island of New Zealand. Published July 16, 2026 Sustaining that flight burns energy at an estimated eight…...
In 2023, researchers placed a GPS collar on a young bull elephant in Zambia. Two years later, his path stretched across four countries and six national parks, revealing the ancient routes elephants still remember, and the human borders now cutting through them
4+ day, 5+ hour ago (642+ words) Published July 15, 2026 A young bull elephant in southern Africa has spent the past two years walking. Fitted with a GPS collar north of Sioma Ngwezi National Park in Zambia in June 2023, the animal, known to researchers as Z16, has since covered…...
The tide rises twice a day because the ocean bulges on both sides of Earth at once — the near side pulled toward the moon, the far side, strangely, left behind as the planet is tugged out from under it
4+ day, 11+ hour ago (61+ words) Isaac Newton worked out in 1687 why the ocean bulges on both sides of Earth at once. The near-side bulge is pulled toward the Moon. The far-side bulge exists because the solid Earth itself is being tugged out from under the…...
Dogs do not see the world in black and white: they see much as a red-green colourblind person does, in blues and yellows — reds and greens simply fade to murky browns and grey, but colour is very much there
4+ day, 21+ hour ago (153+ words) Dogs do not see only in black and white. That is one of the most stubborn myths in popular biology, and it is wrong. Dogs see colour. Their world is narrower...
Crows remember individual human faces, hold grudges, and warn other birds about dangerous people — University of Washington researchers found they were still scolding a threatening mask years after the original encounter
5+ day, 1+ hour ago (418+ words) Put on the same rubber caveman mask a team of researchers once wore, walk across the University of Washington campus, and a good share of the local crows will start screaming at you. Published July 14, 2026 Marzluff’s team did not just…...
Birds are not descended from dinosaurs — they are dinosaurs, a living branch of the theropod family that survived the asteroid and now fills the world with more than 10,000 species
6+ day, 10+ hour ago (138+ words) The pigeon on the windowsill is a dinosaur. Not the descendant of one. One....