Hacker News with Generative AI: Animals

Bear cub rescued from woods is being raised by humans dressed as bears (msn.com)
A tiny black bear cub was crying alone in the California woods, his mother nowhere in sight.

Animals, Wildlife, Rescue, Conservation

4 points by Stratoscope 20 hours ago | 0 comments

Gilded Fish: Illustrations of Histoire naturelle des dorades de la Chine c.1780 (publicdomainreview.org)
Goldfish have had a poor reputation over the last century or two. They’ve been casual prizes at fairground games; the lesser alternative to puppies or kittens; and idiomatically (and incorrectly) accused of having limited memory capacity. It was not always so. Goldfish were once prized pets, coveted by emperors and nobles, exotic symbols of good luck. But anything can lose its shine if it’s easily attainable — and that was the goldfish’s undoing.

History, Art, Animals

14 points by crescit_eundo 2 days ago | 0 comments

Elephants evolved to beat cancer, and how we could too (newatlas.com)
Scientists have recently shed some light on exactly why elephants, one of the biggest animals on the planet, paradoxically experience unusually low rates of cancer.

Cancer, Evolution, Biology, Animals, Health

17 points by Brajeshwar 2 days ago | 6 comments

We Trade with Ants: The Little Speakers (fortressofdoors.com)

Animals, Nature, Communication

4 points by surprisetalk 12 days ago | 0 comments

Spanish Shipwreck Reveals Evidence of Earliest Known Pet Cats to Arrive in US (smithsonianmag.com)
Cats are beloved members of many families, with 73.8 million of them prowling and purring their way around 42 million American households. But it wasn’t always this way: Domestic cats are relative newcomers to the Americas, having only arrived roughly 500 years ago with European explorers.

History, Archaeology, Animals, Pets

55 points by wallflower 16 days ago | 51 comments

Improving Flying Drones by Mimicking Flying Squirrels (hackaday.com)
With the ability to independently adjust the thrust of each of their four motors, quadcopters are exceptionally agile compared to more traditional aircraft. But in an effort to create an even more maneuverable drone platform, a group of South Korean researchers have studied adding flying squirrel tech to quadcopters.

Robotics, Engineering, Biology, Animals

4 points by devrandoom 17 days ago | 0 comments

A Weirdly Inspirational Story of Caterpillar Torture (gizmodo.com)
Pine Processionary caterpillars are interesting little creatures. They go on long treks in single file lines. One day, a botanist decided to mess with them. What resulted was a strangely inspirational death march.

Animals, Nature, Science, Creative Projects

5 points by altilunium 18 days ago | 0 comments

Accountability Sinks (250bpm.substack.com)
Back in the 1990s, ground squirrels were briefly fashionable pets, but their popularity came to an abrupt end after an incident at Schiphol Airport on the outskirts of Amsterdam. In April 1999, a cargo of 440 of the rodents arrived on a KLM flight from Beijing, without the necessary import papers. Because of this, they could not be forwarded on to the customer in Athens. But nobody was able to correct the error and send them back either.

Animals, Transportation, Netherlands

623 points by msustrik 20 days ago | 392 comments

Head-bobbing sea lion proves animals can keep a beat better than humans (theguardian.com)
Ronan the sea lion can still keep a beat after all these years.

Animals, Music, Science, Behavior

8 points by fittingopposite 21 days ago | 1 comments

Snake halts Japanese bullet trains after wrapping around power line (bbc.com)
One of Japan's busiest bullet train lines came to a halt after a snake tangled itself in a power line, causing a power outage.

Animals, Japan, Transportation, Power Outages

5 points by rustoo 22 days ago | 0 comments

Runaway sausage dog snagged after 529 days on Australian island (rte.ie)
A runaway sausage dog named Valerie has been captured after a 529-day adventure, transfixing Australia as she roamed an island teeming with kangaroos, possums, koala bears and penguins.

Animals, Australia, News

17 points by austinallegro 24 days ago | 1 comments

Whole-body physics simulation of fruit fly locomotion (nature.com)

Science, Biology, Physics, Animals

6 points by jonbaer 28 days ago | 0 comments

Dolphins Communicate with 'Fountains of Pee' (scientificamerican.com)
Humans typically consider peeing a private act. But for many animals, it’s a crucial way to share information—one that goes way beyond simply marking territory.

