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Cats purr in many situations, from contentment and greeting to stress and pain. Scientists still do not fully agree on why, or exactly how, the sound is made.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
Birds combine a compass (sun, stars, magnetic field) with landmarks and smell, and cross-check these cues rather than relying on any single one.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
A forager's figure-eight dance encodes distance in the length of its waggle run and direction in the run's angle from vertical, which stands for the angle from the sun.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
Dogs descend from an extinct grey wolf lineage and were domesticated by hunter-gatherers over 15,000 years ago. Most experts favor self-domestication, though a pup-raising view has defenders.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
Termites build mounds through self-organization: each worker responds to local cues, and the structure that results channels air so the colony's gases are flushed out.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
A trophic cascade is a predator's effect rippling down the food web. Wolves did change Yellowstone, but how far that reached plants is still debated.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
