Animals

A mysterious group of apes found in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa has scientists and conservationist scratching their heads. The apes nest on the ground like gorillas but have a diet and features characteristic of chimpanzees.

The apes are most likely a group of giant chimpanzees that display gorilla-like behavior. A far more remote possibility is that they represent a new subspecies of great ape. Researchers plan to return to the region later this month to collect more clues to help resolve the mystery.

For bird species whose males and females differ in color, guys with the brightest feathers tend to have the greatest lady luck. This natural mating game however puts entire local populations at risk of dying out, according to a new study.

The finding confirms the idea that the extraordinary lengths an animal will go to woo a mate, such as the peacock who spends time and energy to maintain his extravagant tail feathers, comes at a price in terms of survival.

A cataclysmic volcanic eruption 160 million years ago was a dark day for thousands of salamanders scurrying about a series of lakes in northern China. The hot ash smothered and buried the amphibians in their tracks.

For scientists who study salamanders, however, that inundation of hot ash was manna from heaven: It allowed for the exquisite preservation of the salamanders, giving scientists a trove of fossils that are revealing the secrets of evolution.

They are the longest-living marine species to ever ply the world’s oceans. They survived catastrophic asteroid impacts and outlived the dinosaurs. But the leatherback sea turtle, the largest turtle in the world, is on the brink of extinction, and scientists question whether the animal will survive into the next decade.

“Over the last 22 years their numbers have declined in excess of 95 percent,” said Larry Crowder, a marine scientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Crowder detailed the plight of the turtle during last week’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver, Colorado.

The ability of bats and dolphins to see at night and navigate the murky depths of the sea has long garnered the interest of the United States military.

“We would like to emulate this capability for the quick, accurate detection and classification of buried mines,” said Harold Hawkins, a program manager with the biosonar program at the Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Virginia.

National Geographic may have just acquired a new fan base; but is it the pictures, or the cool covers? The chimpanzees at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wisconsin, recently received six boxes of back issues from a group of local schoolchildren, and the publications appear to be a big hit.

The magazines are scattered about their living quarters to simulate the big leafy plants found in their native habitat, said Jim Hubing, director of the zoo. But the chimps sometimes flip through the glossy pages, and react to certain pictures.

New Zealand scientists trying to curb their country’s influence on global warming may have found an answer to belch about: Livestock that eat plants high in condensed tannins produce up to 16 percent less methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Tannins are the yellow-brown chemical compounds found in many plants and give red wine its distinctive flavor.