birds
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Emperor Penguins Could Be Extinct in Our Lifetimes
The Antarctic sea ice the penguins need has been disappearing and off-schedule. Baby birds ‘drown and freeze’ as a result.
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The Superb Fairy-Wren Is the Most Social Bird of the Year With Societies as Complex as Our Own
One mystery many biologists want to solve is how complexity develops in nature. And among the many social systems in the natural world, multilevel societies stand out for their complexity. Individuals first organise into families, which are members of bands, which are organised into clans. At each level, associations between components (individuals, families and clans)…
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‘Cockpit’. Why Is It Called Such a Funny Word?
Have you ever had a word all of a sudden lose its normal, expected associations and then reveal itself to you, in all its inherent weirdness? You can get there by repeating a word over and over until you force all meaning out of it, but sometimes the weirdness of the word is so close…
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Bat Sneaks Into New Zealand Bird of the Year Competition, Our Hearts
New Zealanders are up in arms over a bat’s inclusion in this year’s Bird of the Year competition, a contest that ostensibly exists to crown a bird. Alas, it seems a bat has stolen the hearts of locals this time around.