New study reveals why Nessie spotters haven't got the hump
They investigated the frequency of such imagery in postcards, finding that around 25-32% of all Nessie postcards have hooped imagery.
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However, this swimming method would be very inefficient, so no real animals would swim this way at the surface.
Those who claim to have seen Nessie seldom report hoops or humps - such description only occurs in around 1.5% of Nessie reports, implying that witnesses are not influenced by all the souvenirs and postcard imagery.
This result goes against previous work which suggests witnesses are quite often influenced by media and other portrayals of monsters.
In the Nessie case, witnesses may not have seen a real monster, but these recent results do suggest that most witnesses do try to report what they experienced.
Nessie merchandise (Image: Supplied)
Dr Paxton, from the University's Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM), said: "Scholars often assume that monsters are generated by cultural expectations, but it is always useful to test obvious hypotheses.
'In this case it really seems witness do not generally report the impossible, even though the hooped monster is a common portrayal of Nessie.'
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The Independent
06-08-2025
- The Independent
New research reveals elephants have been trying to communicate with us for years
Elephants are known for their intelligence, strong social bonds, and good memories. But do they communicate to show real intention? A new study suggests they do. The research showed that elephants gestured to ask for food when a person was around and that they kept gesturing when they didn't receive all the food. These are signs that the elephants are trying to communicate with intention. We spoke to lead author Vesta Eleuteri, a PhD candidate, to learn more about what this means and why it matters. Why did you study how elephants use gestures to communicate? Most of the research on elephant communication is on their calls and chemical signals, likely because of their extraordinary hearing and smell. How elephants communicate with gestures is comparatively less studied. But there are descriptions of elephants using many different body movements and displays in different contexts, which suggests a key role of gestures in elephant communication. But whether elephants gesture intentionally to others to communicate goals in mind has not been systematically explored before. My colleagues and I study the cognition and communication of animals to understand how complex cognitive skills evolved, which is what this article is based on. In our study, led by the University of Vienna and in collaboration with the University of St Andrews, the University of Portsmouth and City University of New York, we show that semi-captive elephants use many different gestures intentionally to ask a human to give them apples (their goal). We found that the elephants used 38 different gesture types intentionally. The elephants kept gesturing when they only got half the apples (only partially reached their goal), while they changed gestures when they got no apples (did not reach their goal), both key behaviours to establish intentional use. Why is it important to know whether their communication is intentional? The ability to intentionally communicate goals in mind using a variety of gestures might help elephants navigate their complex social lives. By showing that semi-captive elephants gesture intentionally to humans using many different gesture types, our study builds on the evidence that this ability is not unique to primates, but that it has repeatedly emerged during evolution. Here, we consider intentionality as 'goal-directed intentionality', which is the ability to communicate goals we have in mind to others. This was, in the past, considered to be a unique human skill. Today we know that all the other apes and even some other primates (although in a less flexible way) communicate intentionally using over 70 different gesture types to communicate many different goals in mind. Some examples include gesturing for things like 'come here'; 'give me that'; 'groom me'. In non-primates, this intentionality was shown only in a few animals, from guppy fish to Arabian babblers. But typically, this was done with one or two gestures and for specific goals, like 'follow me'. Elephants are distantly related to humans in evolution. We last shared a common ancestor with them over 100 million years ago. But, like apes, they are highly intelligent and live in complex societies where they have many different types of relationships (from kin to allies, friends and strangers). Also, there are descriptions of elephants using many different body movements and displays during many different contexts. These include when they greet, affiliate, play with each other or even when they travel together. What gestures did the elephants use, and how do you know they were on purpose? The elephants in semi-captivity often reached their trunks or swung them back and forth towards the human or the tray with apples. This made it clear they were communicating that they wanted the apples. To know whether the elephants were using their gestures intentionally, we applied the behavioural criteria first created to study the development of intentional communication in human infants. These are: audience directedness, persistence and elaboration. Signallers should use gestures when there is a recipient and appropriately according to whether he/she is looking or not (audience directedness). For example, if the recipient is not looking at them, they should use tactile gestures instead of visual gestures that the recipient would not see. After gesturing, signallers should wait for the recipient to react and, if the recipient does not react as they wanted, they should keep gesturing (persistence) or change gestures (elaboration) to clarify what they wanted. I can make an example. If I want to ask you to pass me the salt (my goal), I first should consider whether you are looking at me and, if you are, I may reach my hand towards the salt (audience directedness). 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Based on previous descriptions, wild elephants should use, intentionally, a few of the gestures we found (trunk reaches or swings) but maybe they don't use some of the 'more creative' ones like the 'blow leaf in the air' our elephant Pfumo had fun using. What's next for your research? We want to systematically test whether wild elephants gesture intentionally to each other, describe the repertoire of their intentional gestures and the goals (meanings) they use these gestures for (they may say to each other: 'travel with me', 'move away', 'stop that'). We have thousands of videos collected in two elephant populations in South Africa that I am video-coding for gestures and their intentional use. It will take time to define the repertoire and meanings of elephant intentional gestures. But we hope to someday do this and to compare the gestures of different populations to understand if elephants may have different 'gestural languages'. Studying animal communication offers 'a window' into our own language, into our minds, because it allows us to understand what, if anything, makes language unique. Showing that animals have so much in common with us makes people empathise more with them and care more about them, which is important for their conservation. Most importantly, studying animal communication is crucial because we can understand animals better and, if we know them better, we can take better measures to safeguard them.
