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Wild Biology News - February 2010 Archives
 | In a study appearing in the Feb. 16 Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Harvard researchers demonstrated that simple changes in beak length and depth can explain the important morphological diversity of all beak shapes within the famous genus Geospiza. Broadly, the work suggests that a few, simple mathematical rules may be responsible for complicated biological adaptations. ...> Full Article |
 | Social insects -- ants in particular -- are usually thought of as selfless entities willing to sacrifice everything for their comrades. However, new research suggests that ant queens are also prepared to compromise the welfare of the entire colony in order to retain the throne. ...> Full Article |
 | The squirrels littering your lawn with acorns as they bound overhead will live to plague your yard longer than the ones that aerate it with their burrows, according to a University of Illinois study. Researchers found that tree-dwelling mammals live longer than those who live on the ground. Humans are an exception, but tree-dwelling ancestors may explain that. ...> Full Article |
 | A new paper by researchers at George Mason University and the University of Otago in New Zealand shows a strong link between the diversity of organisms at the bottom of the food chain and the diversity of mammals at the top. The paper, published in Science, says that throughout the last 30 million years, changes in the diversity of whale species living at any given time period correlates with the evolution and diversification of diatoms, tiny, abundant algae that live in the ocean. ...> Full Article |
New research from scientists in Liverpool has revealed the relationship between agility and vision in mammals.
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 | A new, online identification guide to the Marine Plants of Pacific Panama includes reports of new macroalgae for Panama and the Eastern Pacific. ...> Full Article |
Many modern dolphin brains are significantly larger than those of humans and second in mass to the human brain when corrected for body size, says an Emory scientist. Some dolphin brains exhibit features correlated with complex intelligence, including a large expanse of neocortical volume that is more convoluted than that of humans, extensive insular and cingulated regions, and highly differentiated cellular regions. This has ethical and policy considerations.
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 | Modern methods can answer a multitude of questions, but sometimes traditional techniques are superior. Authorities in northern Quebec, Canada, found this to their cost, when they relied upon statistical data to monitor moose populations. In this instance the traditional methods of monitoring and managing moose, used by the Cree hunters, was a better measure of moose population. ...> Full Article |
 | When small migratory birds have crossed extensive ecological barriers, such as deserts or oceans, they must land to replenish their fat reserves. A researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany, and a team of Italian colleagues measured the duration of the stopovers made by garden warblers on an island off the Italian coast. There they observed that fat birds usually move on the night of their arrival, while lean birds interrupt their journey for an average of almost two days. ...> Full Article |
 | Just because cricket moms abandon their eggs before they hatch doesn't mean they don't pass wisdom along to their babies. New research in The American Naturalist shows that crickets can warn their unborn babies about potential predator threats. ...> Full Article |
 | Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have peered deep into the eye of the chicken and found a masterpiece of biological design. Scientists mapped five types of light receptors in the chicken's eye. They discovered the receptors were laid out in interwoven mosaics that maximized the chicken's ability to see many colors in any given part of the retina, the light-sensing structure at the back of the eye. ...> Full Article |
 | Butterfly experts have suspected for more than 150 years that vision plays a key role in explaining wing color diversity. Now, for the first time, research led by UC Irvine biologists proves this theory true - at least in nine Heliconius species. ...> Full Article |
 | A team of Catalan researchers has studied the changes in the make-up of animal populations following forest fires, and have concluded that malacological fauna are a good indicator of forest recovery. The conclusions of this study will help to ensure that post-fire forestry operations that do not harm these species of mollusks, which are sensitive to microclimatic conditions of the soil and vegetation structure. ...> Full Article |
 | Honey bees warn their nest mates about dangers they encounter while feeding with a special signal that's akin to a "stop" sign for bees. When foragers were attacked by competitors from nearby colonies fighting for food at an experimental feeder, they produced a specific signal to stop nest mates from recruiting others to the dangerous location. ...> Full Article |
 | Bees prefer nectar with small amounts of nicotine and caffeine over nectar that does not comprise these substances at all, a study from the University of Haifa reveals. "This could be an evolutionary development intended, as in humans, to make the bee addicted," states Prof. Ido Izhaki, one of the researchers who conducted the study. ...> Full Article |
 | A University of Georgia study has found that monarch butterflies that migrate long distances have evolved significantly larger and more elongated wings than their stationary cousins, differences that are consistent with traits known to enhance flight ability in other migratory species. ...> Full Article |
 | Elephants can move fast, but can they ever be said to be truly "running"? Norman Heglund and colleagues from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, have measured the colossal forces generated by high-speed elephants and found that the animals do conserve energy like runners by recycling it like a pogo stick, however, they do not bounce like runners. What is more they are three times more economical than human runners. ...> Full Article |
 | In order to regulate their body temperature as efficiently as possible, wild female bats switch between two strategies depending on both the ambient temperature and their reproductive status. These findings by Iris Pretzlaff, from the University of Hamburg in Germany, and colleagues, were just published online in Springer's journal Naturwissenschaften -- The Science of Nature. ...> Full Article |
 | Evidence from the Challenger Deep-? the deepest surveyed point in the world's oceans-? suggests that tiny single-celled creatures called foraminifera living at extreme depths of more than ten kilometres build their homes using material that sinks down from near the ocean surface. ...> Full Article |
An important part of individual differences within species is due to variation in the underlying genes. One gene, the dopamine receptor D4 gene, however, is known to influence novelty seeking and exploration behaviour in a range of species, including humans and birds. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen now show that the gene's influence on birds' behavior differs markedly between wild populations of great tits.
