Animals: They’re Just Like Us

Also in today’s links: earthworms and rock rats and snakes, oh my!

• An orangutan teaches herself to whistle — the first known instance of a primate teaching itself to copy a sound from another species.
• Earthworms are pulling some attention away from C. elegans. Once a draft genome sequence is complete, one researcher thinks the worms could become a “genetic model organism” for the study of environmental soil science.
• We should all look so happy as these snow monkeys enjoying the hot springs. Some spa ought to use this in an ad campaign.
• The variety of species first recorded by scientists in the last few decades in the Greater Mekong region include an evil green snake straight out of central casting, and a cute rodent whose kin was first sighted by scientists at a Laotian food market.
• And speaking of cute, otters are inhabiting the cities of Britain, abandoning the countryside and rural riverbanks to be urban dwellers.