If you have a cat, you likely know just how special the bond between human and feline friends can be. My little black kitty, Poe—named after the Gothic horror writer, of course—certainly boosts my mood (when he’s not being a complete a**, that is).

The same is true for many pet owners: According to a recent study published in iScience, A Cell Press Journal, the oxytocin levels of humans and their cats appear to rise and fall in sync. In other words, their moods and hormones affect each other. And before now, there’s been little research into this topic. 

“Cats are among the world’s most popular companion animals,” the study summary reads. However, “Owner-pet hormonal synchrony is documented in dogs but untested in cats.” 

The researchers set out to change this. 

The Chemical Connection Between Cats and Their Owners

In their study, the researchers measured oxytocin and cortisol in 19 owners and 29 pet cats over the span of one month. Then, they examined the owner’s mood and the owner-cat proximity to determine a potential connection.

“Owner and cat oxytocin were positively associated, whereas their cortisol concentrations showed little association,” the researchers found. “Higher cat oxytocin was linked to lower owner cortisol and less negative mood, while higher owner cortisol was linked to more negative mood.”

According to the study, the closer the cats were to their owners, the stronger the oxytocin link. Additionally, owners experienced better moods when their cats had higher oxytocin (feel-good love hormone) and lower cortisol (stress hormone) levels. However, when the cats’ oxytocin levels dropped and cortisol rose, owners seemed to mirror it in their own moods.

Study Limitations

This research suggests a clear chemical link between the mood, stress, and hormonal markers of humans and their cats. However, the study does have its limitations. For example, who’s to say the cat’s hormone levels aren’t influenced by their owners’ moods, but not the opposite?

“One major question about this study—one that the authors did not aim to address—is about who influences whom,” Bence Nanay, Ph.D., wrote in his Psychology Today article on the topic. “Is it that the cat’s happiness makes us happy? Or is it the other way round, and the cat feels whether we are stressed? Or maybe both? These questions will, no doubt, be addressed in future research.”

Now, I’m no scientist…just a writer who spends more time with her beloved cat than with her own friends. But I can attest that Poe triggers a calming sense of comfort and love whenever in my presence. I’m not so sure I do the same for him, with my otherwise frantic and overwhelmed nature (especially when I’m forcing cuddles on him). But hey, one can hope.

Either way, I’ll be paying closer attention to my own moods and their impacts on my little guy. Surely, my stress-induced groaning and late-night sob sessions aren’t helping him chill. But then again, neither are my energetic chit-chatting and loud cheering during Dancing With the Stars. If anything, my happiness seems to irritate him more. His name is Poe, after all.

The post Scientists Discovered a Surprising Chemical Connection Between Cats and Their Owners appeared first on VICE.

This video made me laugh especially hard because I recently had a very similar experience in my own garden. If you've ever been gardening only to see some of your plants disappearing under the ground, as if they had decided to hide away, then you might know what I'm talking about. — Read the rest

The post Watch a garden plant get pulled underground, just like in a cartoon appeared first on Boing Boing.

Here is a baby flamingo compilation from the San Antonio Zoo. Baby flamingos don't have their iconic pink feathers yet. What makes them especially cute is the way that they look a bit awkward trying to figure out how to walk. — Read the rest

The post Baby flamingos at the San Antonio Zoo are still figuring out their legs appeared first on Boing Boing.

The UK hedgehog has been in the news for a while due to its dwindling population, which has fallen by 30-75% since 2000. In fact, these beloved animals are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and have been categorized as at risk of extinction in Britain. It is believed the UK now houses fewer than one million hedgehogs.

Thus, a wildlife expert is urging households to leave out between 50 and 100g of food for the prickly little charmers, as such acts of kindness could amount to the “difference between life and death.” This message is being received loudly and clearly, as sources like Wales Online and The Mirror have been dutifully spreading it.

This is a very important time of year to extend a helping treat to hedgehogs, since these typically nocturnal friends will soon be going into hibernation mode. This summer proved unfavorable to them for a number of reasons, including drought, pests, the difficulty of nabbing food from modern gardens, and humans taking over their habitats. Gardening chemicals have likewise proved a menace to the hedgehog.

