Albatrosses Are Going To Hell Too

From Science Daily:

On the island of Oahu, in Hawaii, 31% of nests are female-female pairs. Female pairs raise fewer chicks than male-female pairs, but given the shortage of males, fewer chicks are better than none. Since albatross can only raise one chick each year, females stay together for multiple years for each to reproduce. This unusual strategy may explain why Laysan Albatross are successfully re-colonizing islands.

Unrelated same-sex individuals pairing together and cooperating to raise offspring over many years is a rare occurrence in the animal kingdom. Cooperative breeding, in which animals help raise offspring that are not their own, is often attributed to kin selection when individuals are related, or altruism when individuals are unrelated.

via Sully

Russian Bird Boy Found

A social worker in Russia found a 7-year-old boy living in a 2 bedroom apartment whose mother treated like a bird:

Pravda said the boy's 31-year-old mum did not talk him and treated him like a bird, forcing him to learn avian language.

...Volskaya said: “When you start talking to him, he chirps."

And she added that the boy becomes frustrated at not being able to communicate and flaps his arms.

The boy is now in a medical facility where nurses charge people 30 rubles to gawk at the sideshow.

via The Sun