The natural world shocked us, horrified us and some of the time, grossed us out in the year 2021. Nature went wild 10 times in 2011.
The honeybee worker has been cloned millions of times. The image is from Shutterstock.
A June study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B revealed that a bee species has created its own army of perfectly identical clones. The workers of some insects can reproduce via parthenogenesis or asexual reproduction in a pinch. The process of losing genetic material leads to the insects choosing to rear the offspring of their queens as their preferred method of reproduction.
The bees' nest was well and truly kicked when the South African Cape honeybee workers were able to reproduce asexually without losing any genetic material. Worker bees were beginning to embark upon cunning schemes. Some clones put their perfect clone daughters into royal chambers so they would be picked as queens, while others took over other hive that housed layabout offspring. Next on the researchers' agenda is finding out how the cloning ability can be turned on and off, and at what point the hive is destroyed by the clone armies.
Single bee is making an army of clones.
There are some good videos for you.
Rabbits dug up buried treasures on a remote Welsh island.
A Bronze Age burial urn may have contained this fragment of pottery. Credit Richard Brown and Giselle Eagle.
Rabbits on a remote island off the coast of Wales lent their forepaws to amateur archaeologists. The Stone Age tool and Bronze Age pottery piece were found by the rabbits of Skokholm Island. The Stone Age artifact was spotted by Richard Brown and Giselle Eagle while they were patrolling the island. The fragment of pottery was found near the rabbit hole, suggesting that hunter-gatherers had once inhabited the island. The rabbits have not been offered financial compensation for their work, but they have inspired further archaeological investigations on the island.
Rabbits dig up artifacts on a island.
Turtles used a secret underwater corridor to migrate.
The migration paths of 231 loggerheads are shown in zig-zagging lines.
North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles hatch on the shores of Japan and spend large parts of their adult lives sailing the currents of the open Pacific. It's been a mystery as to why they're occasionally spotted 9000 miles away in Mexico. A study published in April in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science used gps tracking tags to crack the case, which was that the turtles surf through a warm opening in the cold water barrier during El Nio. The turtles glide through the warm corridor until they reach Mexico. More studies are needed to confirm the hypothesis, but the researchers think it will help protect the majestic, yet highly vulnerable creatures.
Turtles complete seemingly impossible journey thanks to a hidden 'corridor' through the Pacific.
An ocellated snake from Vietnam first pierced the Asian common toad, then buried its head in the toad's abdomen, and then swallowed it whole. The image was taken by James Holden.
Scientists in Thailand documented the country's long, razor-like fangs that they use to slice open eggs, taking their customary frog-eating habits to gruesome new extremes. Researchers spotted two snakes, one of which was an ocellated one and the other a Taiwanese one, and they both had open bellies. Why do snakes do this? The researchers aren't sure, but it might be to avoid unpleasant-tasting and toxic parts of the frog prey by eating entrails.
Snakes swallow their organs because nature is horrifying.
An animal's head was pushed out of its body so that it could escape.
A heron probably regretted eating a snake eel. Sam Davis has an image on his website.
Having your guts entered is worse than having them dramatically exited, which is what happened to an unfortunate heron in Delaware this year. The unfortunate bird was no doubt surprised when the American eel pulled an "Alien" from it's stomach, thinking it had swallowed it whole. Photographer Sam Davis snapped a shot of the heron flying, seemingly unperturbed, with the eel dangling out. At first, Davis thought the heron was being attacked by the heron, but after looking at his photos, he realized it was actually the heron. The heron has an unexplained burst out of the heron. Scientists don't know how many different types of eel can emerge from the guts of fish after being swallowed alive, or which animals have been unlucky enough to have it happen to them.
A photo shows a heron with an animal hanging out of its stomach.
A goat took down a bear.
A mountain goat is used for self-defense. The image is from Shutterstock.
The discovery of a dead 154-pound (70- kilograms) female grizzly bear on a popular Canadian hiking trail this year led to its own bizarre murder mystery. The ursine victim had been stabbed multiple times in the neck and armpit by a mountain goat after the bear's carcass had been flown away. The goat killed its attacker with some well- timed thrusts of its head, as bears often hunt by attacking the neck, back and shoulders of their prey.
Mountain goat kills a bear with a horn.
There are sperm whales swimming off the coast. The image is from Shutterstock.
Sperm whales have good communication and social skills. Scientists reported in a study published in the journal Biology Letters that sperm whale communication includes sharing of battle tactics. Scientists found that the strike rates of the whalers upon their targets decreased in just a few years by analyzing the newly digitized logbooks.
The whales have learned to swim upwind of the harpooners' boats instead of forming defensive circles. The whales in regions that hadn't been attacked before learned the new tactic by following the lead of those who had.
The 19th-century whalers were outwitted by sperm whales.
The cane toads are eating a lot of their young.
The cane toad has become a problem in Australia, where its tadpoles have become cannibals. The image was taken by the photographer, jason edwards.
Australia's cane toads are cannibalizing themselves so much that they are evolving faster. Farmers brought the toads Down Under in the 1930s to kill beetles that were destroying sugarcane fields. The toads' population went from an initial 102 to more than 200 million. The toads will soon resort to cannibalism due to limited food. Cane toad hatchlings are vulnerable just a few days after hatching, making them ripe pickings for their older siblings. A study published in the August issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that cannibalism has affected the evolution of the cane toads, so they spend 20% less of their time in vulnerable state than before.
The toads are speeding up evolution by eating so many of their young.
Sea snakes are 888-609- 888-609- 888-609-
Scuba divers approach a sea snake. The image is from Shutterstock.
A diver swimming off the Keppel islands in Australia's southern Great Barrier Reef noticed that he was creating a stir among the highly venomous male sea snakes. The underwater reptiles would chase the diver before licking the water around him. The study by the diver and a fellow researcher found that the snakes had mistaken him for a potential mate.
During the snakes' breeding season in May and August, many of the interactions the diver had with the snakes happened. The poor eyesight of the animals means they can't tell if a diver is a female or male snake. Females flee from males during mating, so escaping the snakes only makes it worse.
Sexually frustrated sea snakes mistake scuba divers for potential mates.
The first animal in history to beentangled in quantum matter was a tardigrade.
A tardigrade is also called a water bear. Steve Gessner/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Some of the hardest animals ever to have existed are the tardigrades. Themoss piglets have already survived it, from being shot out of guns, bathed in boiling-hot water, exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation and crash-landed onto the moon. The tiny creatures have survived a lot of ridiculous scenarios because they can be destroyed by dehydration. A study published on the preprint database arXiv in December claims that tardigrades are the first animals in history to be quantum-entangled.
After collecting three tardigrades from a roof gutter in Denmark, scientists forced the animals into their frozen "tun" states by cooling them down to within a mere fraction above absolute zero. The scientists said that by placing the animals within an electrical system, they were able to link their properties with those of the electrical device. The tardigrade that survived could have a claim to being the first animal to survive quantum entanglement. The study is still waiting for peer review.
Researchers claim that frozen tardigrade is the first quantum entangled animal in history.
