Wild Biology News - September 2009 Archives

Hyenas cooperate, problem-solve better than primates (9/30/2009)

Spotted hyenas may not be smarter than chimpanzees, but a new study shows that they outperform the primates on cooperative problem-solving tests. ...> Full Article

Researchers go underground to reveal 850 new species (9/29/2009)

Australian researchers have discovered a huge number of new species of invertebrate animals living in underground water, caves and "micro-caverns" amid the harsh conditions of the Australian outback. ...> Full Article

Great tits eat bats in times of need (9/27/2009)

Necessity is the mother of invention: Great Tits eat hibernating common pipistrelle bats under harsh conditions of snow cover. This remarkable newly-acquired behaviour was observed by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and their colleagues in a cave in Hungary. When the researchers offered the birds alternative feed, they ate it and showed little or no interest in flying into the cave again. (Biology Letters, online prepublication from September 9, 2009). ...> Full Article

Migrating monarch butterflies 'nose' their way to Mexico (9/26/2009)

Since the late 1970s scientists have studied the fascinating annual migration of monarch butterflies from across eastern North America to a single location in Mexico. Neurobiologists at UMass Medical School have now found that a key mechanism that helps steer the butterflies to their ultimate destination resides not in the insects' brains, as previously thought, but in their antennae, a surprising discovery that provides an entirely new perspective of the antenna's role in migration. ...> Full Article

Research team finds first evolutionary branching for bilateral animals (9/25/2009)

In the most computationally intensive phylogenetic analysis to date, an international research team led by Brown University has found the first evolutionary branching for bilateral animals. The researchers determined that the flatworm group Acoelomorpha is a product of the deepest split within the bilateral creatures -- multi-celled organisms that, like humans, have symmetrical body forms. Results appear online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. ...> Full Article

Northern brown bears discovered feeding on whitefish runs (9/24/2009)

It is well documented that brown (grizzly) bears prey on major runs of salmon, charr and trout. In 2007, researchers were surprised to spot a brown bear caching whitefish near a stream in the Mackenzie Delta region of the Northwest Territories. This sighting has researchers advising increased care in petroleum extraction and infrastructure development within the area. ...> Full Article

New species of ghostshark from California and Baja California (9/23/2009)

Academy scientists recently named a new species of chimaera, an ancient and bizarre group of fishes distantly related to sharks, from the coast of Southern California and Baja California, Mexico. The new species, the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark, was described in the September issue of the international journal Zootaxa by a research team including Academy Research Associates David Ebert and Douglas J. Long. This is the first new species of cartilaginous fish to be described from California waters since 1947. ...> Full Article

New species discovered on whale skeletons (9/22/2009)

When a whale dies, it sinks to the seafloor and becomes food for an entire ecosystem. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have discovered previously unknown species that feed only on dead whales -- and use DNA technology to show that the species diversity in our oceans may be higher than previously thought. ...> Full Article

Salmon migration mystery explored on Idaho's Clearwater River (9/20/2009)

Temperature differences and slow-moving water at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers in Idaho might delay the migration of threatened fall Chinook salmon salmon and allow them to grow larger before reaching the Pacific Ocean. To find out if that's the case, a team of Northwest researchers are implanting young fish with acoustic and radio tags to track their movement and using hydrological sensors to measure water temperature and speed. ...> Full Article

Study of isolated snakes could help shed light on venom composition (9/19/2009)

While developing a more efficient, safer way to extract venom, University of Florida researchers noticed the venom delivered by an isolated population of Florida cottonmouth snakes may be changing in response to their diet. ...> Full Article

For carnivorous plants, slow but steady wins the race (9/18/2009)

The existence of carnivorous plants has fascinated botanists and nonbotanists alike for centuries and raises the question, "Why are some plants carnivorous?" By measuring the construction cost of carbon needed to create these plant structures and comparing it to the payback time, researchers were able to determine how beneficial a trap might be to a plant. ...> Full Article

Barcoding endangered sea turtles (9/17/2009)

A new paper published in the early online edition of Molecular Ecology Resources shows that DNA barcodes can quickly and accurately determine the species identity of specimens collected from of all seven endangered sea turtles. ...> Full Article

Migrating birds chill to fatten up (9/16/2009)

Most migrating birds can't carry enough fuel to reach their destinations, so refuel en route. However the aviators expend twice as much energy during stopovers as they use in transit. Wondering whether migrating blackcaps save energy by dropping their body temperature during stopovers, Michał Wojciechowski and Berry Pinshow measured the bird's temperatures as they refuelled and found that they drop their body temperatures at night by up to 30 percent to conserve energy and fatten faster. ...> Full Article

