|
Wild Biology News - January 2010 Archives
 | A species of bird, which has only been observed alive on three previous occasions since it was first discovered in 1867, has been rediscovered in a remote land corridor in north-eastern Afghanistan. The discovery was made as part of an international collaboration, which included researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. ...> Full Article |
 | New research suggests that evolutionary changes in cognitive development underlie the extensive social and behavioral differences that exist between two closely related species of great apes. The study, published online on Jan. 28 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, enhances our understanding of our two closest living relatives, chimpanzees and the lesser-known bonobos, and may provide key insight into human evolution. ...> Full Article |
 | Martin Giurfa from the University of Toulouse, France, and Adrian Dyer from Monash University, Australia, have shown that bees can be trained to recognize human faces, so long as the insects are tricked into thinking that the faces are oddly shaped flowers. The insects use the arrangement of facial features to recognize and distinguish one face from another. The Franco-Australian collaboration publishes its discovery on Jan. 29, 2010, in the Journal of Experimental Biology. ...> Full Article |
 | Building on prior investigation into the biological mechanisms through which monarch butterflies are able to migrate up to 2,000 miles from eastern North America to a particular forest in Mexico each year, neurobiologists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have linked two related photoreceptor proteins found in butterflies to animal navigation using the Earth's magnetic field. ...> Full Article |
 | With high-pitched squeaks, clicks and chirps and ultra-sensitive hearing, toothed whales and some bats zero in on prey by emitting pulses of sound and interpreting the echoes that bounce back. ...> Full Article |
 | Shark pups born to virgin mothers can survive over the long-term, according to new research published Jan. 25 in the Journal of Heredity. The study shows for the first time that some virgin births can result in viable offspring. ...> Full Article |
 | Midwife toads that live in the mountains are highly likely to die from a serious fungal infection, called chytridiomycosis, whereas their infected relatives in the lowlands are not, according to new research published today in Ecology Letters. ...> Full Article |
 | Researchers at the University of Western Ontario (Western) led an international and multi-disciplinary study using micro-computed tomography systems to shed new light on the way bats echolocate. With echolocation, animals emit sounds and then listen to the reflected echoes of those sounds to form images of their surroundings in their brains. The study is published in the journal Nature. ...> Full Article |
 | Domestic dogs have followed their own evolutionary path, twisting Darwin's directive "survival of the fittest" to their own needs -- and have proved him right in the process, according to a new study by biologists Chris Klingenberg, of the University of Manchester and Abby Drake, of the College of the Holy Cross in the US. ...> Full Article |
 | Some Canadian shorebirds have had to get fit or die trying. Research published in the open-access journal BMC Ecology has found that the average Pacific dunlin has lost weight and spends more time in flight as a response to the increased threat of predation from their arch-enemy, the peregrine falcon. ...> Full Article |
 | The parasite that causes malignant malaria in humans has been detected in gorillas, along with two new species of malaria parasites, reports a study co-authored by UC Irvine biologist Francisco Ayala. ...> Full Article |
A team of researchers including scientists from the University of Florida has shown insect colonies follow some of the same biological "rules" as individuals, a finding that suggests insect societies operate like a single "superorganism" in terms of their physiology and life cycle.
...> Full Article
 | To the casual observer in the Gulf of Mexico, the seemingly sluggish red grouper is more of a couch potato than a busy beaver. But a new study led by researchers at the Florida State University reveals the fish to be both architect and ecosystem engineer. ...> Full Article |
Nova Southeastern University on Friday received $15 million in federal stimulus money to build America's largest coral reef research center.
...> Full Article
 | Genetic analysis refute the hypothesis that an overly abundant population of minke whales is creating too much competition over food for populations of other whale species to rebound, according to a new study supported by the Lenfest Ocean Program and published this week in the journal Molecular Ecology. The study's findings indicate that the Southern Ocean minke whale population around Antarctica has not grown unnaturally large in the wake of industrial whaling. ...> Full Article |
 | The poster child for sustainable fish farming -- the tilapia -- is actually a problematic invasive species for the native fish of the islands of Fiji, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups. ...> Full Article |
One year in to a project to save one of the UK's top sites for pondlife, amazing new species are being revealed for the first time.Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London working with Dorset Wildlife Trust have discovered an astonishing variety of minute aquatic organisms, so small as to be invisible to the naked eye.