Wildlife Experts Are Urging People to Leave Food Outside to Help Save Hedgehogs

Wildlife expert Sean McMenemy, the founder of Ark Wildlife, cautions that if hedgehogs do not weigh about 600g before entering hibernation, they could die. This means that each hedgehog should plump up to grapefruit size or, hopefully, even bigger. McMenemy recommends that the food be left in a space where hedgehogs will feel sheltered and unthreatened.

Country Living kindly lists the foods you can leave out for hedgehogs, in addition to specially-made hedgehog food that can be purchased online and from select pet stores:

• Plain, meat-based wet dog or cat food NOT including fish varieties
• Cooked, unseasoned chicken, turkey or mince (leftovers work well)
• Tinned meat (in water, not brine or sauce)
• Scrambled or hard-boiled eggs (plain, no salt or milk)
• Crushed dry dog biscuits (in moderation and broken up)

They also note, “Always put out a shallow dish of fresh water alongside any food. And one key rule: never give hedgehogs dairy products (especially milk), bread or sugary foods, as these can make them seriously ill. Similarly, avoid fish varieties of cat food, as this can cause indigestion.”

Creating openings at the bottom of gardens dubbed “hedgehog highways” allows the adorable creatures to travel from garden to garden with ease in search of food. Hedgehogs like to eat invertebrates, so creating conditions in your yard conducive to bugs (by setting up piles of logs, for example) will help them find their natural food sources.

The post Why Wildlife Experts Want People to Leave 100 Grams of Food Outside This Fall appeared first on VICE.

As we recuperate from Halloween, American families either dread or eagerly anticipate the even more gluttonous holiday that is Thanksgiving. A couple of years ago, we dutifully reported that 46 million turkeys are consumed annually during Thanksgiving meals. But watch the turkey so human that he’ll want to make you think before you gobble up another one of his kind.

Stewart the turkey lives with his loving family, which includes a variety of other animals; and in multiple videos posted by his human caretakers, his love for soccer can clearly be observed. He likes to shake his tail feathers and play with the ball, which has been cutely dubbed his “girlfriend.”

Stewart is not only a regular Erling Haaland but also a real comedian — in one video he spread his feathers, as if courting a pretty female, for a pair of Crocs. Stewart might just be the only intelligent being on the planet who finds Crocs sexy, but it’s always good when a provocateur comes along to challenge public opinion. Stewart, indeed, seems to be interested in aesthetic matters, as he appeared quite entranced by a live painting demonstration.

This Adorable Turkey Loves Playing Soccer, and the Internet Can’t Get Enough

Before Stewart, his family owned a turkey named Lawrence. Lawrence became a viral sensation for making uncouth noises with the help of his human mother… Verily, turkeys make fantastic pets, often kind and sometimes even a little too tolerant. I can add a personal anecdote: The moron running the camp I attended as a child kept a turkey on a leash for all the little brats to play with (or rather, abuse), and that turkey truly displayed the patience of a saint.

All that said, perhaps it just might be better to make friends with turkeys than to roast them. According to a recent study by The Vacationer, as picked up by the likes of Fox News, nearly 35% of Americans apparently dislike turkey as a dish. Still, the tradition sadly persists of having turkey for Thanksgiving, perhaps more as a centerpiece, or something to be pecked around and saved for the trash, than an actual food that anyone at the table enjoys consuming.

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The post Meet the Soccer-Playing Turkey Who Will Sell You on Tofu This Thanksgiving appeared first on VICE.

If you are a cow living in the Swiss Alps, you may find yourself in a sticky situation. If you stray too far into the summer pastures, it may be difficult to find your way back home. Luckily, there are some kind protocols put in place to help you in this situation. — Read the rest

The post Swiss cows that wander too far get a helicopter ride home appeared first on Boing Boing.

Did you miss out on National Pumpkin Day? If so, this video has you covered. Watch three cute and ferocious little hippos enjoy their pumpkins at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Eating a handful of pumpkin seeds takes me at least a few minutes. — Read the rest

The post Watch the Cincinnati Zoo's hippos eat whole pumpkins like potato chips appeared first on Boing Boing.

A kind man named John wanted to help the squirrels in his neighborhood feel safe and comfortable. He built squirrel boxes around his neighborhood to serve as homes and shelters for local squirrels. The squirrel boxes are simple wood shelters that the squirrels can freely enter and exit as they wish. — Read the rest

The post A man built cozy squirrel boxes with cameras inside, and the squirrels love them appeared first on Boing Boing.

