Are city moths starting to avoid lights?
With houses lit in every room and roads flooded by streetlights, where humans reside we light up the night sky, and the resulting pollution of light is known to have negative effects on human and...
View Article3D scans reveal corals could be eaten faster as oceans acidify
The growth of the coral organisms’ hard, calcium carbonate skeletons form the backbone of coral reefs, upon which other organisms grow. A key aspect in the development of reefs is not only the rate at...
View ArticleWhen wing muscles are for flirting, not flying
The courtship displays of tropical birds are fascinating showcases of evolutionary adaptations and sexual selection. New evidence shows how speedy wing muscles can be adapted for more than flight in...
View ArticlePlease, Don’t Touch: Snorkelers Harm Corals More Than They Think, Awareness...
Floating along over a colourful, vibrant coral reef is a quintessential holiday experience that many tourists enjoy when they travel to tropical locales. Alarmingly, recent research indicates that...
View ArticleA Healthy Taste for Foreign Food – Endangered Kite Enjoys Invasive Snails
The spread of species into environments in which they don’t historically belong is a factor at the forefront of ecosystem change. The impacts of these ‘invasions’ are often difficult to predict, and...
View ArticleThe eyes have it: solving the mystery of the ‘Tully Monster’
The further you go back in evolutionary time, the more bizarre life seems to get. There are a plethora of fossils, dating back to the infancy of animal evolution, that seemingly defy any clear...
View ArticleThe Mystery of the Binturong’s ‘Popcorn’ Aroma Revealed
Binturongs are the ‘bearcat’ of Southeast Asia. Neither a bear nor a cat, they are an altogether different sort of carnivore. For a start, they don’t actually eat a lot of meat, choosing instead to...
View ArticleCan we save the Sumatran Rhino from Extinction?
The Critically Endangered Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) recently made waves in the media after being found in the wild in Indonesian Borneo for the first time in 40 years. The excitement...
View ArticleAre Critically Endangered Skates Landed by UK Fisheries Despite Ban?
Since 2009 it has been prohibited for EU vessels to catch certain species of skate, which are Endangered or Critically Endangered. Yet recent examination of official UK fisheries catch data from...
View ArticleTall tails: reports of global tiger increase not backed up by science
Recently, WWF and the Global Tiger Forum reported that global tiger numbers had risen for the first time in a century, expanding from 3,200 to 3,890 worldwide. Media outlets around the world, including...
View ArticleSecrets of butterfly’s internal compass unravelled
Every autumn, monarch butterflies embark on a quite unbelievable 2000 mile migration from Canada and the USA to the toasty surroundings of central Mexico. It is well known that the butterflies navigate...
View ArticleHow Giving up Meat Can Save the Forests of the Future
Feeding the world’s growing population is one of the greatest challenges facing our current and future generations. The increasing demand for food is putting pressure on global agriculture to expand...
View ArticleIsland birds predictably evolve smaller wings, longer legs
Explorers and naturalists visiting small isolated islands have often remarked on the tameness and naivety of their birds, many of which appeared to be flightless. But why do so many island birds lose...
View ArticleHunt or scavenge? A dinosaur’s dinner-time decision
From the chicken sized Microraptor to the huge Giganotosaurus, theropod dinosaurs ruled our terrestrial ecosystems for over 160 million years. These ancient carnivores are often portrayed as voracious,...
View ArticleSmell of Ripe Fruit Acts as Dinner-Bell for Monkeys
Next time you find yourself reaching for an orange from a fruit bowl, or taking a banana out of your lunchbox, just take a moment to appreciate the sweet and varied scents of the fruit we eat....
View ArticleIntroducing the see-through frog – bred by science
Yes, really. Scientists have successfully bred see-through frogs. Researchers at Hiroshima University in Japan crossed two different rare colour morphs of the Japanese brown frog (Rana japonica),...
View ArticleEuropean Eels make the Great Escape all the way from the Mediterranean to Spawn
The incredible migration of the European eel is a feat that has long fascinated scientists. European eels (Anguilla anguilla) are catadromous, which means that they spend their adult lives in...
View ArticleYou can’t sit with us: exclusivity in feeding whales
When many different whale species converge on the Gulf of Maine en masse to tuck into the same seasonal bounty of herring, they somehow manage to still keep to themselves, mingling with only their own...
View ArticleMonkeys made their way to North America earlier than we thought
Between 37 and 34 million years ago, a few intrepid monkeys, clinging to rafts of vegetation, were washed away from the African continent and towards South America. They formed the basis of the ‘New...
View ArticleLemurs combine body secretions to out-stink rivals
Imagine if you relied on your body odours to keep intruders away from your home. You’d want to do what you could to up the stink factor, right? For the lemurs of Madagascar, stenching up their aromas...
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