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Articles on Animal behavior

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A leap and a plunge into the snow could earn this arctic fox its supper. Jupiterimages/PHOTOS.com via Getty Images

How do arctic foxes hunt in the snow?

Arctic foxes have a few special talents that help them sneak up on unseen prey and pounce.
Imitation is the sincerest form of being human? Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com

Being copycats might be key to being human

A quirk of psychology that affects the way people learn from others may have helped unlock the complicated technologies and rituals that human culture hinges on.
Scratching is a natural behavior for cats. noreefly/Shutterstock.com

How are cats declawed, and is it painful?

Have a cat who just loves to scratch? Declawing is a major surgery that comes with serious long-term side effects – and it might not solve the problem anyway.
Scientific testing has zeroed in on the advantages of a zebra’s striped coat. Tim Caro

Zebra’s stripes are a no fly zone for flies

How the zebra got its stripes is not only a just-so story, but an object of scientific inquiry. New research suggests that stripes help zebras evade biting flies and the deadly diseases they carry.
A new statistical test lets scientists figure out if two groups are similar to one another. paleontologist natural/shutterstock.com

The equivalence test: A new way for scientists to tackle so-called negative results

A new statistical test lets researchers search for similarities between groups. Could this help keep new important findings out of the file drawer?
Hormone signals help ready worker mole-rats to treat pups as their own. belizar/Shutterstock.com

Eating royal poop improves parenting in naked mole-rats

Worker naked mole-rats take care of their colony’s young even though they aren’t the pups’ actual parents. New research suggests the queen gets them ready via hormones in her poop.
You can’t resist the yawn. Chayanin Wongpracha/Shutterstock.com

What is it about yawning?

Everybody does it, but why? Scientists aren’t really sure if exhaustion, stress or some other social factor is at the root of yawning – and how it can be so contagious.

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