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A cockatoo mystery: What’s a non-migratory bird from Australia and New Zealand doing in a 1496 Italian painting? An Australian scholar made the discovery when examining the “Madonna della Vittoria,” by Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna. The setting of the painting, now in the Louvre, was northern Italy. The appearance of a cockatoo there adds to our knowledge about Italian trade routes, and the bird likely came by sea through the coasts of India and Arabia, historian Heather Dalton tells the New Yorker.
What washed up on the beach this week? Odd sea creatures that look like little severed fingers, or big bumpy worms, have been dotting the sands of Southern California’s shoreline recently. The latest ones, called free-floating colonial tunicates, are typically found out in the open ocean. “There’s been an outrageous bloom of them lately, over the past couple months,” marine biologist Julianne Steers told the Orange County Register.
Snack attack: With more than 2,700 mouths to feed among 390 species, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo dishes out a lot of food every day. The zoo recently shared on its blog what it takes to feed an army of animals.
In plain sight: Most of us are attracted to butterflies for their bright, colorful patterns. However, some species have see-through wings that look like glass, the better to hide from predators. Researchers recently put them under the microscope to figure out how they make their wings transparent, Science News reports. “It’s really hard to do,” says James Barnett, a behavioral scientist. “You have to modify your entire body to minimize any scattering or reflection of light.”
‘Conflict within conflict’: In the lush forests of Indian-administered Kashmir, there’s a rise in animal attacks. An armed rebellion has made Kashmir one of the bloodiest conflict zones in the world. Now, encounters with black bears and leopards are creating new anxieties in a region already grappling with the decades-old conflict, Al Jazeera reports.
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