Page 16 - BBC Wildlife - August 2017 UK

WILD NEWS

WILDL IFE
UPDAT
TES
MONTAGU’S H ARRIERSA
Having achieved their
atory flight
exhausting migra
from tropicalAfri ca,male
ers don’t
Montagu’s harrie
get to put their fe eet up in
northern Europe. Biology
Letters reports th
hat,to
ubating
provision the incu
female and the ch
hicks,a
male must fly alm
most as far
every day as he d
did each
day on migration .
Egyptian vultures in
the Canary Islands LONG-TERM CARE
are adding colour Infant orangutans suckle
Q BEHAVIOUR to their feathers. for up to eight
years,according
PAINTING THE CROWN RED to Science
Advances –
longer than
Not content with the naturally birds painting themselves with “Nosex-differences in rufous any other
bright white feathers on their red soil to different degrees,” colour exist betweenmales primate.The
head, neck andbreast, Egyptian they write. “Meanwhile, only and females nor aredominant study also
vultures like to slap on a bit of one bird took a bath in the bowl individuals more rufous than revealed an annual
rouge. In the Canary Islands, with clear water.” subdominants in either sex,” cycle,in which suckling
many of the birds are more red The function of the behaviour write the scientists.“One dropped off dramaticallyff
than white, the result of staining isunknown. Iron oxide, which possibility is that feather painting when trees were fruiting.
with the island’s red soil. gives the soil its colour, may primarily serves a function in
Biologists at Spain’s Doñana protect the feathers against pair-bonding and formation OUT OF AFRICA
Biological Station have found parasites, and the scientists or is used to show off during Africa’s forest elephants
that the vultures seek out muddy are now testing whether the sexual conflicts.” are more closely related
water in which to dip their head, vultures are similarly attracted to a giant species that
neck and breast. toother hues. Or perhaps it’s a stood 4m tall,weighed 13
SOURCE Ecology
“We observed 18 different social signal. LINK http://bit.ly/2t8dkbn tonnes and roamedEurope
andAsia until 100,000
years ago than they are
to their savannah-living
Q BEHAVIOUR
counterparts.The discovery,
ALL’S FAIR IN DOGS published in eLife,is further
evidence that forest and
AND WOLVES savannah elephants are
distinct species.
Orangutan: Thomas Marent/ardea.com; snow eopard: Franco s Sav gny/naturep .com
Vu tures:Andres M.Dom nguez/naturep .com; wo ves: Cec e B och/B osphoto/FLPA;
Domestic dogs have a sense of fairness shared only
by certain highly sociable primates. But it turns out THREE IN ONE
wolves do, too, which dashes the long-held theory Theelusive snow leopard
that it is a product of interaction with humans. comprises three distinct
Biologists at the Wolf Science Center (WSC) subspecies,according
New study
in Vienna trained dogs and wolves to press a shows wolves to an analysis of DNA
buzzer on command in return for a reward. Both are sensitive isolated fromtheir scats.
species were happy to play along, but only until to inequity. The Journal of Heredity
they saw another animal get a tastier treat for reports that mixingg
the same task. At which point they stopped. But there were differences, too. Wolves that betweenn the
But there were differences too Wolves that
“They refuse to cooperate because the other had been hard-done-by kept aloof from their subspeccies is
one got something, but they themselves did not,” trainer. Dogs did not. “Domestication seems to hinderedby
says WSC co-founder Friederike Range. influence the dogs’ behaviour,” says Range. “They deserts that
The effect was similar in dogs and wolves alike, are more amenable to us.” separate
which may be linked to the importance of group mountaain
cooperation to both species. SOURCE Current Biology LINK http://bit.ly/2uBq3Br ranges.

16 BBC Wildlife