Even singers in the bird world have to deal with cover artists (9/15/2009)

New study reveals how birds sometimes imitate to communicate ...> Full Article

Flips, flops and cartwheels (9/14/2009)

Scientists discover gecko tail has a mind of its own ...> Full Article

A boy for every girl? Not even close (9/13/2009)

In a perfect world, for every boy there would of course be a girl, but a new study shows that actual sex ratios can sometimes sway very far from that ideal. In fact, the male-to-female ratio of one tropical butterfly has shifted rapidly over time and space, driven by a parasite that specifically kills males of the species, reveals a report published online on September 10 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. ...> Full Article

Arctic oil: A boon for nest predators (9/12/2009)

A new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and other groups reveals how oil development in the Arctic is impacting some bird populations by providing "subsidized housing" to predators, which nest and den around drilling infrastructure and supplement their diets with garbage -- and nesting birds. ...> Full Article

Electrical circuit runs entirely off power in trees (9/11/2009)

For the first time researchers have run an electrical circuit entirely off power in trees. The findings suggest a new power source for wireless sensors -- and a way to monitor tree health. ...> Full Article

Self-amputation: Gecko's tail is its insurance policy (9/11/2009)

Scientists from Clemson University and the University of Calgary have found that the self-severed tail of some geckos shows a complex pattern of repeating movements to distract the attacker. ...> Full Article

Mother knows best (9/11/2009)

Scientists have found new evidence to explain how female insects can influence the father of their offspring, even after mating with up to ten males. A team has found that female crickets are able to control the amount of sperm that they store from each mate to select the best father for their young. The research suggests females may be using their abdominal muscles to control the amount of sperm stored from each mate. ...> Full Article

Study examines the evolutionary fate of 'useless' traits (9/10/2009)

Scientists ask why some traits break down quickly while others persist over time ...> Full Article

The first DNA barcodes of commonly traded bushmeat are published (9/9/2009)

Researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, the University of Colorado, and other institutions have published the DNA barcodes of commonly traded bushmeat from Central Africa and South America. DNA barcodes -- short genetic sequences that can be readily obtained and pinpoint the species of origin of any product -- offer wildlife enforcement a new tool in the international trade of wildlife. ...> Full Article

Monkey brains signal the desire to explore (9/8/2009)

Sticking with what you know often comes at the price of learning about more favorable alternatives. Managing this trade-off is easy for many, but not for those with conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or obsessive-compulsive disorder who are trapped in simple routines. ...> Full Article

Why solitary reptiles lay eggs in communal nests (9/7/2009)

Reptiles are not known to be the most social of creatures. But when it comes to laying eggs, female reptiles can be remarkably communal, often laying their eggs in the nests of other females. New research in the September issue of the Quarterly Review of Biology suggests that this curiously out-of-character behavior is far more common in reptiles than was previously thought. ...> Full Article

Chimpanzees develop 'specialized tool kits' to catch army ants (9/6/2009)

First evidence of multiple tool use suggests 'sustainable' food-harvesting techniques ...> Full Article

Monkeys get a groove on, but only to monkey music (9/5/2009)

A new report by Charles Snowdon, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and musician David Teie of the University of Maryland shows that a monkey called the cotton-top tamarin responds to music. The catch? These South American monkeys are essentially immune to human music, but they respond appropriately to "monkey music." ...> Full Article

Wrestling with bighorn sheep (9/4/2009)

University of Alberta researcher David Coltman wrestles with bighorn mountain sheep to gauge their personalities. Coltman, a U of A biology professor, is part of a team that traps the animals in a plywood enclosure on a mountaintop in the Rockies. He and the research team are trying to figure out if personality type has anything to do with how long a mountain sheep lives or how many offspring it produces. ...> Full Article

Termites eavesdrop on competitors to survive (9/3/2009)

The drywood termite, Cryptotermes secundus, eavesdrops on its more aggressive subterranean competitor, Coptotermes acinaciformis, to avoid contact with it, according to scientists from CSIRO Entomology and the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy. ...> Full Article

Moths cloaked in color (9/2/2009)

In a new Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, James Miller revises the taxonomy of the Dioptinae, a subfamily of moths that have conquered the day in the tropical Americas. The roughly 500 described dioptines have a wide diversity of wing types -- from blue to yellow-stripes to clear -- and converge with another group of diurnal insects that probably evolved from a nocturnal, brown moth, the butterflies. ...> Full Article

Mice living in sandy hills quickly evolved lighter coloration (9/1/2009)

Area where glaciers dumped sand some 10,000 years ago is now inhabited by pale mice ...> Full Article