When the colonists ran out of food they oefed upon horses and other beasts as long as they lasted we were glad to make shift with vermin as dogs cats rats
and mice writes George Percy in an account of what happened. Boots shoes and leather were consumed also
and as recent archaeological evidence confirms some colonists resorted to cannibalism to survive. In May 1610 Thomas Gates the governor who had been shipwrecked on Bermuda before he could arrive at Jamestown made his way to the colony using makeshift ships made partly with wood they found on Bermuda.
Impossible Animal of Story & Legend A devil is said to haunt the wooded Pine Barren of southern New jersey.
Most accounts suggest that the creature has a horse-like face with antlers or horns sprouting from the top of its head.
The overall body shape resembles a kangaroo though it also has wings like a bat.
Some say it has a tail like a lizard; others say it has no tail at all.
The monster is said to kill dogs chickens and other small animals as well as leave spooky cloven hoof prints in snow
and bellow a terrifying screech in the wooded darkness. History of the Jersey Devil The Jersey Devil is the subject of a legend dating from the early 18th century.
There are several variations but a common story holds that a woman named Mother Leeds (who was believed to have been the wife of a Daniel Leeds) gave birth to her 13th child on a dark and stormy night.
Rumors claimed that she was a witch and bore The devil's child. Shortly after birth it changed form growing wings hooves and an equine head.
He painted a kangaroo green attached fake wings to the helpless creature and had exhibited it to the public The 1909 hoax
and anchored in a much more massive musculoskeletal structure to lift the animal's body weight into the air.
Birds and bats can fly because their bodies are relatively lightweight; the reputed heavy muscles and thick limbs of the Jersey Devil would never work;
you'd have better luck putting butterfly wings on a rhino. Most images of the Jersey Devil look like a monster that a high school Dungeons & dragons player might dream up as a composite of different unrelated animals
whose features could never actually exist in the same animal but look weird and scary.
So what's the explanation for the Jersey Devil? There's very little to explain; we have a monster
Like other states New jersey harbors more than one mystery animal but whenever one appears inevitably it gets hailed...
#Killer bee Attack: Science Explains Man's Death A Texas man died after being attacked by a swarm of Africanized honeybees sometimes called killer bees.
Larry Goodwin 62 was driving a tractor near his home south of Waco when he disturbed a pile of wood that contained a hive of the notoriously aggressive bees;
eight people have been killed by the bees since 1990 the Waco Tribune reports. You can't believe how bad they are.
me want to get out of this business Allen Miller owner of Bees Be gone who later destroyed the hive told the Tribune.
Honeybee Scouts Find Food They can get up under your clothes where no other insect can go Miller said.
In a hive of ordinary European bees about 10 percent will attack if the hive is threatened
but with African bees all of them attack you. Eight to 10 stings per pound of body weight are considered lethal according to the Texas Agricultural extension Service.
When science goofs The introduction of Africanized honeybees into the Western hemisphere was the result of a scientific experiment gone awry according to a Texas A&m University report.
In 1956 Warwick Kerr a honeybee geneticist with the University of SãO Paulo Brazil imported African bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) to study.
His intention was to selectively introduce traits such as disease resistance and faster reproductive rate into native honeybees.
and therefore lost) leading to the term Africanized honey bees. Sting Bite & Destroy: Nature's 10 Biggest Pests The bees spread rapidly from Brazil
and are now found throughout South and Central america. Hives have been reported in the United states in Florida and across the South and Southwest into Southern California.
If attacked run Though the bees aren't predatory they become very aggressive when defending their hive and minor disturbances like a lawn mower or a moving car even as far away as 100 feet (30 meters) can trigger an attack.
And Africanized honeybees aren't picky about where they build a hive. Old tires junk piles building eaves cement blocks upturned flower pots and even empty soda cans have been occupied by the bees according to the U s. Department of agriculture.
In the event of a bee attack victims are advised to run as fast as they can toward an enclosed area like a car or building;
Stings from Africanized honeybees aren't more venomous than stings from native honeybees but victims tend to be stung dozens or hundreds of times.
One redeeming quality Researchers have noticed that Africanized honeybees seem to be isolated in their current range by temperature and rainfall according to the USDA.
Rainfall over 55 inches distributed evenly throughout the year is almost a complete barrier to Africanized honey bee spread entomologist Josã D. Villa of the Honey Bee Breeding Genetics
While attacks by the bees remain very rare Miller told KCENTV. com that he's seen at least five cases of Africanized hives in the past month more than he usually sees all year.
