Animals’ intelligence continue to surprise humans, whether the realization arises due to focused study or observational evidence. As the NY Times writes, “evidence of tool use by octopuses, crows, fish, elephants, crocodiles and insects has dislodged our arrogance that tool use is uniquely human.” (The NYT forgot parrots.) This week’s evidence comes from trail cam documentation of a sea wolf in British Columbia.
In 2021, the Heiltsuk, a Canadian First Nation, began setting crab pots in their traditional waters. to remove invasive European green crabs. The traps were “simple circular, netted frames baited with plastic cups of herring or chopped sea lion” tied to buoys and dropped into deep water away from shore. Often, the traps were found torn apart, still in some water (i.e., not exposed at low tide). Finally, in 2024, a wildlife biologist and a Heiltsuk Guardian set up a trail cam to document what was happening to the traps, expecting to see otters, seals, or mink.
Instead, they saw a wolf who swam out to the buoy and dragged it back towards the shore, exposing the rope that the wolf then grabs section by section until the trap can be torn open by the wolf’s jaws. Finally at her objective—the cup of bait meat—she removed it from the trap, and carried it upright to the shore, set the cup on the pebbles, licked out the seal lion meat, and wandered off.
“The researchers describe the brief footage, featured in a paper published Monday in the journal Ecology and Evolution, as the first documented instance of a wolf using a tool.”
Video Reveals How Far Wolves Will Go to Steal a Meal — ny times (gift article)
Whether this wolf is a solitary innovator or represents a broader cultural pattern remains a mystery. But William Housty, director of the Heiltsuk integrated resource management department, suspects multiple wolves are involved. “You talk to our crew daily, and every day they’re coming in with bait boxes busted open,” he said.
A descendant of the nation’s wolf clan, Mr. Housty has great respect for the species and is unsurprised by the wolves’ cleverness.
“Sometimes we forget that the species that exist with us, around us, are just as intelligent as we are,” he said.
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Gelada baboons fake fertility to protect their young from infanticide when new males take over — phys.org
In nature, it is not usual for animals to be deceptive, as evolution has typically favored communication that benefits both the sender and receiver by conveying reliable information. But, there are exceptions, particularly when the “lie” leads to beneficial mating or survival. For example, female poison frogs are known to prolong courtship to keep their mate around longer to care for young—increasing the survival of the young.
Gelada baboons from Ethiopia live in packs with a single male and up to 12 females, all of which mate with the male. Occasionally, new males come along and take over the group. The female gelada has been observed to display signals of fertility at times when new male geladas take over, even when they are still lactating from a recent birth—something that typically does not occur in the absence of a takeover.
On the other hand, new male geladas have been observed to kill infants fathered by their predecessors. This had researchers wondering if the two behaviors were connected and whether deception was involved.
Large herbivores are linked to higher herbaceous plant diversity and functional redundancy across spatial scales — journal of animal ecology
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🐘 New research – Large herbivores are linked to higher herbaceous plant diversity and functional redundancy across spatial scales
➡️ buff.ly/zqRgqqo
@jonastrepel.bsky.social @joe-atkinson.bsky.social @andrewabraham.bsky.social @jessekalwij.bsky.social @jcsvenning.bsky.social @econovoau.bsky.social
— Journal of Animal Ecology (@animalecology.bsky.social) November 17, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Higher herbivory intensity in South African savannas increases herbaceous plant richness and functional redundancy. Results highlight large herbivores’ role in promoting diversity and ecosystem resilience.
These rare whales had never been seen alive. Then a team in Mexico sighted two — the guardian
It was an early morning in June 2024 and along the coast of Baja California in Mexico, scientists on the Pacific Storm research vessel were finishing their coffee and preparing for a long day searching for some of the most elusive creatures on the planet. Suddenly a call came from the bridge: “Whales! Starboard side” … finally Robert Pitman, a now-retired researcher at Oregon State University, fired a small arrow from a modified crossbow at the back of one of them.
The tip carved out a small chunk of skin the size of a pencil eraser. It was this that would later prove to the scientists onboard that they were seeing a species that had never before been seen in the wild: a ginkgo-toothed beaked whale.
