Wildlife

Ancient wolf puppies add to mystery of domestic dog development

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In 2011 and 2015 at the Syalakh site in northern Siberia, researchers found two perfectly preserved wolf sisters that were about two months old. They are referred to the Tumat Puppies near the Tumat village. They were found near the bones of wooly mammoths that showed signs of being processed by humans.

The puppies were so well preserved in ice that researchers were able to determine that they ate solid food, including local vegetation, woolly rhinoceros meat, a small bird and were still nursing from their mother.

Because the woolly rhinoceros is a large animal, even a calf, it suggests that the wolves were larger than modern wolves. Also interesting was the fact that their coat was black, something that researchers previously thought was a mutation only found in dogs, however, genetic testing showed that these puppies were not related to dogs.

According to the researchers, “The research findings, however, means that the hunt for the oldest dog — and their place of origin — is still on.”

Journal Reference:

Anne Kathrine Wiborg Runge, Jonas Niemann, Mietje Germonpré, Dorothée G. Drucker, Hervé Bocherens, Kseniia Boxleitner, Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal, Anna Linderholm, David W.G. Stanton, Alexandr Kandyba, Jonathan Brecko, Martine Van den Broeck, Robert Losey, Jannikke Räikkönen, Mikhail Sablin, Julia Stagegaard, Shyam Gopalakrishnan, Sergey Fedorov, Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Nathan Wales. Multifaceted analysis reveals diet and kinship of Late Pleistocene ‘Tumat Puppies’. Quaternary Research, 2025; 1 DOI: 10.1017/qua.2025.10

Cite This Page:

University of York. “These frozen wolf cubs ate a woolly rhino—and changed what we know about dogs.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 June 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250624044319.htm>.

Why I wrote God’s Creatures, A Biblical View of Animals

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by Susan Bulanda

Many people are passionate about animals. It could be a pet, a wild animal, or someone who works at a rescue organization. I am no different in my passion and as a young teen I started training dogs. I had a business established by the time I entered High School. I progressed to become a certified animal behavior consultant specializing in dogs and cats.

In some cases I would mention to my clients that I was a Christian to help explain my beliefs about animals. This would always result in several questions. As a result I compiled all the questions and put them into my book God’s Creatures. The book has been very successful and has been used in churches as a Bible study.

The Bible has many things to say about animals and how God has used them. There are also miracles that involve animals. For example, when Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem, he told his disciples to get an unbroken donkey colt for him to ride into Jerusalem. Many people today do not realize that no one rides an untrained equine of any kind into a city with hundreds of people waving palm leaves and throwing cloaks in front of the donkey. The donkey went where Jesus wanted him to go and did not panic. That was a miracle and illustrated how Jesus communicated to the donkey who understood and obeyed. There are many more miracles that involve animals. If you would like an autographed copy of my book, you can order one from my website at www.sbulanda.com The book is also available on Amazon and from the publisher, Cladach Publishing at http://www.cladach.com

The chapters are:

Created Wild and Domestic

Adam & The Animals

God Cares for Animals

Killing and the Eating of Animals

The Ownership and Use of Animals

Do Animals Have the Same Rights and Rules as Humans

Can Animals Think

Understanding and Communicating with Animals

God Communicates with Animals

Animals as Agents of God’s Judgement

Can Animals Be Evil

Animals Minister to Humans

Is The Bible Uncomplimentary to Animals

Will Animals Be in Heaven

Conclusion: Lessons From the Animals

Animals are developing the same chronic diseases as humans

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The health problem does not just affect pets, but all animals worldwide including marine animals. These diseases are noncommunicable and include such problems as cancer, obesity, diabetes, and degenerative joint disease.

Animal scientist Antonia Mataragka of the Agricultural University of Athens conducted the study. While the causes are inconclusive, Mataragka did find that genetics play a part in selectively bred animals such as dogs, cats and livestock which show higher rates of conditions such as diabetes and mitral valve disease.

Environmental influences, including poor diet, limited physical activity, and long-term stress, also shape how and when these diseases appear across species. Other examples are pigs who develop osteoarthritis, beluga whales have documented gastrointestinal cancers and farmed Atlantic salmon experience cardiomyopathy syndrome. Wildlife living in polluted estuaries contaminated with industrial chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) show liver tumor rates as high as 15-25%. More research needs to be conducted to fully understand what is happening.

Cite This Page:

Society for Risk Analysis. “Animals are developing the same chronic diseases as humans.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 November 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251116105735.htm>.