A man and his wife were taking a relaxing poolside vacation when suddenly a monkey jumped into his lap. Instead of being afraid, the man decided to cuddle the monkey back. The monkey had already decided that this man was her new best friend, and what happens next is unbelievably sweet. — Read the rest

The post A mama monkey picks a vacationing man as her safe place to rest with her baby appeared first on Boing Boing.

It's been a little while since I've sat down and written about a hyperspecific corner of the Internet that brings me joy. Whether that's because I haven't been looking too hard or because the Internet is slowly being drained of joy is anyone's guess. — Read the rest

The post Good Trailcams collects the animal kingdom's most candid moments appeared first on Boing Boing.

The 1975 film “Jaws,” in which a local government hires a shark hunter to protect the town’s tourism industry, delighted me as a 10-year-old. But other than its infamous opening sequence, I don’t recall being scared. My younger sister, however, developed a years-long fear of deep water, even our 11-foot-deep pool. Maybe I’d just cultivated too much shark knowledge, well aware that these apex predators are docile and do not hunt humans like they do in Peter Benchley’s novel. The book and the film — I consumed both and can report that Steven Spielberg’s adaptation is better — only instilled in me a deeper love and respect for sharks. They are still my favorite fish to observe in aquariums or the ocean.

Outside of the movies, shark bounties are uncommon these days. That’s why news this week that Greenland was planning to cull 1,000 Greenland sharks was so alarming to many online. Officials in the Avannaata municipality on the island nation’s west coast approved the plan, offering fishers 300 Danish kroner, or about $45, per shark heart. The government complained that hungry sharks are eating too much Atlantic cod and Greenland halibut, cutting into what humans can bring home and damaging their gear. Lars Erik Gabrielsen, mayor of Avannaata, told The Guardian, “We need to safeguard the income of fishermen and the catch so that we can continue to eat the foods that we have relied on for generations.”

Conservationists and shark lovers were outraged at the proposal. Nick Dulvy, a professor and marine conservationist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, called it a “disaster” and said that biologically, the sharks are “the most sensitive species in the ocean to overfishing.” Marine ecologist Spencer Roberts, whose advocacy work includes calling out shark poaching, posted on X that “There is a psychotic sense of entitlement spreading around the world that imagines humans own the fish in the sea and demands retaliatory killing of predators who rely on these fish. Even centuries-old sages of the Arctic Ocean are not safe from this deranged human delusion.”

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Indeed, the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) is bizarre and misunderstood, basically being the couch potato of the depths of the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, where waters are just above freezing. Known as an abyssal species, it slothfully trawls the shadows like some mournful Lovecraftian being, possessing an especially sluggish metabolism, which isn’t surprising considering its size. Greenland sharks weigh in at one ton and reaching up to 23 feet in length. The maximum lifespan can average 400 years, the longest lifespan of any known vertebrate, meaning there are apparently Greenland sharks that are older than the United States. If that doesn’t blow you out of the water, I don’t know what will. Humans are famously bad at mentally fathoming deep time, so thinking about these ghostly rotund things hiding in the dark of the ocean, outliving empires like an ichthyological Ozymandias, fills me with even more awe than most sharks do.

In a rare spot of good news, the local government dropped the plan after national officials questioned its legality, but a future cull hasn’t been ruled out. Still, it’s worth upholding this turnaround as an example of why speaking out on animal rights can be successful. We don’t need to just sit back and watch the extinction of any species that doesn’t directly benefit us, while of course recognizing that fishers have to eat too. Some have proposed reimbursing fishers or using acoustic deterrents instead of mass slaughter.

But it’s more than just Greenland sharks at risk, with an estimated 79 million sharks dying in fisheries in 2019. At least 25 million of those species are threatened. As coral reefs struggle to survive, many sharks are losing their main food source, but humans are to blame for that one. These animals can be dangerous, same as a grizzly bear or elephant, but people tend to value sharks a lot less. This is in spite of their critical role in a healthy environment. Sharks aren’t monsters, they evolved to fill very specific roles in the ocean — a huge block in the Jenga of life — and if they go, our oceans would dramatically tumble in ways that would negatively impact humans too.

“Jaws” is a fantastic film if you can suspend your disbelief about a great white being the menace of the seas. That’s really us, but it doesn’t have to be.

The post Leave the Greenland sharks alone appeared first on Salon.com.