Stories by Jason G. Goldman

Food sharing is mainly found in adult animals as a part of social bonding. But in a rarely observed behavior in birds, older barn owl chicks will share food with younger ones.

To entice female ring-tailed lemurs, males rub wrist secretions, which include compounds we use in perfumes, onto their tail and then wave it near the gals.

They don’t stand on one leg around just anybody but often prefer certain members of the flock.

The large herbivores appear to prefer disturbed areas over more intact ones and spread many more seeds in those places through their droppings.

Cory’s shearwaters forge their own paths over the sea

Wild cats kill more animals than domestic ones do. But pet cats kill many more of them in a small area than similarly sized wild predators.

Researchers studying yellow warbler responses to the parasitic cowbird realized that red-winged blackbirds were eavesdropping on the calls and reacting to them, too.

Although the tusk can be a weapon, the variation in tusk length among animals of similar body size points to it being primarily a mating status signal.

The diets of coyotes vary widely, depending on whether they live in rural, suburban or urban environments—but pretty much anything is fair game.

When vampire bats feel sick, they still engage in prosocial acts such as sharing food with nonrelatives. But they cut back on grooming anyone other than their closest kin.

New research examines how the animals begin close, blood-sharing partnerships

Bats proliferate in forests thinned by fire

Hippos that escaped from drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s private zoo are reproducing in the wild. And with increasing numbers, they could threaten ecosystems.

Groundhogs are less accurate at weather forecasting than are coin flips, but they are nonetheless pretty interesting critters.

Across the board, indigenous-managed regions equal or surpass conventional conservation areas 

Hunted areas of Gabon have fewer large mammals and a thicker forest understory—but they also have fewer termites. Jason G. Goldman reports.

Here’s an argument that citizen scientists deserve co-authorship on scientific journal papers to which they contributed research.

Researchers activated specific brain cells in zebra finches to teach them songs they’d ordinarily have to hear to learn.

Beneficial blazes are critical to maintaining the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, but animals are eating the fuel

Mind and body benefit from two hours in nature each week

Meticulous work reveals the identity of sharks’ feathered prey 

Sharks abandon popular feeding areas when orcas are nearby

People who spent at least two hours outside—either all at once or totaled over several shorter visits—were more likely to report good health and psychological well-being. Jason G. Goldman reports.

New research shows that primate calls deter predators in the wild