A really interesting article has been written by NATALIE ANGIER for the New York Times on various ways that animals and insects take advantage of the environment, and each other, in order to get a chemical leg-up on their competitors or pass on advantages to their young. I didn’t know that male cardinals and house finches used carotenoids found in berries to enhance their bright, red, new batch of feathers in the spring.

Tags: animals, biochemicals, insects