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Researchers from the University of Minnesota have found that the hydrodynamic environment of fish can shape their physical form and swimming style.
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 | A study published today in Science, by researchers at Rothamsted Research, the Met Office, the Natural Resources Institute, and the Universities of Exeter, Greenwich and York, sheds new light on the flight behaviors that enable insects to undertake long-distance migrations, and highlights the remarkable abilities of these insect migrants. ...> Full Article |
 | In the natural stream communities of Trinidad, guppy populations live close together, but evolve differently. Upstream, fewer predators mean more guppies but less food for each; they grow slowly and larger, reproduce later and less, and die older. Downstream, where predators thrive, guppies eat more, grow rapidly, stay small, reproduce quickly and die younger. ...> Full Article |
 | New research conducted at the University of Maryland's bat lab shows Egyptian fruit bats find a target by NOT aiming their guiding sonar directly at it. Instead, they alternately point the sound beam to either side of the target. The new findings by researchers from Maryland and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel suggest that this strategy optimizes the bats' ability to pinpoint the location of a target, but also makes it harder for them to detect a target in the first place. ...> Full Article |
 | The loss of wetlands in the prairie pothole region of central North America due to a warmer and drier climate will negatively affect millions of waterfowl that depend on the region for food, shelter and raising young, according to research published today in the journal BioScience. ...> Full Article |
 | Sharing is a behavior on which day care workers and kindergarten teachers tend to offer young humans a lot of coaching. But for our ape cousins the bonobos, sharing just comes naturally. ...> Full Article |
Writing in BioScience, wildlife researchers argue that advances in animal control techniques mean it should be feasible and acceptable to introduce small, managed populations of wolves into a variety of parks and other sites for the purpose of ecosystem restoration. This practice could also increase the public's appreciation of wolves and boost ecotourism.
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 | It has been thought that young fish, lacking well-developed hearing organs, could not perceive the sounds made by their larger, older relatives. Now, researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology have used a combined fish tank and sound-proof chamber to show for the first time that catfish of all ages can communicate with one another. ...> Full Article |
 | A study of animals visible to the naked eye and living in and on the seabed -- the "macrobenthos" -- of the Straits of Magellan and Drake Passage will help scientists understand the biodiversity, biogeography and ecology of the Magellanic region. ...> Full Article |
 | What happens when a fig wasp lays its eggs but fails to pollinate the fig? The trees get even by dropping those figs to the ground, killing the baby wasps inside. ...> Full Article |
 | Putting function before form, members of the Perissodinus genus of fish have developed a hugely lopsided jaw that provides a distinct feeding advantage. Research published in the open-access journal BMC Biology describes how these scale-eating fish, called cichlids, develop mouths directed either to the left or the right -- enabling them to feed on the opposite side of their prey. ...> Full Article |
Humans and human activities have clearly altered the Earth's landscape and oceans in countless ways, often to the detriment of other plants and animals. But a new report published online on January 28 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows just what a tangled food web we've woven.
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Ancient DNA from rare fossil reveals that polar bears evolved recently and adapted quickly
'Anaconda' meets 'Jurassic Park': Study shows ancient snakes ate dinosaur babies
Scientists locate apparent hydrothermal vents off Antarctica
Mars Express heading for closest flyby of Phobos
Artificial bee silk a big step closer to reality
Predicting the fate of stem cells
Artificial foot recycles energy for easier walking
New fiber nanogenerators could lead to electric clothing
What drives our genes? Researchers map the first complete human epigenome
Juggling enhances connections in the brain
Tracking down the human 'odorprint'
Fill 'er up - with algae
Scientists discover quantum fingerprints of chaos
Researchers help identify cows that gain more while eating less
American pika are thriving in the Sierra Nevada and southwestern Great Basin
Decoding the long calls of the orangutan
Barnacles prefer upwelling currents, enriching food chains in the Galapagos
Bringing bison back to North American landscapes
If bonobo Kanzi can point as humans do, what other similarities can rearing reveal?
Pesticide atrazine can turn male frogs into females
How can accidental captures of loggerhead turtles be reduced?
A convincing mimic: Scientists report octopus imitating flounder in the Atlantic
Study shows natural antioxidants give top barn swallows a leg on competitors
Fish can recognize a face based on UV pattern alone
New clues found linking larger animals to colder climates
The bigger the animal, the stiffer the 'shoes'
A magnetometer in the upper beak of birds?