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The relationships between animals and their environments are some of the most complex and fascinating that exist. From whales taking time for spa trips, to orangutans using local plants to treat wounds, animals' knowledge of what local flora can make them feel better is pretty damn impressive. New research suggests that Norfolk Island green parrots are also partial to a bit of the local foliage, and have been using plant bark to remove parasites – and maybe even getting themselves high in the process. Unfortunately, being a Norfolk Island green parrot (Cyanoramphus cookii) is pretty tricky with the amount of ectoparasites you have to look out for. These include things like feather-feeding lice, blood-feeding mites, ticks and fleas, fungi, and bacteria. Not only are these unwanted hitchhikers an annoyance, but they can transmit disease and affect reproductive success and, ultimately, survival. To remove these pests, birdkind is known to use ants in a process known as “anting”, as well as taking dust and more traditional water baths. Throughout the literature there have been a few reported cases of parrots stripping leaves off plants and either covering their feathers in the resulting juice, or placing the leaves themselves between their feathers. In the new study, the team observed the parrots visiting young pepper trees (Piper excelsum), where they self-anointed with the vegetation from the pepper trees. Separate observations, one in the winter of 2015 and a series over two summers from 2018-19 to 2019-20, saw birds visit these pepper trees. Once there, the birds bit a section off the lateral shoots and chewed a portion; they then proceeded to preen their feathers, often using preen oil from the uropygial gland. The team saw in their observations that the preen oil and the aromatics from the tree were combined and mixed through the feathers.             The pepper trees contain lots of smelly compounds including piperine, which is known to repel insects as well as having antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. As well as the obvious benefits with regards to parasites, the team think there might be more to this behavior than hygiene.In an article in The Conversation, study first author Penny Olson explains that the parrots are enjoying themselves during their interactions with the pepper trees and could be getting an extra benefit from the components. Olson suggests that anting, in which the birds are subjected to formic acid, could have a similar effect, with the birds getting high off the fumes. “Likening green parrots rubbing aromatic vegetation through their plumage to inebriated pigeons falling from trees may seem a stretch. But nature rewards behaviour that offers evolutionary advantage, often, it seems by tapping into animals’ pleasure centres. The pursuit of pleasure is an important, usually overlooked, aspect of animal behaviour, worthy of attention and further research,” concluded Olson. The study is published in Austral Ecology.

Same-sex sexual behavior has been observed in many non-human species across the world. It is now a widely recognized phenomenon, but a new study suggests that there is a sharp discrepancy between how common the behavior is and how often it is reported. According to this work, researchers often see same-sex sexual behavior in the mammals they study, but rarely publish information about it.Homosexual behavior in the animal kingdomEssentially, same-sex sexual behavior is any sexual act – including mounting, sexual penetration, oral sexual contact, or other forms of sexual stimulation – between members of the same sex. Homosexual behavior is extremely common and widespread in animal species, Josh Davis, of the Natural History Museum, London and author of A Little Gay Natural History explained to IFLScience.“Whilst it has only been officially recorded in around 1,500 species, this figure is likely a massive underestimate. This is because it can be found in pretty much every branch of the evolutionary tree, from beetles and butterflies to turtles and squirrels, so the idea that it is limited to just a few hundred species out of the 2.13 million described to date is incredibly unlikely.”Explanations for the evolutionary value of this behavior vary, Davis added, depending on the animal being examined. For example, “the behavioural cues for flies are going to be different to those for primates.”“By and large though, it has been suggested that homosexual behaviours could be beneficial for a range of aspects including social cohesion, stress release, and even just pure pleasure.”But despite its frequency and widespread occurrence, same-sex sexual behavior is not often reported in the scientific literature. So what’s going on?Publishing on homosexuality in animalsAccording to a new study published by Karyn A. Anderson, a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Toronto, and colleagues, the lack of studies on same-sex sexual behavior may come from the misperception that it is rare and therefore difficult to study systematically. In the past, this belief that it's uncommon was also mixed with contemporary moralistic ideas that viewed it as deviant and “unnatural”. Of course, such thinking was often deployed in ethical debates about homosexuality in humans."Historically, there were definitely fears that if a researcher were to publish on these behaviours they might in turn get associated with them, but in modern times it seems as if there are other