Journal Reference: Antonia Mataragka. Beyond Infections: The Growing Crisis of Chronic Disease in Animals. Risk Analysis, 2025; DOI: 10.1111/risa.70130

Genetic and Environmental Drivers of Disease

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Lead animal scientist Antonia Mataragka of the Agricultural University of Athens has conducted a study that explores the increase in chronic diseases in the animal kingdom. These same diseases are found in both animals and humans.

For example, obesity is widespread in dogs and cats. Being overweight leads to a greater number of cats who develop diabetes. About 20% of pigs develop osteoarthritis, beluga whales have an increase of gastrointestinal cancers and farmed Atlantic salmon suffer from cardiomyopathy. It doesn’t end there, up to 25% of wildlife living in polluted estuaries are developing liver tumors. Even

Marine turtles and fish are developing more tumors.

Mataragka hopes that her research will encourage more coordinated monitoring of both animals, people and ecosystems to identify early warning signs by recognizing shared causes of chronic illnesses and reduce disease risks for both animals and people.

Antonia Mataragka. Beyond Infections: The Growing Crisis of Chronic Disease in Animals. Risk Analysis, 2025; DOI: 10.1111/risa.70130

Society for Risk Analysis. “Animals are developing the same chronic diseases as humans.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 November 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251116105735.htm>.

Songbirds socialize at night during migration

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While we are asleep, we do not see or hear the hundreds of millions of songbirds that migrate at night. A team of researchers led by Benjamin Van Doren, assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, at the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois started his study of nighttime migration of songbirds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Van Doren and his co-researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Appalachian Laboratory discovered strong evidence that migrating songbirds “buddy up” with other species, especially at stopover sites. They also pair up and communicate with other species while in flight.

While migrating during the day, young birds learn how to navigate by observing other birds. However, hundreds of millions of birds migrate at night, limiting visual contact with other birds. By studying nocturnal acoustic recordings, Van Doren discovered that songbirds communicate with other species during the night during migration.

What they found is that wing length and similar calls were the most important factors that caused birds to buddy up. This makes sense when considering that wing length is directly related to flight speed.

They also discovered that birds who buddied up at stopovers, did not necessarily buddy up with the same bird during flight. They also did not always buddy up with similar species while in flight.

This brings up the possibility that songbird species that cannot depend on their parents to lead them during migration, rely on social ties to guide them. It also shows that birds do not migrate alone with only their instincts to guide them. It raises the question of what other roles does socialization play in a bird’s life?

Journal Reference:

  1. Benjamin M. Van Doren, Joely G. DeSimone, Josh A. Firth, Friederike Hillemann, Zach Gayk, Emily Cohen, Andrew Farnsworth. Social associations across species during nocturnal bird migration. Current Biology, 2025; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.033

Cite This Page:

University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. “Songbirds socialize on the wing during migration.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 January 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/01/250115125116.htm>.

Bees are smart!

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Researchers at the Queen Mary University of London successfully taught bumble bees to solve a two-step problem. What was interesting was that when they allowed untrained bees to watch the trained bees, the untrained bees learned how to solve the problem by watching the trained bees.

This experiment demonstrated that bees could learn by social learning which scientists previously thought was only something that humans could do.

Free Google image

In this case the bees shared experience and taught other bees to solve a two-step problem that was beyond their individual ability.  

Sue’s Note: In many cases other animals learn from each other. However, this was previously unknown for bees.

Journal Reference:

  1. Alice D. Bridges, Amanda Royka, Tara Wilson, Charlotte Lockwood, Jasmin Richter, Mikko Juusola, Lars Chittka. Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone. Nature, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07126-4

Cite This Page:

Queen Mary University of London. “Bee-2-Bee influencing: Bees master complex tasks through social interaction.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6 March 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240306150557.htm>.

Starfish Learn without a brain

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Brittle starfish are very shy, small starfish. They have no brain but they do have nerve cords that are in each of their five arms which join a nerve ring near their mouth. The lead researcher, Julia Notar, at the Sönke Johnsen’s lab at Duke University discovered that these starfish can learn using classical conditioning. Each nerve cord acts independently but work together as a committee according to Notar.

The starfish were kept in an aquarium and fed their favorite food, shrimp, only when the lights were dimmed. The starfish learned to come out of hiding as soon as the lights were dimmed, even before they were fed when there was no evidence of food in the aquarium.

Free google image Brittle starfish

Notar pointed out, “They’re potentially able to expect and avoid predators or anticipate food because they’re learning about their environment.”

Sue’s Note: The fact that they can learn about their environment means that they have the ability to remember as well as learn, if you cannot remember, you cannot learn. There has been evidence for many years that people who receive organ transplants sometimes show evidence of the behavior, likes and dislikes of the donor as a result of cell memory in the organ. This seems to be connected to learning without a brain.  (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31739081/)

Journal Reference:

  1. Julia C. Notar, Madeline C. Go, Sönke Johnsen. Learning without a brain: classical conditioning in the ophiuroid Ophiocoma echinata. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2023; 77 (11) DOI: 10.1007/s00265-023-03402-x

Cite This Page:

Duke University. “Brittle stars can learn just fine — even without a brain.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 November 2023. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231129174214.htm>.