As loathed as they are the Africanized bees might have one redeeming quality: They could hold the key to solving the problem of bee colony collapse disorder a deadly syndrome that's wiping out native bee populations throughout North america and Europe.
Though the Africanized bees can carry the Varroa mites that have been implicated in colony collapse disorder they have considerable resistance to the mites unlike native honeybees.
If researchers could isolate the trait that gives the Africanized bees their resistance they may be able to save native honeybee populations.
Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. This essay is adapted from one that appeared in Bekoff's column Animal Emotions in Psychology Today.
He contributed this article to Livescience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Given that schools rightfully aspire to zero tolerance for bullying they should be at the forefront of encouraging students to be respectful to each other to their teachers and to all those around them human and nonhuman alike.
In kiss a pig contests these sensitive animals are surrounded by shrieking kids and the pigs have no understanding of
and clearly shows they are extremely clever that they love to play and (like dogs)
And neither would most dogs. Bullying is bullying no matter who the victim is. The teacher who would stop a child from being picked on should extend the same compassion toward animals.
Educators must recognize the danger of instigating group antipathy (the so-called mob mentality) and how doing
From Animals We Can Learn Generosity and Forgiveness (Op-Ed) Geraldine was rescued a potbellied pig living at a lovely sanctuary called Kindness Ranch.
And those steps must include extending kindness to everyone including other animals as there are well-established links between abusing nonhuman animals and bullying humans (see also and Animal Cruelty and Antisocial Behavior:
Both humans and other animals will benefit. Bekoff's most recent Op-Ed was'The Dog's Telltale Tail.
This article was adapted from Kiss a Pig Contests Cheap Laughs and Bullying in Psychology Today.
Worse new research shows that the kudzu bugs'taste for soybeans threatens crops outside of the South.
and a pest as it coils over trees and shrubs often sealing their death by blocking out sunlight.
Kudzu bugs (Megacopta cribraria) meanwhile which are also native to Asia were detected only for the first time in the United states in Georgia in 2009.
Because of their diet and life cycle the pungent-smelling insects were thought to be limited largely to areas where they could find the invading vine their favorite meal.
The Peskiest Alien Mammals But in a greenhouse laboratory researchers at North carolina State university found that baby Generation A kudzu bugs did not have restricted a kudzu diet.
These immature insects were able to live off soybeans alone and they reached maturity and reproduced the researchers said.
And the bugs didn't thrive on just any legume; greenhouse experiments using snap beans instead of soybeans failed to produce the same results.
and the field observations indicate that kudzu bugs are potentially capable of spreading into any part of the United states where soybeans are grown.
It also means that both annual generations of kudzu bugs could attack soybean crops in areas where the bug is established already
Due to its location Lake ontario is host to a number of migratory birds. Swans loons ducks geese grebes and other water fowl are among the wildlife that inhabit Lake ontario.
Birds of prey such as hawks and eagles are also common in the area n
#Land of Giants: Sequoia and Kings Canyon National parks Giants live in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National parks. Soaring mountains rocky foothills deep canyons more than 200 marble caverns and the world's largest trees call these side-by-side parks home.
The highest mountain in the contiguous 48 states Mount whitney (with a peak at 14491 feet or 4417 meters) stretches across the Sequoia border.
Morde claimed that his guides told him tales of a temple dedicated to the worship of a monkey god.
#Lemurs Snooze in Caves Like Early Humans Some of Madagascar's ring-tailed lemurs head to bed in caves every night new research finds.
The study is the first evidence of modern wild primates sleeping regularly in caves. Early human remains in South africa have been found in caves suggesting that
although lemurs and humans aren't particularly closely related as far as primates go there is something in deep primate history that makes caves appealing possibly protection from predators said study researcher Michelle Sauther an anthropologist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
We think cave-sleeping is something ring-tailed lemurs have been doing for a long time Sauther said in a statement.
The behavior may be characteristic of a deep primate heritage that goes back millions of years.
Lemur lodge Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) are part of a branch of primates that includes other lemurs bushbabies and lorises.
Lemurs are found only on Madagascar and they typically sleep in trees. Sauther and her colleagues found that ring-tailed lemurs in Tsimanampesotse National park
and the Tsinjoriake Protected Area in southwestern Madagascar were doing something quite different. They seemed to come out of nowhere
See Video of the Lemurs and their Caves The researchers observed the lemurs between 2006 and 2013 using field observations
and motion-sensing cameras. The cave-sleeping may be related to a unique feature of this environment the spiny forest.