factors in play," Davis told IFLScience. Even as attitudes changed throughout the 20th century, the “rare” assumption has persisted in scientific literature, despite the number of recorded instances continuing to rise. What has been missing is a systematic approach, but there may be reasons for why this has not yet occurred. Journals moving away from publishing short, anecdotal observations is a widespread problem in behavioural ecology as it means that occasional but interesting behaviours – such as homosexuality – often now go unreported.Josh DavisAnderson and her international team of colleagues believe certain methodological challenges, as well as this pervasive belief about the behavior’s rarity, may explain the gap in the publication record for this subject.Their analysis showed that out of 65 researchers examining 52 different species, 77 percent observed same-sex sexual behavior but only 48 percent collected data on it. In addition, only 19 percent of the researchers published their findings.Interestingly, the respondents to the research commented that their work was not influenced by sociopolitical factors. Instead, the responses generally fell into three categories – firstly, that they were unable to collect data due to competing research priorities; secondly, that the topics for publication did not rely on data related to this subject; and thirdly, that the behavior was too rare or “anecdotal” to be considered worthy for publication.This latter point is important as it highlights a bias within the publication industry surrounding anecdotal evidence – if it is not “common, " it is irrelevant. For instance, in the field of primatology, as the 21st century has gone on, there has been a shift towards quotative and statistical approaches, which are preferred to short narratives or anecdotal accounts."Journals moving away from publishing short, anecdotal observations is a widespread problem in behavioural ecology as it means that occasional but interesting behaviours – such as homosexuality – often now go unreported," Davis said.Anecdotes are extremely important for the study of things like same-sex sexual behavior, Anderson and colleagues also conclude, as they help us understand their relevance within the study of sexual behavior more generally.“The availability of anecdotal reports of [same-sex sexual behaviour], therefore, serves to benefit the scientific community and allows us to better understand the variability and distribution of [same-sex sexual behavior] across mammals,” they write.Expert surveys are therefore useful tools in wildlife biology, the team stress, especially in relation to behaviors that are not frequently reported or are believed to be rare. “Indeed, we found the use of an expert survey important, and even necessary, given that most respondents have not published their observations of [same-sex sexual behavior] in their study species. Expert surveys provide us with a tool to access and examine these behaviors on a broader scale.”It was only through anecdotal reports and expert surveys that we see just how widespread same-sex sexual behavior is. Although this study drew on a relatively small pool of respondents, it supports the idea that future work should pay closer attention to the value of these less fashionable ways of collecting and transmitting information, especially for supposedly rare behaviors. The paper is published in PLOS ONE. Read an excerpt from A Little Gay Natural History and our exclusive interview with Josh Davis in the July 2024 issue of CURIOUS. 

This week on Break It Down, white wine with a hint of human remains becomes the oldest ever discovered, Jupiter’s Red Spot may be younger than the United States, a disco dinosaur has been discovered with one hell of a hat, people volunteer to be infected with COVID-19 – for science, NASA uses its first two-way end-to-end relay system to send pet photos to the ISS, and a $17 billion shipwreck has launched an international argument. Available on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Podbean, Amazon Music, and more.Sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…LinksOldest wineDeep-sea champagneAncient bison stewJupiter’s Red SpotDisco dinosaurVolunteering for COVID-19Volunteering for hookwormsPet photos in space$17 billion shipwreckStone HengeWhat do you mean it's "not a real henge"?Mammoth VS mastodons

The US government has for the first time acknowledged the harms caused by the building of hydroelectric dams to Tribes in the Pacific Northwest.A 73-page report from the Department for the Interior documents the “historic, ongoing and cumulative impacts of federal Columbia River dams” on Tribes living within the basin, focusing in on how the construction and operation of 11 dams has affected the resources, economies, and livelihoods of the people living there.The Columbia River Basin sits at the heart of the surrounding Tribal communities, with many traditions, as well as resources, rooted in its waters. “God created this Indian country and it was like He spread out a big blanket. …When we were created we were given our ground to live on, and from that time these were our rights. This is all true. ...My strength is from the fish; my blood is from the fish, from the roots and the berries. The fish and the game are the essence of my life,” as Yakama Chief Meninock testified in the report.However, with the 19th century came settlers with commercial interests, such as logging, mining, and fishing. As a result, the 16 million wild salmon and steelhead that returned to the region each year, providing a vital resource, began to dwindle, shifting wealth away from the Tribes.Then, from the 1900s through to the 1970s, a series of hydroelectric dams built to support irrigation and provide power in the western US worsened the situation. As well as flooding land, sacred sites, and ancestral burial grounds, the construction of the dams also blocked migrating fish from being able to reach their usual destinations. By the mid-1900s, it’s estimated that salmon and steelhead runs in the Snake River, the Columbia River’s main tributary, had dropped by 90 percent.The consequence of this, as outlined in the report, has been a historic and continuing loss of “well-being, ways of life, and sovereignty” for the Basin’s Tribal communities.