Wild Biology Research

Decoding the long calls of the orangutan (3/10/2010)

Research into the long calls of male orangutans in Borneo has given scientists new insight into how these solitary apes communicate through dense jungle. An acoustic analysis of the calls, published today in Ethology, reveals that the calls not only serve to attract females, but also contain information on the identity and the context of the caller. ...> Full Article

Barnacles prefer upwelling currents, enriching food chains in the Galapagos (3/10/2010)

The barnacle, a key thread in the marine food web, was thought to be missing along rocky coasts dominated by upwelling. Now a research team headed by Brown University marine ecologist Jon Witman has found the opposite to be true: Barnacle populations thrive in vertical upwelling zones in moderately deep waters in the Galapagos Islands. The findings appear in Ecological Monographs. ...> Full Article

Ancient corals hold new hope for reefs (3/9/2010)

Fossil corals, up to half a million years old, are providing fresh hope that coral reefs may be able to withstand the huge stresses imposed on them by today's human activity.Reef ecosystems were able to persist through massive environmental changes imposed by sharply falling sea levels during previous ice ages, an international scientific team has found. This provides new hope for their capacity to endure the increasing human impacts forecast for the 21st century. ...> Full Article

Bringing bison back to North American landscapes (3/8/2010)

The next 10 to 20 years could be extremely significant for restoring wild populations of American bison to their original range, including the Canadian Rockies, according to a new international study on the species released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. ...> Full Article

If bonobo Kanzi can point as humans do, what other similarities can rearing reveal? (3/7/2010)

You may have more in common with Kanzi, Panbanisha and Nyota, three language-competent bonobos living at Great Ape Trust, than you thought. And those similarities, right at your fingertip, might one day tell scientists more about the effect of culture on neurological disorders that limit human expression. A recently published pointing study supports and expands on Great Ape Trust assertion that the success of language studies with bonobos is tied to rearing. ...> Full Article

Pesticide atrazine can turn male frogs into females (3/6/2010)

The herbicide atrazine, one of the world's most widely used pesticides, wreaks havoc with the sex lives of adult male frogs, emasculating three-quarters of them and turning one in 10 into females, according to a new study by UC Berkeley biologists. These changes occur at atrazine levels below what the EPA considers safe for drinking water. The changes skew sex ratios in the frog population and could be a major cause of amphibian decline worldwide. ...> Full Article

How can accidental captures of loggerhead turtles be reduced? (3/5/2010)

Spanish scientists have studied interactions between the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and fishing gear such as longline hooks used at the water surface, mass beachings, and the effects of climate change on these animals. In order to reduce captures of this marine species without causing economic losses for fishermen, the scientists are proposing that fishing in the summer should only be carried out by night and in areas more than 35 nautical miles from land. ...> Full Article

Small wings travel far to spread West Nile virus (3/5/2010)

West Nile virus set the country abuzz when it rapidly spread from coast to coast just a few years after arriving in the United States. Most experts assumed birds were responsible for moving the virus across the country, but a paper published today in the journal Molecular Ecology finds that smaller wings may be to blame. ...> Full Article

A convincing mimic: Scientists report octopus imitating flounder in the Atlantic (3/5/2010)

MBL Senior Scientist and cephalopod expert Roger Hanlon and his colleagues report the exceptional camouflage capabilities of the Atlantic longarm octopus, Macrotritopus defilippi, whose strategy for avoiding predators includes expertly disguising itself as a flounder. While Hanlon and others have documented two other species of octopuses imitating flounder in Indonesian waters, this is the first report of flounder mimicry by an Atlantic octopus, and only the fourth convincing case of mimicry for cephalopods. ...> Full Article

Study shows natural antioxidants give top barn swallows a leg on competitors (3/4/2010)

A new University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates North American barn swallows outperform their peers in reproduction -- the "currency" of evolutionary change -- by maintaining a positive balance of antioxidants commonly sold in health food stores. ...> Full Article

Fish can recognize a face based on UV pattern alone (3/4/2010)

Two species of damselfish may look identical -- not to mention drab -- to the human eye. But that's because, in comparison to the fish, all of us are essentially colorblind. A new study published online on Feb. 25 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveals that the fish can easily tell one species from another based entirely on the shape of the ultraviolet patterns on their faces. ...> Full Article

New clues found linking larger animals to colder climates (3/3/2010)

A pair of University of Houston researchers found a possible new solution to a 163-year-old puzzle. Ecological factors can now be added to physiology to explain why animals grow bigger in the cold. Their results were published in the February issue of the American Naturalist, offering new insight to Bergmann's rule that animals grow larger at high, cold latitudes than their counterparts closer to the equator, hypothesizing that better food makes high-latitude animals bigger. ...> Full Article

The bigger the animal, the stiffer the 'shoes' (3/3/2010)

If a Tiger's feet were built the same way as a mongoose's feet, they'd have to be about the size of a hippo's feet to support the big cat's weight. But they're not. ...> Full Article

A magnetometer in the upper beak of birds? (3/2/2010)

Frankfurt neurobiologists show similar structural candidates for a magnetoreceptor in different bird species -- a cooperation with physicists of the Hamburg DESY. ...> Full Article

Grizzly bears move into polar bear habitat in Manitoba, Canada (3/1/2010)

Grizzly bears are moving into an area along the Hudson Bay that is traditionally inhabited by polar bears, and the sightings of grizzly bears are increasing in frequency. ...> Full Article