Rats have the ability to imagine

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Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus have discovered that rats have the ability to imagine. There findings indicate that just like people, animals can think about places and objects that they cannot see.

To determine this, they used a Brain Machine Interface and saw that rats showed specific neural activity patterns in the hippocampus area of their brain which is related to spatial memory. The researchers have determined that this function is necessary for an animal to remember past events and imagining future scenarios even if the animal is at a different location.  

Sue’ Note: While this research is important because it gives scientific proof that animals can remember the past and think of the future, it is obvious to me because if animals cannot do this, those in the wild would not survive. Our domestic animals would not be able to learn the things we teach them. An example that many of us have observed is the dog who knows what time a person is coming home and waits at the door, long before he could hear, smell or see the person coming. This is evident when the person is late and the dog at waiting at the normal time and illustrates the dog’s ability to anticipate the future. A famous example of this is Hachikō, an Akita who lived in Japan from 1923 to 1935 and went every day to the train station to wait for his master after his master died.

Journal Reference:

  1. Chongxi Lai, Shinsuke Tanaka, Timothy D. Harris, Albert K. Lee. Volitional activation of remote place representations with a hippocampal brain–machine interface. Science, 2023; 382 (6670): 566 DOI: 10.1126/science.adh5206

Cite This Page:

Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “Rats have an imagination, new research suggests.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2 November 2023. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231102162557.htm>.

Scent and Memory

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According to a study done by researchers at the UCI Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory at the University of California, adults who were ages 60 – 85 who were suffering from some sort of mental impairment partook of the scent therapy test.  

The subjects of the study were given a diffuser and seven cartridges, each with a natural oil. The subjects used the diffuser each night when going to bed. The diffuser ran for two hours. The results showed that the group with the full-strength diffusers improved their cognitive skills by 226%.

Imagining showed that there was better integrity in the brain pathway called the left uncinate fasciculus, which connects the medial temporal lobe to the decision-making prefrontal cortex.

In addition to having better memory, the subjects said that they slept better, more soundly.

Sue’s Comments:  We know that essential oils have numerous benefits when smelled. For example, lavender is known for its calming properties. What this study brings to mind for me is the possible connection with scent work in dogs. There are many accounts of animals, dogs, elephants, and other animals, who recognize a person that they have not seen in years. Scent is one of the keys for this, indicating that there may be a connection similar to the findings in this study. Previous studies have shown that in dogs, scent is linked to sight, they are not separate in the dog’s brain. I would love to see further studies that involve this finding and how it might apply to animals. Would it be possible to help elderly animals in the same way. Dogs and other animals suffer from dementia the same as people.

Journal Reference:

  1. Cynthia C. Woo, Blake Miranda, Mithra Sathishkumar, Farideh Dehkordi-Vakil, Michael A. Yassa, Michael Leon. Overnight olfactory enrichment using an odorant diffuser improves memory and modifies the uncinate fasciculus in older adults. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2023; 17 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1200448

Cite This Page:

University of California – Irvine. “Sweet smell of success: Simple fragrance method produces major memory boost.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 August 2023. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230801131700.htm>.

Those amazing whiskers

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A study at Northwestern University has shown that rats determine the direction of the wind with their whiskers. Since many other animals such as dogs, foxes, coyotes and cats also have whiskers that are similar to those of a rat, is it possible that they also use their whiskers to determine the direction of the wind?

All wild animals also have to be aware of the direction of the wind to either find food or avoid being detected by predators. Therefore, the ability to determine the direction of the wind or even a slight breeze is a life and death skill. It seems reasonable that that they would use their whiskers as well as the movement of their fur to detect the direction of air movement.

Sue’s Note: As a person who has trained many working dogs, I have seen dogs learn how to use the direction of the wind to find scent. It is quite an amazing thing to watch, and another example of how intelligent animals are.

Journal References:

Mitra J. Z. Hartmann et al. Whiskers aid anemotaxis in rats. Science Advances, August 2016 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600716

Yan S. W. Yu, Matthew M. Graff, Mitra J. Z. Hartmann. Mechanical responses of rat vibrissae to airflow. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 2016; 219 (7): 937 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.126896

Cite This Page:

Northwestern University. (2016, August 24). Whiskers help animals sense the direction of the wind: First-ever study shows that rats use whiskers to locate source of airflow. ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160824160248.htm