Animals, Communication, Science, Biology

38 points by hilux 28 days ago | 17 comments

Why Some Animals Live for Only Days and Others Live for Thousands of Years (scientificamerican.com)
Florida’s Department of Education has approved classroom use of videos that spout climate disinformation and distort climate science

Biology, Animals, Lifespan, Science

7 points by stevenjgarner 29 days ago | 3 comments

Hooded pitohui, one of the only toxic birds (australiangeographic.com.au)
This is one of the only known birds to be toxic. Its feathers contain one of the most potent toxins known to science – but why?

Animals, Science, Birds, Toxicology

11 points by thunderbong 29 days ago | 3 comments

Tapeworm in fox poop that will slowly destroy your organs is on the rise (arstechnica.com)
No matter how bad things might seem, at least you haven't accidentally eaten fox poop and developed an insidious tapeworm infection that masquerades as a cancerous liver tumor while it slowly destroys your organs and eventually kills you—or, you probably haven't done that.

Health, Parasites, Animals, Science

27 points by Bender 29 days ago | 13 comments

Living with Lab Mice (nautil.us)
A philosopher reflects on their unexpected roommates

Philosophy, Science, Animals

46 points by kawera 33 days ago | 9 comments

People in Iceland Collect Baby Puffins in Streets – Throw Them Back in the Ocean (aol.com)
Even though Iceland’s national bird is the magnificent Gyrfalcon, the Atlantic puffin has become the most precious bird and even attraction there.

Wildlife, Iceland, Animals, Conservation

11 points by mhb 35 days ago | 0 comments

Border Collies Sort Ducks (youtube.com)

Border Collies, Animals, Behavior, Training

8 points by limbicsystem 36 days ago | 1 comments

Crows can recognize geometric regularity (phys.org)
A trio of animal physiologists at the University of Tübingen, in Germany, has found that at least one species of crow has the ability to recognize geometric regularity.

Animals, Science, Cognition, Crows, Geometry

178 points by wglb 36 days ago | 82 comments

The complex origin story of domestic cats: Research points to Tunisia (phys.org)
Researchers looking into the origin of domestic cats have long considered that cats likely accompanied early farmers during the Neolithic, spreading through Europe alongside the adoption of agriculture.

Genetics, History, Animals, Science, Tunisia

14 points by pseudolus 36 days ago | 0 comments

Belgian teens arrested with 5k smuggled ants (cnn.com)

Crime, News, Animals, Belgium

8 points by mooreds 37 days ago | 7 comments

Colossal squid filmed in ocean for the first time (bbc.co.uk)
A colossal squid has been filmed in its natural environment for the first time since the species was discovered 100 years ago.

Marine Biology, Science, Discovery, Animals, Video

35 points by neversaydie 37 days ago | 2 comments

Owls in Towels (owlsintowels.org)

Creative Projects, Humor, Animals

20 points by bookofjoe 38 days ago | 2 comments

Unsecured penguin caused helicopter crash in South Africa (bbc.com)
An "unsecured" penguin in a cardboard box was the cause of a helicopter crash in South Africa, a report into the incident has found.

Animals, Aviation Accidents, South Africa

6 points by whycome 43 days ago | 0 comments

Super Rat: the record-setting rodent sniffing out landmines and saving lives (cnn.com)

Animals, Technology, Humanitarian, War, Rats

35 points by wallflower 44 days ago | 14 comments

Mammoth genetic diversity throughout the last million years (sciencedaily.com)
A new genomic study has uncovered long-lost genetic diversity in mammoth lineages spanning over a million years, providing new insights into the evolutionary history of these animals.

Genetics, Paleontology, Evolution, Genomics, Animals

23 points by docmechanic 44 days ago | 2 comments

Dire Wolves Were Not Wolves, New Genetic Clues Reveal (2021) (scientificamerican.com)

Genetics, Paleontology, Animals, Evolution, Science

9 points by stared 45 days ago | 1 comments

Experts dispute claims dire wolf brought back from extinction (bbc.com)
There is a magnificent, snow-white wolf on the cover of Time Magazine today - accompanied by a headline announcing the return of the dire wolf.

Science, Extinction, Animals, Genetics

5 points by willvarfar 45 days ago | 0 comments

Intelligence Evolved at Least Twice in Vertebrate Animals (quantamagazine.org)
Humans tend to put our own intelligence on a pedestal. Our brains can do math, employ logic, explore abstractions and think critically. But we can’t claim a monopoly on thought. Among a variety of nonhuman species known to display intelligent behavior, birds have been shown time and again to have advanced cognitive abilities.

Intelligence, Evolution, Animals, Cognition, Birds

247 points by rbanffy 45 days ago | 184 comments