PhysOrg

A team of researchers affiliated with institutions in Austria, the U.S. and Switzerland has found evidence of negative emotional contagion in lab ravens. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their experiments with lab ravens and what they learned. View the full article

It is a brutal 600-kilometre gauntlet during which competitors face searing heat, wild seas, vicious predators, and the threat of kidnapping. View the full article

Every year, bald and golden eagles are killed when they inadvertently fly into wind turbine blades. One possible way to prevent these deaths is to chase the birds away with acoustic signals—sound. To determine what types of sounds are most effective in deterring the birds, researchers at the University of Minnesota and their colleagues tested the behavioral responses of bald eagles to a battery of both natural and synthetic acoustic stimuli. View the full article

More than a million species are at risk of extinction according to a new report on biodiversity. But even some species that aren't considered endangered may be less safe than people think. A new study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology found that some methods for measuring a species' generation time might underestimate the likelihood that some species will die out. View the full article

After months of helping rehabilitate a group of lesser flamingo chicks abandoned in South Africa, the Dallas Zoo has released dozens of the birds back into the wild. View the full article

Renowned for their noiseless dive, the kingfisher's iconic beak-shape has inspired the design of high speed bullet trains. Now scientists have tested beak-shape among some of the birds' 114 species found world-wide, to assess which shape is the most hydrodynamic. View the full article

Two Hawaiian crows, or alala, have done something momentous in the struggle to save the critically endangered species. View the full article

In nature conservation and agriculture, there are two opposing views of how to combine high biodiversity and sustainable food production: Nature conservation should either be integrated into agricultural land, or segregated into protected areas in order to enable maximum yields in the food production areas. Researchers at the University of Göttingen advocate coordinated approaches that combine nature conservation and agricultural production in sustainably managed landscapes. The results have been published in the journal People and Nature. View the full article

Scientists are deploying ultra-sensitive sensors in the Amazon to collect images and sounds of the rainforest's rich biodiversity in real time, in an effort to track preservation efforts. View the full article

Three of the rarest birds in Florida took an extraordinary adventure this week, slipping out of a large pen into the freedom of an expansive, treeless prairie south of Orlando. View the full article

The environmental impact of palm oil production has been well publicised. Found in everything from food to cosmetics, the deforestation, ecosystem decline and biodiversity loss associated with its use is a serious cause for concern. View the full article

This week many people across the world stopped and stared as extreme headlines announced that one eighth of the world's species – more than a million – are threatened with extinction. View the full article

When saltwater inundates coastal forests as sea levels rise, it kills salt-sensitive trees, leaving "ghost forests" of bare snags behind. A new study from North Carolina State University explores how changes in vegetation affect coastal bird species. View the full article

Observations of Herring Gulls by scientists from the University of Southampton have shown how the coastal birds have developed complicated behaviour to 'skin' sea creatures to make them safe to eat. Researchers think this feeding habit may be a response to urbanisation and changes in food availability. View the full article

A new Jurassic non-avian theropod dinosaur from 163 million-year-old fossil deposits in northeastern China provides new information regarding the incredible richness of evolutionary experimentation that characterized the origin of flight in the Dinosauria. View the full article