Lesson for kids: Don't pester mom, or she might eat you

The burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is kind of gross. It lays its eggs on the carcasses of mice, birds and the like. When the larvae hatch, the parents crawl around regurgitating predigested carrion into their offspring's hungry mouths.

The larvae beg for the meal by poking the parents' mouthparts with their legs. Researchers wondered what exactly was going on with the begging. Do babies beg all the time, or only when they're really, truly hungry? It's most definitely the latter, according to a new study.

The team found that begging comes with a major risk: cannibalism. Moms were more likely to eat larvae that were pestering them, the researchers report in the current issue of Behavioral Ecology. That means baby beetles probably don't beg unless they really need the food.

Researchers using collars to study moose falloff

In New Hampshire, don't be surprised if you spot a moose wearing a collar. It's not a pet but part of a new study of the Granite State's declining moose population.

New Hampshire's moose population has dropped dramatically, from 7,600 in 1996 to 4,400 today.

Veteran moose biologist Kristine Rines said her Fish and Game division is teaming up with the University of New Hampshire to put tracking collars on nearly 100 moose cows and calves to study how long they live and to get them soon after they die.

Ms. Rines said shorter winters are spawning an increase in winter ticks and parasites. Concerns about the dwindling moose population have promoted a drop in moose hunting permits from 675 to 275 in the past six years.

GPS system may offer new way to track hurricane power


Researchers analyzed data gathered by prototype equipment flown on U.S. "hurricane hunter" aircraft during a 10-year period. About 60 percent of the energy in a GPS signal that strikes the ocean is reflected back toward the sky - and the rougher the ocean is, the more those reflections are spread out in all directions rather than one.

That, in turn, allows scientists to estimate wind speeds in the area around the point of reflection, the team reports in the journal Radio Science.

The method is not as precise as parachuting equipment into a hurricane. But reflected GPS data collected from a variety of sources - a swarm of unmanned drones high above the storm, for example, or even satellites or commercial aircraft - could give meteorologists a way to better predict the paths and severity of hurricanes more quickly.

Scientists listening remotely to sounds from nature

Ecologists have new ways to keep their ears to the ground. Rather than crouch in the underbrush to listen for an elusive species, they increasingly rely on recording equipment they can leave in the field.

But relaying thousands of hours of audio and sorting the signal from the noise brings new headaches. A team of scientists at the University of Puerto Rico hopes to change that with their Automated Remote Biodiversity Monitoring Network, described in the journal PeerJ. The system captures 1-minute audio segments at regular intervals using an iPhone in a solar-powered field station and immediately sends them to a master server.

Relevant creatures' calls are singled out using a computer algorithm, which scientists can train to identify any species they choose.