In this area most of the trees are lined with woody spines starting near the ground making for easy climbing for predators.
In areas where lemurs sleep in trees the branches are high off the ground and form a safe canopy.
Regular quarters The ring-tailed lemur's nemesis is the fossa a catlike mammal also found only in Madagascar.
Modern fossa get as large as fat housecats weighing in around 20 lbs. 9 kilograms.
An ancestral fossa that went extinct only a few thousand years ago likely also would have preyed on lemurs
and have grown to be the size of a cougar Sauther said. This is the first time that wild primates have been found to use caves as a place to bunk regularly Sauther
and her colleagues reported in November in the journal Madagascar Conservation and Development. Previously endangered Fusui langurs monkeys found in Asia had been seen retreating to caves at night
but the langurs slept in caves only after their forest homes had been logged or clear-cut. The langurs also moved from cave to cave each night instead of returning to the same cave for years.
 The remarkable thing about our study was that over a six-year period the same troops of ring-tailed lemurs used the same sleeping caves on a regular daily basis Sauther said.
What we are seeing is a consistent habitual use of caves as sleeping sites by these primates a wonderful behavioral adaptation we had known not about before.
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+.+Follow us@livescience Facebook & Google+.+Original article on Livescience i
#Let's Not'Feed The World':'Moving Beyond an Unhelpful Phrase (Op-Ed) Margaret Mellon is a senior scientist for food and the environment at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS.
which consists of plant-eating rhinoceros-like dinos including Triceratops. It has the biggest nose and the longest horns of any of the ceratopsids said study co-author Mark Loewen a paleontologist at the University of Utah.
At that time a shallow sea split North america in two and many animals lived on a long skinny continent called Laramidia that spanned from Alaska all the way to Mexico.
The emergence of flowering plants several million years earlier probably allowed mega-herbivores such as the imposing Triceratops to evolve from smaller herbivores that were about the size of a house cat Loewen said.
The majestic herbivore was roughly 16 feet (5 m) long and a relatively austere frill with little ornamentation surrounding its head.
The dinosaur had a long flaring snout and absurdly long curving horns that stretched almost to the tip of its nose.
Similar to modern-day elk or deer Nasuceratops likely used its outlandish horns to deter rivals
and deflect predators. But the main purpose of the ornamental headgear was probably sexual selection Loewen said.
Animals'Amazing Headgear Mates thought they were told sexy Loewen Livescience. The researchers have no idea
whether such ornamental headgear was unique to males as is common in modern-day deer.
The fierce and scary creatures gradually became tamer domesticated animals Mctavish said. Wild aurochs survived until 1627
Researchers at Emory University near Atlanta have demonstrated that primates map their environment using grid cells specialized neurons that help the animals navigate by overlaying a virtual grid made of triangles atop regularly spaced points in the environment.
She suspects that these grid cells don't just help primates navigate--they also help form visual memories.
   Grid cells were identified for the first time in 2005 by a group of scientists in Norway interested in how the brain enables animals to navigate.
They put six rats in a pen and monitored individual neurons while the rats explored.
The neurons they were watching lie in a part of the brain called the entorhinal cortex. It sits in the lower part of the brain near its intersection with the brain stem.
 As a rat walked around the enclosure a neuron in the entorhinal cortex fired;
the rat walked a little more and the neuron fired again. When the team mapped out all the points in the enclosure that had lit up a particular neuron they found that these weren't just random signals:
While experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging had hinted at the presence of human grid cells they had never been observed directly in any primate.
In research reported in November in the journal Nature three Rhesus monkeys looked at images on a computer screen
When Buffalo and her coworkers compared eye-tracking results to the electrode measurements they found that the monkeys like the rats were using neurons in the entorhinal cortex to construct a triangular grid they could superimpose on their environment.
 Primates though are sophisticated more cartographers: the monkeys were able to activate their grid cells simply by looking around.
We tend to explore things with our eyes said Buffalo and unlike the rats in the original experiments primates don't have to actually visit a place to construct the same kind of mental map.
Showing the monkeys the same picture twice enabled Buffalo to link grid cells to memory.
When the monkeys looked at a familiar image some cells fired less frequently apparently remembering what they had mapped already.