...> Full Article
Sleeping is known to help humans stabilize information and tasks learned during the preceding day. Now, researchers have found that sleep has similar effects upon learning in starlings, a discovery that will open up future research into how the brain learns and preserves information.
The research, published Wednesday by the Journal of Neuroscience, fills an important gap between human behavioral findings and animal experiments of how the brain changes after learning and sleep.
...> Full Article
A researcher studying how the orchid genus Angraecum has adapted to different pollinators on Reunion Island has used motion sensitive night cameras to capture the first known occurrence of a cricket functioning as a pollinator of flowering plants.
...> Full Article
 | Scientists have long puzzled over how iguanas, a group of lizards mostly found in the Americas, came to inhabit the isolated Pacific islands of Fiji and Tonga. For years, the leading explanation has been that progenitors of the island species must have rafted there, riding across the Pacific on a mat of vegetation or floating debris. But new research in the January issue of the American Naturalist suggests a more grounded explanation. ...> Full Article |
 | Spanish scientists have described the lichen Phylloblastia fortuita, new to the Iberian Peninsula and to science. Another species from the same family, Phylloblastia dispersa, is also a new entry for Europe and is the first time it has been found outside the tropics. ...> Full Article |
 | A new and previously unknown species of spider has been discovered in the dune of the Sands of Samar in the southern Arava region by a team of scientists from the Department of Biology in the University of Haifa-Oranim. Unfortunately, however, its habitat is endangered. "The discovery of this new spider illustrates our obligation to preserve the dune," says Dr. Shanas, who headed the team of scientists. ...> Full Article |
 | The new Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System is better suited to track the migration of juvenile salmon in deep, fast-moving rivers than comparable methods, suggests a paper published in the January edition of the journal Fisheries. ...> Full Article |
 | A recent increase in winter mortality in Atlantic puffins could be due to worsening conditions within the North Sea, according to new findings published in the scientific journal Marine Biology. The study used geolocation technology to track puffins from the Isle of May National Nature Reserve, home to the largest colony of puffins in the North Sea. The puffin population on the Isle of May has declined by 30 percent in recent years. ...> Full Article |
 | Charles Darwin spent eight years studying barnacles and their genitalia. In much less time than that, University of Cincinnati evolutionary biologist Michal Polak (and co-author Arash Rashed now at the University of California, Berkeley) have confirmed one of Darwin's theories: that genitalia complexities in some male species have developed because they assist the male in "holding her securely." Polak's findings were just published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, "Microscale Laser Surgery Reveals Adaptive Function of Male Intromittent Genitalia." ...> Full Article |
 | An analysis of 27 years of data shows that polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region are occurring more frequently on land and in open water than on ice during the fall. ...> Full Article |
 | Putting yourself in the line of fire is shown to reap huge rewards, in a new study published this week in Science. ...> Full Article |
 | Camera traps deep in the Sumatran jungle have captured first-time images of a rare female tiger and her cubs, giving researchers unique insight into the elusive tiger's behavior. Specially designed video cameras installed by WWF-Indonesia's researchers caught the mother tiger and her cubs on film as they stopped to sniff and check out the camera trap. ...> Full Article |
Animals produce a tremendous diversity of sounds for communication to perform life's basic functions, from courtship and parental care to defense and foraging. Explaining this diversity in sound production is important for understanding the ecology, evolution and behavior of species. Scientists have presented a theory of acoustic communication that shows that much of the diversity in animal vocal signals can be explained based on the energetic constraints of sound production.
...> Full Article
 | Unlike Hawaii and other island groups, no native bird has gone extinct in the Galapagos Islands, although some are in danger. But University of Utah biologists found that finches -- the birds Darwin studied -- develop antibodies against two parasites that moved to the Galapagos, suggesting the birds can fight the alien invaders. ...> Full Article |
 | An international team of scientists led by a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory investigator has discovered that the deadly facial tumors decimating Australia's Tasmanian devil population probably originated in Schwann cells, a type of tissue that cushions and protects nerve fibers. The findings, which open new avenues for research into treatments and vaccines for this disease, will appear in the journal Science on January 1. ...> Full Article |
|
|
Subscribe
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
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?
Grizzly bears move into polar bear habitat in Manitoba, Canada