Animal Research

Bees see the world almost five times faster than humans, according to new research from scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.

When we notice somebody pointing at something, we automatically look in the direction of the gesture. In humans, the ability to understand this type of gesturing (known as declarative communication) may seem to be an automatic response, but it is actually a sign of sophisticated communication behavior. Numerous studies have tried to determine if great apes (for example, chimpanzees and bonobos) are able to understand declarative communication, but results have been mixed.

A baby Bonobo was born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium monday afternoon as Zoo volunteers and staff who have been conducting around the clock observations since February 17 watched via surveillance camera.

After testing dozens of samples from marine mammals, University of Florida aquatic animal health experts say they have found the ideal model for the study of cervical cancer in people.

(It's been a slow Sunday, folks.)

A curious chimp in the wild checks out a video camera.

Emory University neuroscientist Lori Marino will speak on the anatomical basis of dolphin intelligence at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference (AAAS) in San Diego, on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 3:30 p.m.

Monkey populations in threatened forests are far more sensitive to damage to their habitat than previously thought, according to new research.

Most animals don't think anything of breaking into a run: they switch effortlessly from walking to a high-speed bouncing run. But what about elephants? Their sheer size makes it impossible for them to bounce up in the air at high speeds. So how are high-speed elephants moving: are they running or walking?

A study carried out at the University of Haifa has found that bees prefer nectar with a small concentration of caffeine and nicotine over nectar that does not comprise these substances at all. "This could be an evolutionary trait intended to make the bee addicted," the researchers say.

Sharing is a behavior on which day care workers and kindergarten teachers tend to offer young humans a lot of coaching. But for our ape cousins the bonobos, sharing just comes naturally.

An experimental vaccine developed using non-infectious virus-like particles (VLP) has protected macaques and mice against chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne pathogen that has infected millions of people in Africa and Asia and causes debilitating pain, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found.

"I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" is not a phrase that scientists have always associated with non-human primates in the past. But a new study shows that this kind of give-and-take could explain much of their selfless behaviour.

Do apes and monkeys have a secret language that has not yet been decrypted? And if so, will it resolve the mystery of how the human faculty for language evolved? Biologists have approached the issue in two ways, by trying to teach human language to chimpanzees and other species, and by listening to animals in the wild.

Studying animals in behavioral experiments has been a cornerstone of psychological research, but whether the observations are relevant for human behavior has been unclear. Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have identified an alteration to the DNA of a gene that imparts similar anxiety-related behavior in both humans and mice, demonstrating that laboratory animals can be accurately used to study these human behaviors.