This suggests that grid cells may provide a kind of framework for making associations said Buffalo.
which animals construct their visual memories. That has important implications. One of Buffalo's research interests is the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases.
Studies of brain changes in Alzheimer's disease in humans consistently show localized degeneration in the same parts of the entorhinal cortex where Buffalo found grid cells in monkeys.
She suspects that the cells Buffalo observed which respond to the monkeys'eye movements may represent a new type of grid cell
The next step is to study grid cells in a 3-D virtual environment where the ability to manipulate the monkeys'surroundings permits researchers to study how grid cells respond to a range of variables.
#Male Birds Like Nice Nests (ISNS)--One bird species may have advice on how to get its dads to take a more active role in parenting:
Female blue tits that construct bigger nests and decorate them with fragrant plants have male partners that are more willing to invest in raising chicks Spanish researchers report in the journal Behavioral Ecology.
Females in many animal species are believed often to be the picky sex when it comes to choosing a mate.
 A female blue tit which is about the size of an adult hand from beak to tail picks her partner based on his colorful blue and yellow plumage and the sweetness of his song.
It s an interaction between sexes. oe Different bird species divide the work of building nests in different ways.
 Female blue tits work alone to build nests although males may add feathers later on. That means the nest may provide a window to the female's health.
After spring mating female blue tits collect moss and grass to construct the base of their nests inside the hollows of trees
or artificial nesting boxes. Females then line those nests with soft hair wool or feathers.
Fit females can also search for hard-to-find plants like mint lavender and rosemary to spruce up the homes for their future nestlings.
But all of this construction takes energy and puts a female in danger of attack from predators.
 The female can't cheat it's an honest signal of what the female's ability is said Bob Montgomerie biologist at Queen's university in Kingston Ontario who was involved not in the research.
A haggard female would probably produce a pretty pitiful nest said Montgomerie. After the female finishes the nest both sexes feed
and defend the young. The effort devoted by males is very important in the success of the females
and in how many chicks will survive said Tomã¡s. Tomã¡s and his colleagues at Madrid's Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales made some nests smaller and added grass
and moss to others to make some larger. The team also added or removed odorous plants from different nests.
 The researchers found that these features influence the care a male will put into the nestlings
and how many babies survive. oethis is the first study I know of that looks at nest traits themselves
and how the male responds said Montgomerie. Â At larger nests and those with strongly scented plants males were more likely to be bolder
and take more risks in caring for their young--such as entering nesting boxes when there was danger--than males at smaller nests
or those lacking the plants the study reported. As part of the study the team installed bird traps in blue tit nesting boxes a process that sometimes scared the birds away from home
or made them more skittish. The males who put themselves out on a limb were more likely to be trapped
s. Â The team is not certain how this difference in risk-taking actually helps the nestlings.
s believes in part that males who take more risks may be more willing to defend a nest against predators.
whether a male entered the nest first waited for the female to enter as signal that the coast was clear
or didn t enter the nest at all. Tomã¡s and his colleagues used the risk-taking figure to estimate how much the males imperiled themselves in caring for their young. oetaking the average of a bunch of subjective measures is never a good way to estimate something oe said Montgomerie who hopes that the team will follow up with a more detailed
s is interested in exploring more features of nests built by female birds and the signals they may send to males. oepeople thought that its only function was to form a receptacle for the eggs he said.
But he believes the nests may reveal a lot of information about the bird that built it.
#Man Arrested for Harassing Baby Manatee in Florida A man has been arrested in Florida after posting pictures on Facebook that showed him harassing a baby manatee authorities announced this week.
The incriminating images show Ryan William Waterman 21 and his two children petting a manatee calf at Taylor Creek in Fort Pierce last month according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife
and in another image one of his young children is sitting on top of the animal as if riding it.
While the family's actions might look playful biologists said such contact could be deadly for a manatee calf.
This was a young manatee which was likely still dependent on its mother for food and protection.
Separating the two could have severe consequences for the calf FWC manatee biologist Thomas Reinert said in a statement.
World's Cutest Baby Wild Animals The calf also appeared to be experiencing manatee cold-stress syndrome a condition that can lead to death in extreme cases Reinert added.
Waterman faces charges under the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act which makes it illegal to molest harass
or disturb manatees classified as an endangered species in the state. His offense also violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972
which makes it illegal to hunt or get up close to manatees as well as all other marine mammals such as whales seals and walruses.