Scottish Sun
31-07-2025
- Scottish Sun
Humans' love of booze comes from ape ancestors who ate fermented rotten fruit, major study finds
Booze was first produced by humans 9,000 years ago in China KING OF THE SWIGGERS Humans' love of booze comes from ape ancestors who ate fermented rotten fruit, major study finds HUMANS' love of booze comes from ape ancestors who ate fermented rotten fruit in the jungle, a study suggests. Scrumping by past primates explains why we evolved to be so 'astoundingly good at digesting alcohol', researchers believe. They say evidence from modern apes sheds a light on humans' fondness for alcohol — first produced deliberately in China about 9,000 years ago. Experts point out that today's apes polish off up to 10lb of mouldy jungle floor fruit a day which ferments and becomes alcoholic as it breaks down. It means the chimpanzees and gorillas end up spending a lot of their time tipsy. Researcher Professor Nathaniel Dominy, from Dartmouth College, US, said: 'Scrumping by the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees and humans about ten million years ago could explain why humans are so astoundingly good at digesting alcohol. 'We evolved to metabolise alcohol long before we ever figured out how to make it.' He added: 'Making it was one of the major drivers of the Neolithic Revolution that turned us from hunter-gatherers into farmers and changed the world. "Primatologists observe this pretty regularly but there has been an absence of a word for it.' The team used the word 'scrumping' — normally meaning stealing fruit — in the journal BioScience. Study co-author Professor Catherine Hobaiter, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, added: 'A fundamental feature of our relationship with alcohol is our tendency to drink together, whether a pint with friends or a large social feast.' 1 Humans love of booze comes from ape ancestors who ate fermented rotten fruit in the jungle, a study suggests Credit: Getty Incredible photo shows wild chimps sharing boozy fruit for first time Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme - Sun Club.
The Independent
29-07-2025
- The Independent
New evidence suggests we're living inside a giant void
Cosmologists have discovered new evidence from the early universe that suggests we are living in a giant void. After studying sound waves from the initial moments of the universe – essentially the sound of the Big Bang – researchers from the University of Portsmouth and the University of St Andrews found that the Earth and the Milky Way are likely situated within a low density cosmic void. The findings could explain one of the most puzzling and enduring problems in cosmology, known as 'Hubble tension'. This problem arises from the speed at which the universe is expanding, which varies depending on which technique is used to measure it. 'A potential solution to this inconsistency is that our galaxy is close to the centre of a large, local void,' said Dr Indranil Banik from the University of Portsmouth. 'It would cause matter to be pulled by gravity towards the higher density exterior of the void, leading to the void becoming emptier with time. As the void is emptying out, the velocity of objects away from us would be larger than if the void were not there. This, therefore, gives the appearance of a faster local expansion rate." This cosmic void has a density roughly 20 per cent lower than the universe's average matter density, explaining why our galaxy is expanding faster than the rest of the cosmos. The scientists studied measurements of sound waves from the early universe, known as Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs), collected over the last 20 years to reach their conclusion. 'Our results suggest that a universe with a local void is about 100 million times more likely than a cosmos without one,' said Dr Banik. 'This means the likelihood of a universe without a void fitting these data is equivalent to a fair coin landing heads 13 times in a row.' The findings were published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, in a study titled 'Testing the local void hypothesis using baryon acoustic oscillation measurements over the last 20 years'.
