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Zombie Birds shows us we still have a lot to learn about animals

This capuchin monkey pees on himself to show how sexually mature he is.

The latest animal research seems to prove that animals are sexually and morally freaky in ways we never imagined. This book turns biology into fun sideshows.

Keep reading Zombie Birds shows us we still have a lot to learn about animals

Yellowstone Sanctuary, home to bears, cougar, Ted Turner's magpie, may close

Mountain lion peers out from lair.

MT’s only wildlife sanctuary may close because it’s not meeting federal regulations, but it won’t say which ones.

Keep reading Closing MT’s only wildlife rehab center, home to bear, lynx, Ted Turner’s magpie?

Reader question: what's up with this squirrel's raggedy fur?

squirrel with white patchy fur

This VA squirrel has white, gray and rusty fur at all different lengths and angles. Can you figure out what’s wrong?

Keep reading Reader question: what’s up with this squirrel’s raggedy fur?

Goose from Greenland has many Brooklyn fans, but Canada geese not among them

Barnacle Goose

A Barnacle goose that somehow migrated from Greenland onto the wrong continent is beloved by Brooklyn birders, but shunned by Canada geese.

Keep reading Goose from Greenland has many Brooklyn fans, but Canada geese not among them

Moths drawn to lights, rotten beer, often against their best interests

Brooklyn Prometheus Moth

Lepidopterist, or mothers, use a concoction of beer, bananas and molasses to bait certain sap-eating moths. Otherwise, try a bright light on a cloudy, moonless night.

Keep reading Moths drawn to lights, rotten beer, often against their best interests

Would you be nicer to pigeons if they were green?

Green painted pigeon

Artist Julian Charrière gave the despised pigeons of Venice’s St. Mark’s Square a flamboyant makeover in green, blue and red. Tourists went nuts for the pretty birds. What did the other birds think?

Keep reading Would you be nicer to pigeons if they were green?

What the robin knows--and how you can get him not to hate you

what-the-robin-knows-cover

Jon Young’s book What the Robin Knows will enable you–yes, you, the one who likes megafauna more than warblers–to figure out what birds say. And tell the birds you’re gentle so they don’t scare off animals.

Keep reading What the robin knows–and how you can get him not to hate you

Beagles howl to shofar on Bastille Day in Prospect Park

About 30 hounds romped and sang on the Long Meadow in Prospect Park on Bastille Day. Some were not well behaved enough to pose patiently like these 25 clever dogs. Pictured: ground: Brady (best howler); first step (l to r): Cuzko, Slim, TK, Bess. Second Step: Chestnut. Third step: Daisy, Penelope, Pepper, Rocky (Moxie's boyfriend), Dudley, Luigi (howling). Fourth step: Stella (who is up for adoption), Charlot. Fifth step: Huckleberry and Moxie (co-hosts), Oliver (puppy), Bailey. Sixth step: Milligan (champion singer), Matilda, Agnes. Seventh step: Ally McBeagle, Arturo (bounding), Simone (smiling). Ninth step: Rosie.

30 or so beagles partied for Bastille Day in Prospect Park. We blew a shofar to set off the baying and activate their inner beagle.

Keep reading Beagles howl to shofar on Bastille Day in Prospect Park

Adolescent owl trying to look tough after getting spooked by a robin--how embarassing

Wet great horned owl chick braves an assault from a robin in Prospect Park

Brooklyn got its first two great horned owl babies in a century this spring. Maybe they stayed away because they were so scared of the songbirds.

Keep reading Adolescent owl trying to look tough after getting spooked by a robin–how embarassing

700 Helmet hummingbird feeders floating around North America

hummingbird face feeder

Can you not stand sitting feet away from amusing hummingbirds as they steal sweet nectar from your feeder? Inventor Doyle Doss solved the age-old problem by devising a red face shield that serves the sugar water from a tube between your eyes. Since 2008 he says he’s sold about 700 of these. So while people may be freaked out to see one, hummingbirds may actually begin to recognize what they are and come right over.

Doss has some serious, boring inventions and then a side-line in goofy stuff like the face feeder, which he came up with after a hummingbird hovered in front of his red bird.  ”A hummingbird came out of nowhere and just hung there, two inches from my nose,” he says. “My immediate response was, I froze. I never forgot the experience. It was such a magical type of thing.”

Decades later, Doss took a professional welding face shield and covered it in a red pattern that hummers love. Then he put a rubber tube between the eyes to be filled with sugar water. The birds came. This isn’t the first attempt at a hummingbird helmet. This adorable video shows a little girl watching hummingbirds in the more popular variety–and initially flinching and scaring them away.

The face shield serves to draw hummers in (they love red) and to make humans confident they won’t get their eyes poked out. Hummingbirds are so agile, they’re not going to go bumbling into your face.

Doss says the tube was the hardest part to figure

Keep reading 700 Helmet hummingbird feeders floating around North America