These laws however have not prevented some recent close encounters in Florida perhaps due to a lack of awareness.
and didn't know it was illegal to touch a manatee.)In December a woman snapped pictures at Pompano Beach on Florida's Atlantic coast of swimmers who might have been trying to ride a sickly sperm whale.
The 35-foot (10.6-meter)- long creature was reported to be flapping its tail at the time of the incident
and eventually washed ashore dead. And last October a woman turned herself in after photos surfaced showing her riding a manatee at Florida's Fort Desoto Park near Tampa.
At the time reports suggested she could have faced up to 60 days in jail and a possible fine of $500 for her crime.
There are estimated to be just 3800 manatees in Florida and each year about 87 are killed by humans according to the U s Fish and Wildlife Service most of them dying in boat collisions.
and destroyed manatee habitat also threatens the species. Follow Livescience on Twitter@livescience. We're also on Facebookâ & Google+.
if the mummification methods for meat differed from how Egyptians mummified people or pets. The team analyzed four samples from meat mummies archived at the Cairo and British museums.
First Ancestor of All Placental mammals Revealed A tiny furry-tailed creature is the most complete picture yet as to
what the ancestor of mice elephants lions tigers bears whales bats and humans once looked like researchers say.
These new findings also suggest this forerunner of most mammals appeared shortly after the catastrophe that ended the age of dinosaurs scientists added.
Species like rodents and primates did not share the Earth with nonavian dinosaurs but arose from a common ancestor a small insect-eating scampering animal shortly after the dinosaurs'demise said researcher Maureen O'Leary at Stony Brook University in New york. The study was so thorough that the team made up of 23
scientists from around the world was able tospeculate on the appearance of this hypothetical ancestor inside and out from its brain and inner ear bones to its ovaries and even
and tail like modern-day sperm cells do). The largest living branch of the mammalian family tree holds the placentals mammals that keep fetuses alive with placentas as opposed to marsupials such as kangaroos
which raise offspring in pouches or monotremes such as platypuses which develop fetuses in eggs. See Images of the Furry Mammal Ancestor
and Descendants There are over 5100 living placental species and they exhibit enormous diversity said researcher Nancy Simmons at the American Museum of Natural history. if (typeof (defined poll functions)==undefined'&& $(#poll javascript).
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poll options 47 149=Pipsqueak Placental; poll options 47 150=Proto-Placental; poll options 47 151=Protosorex mammaliensis;
poll options 47 152=Ralph; load poll (47; The roots of placentals Much remains controversial about the origins of placentals such as
when they arose and how they diversified. Fossil evidence suggests they evolved after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event about 65 million years ago that ended the age of dinosaurs;
when placentals evolved an international team of researchers took part in a six-year research collaboration called Assembling the Tree of Life.
10 Coolest Genome sequences The molecular team gathered DNA sequences of living animals while the morphology team analyzed the anatomy of both living and extinct mammals.
The molecular team was limited largely to living mammals because researchers currently cannot extract genetic material from fossils more than 30000 years old so morphological data was key
when it came to exploring more ancient branches of the mammal family tree. Discovering the tree of life is like piecing together a crime scene it is a story that happened in the past that you can't repeat O'Leary said.
Combining both DNA and morphological datasets led to an unprecedented amount of information for each of the 83 mammals they investigated.
What our ancestor looked like From all this data from living and extinct mammals the scientists extrapolated the appearance of the most recent common ancestor of all placental mammals.
We have all these placentals alive today from elephants to shrews from things that fly to things that swim Spaulding said.
In addition to a furry tail the researchers suggest the four-legged creature likely ate insects weighed from 6 grams (about the weight of some shrews) up to 245 grams less than half a pound
Using the new family tree of mammals in tandem with this anatomical data we were able to reconstruct
what this common placental ancestor may have looked like. Meet the Mammal Ancestor (Infographic) Their research also suggested placental mammals appeared after the end of the age of dinosaurs with the original ancestor developing about 200000 to 400000 years after the event.
This is about 36 million years later than the prediction based on purely genetic data said researcher Marcelo Weksler at Brazil's National Museum at the Federal University of Rio de janeiro.
The diversification of placental mammals was tied not to the breakup of continents from a supercontinent Gondwana O'Leary told Livescience.
I plan to continue trying to make fossil discoveries that expand the placental mammal family tree. The scientists detailed their findings in the Feb 8 issue of the journal Science.
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