Crow

The working memory is the brain's ability to process information for a short period of time in a retrievable state. It is essential for performing complex cognitive tasks, such as thinking, planning, following instructions or solving problems. A team of researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) has now succeeded in investigating this special area of memory in birds in more detail and in comparing it to data storage in the mammalian brain. The scientists found that birds and […]

Balancing the exploration of unfamiliar stimuli with a fear of the unknown—neophobia—can help animals maximize the benefits of novel opportunities while minimizing the risks of novel threats from toxic foods, potential predators and the like. Understanding neophobia, then, can yield insights into how species adapt to new or changing environments.

Life was never easy for the Pacific Coast's western snowy plover.

When I experienced a great loss in in my early forties—almost a year to the day after another—I went to see my mother in the family home. She wasn't a hugger or giver of advice, so instead we fed the birds. As she had when I was a child, she stood behind me in the kitchen with her shoulder propped against the back door, passing slices of apple and small balls of minced meat into my hand.

Neanderthals, our closest relatives, became extinct between 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. Since the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossil 165 years ago, scientists have learned more about Neanderthals—including their culture, sociality, ecology, diet, control of fire, production and use of tools, physiology, and even their genomic code—than about any other non-human hominin. Here, Spanish researchers use a highly original approach—scientific "role play"—to reconstruct a novel element […]