“Since time immemorial, Tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries have relied on Pacific salmon, steelhead and other native fish species for sustenance and their cultural and spiritual ways of life,” said Secretary Deb Haaland in a statement. “Acknowledging the devastating impact of federal hydropower dams on Tribal communities is essential to our efforts to heal and ensure that salmon are restored to their ancestral waters.”This action follows plans announced last year by the government to restore salmon populations in the Basin over the course of 10 years, potentially through the removal of dams. Back in 2022, a study found that breaching the dams in the Lower Snake River represented the best opportunity to recover fish populations.The report highlights the need for such plans to continue in the future.“As we repeatedly heard in consultation, the government’s work to better understand and incorporate Tribal perspectives into decision making must continue after the publication of this report.”

According to a popular and widespread belief, the mythical griffin – that eagle-faced, winged lion monster – was inspired by dinosaur fossils discovered by ancient peoples. But new analysis suggests this may not have been the case.Griffins (sometimes spelled "griffon" or "gryphon") are among the oldest known mythological creatures. They are a composite creature made up of elements of different animals, which first appeared in Egyptian and Middle Eastern art during the fourth millennium BCE. This is long before they became popular in ancient Greek culture during the eighth century BCE.  The link between dinosaur fossils and the descriptions of griffins first appeared in the late 1980s. At the time, the folklorist Adrienne Mayor published a series of books and papers that sought to join classicists and cryptozoologists in mutual collaboration. Her efforts culminated in the publication of the The First Fossil Hunters in 2000, which was a seminal book.Many of the most popular examples of fossils inspiring myths are bogus.Dr Mark WittonMayor was an influential figure in the discipline of “geomythology”, which essentially studies oral and written traditions created by pre-scientific cultures. According to her work on griffins, which started in the 1970s, Afro-Eurasian mythologies were inspired by fossils of Protoceratops, a horned dinosaur related to Triceratops, which roamed around what is now Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous period.Mayor believed that ancient nomads found the dinosaurs bones while prospecting for gold in Central Asia. As they examined them, these people may have started to speculate about what type of animal could possibly have left them behind. For one thing, the large (small for a dinosaur at 2 meters [6.5 feet] long) animal stood on four legs, like griffins are shown to do, and it had a skull complete with a characteristic beak and a strange frill-like extension that, so Mayor argued, could have been thought of as wings.A comparison of Protoceratops' skeleton with historical depictions of griffins in ancient art.Image credit: Dr Mark WittonAs news about the Protoceratops remains spread southwest along trade routes, they inspired or at least influenced the stories and art depicting griffins.For the last 30 years, this explanation has remained the main interpretation of how the griffin came into being, but Dr Mark Witton and Richard Hing, palaeontologists at the University of Portsmouth, have challenged this idea.By re-examining the historical fossil record, examining the distribution and nature of Protoceratops remains, studying classical sources linking griffins to these bones, and also consulting historians and archaeologists, the pair have reached some alternative views. Their research suggests an origin for the griffin that does not require fossils – in fact, none of the fossil-related arguments work at all, they claim.For instance, this idea that nomad prospectors in Central Asia started the story is not likely true, as Protoceratops appear hundreds of miles away from historical gold sites. To date, no gold has been found alongside the remains of this dinosaur. And even if prospectors did find bones, they would likely have been insufficient to inspire such imagery.It's common to hear that fossil elephants inspired the cyclops, or dinosaurs inspired dragons, but these ideas are just as speculative and problematic as the proposal that dinosaurs inspired griffins.Dr Mark Witton“There is an assumption that dinosaur skeletons are discovered half-exposed, lying around almost like the remains of recently-deceased animals,” Dr Witton explained in statement. “But generally speaking, just a fraction of an eroding dinosaur skeleton will be visible to the naked eye, unnoticed to all except for sharp-eyed fossil hunters.”This, Witton argues, is “almost certainly” how ancient peoples stumbled on Protoceratops in Mongolia.  “If they wanted to see more, as they’d need to if they were forming myths about these animals, they’d have to extract the fossil from the surrounding rock. That is no small task, even with modern tools, glues, protective wrapping and preparatory techniques. It seems more probable that Protoceratops remains, by and large, went unnoticed – if the gold prospectors were even there to see them.”At the same time, the geographic distribution of griffin art across history does not align with the idea that their lore arose from Central Asia before spreading west. There is also no unambiguous reference to the dinosaur in ancient literature. In contrast, the images we do have of griffins are clearly composed of cat and bird features.“Everything about griffin origins is consistent with their traditional interpretation as imaginary beasts, just as their appearance is entirely explained by them being chimeras of big cats and raptorial birds. Invoking a role for dinosaurs in griffin lore, especially species from distant lands like Protoceratops, not only introduces unnecessary complexity and inconsistencies to their origins, but also relies on interpretations and proposals that don’t withstand scrutiny.”Despite these limits to the griffin story, both Witton and Hing stress that fossils have been culturally important throughout human history. There are innumerable instances of them inspiring folklore, but there are many misconceptions too.“[F]ossils have inspired folklore for millennia, although many of the most popular examples of fossils inspiring myths are bogus,” Witton told IFLScience. “It's common to hear that fossil elephants inspired the cyclops, or dinosaurs inspired dragons, but these ideas are just as speculative and problematic as the proposal that dinosaurs inspired griffins.”“If we drill into history, classical texts and archaeology, however, we find many excellent connections between fossils and folklore. Fossil bones of recently extinct species like mammoths and woolly rhinos were once regarded as the remains of giants, or heroic figures in Greek or Christian stories, and ancient/historic peoples collected their remains. Fossil mammals have been interpreted as the bones of Chinese dragons and sold in pharmaceutical stores as home remedies. Ammonites (coiled shellfish related to squid and octopus) are associated with snakes in many cultures and have been used as folk remedies for various ailments.”The commonality between these “geomyths” and fossils in folklore is simply that the latter are relatively easy to find. Dinosaur bones, in contrast, are not.“They are difficult to locate, and even more difficult to extract from the rock that holds them. This is one of the many problems with the griffin-Protoceratops connection”, Witton explained to IFLScience.The study is published in Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 

Boeing’s Starliner continues to raise concerns. The test mission to demonstrate the safety of this crew capsule began on June 5 and should have lasted about a week. "Should" is the operating word here. On June 9, NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams found out that they were staying until June 18 to have more time to check out Starliner’s systems.The extended stay was then extended again for a couple of times and now the two veteran astronauts won’t be back on Earth at least before June 26. A press conference detailed the main reason it was postponed and some of the troubles the spacecraft has faced.“We want to give our teams a little bit more time to look at the data, do some analysis and make sure they’re really ready to come home,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said during the press briefing.Delays seem to be a theme for this vehicle. The original plan saw the first crewed test in 2017 but it was postponed time and time again. Eventually the launch was moved to August 2023, and then to May 2024. This was necessary to resolve issues with the parachute system and wiring harnesses among other less significant issues. But it did not launch in May.On May 6 launch was scrubbed two hours before liftoff. It continued to be delayed due to a helium leak in the service module. Another attempt was planned for Saturday, June 1. The scrubbing took place just 3 minutes and 50 seconds before launch after a faulty power supply caused a computer to register a loss of redundancy. The helium leaks have continued even in space. There is still ten times as much helium as needed for the return journey, but they are certainly an area of concern.“This is a test flight and we’re going to learn some things,” Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of the Commercial Crew Program at Boeing, said during the press briefing. “So here we are, we’ve learned that our helium system is not performing as designed, albeit manageable, it’s still not working like we had designed it, so we got to go figure that out.”There was also a problem with the aft thrusters when the spacecraft docked, with five of them malfunctioning. Four of those have now been recovered. The more complex docking leads to a bit of extra heating on the whole system.The data collected continued to be analyzed and tests continued to be performed. All going well, Wilmore and Williams will undock on June 25, to come back to Earth the day after.