“I can’t even describe the feeling because it was something that we had worked towards for so long,” says Elizabeth Henderson, a researcher at the US military’s Naval Information Warfare Center and lead author of the resulting paper published in Marine Mammal Science, who was also there that day. “Everybody on the boat was cheering because we had it, we finally had it.”
France’s birds start to show signs of recovery after bee-harming pesticide ban — the guardian
Insect-eating bird populations in France appear to be making a tentative recovery after a ban on bee-harming pesticides, according to the first study to examine how wildlife is returning in Europe.
Neonicotinoids are the world’s most common class of insecticides, widely used in agriculture and for flea control in pets. By 2022, four years after the European Union banned neonicotinoid use in fields, researchers observed that France’s population of insect-eating birds had increased by 2%-3%. These included blackbirds, blackcaps and chaffinches, which feed on insects as adults and as chicks.
The results could be mirrored across the EU, where the neonicotinoid ban came into effect in late 2018, but research has not yet been done elsewhere. The lead researcher, Thomas Perrot from the Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité in Paris, said: “Even a few percentage [points’] increase is meaningful – it shows the ban made a difference. Our results clearly point to neonicotinoid bans as an effective conservation measure for insectivorous birds.”
Has birds’ mysterious ‘compass’ organ been found at last? — nature
Pigeons (Columba livia) seem to be able to sense magnetic fields by detecting tiny electrical currents in their inner ears. Researchers performed advanced brain mapping as well single-cell RNA sequencing of pigeon inner-ear cells. Both lines of evidence point to the inner ear as the birds’ ‘magnetoreception’ organ. Such an organ gives the birds an ‘inner compass’ that could help to explain their navigational nous over long distances. “This is probably the clearest demonstration of the neural pathways responsible for magnetic processing in any animal,” says sensory biology researcher Eric Warrant.
TikTok Is Obsessed With Talking Parrots. It’s Fueling a Global Black Market — rolling stone
Excellent longform story not easily previewed — go take a look!
Parrot reels might seem benign, says Rowan Martin, director of the nonprofit World Parrot Trust’s Africa conservation program, but the posts are “playing a central role in opening up vast new markets for exotic wildlife.” Openings that traders like Fourie are ready to seize upon. […]
At $440 a bird, Fourie’s African greys sell faster than Taylor Swift tickets — he can’t fill all his current orders. “If I can get 2,000 African grey babies, I can send it [sic] out tomorrow.” Transporting greys is more challenging than exporting other commodities, he says. “Live animals are a very risky business — it’s not like selling shoes. Your shoe cannot die.” Nonetheless, Fourie says, grinning, it’s “a good business.”
Especially good until nearly a decade ago, when it was legal for breeders in South Africa, which has no wild African greys, and elsewhere to buy them from traders in countries such as Cameroon and the DRC. Wild birds are cheaper and easier to breed — captives take at least four years to become sexually mature, requiring expensive veterinary care, food, and shelter.
Fourie scoffs at the concern about African greys disappearing in the wild. “They will never finish the greys in the Congo,” he says, because the country is so big. “There are some areas a human being has never been — that’s how big it is.” And those jungles are full of “thousands, and thousands, and thousands, and thousands of African greys.”
We Can Now Track Individual Monarch Butterflies. It’s a Revelation. — nytimes (gift article)
For the first time, scientists are tracking the migration of monarch butterflies across much of North America, actively monitoring individual insects on journeys from as far away as Ontario all the way to their overwintering colonies in central Mexico.
This long-sought achievement could provide crucial insights into the poorly understood life cycles of hundreds of species of butterflies, bees and other flying insects at a time when many are in steep decline.
The breakthrough is the result of a tiny solar-powered radio tag that weighs just 60 milligrams and sells for $200. Researchers have tagged more than 400 monarchs this year and are now following their journeys on a cellphone app ,,, Most monarchs weigh 500 to 600 milligrams, so each tag-bearing migrator making the transcontinental journey is, by weight, equivalent to a half-raisin carrying three uncooked grains of rice. […]
Tracking the world’s most famous insect migration may also have a big social impact, with monarch lovers able to follow the progress of individual butterflies on the free app, called Project Monarch Science. Many of the butterflies are flying over cities and suburbs where pollinator gardens are increasingly popular. Some tracks could even lead to the discovery of new winter hideaways.
