BEAR MARKET: A plan to outlaw the international trade of polar bear skins, teeth and claws was nixed at a U.N. wildlife summit on Thursday, as Canada, Norway and Greenland shot down the idea despite U.S. support. Although some studies project polar bear numbers could fall by two-thirds in the next 40 years due to melting sea ice, several Arctic nations argued the proposal would hurt indigenous hunters without really helping polar bears. "Canada's goal is long-term survival of polar bears," the summit's Canadian representative tells the AP. "But Canada does not think the proposal is supported by facts." Indigenous Arctic people have hunted polar bears for generations, but trade of their products has grown since the early '90s, and combined with the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice driven by climate change, many experts are worried about their chances of surviving this century. "We're disappointed," a U.S. wildlife official said after the vote. It was the second major U.S.-backed proposal to fail so far during the 12-day summit, after China, Japan and Russia helped kill a plan aimed at protecting endangered sharks. (Sources: Associated Press, Vancouver Sun)

 

RAIL SIMPLE: Some 6 million people commute between Madrid and Barcelona each year, and up until 2008, 90 percent of them traveled by airplane, with the rest making a six-hour drive across the eastern Spanish countryside. But a 186-mph bullet train built two years ago has transformed their travels, the New York Times reports today, and may serve as a model for how other countries can get their commuters back on tracks. "Since the day this train opened, I have never, never set foot on the plane again," one Spanish lawyer tells the Times. "Why would anyone fly?" The train (pictured) isn't popular because of its environmental benefits, local experts say, but simply because it offers a better overall experience than other modes of travel. While its $200 ticket price is about the same as a plane ticket, and the train covers the 325-mile journey in about 2 hours and 38 minutes, it also removes many of the hassles associated with flying. "I can get to the station 10 minutes before it leaves," another regular commuter tells the Times. "This has changed the way I travel." (Source: New York Times) 

 

PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPEFISH: Male pipefish are the ones who get pregnant and give birth to the species' offspring — joining the closely related seahorse and sea dragon as the only animals with child-bearing men — but they don't always act very motherly toward their young once they hatch, according to a new study in the journal Nature. That's not to say they're always distant; a male pipefish can actually be a very nurturing father, report the Texas A&M University researchers, but only if he has the hots for his baby's mama. "The bottom line seems to be, if the male likes the mom, the kids are treated better," says one of the study's authors. Like male seahorses, male pipefish prefer large women, and seem to be calculating whether their kids are worth their effort based on their mates' heftiness, says another researcher, adding that "the whole phenomenon of male pregnancy is full of conflict and far more complex than we had previously realized." (Sources: ScienceDaily, Agence France-Presse)

 

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO: The old saying about copycat monkeys is true, but according to a team of Swiss researchers, they're much likelier to do what they see if they see a female doing it. Working with wild vervet monkeys in South Africa, scientists from Switzerland's University of Neuchatel taught three dominant males and three dominant females how to open wooden boxes that contained fruit, then watched as these "models" showed other monkeys how to get the fruit out. "We found that bystanders paid significantly more attention to female than male models," lead author Erica van de Waal tells the BBC. "[This] seemed to be the only factor influencing this social learning." There may be an evolutionary reason behind females' ability to captivate an audience, van de Waal adds: "Females are core group members with higher social status than males, and more knowledge about food resources in the home range." (Source: BBC News)

 

SEEING IS BEE-LIEVING: Bees see the world nearly five times faster than humans do, a team of British researchers report in the Journal of Neuroscience, and while high-speed vision is common among flying insects, this new study is the first evidence that bees' full-color vision can at least partially keep up with their fast flight speeds. Bees most likely evolved color vision to help them differentiate among the flowering plants they frequent, but seeing beyond black-and-white uses up more of their energy than simple monochrome sight would, so scientists have long wondered whether bees see in full color while zipping around at top speed. The answer, it turns out, is "sort of." While bees can see movement and brightness five times faster than humans can, they only see color about twice as fast — providing just enough visual information to help them locate their next meal. (Source: e! Science News)

 

— Russell McLendon