Animal squawks squeaks and songs (with helium)

Although a considerable body of scholarly work has examined the effects of Helium (2He) on human voice production [see, for example (Helium-assisted) High note research] we are by no means the only animals to have been investigated in this respect – here is a (non-exhaustive) list of examples of other creatures who have squawked, croaked, […]

‘Harvesting the guano of insectivorous bats: is it sustainable?’

A new paper in the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Vol 7, No 6 (2015) asks, and answers the question: ‘Harvesting the guano of insectivorous bats: is it sustainable?’ Investigators Thet Thet and Khin Mya Mya focused their studies on one cave, in a complex of four caves on Sudaung mountain, Sintkaing Township, Mandalay Region (21044.941’N […]

First scientific report of fellatio in captive brown bears

The Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “Fellatio by Fruit Bats Prolongs Copulation Time,” [by Min Tan, Gareth Jones, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, Shuyi Zhang and Libiao Zhang, published in PLoS ONE, vol. 4, no. 10, e7595] is one of several intellectual forebears (another is a study by Ig Nobel Prize winner Frans de Waal) […]

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