Exploring the concept of bacterial memory — nature
The response of bacteria to environmental stimuli can be influenced by their past experiences, which suggests they have a form of memory, say four microbiome researchers. These memories can arise in individual cells in the form of mutations or epigenetic changes, or at a population level as colonies respond to selective pressures such as antibiotics. In theory, researchers could use such memory to condition therapeutically or industrially important strains to cope with certain stressors, the group writes. Studying this behaviour could also yield insight into the origin of memory in multicellular organisms.
Microplastics hit male arteries hard — uc riverside news
The researchers found microplastics dramatically worsened atherosclerosis, but only in males. In male mice, microplastic exposure increased plaque buildup by 63% in the aortic root, the first section of the aorta that attaches to the heart; and 624% in the brachiocephalic artery, a blood vessel that branches off the aorta in the upper chest. In female mice, the same exposure did not significantly worsen plaque formation.
The study found microplastics did not make the mice obese or raise their cholesterol. The mice remained lean, and their blood lipid levels did not change, meaning the increased artery damage was not due to traditional risk factors like weight gain or high cholesterol.
What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic — propublica
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After a bird flu outbreak tore through Midwestern barns, killing millions of chickens and spiking egg prices, the federal government didn’t investigate if the virus was airborne.
So ProPublica did.
Absolutely terrifying reporting from @natlash.bsky.social:
www.propublica.org/article/bird…
— Annie Waldman (@anniewaldman.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 10:53 AM
The U.S. Department of Agriculture urged farmers to follow a longstanding playbook that assumes that bird flu is spread by wild birds and tracked into barns with lax safety practices. The agency blamed the outbreak on “shared people and equipment.”
Three years into a brutal wave of the virus, industry leaders raised evidence that bird flu was entering barns differently and evading even the strictest protocols. They suspected it could be airborne and begged officials to deploy a proven weapon against the disease: a vaccine for poultry.
The USDA didn’t do that or explore their theory, and its playbook failed: In just three months, the virus that erupted in a single Ohio farm spread to flocks with over 18 million hens — 5% of America’s egg layers. All were killed to try to stop the contagion, and egg prices hit historic highs, surpassing the previous fall’s spike, which Donald Trump had cited as a massive failure of economic leadership in his successful campaign for the presidency.
First, the frogs died. Then people got sick. — wapo (gift article)
An emerging area of research is uncovering surprising links between nature and human health.
Gratwicke is a conservation biologist who leads amphibian work at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. He had flown to Panama, in the middle of rainy season, to help resurrect frog species that had vanished from the cloud forest decades ago.
Whether these amphibians can strike out on their own and thrive here again is uncertain.
What is becoming increasingly clear is that without them, humans are in trouble. It turns out that frogs — in biblical times regarded as a plague — are actually guardians against disease.
Rocks on Faults Can Heal Following Seismic Movement — uc davis
Earthquake faults deep in the Earth can glue themselves back together following a seismic event, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The work, published Nov. 19 in Science Advances and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, adds a new factor to our understanding of the behavior of faults that can give rise to major earthquakes.
“We discovered that deep faults can heal themselves within hours,” said Amanda Thomas, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis and corresponding author on the paper. “This prompts us to reevaluate fault rheological behavior, and if we have been neglecting something very important.”
When militia attacks disrupted shipping lanes in the Red Sea, few imagined the ripple effects would reach the clouds over the South Atlantic. But for Florida State University atmospheric scientist Michael Diamond, the rerouting of cargo ships offered a rare opportunity to clarify a pressing climate question—How much do cleaner fuels change how clouds form?
First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath River after the largest dam removal in U.S. history
A group of young Indigenous kayakers set out to become the first to paddle the entire Klamath River, from source to sea, after the biggest dam removal project in history. Ranging in age from 13-20 and from tribes across the Northwest, the youth dedicated years to training for the 300-mile, month-long journey.
But for many, it was a journey generations in the making, as their relatives and communities had been fighting to remove the Klamath dams since the first one went up in 1908. Along the way, this next generation of river stewards connected with Indigenous people from around the globe to celebrate the healing of their river and to call for dam removals worldwide.