SNACK-SNAFFLING SEAGULLS

Have you ever had a seagull steal your snack? New research has shown that these clever birds work out which snacks are worth stealing by watching what humans are eating. To test this, one scientist sat on Brighton beach eating a pack of crisps while others filmed seagulls as they pecked at empty crisp packets placed on the beach nearby. Before the researcher tucked into the crisps, the seagulls weren’t very interested in the crisp packets, but once they saw the snacking, half of them hopped over to investigate the empty crisp packets, with 95% pecking at the same colour crisp packet that the researcher was eating from!

Find out what inspired Operation Ouch’s Dr Ronx to become a doctor and enter a competition to win their new book bit.ly/4271Nq3

Good news for Lolita the orca – after 50 years in captivity, she is set to be returned to her home waters in the North Pacific Ocean. Lolita was captured in 1970, along with seven other orcas, when she was just four years old and sold to Miami Seaquarium where she has been alone in a small pool for the past 40 years, performing to crowds of visitors. Orcas are very intelligent and social creatures, who stay with their mothers for their whole lives in the wild. Lolita’s mother is still living in the North Pacific Ocean and thought to be over 90 years old. Animal rights organisations, who have campaigned for Lolita’s release for many years, hope she will be relocated in the next 18 to 24 months.

Astronomers have discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet that might be covered with erupting volcanoes. They think it might even be as volcanically active as Jupiter’s moon Io (the most volcanically active body in our solar system!). Exoplanets are outside of our solar system, and this one is about 90 light-years from Earth. It is located in the ‘Goldilocks zone’, which means it’s the right distance from its star that liquid water could exist on it, and scientists think it might even have an atmosphere, like Earth.

OCTOPUSES INSPIRE COLOUR-CHANGING INK

Researchers in Hong Kong have invented a new kind of ink that changes colour in response to light. Octopuses change colour by pushing coloured particles to the surface of their skin using special muscles. The new ink works in a similar way, by moving coloured particles in response to light, to give the impression of different colours. The researchers hope that the ink might be useful for camouflaging clothing or vehicles, turning green in forests or yellow in deserts.

Octopuses change colour to blend in with their surroundings