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Wild Biology News Archives Page 9
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 | The strongest creature in the world, the Hercules Beetle, has a colour-changing trick that scientists have long sought to understand. Research published today, Tuesday, 11 March, in the New Journal of Physics, details an investigation into the structure of the specie's peculiar protective shell which could aid design of 'intelligent materials'. ...> Full Article |
 | Invasive species can also have a surprisingly "creative" side ...> Full Article |
 | The first study of how individual wandering albatrosses find food shows that the birds rely heavily on their sense of smell. The birds can pick up a scent from several miles away, U.S. and French researchers have found. ...> Full Article |
 | A long-term study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the BioDiversity Research Institute, and other organizations has found and confirmed that environmental mercury-much of which comes from human-generated emissions-is impacting both the health and reproductive success of common loons in the Northeast. ...> Full Article |
 | Predators have considerably more influence than plants over how an ecosystem functions, according to a Yale study published Feb. 15 in Science that offers a revolutionary shift in thinking on the subject. ...> Full Article |
 | U.S. Forest Service scientists believe an Oregon State University graduate student working on a cooperative project with the agency's Pacific Southwest Research station on the Tahoe National Forest has photographed a wolverine, an animal whose presence has not been confirmed in California since the 1920s. ...> Full Article |
 | Antarctic fish species that adopts a winter survival strategy similar to hibernation ...> Full Article |
 | Like many northerners who head south to warmer climates for the winter, many Northern right whales also head south in November and stay into April. Their destination is the only known calving ground for this rare and endangered population-the waters off Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. When they arrive, NOAA scientists are there to greet them, and to take DNA samples. ...> Full Article |
 | Butterflies and moths are well known for their striking metamorphosis from crawling caterpillars to winged adults. In light of this radical change, not just in body form, but also in lifestyle, diet and dependence on particular sensory cues, it would seem unlikely that learned associations or memories formed at the larval or caterpillar stage could be accessible to the adult moth or butterfly. However, scientists at Georgetown University recently discovered that a moth can indeed remember what it learned as a caterpillar. Their findings are published in the March 5, 2008 edition of the journal PLoS ONE. ...> Full Article |
 | Charles Darwin maintained that the domesticated chicken derives from the red jungle fowl, but new research from Uppsala University now shows that the wild origins of the chicken are more complicated than that. ...> Full Article |
Wee creatures are key to Earth's environment
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 | As western states debate removing the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act, a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society cautions that doing so may result in an unintended decline in another species: the pronghorn, a uniquely North American animal that resembles an African antelope. ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists have recently found evidence that rain-making bacteria are widely distributed in the atmosphere. These biological particles could factor heavily into the precipitation cycle, affecting climate, agricultural productivity and even global warming ...> Full Article |
 | Biologists have developed a series of global maps that show where projected habitat loss and climate change are expected to drive the need for future reserves to prevent biodiversity loss. ...> Full Article |
 | Rats use their whiskers in a way that is closely related to the human sense of touch: Just as humans move their fingertips across a surface to perceive shapes and textures, rats twitch their whiskers to achieve the same goal. Now, in a finding that could help further understanding of perception across species, MIT neuroscientists have used high-speed video to reveal rat whiskers in action and show the tiny movements that underlie the rat's perception of its tactile environment. ...> Full Article |
 | Giant bluefin tuna are in trouble, primarily because the powerful muscles that propel their extensive ocean migrations come with an Achilles' heel: They're tasty. ...> Full Article |
 | Some of the smallest plants on the planet may play a vital role in some of the largest questions facing mankind today, according to marine scientists at the University of Portsmouth and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS). ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists find physical and genetic reasons for various juniper species' drought-resistance ...> Full Article |
 | Researchers have known for awhile that little whirlpools of air stirred up by insects' wing motions can help keep these small organisms aloft as they fly slowly or hover, two activities essential for food foraging. But how a weightier organism-a bat-manages to stay aloft during slow flight has remained unclear. ...> Full Article |
 | The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world. ...> Full Article |
 | Seabird colonies on islands are highly vulnerable to introduced rats, which find the ground-nesting birds to be easy prey. But the ecological impacts of rats on islands extend far beyond seabird nesting colonies, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. ...> Full Article |
 | Study suggests salamanders are "keystone" species ...> Full Article |
 | With the support of the Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), researchers from the CAS Institute of Microbiology (IOM) started a 5-million-yuan three-year research project on life in extreme conditions one year ago. Now the studies are making encouraging progress, announced the annual conference of the project held on 21 January in Beijing. ...> Full Article |
 | The return of the last of three Antarctic marine science research vessels marks the culmination of one of Australia's most ambitious International Polar Year projects, a census of life in the icy Southern Ocean known as the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census (CEAMARC). ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists have discovered Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) living and feeding down to depths of 3000 metres in the waters around the Antarctic Peninsula. Until now this shrimp-like crustacean was thought to live only in the upper ocean. The discovery completely changes scientists' understanding of the major food source for fish, squid, penguins, seals and whales. ...> Full Article |
 | Thousands of sick bats have been found in caves in New York state. While bat experts do not know what is causing the bats' demise, telltale signs include weight loss and white fungus around their noses. ...> Full Article |
 | Hunted to near extinction, sea otters are making a steady comeback along the Pacific coast. Their reintroduction, however, is expected to reduce the numbers of several key species of commercially valuable shellfish dramatically, such as sea urchins and geoducks. ...> Full Article |
 | How young migrating birds choose the nesting location of their first breeding season has been something of a mystery in the bird world. But a new study of the American redstart by the University of Maryland and Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center of the National Zoo suggests that the environmental conditions the birds face in their first year may help determine where they breed for the rest of their lives, a factor that could significantly affect the population as climate change makes their winter habitats hotter and drier. ...> Full Article |
 | The process of natural selection can act on human culture as well as on genes, a new study finds. ...> Full Article |
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