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  1. Much of a centuries-old debate over where and how new bird species form has now been resolved. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have provided evidence that birds in mountainous areas—where the vast majority of the planet's species live—have left lowland habitats for higher and higher mountain elevations throughout their evolution. Millions of years of climatic fluctuations have contributed to pushing bird species upslope—as is probably happening now.

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  2. Sex roles in birds describe sex differences in courtship, mate competition, social pair-bonds, and parental care. Different explanations have been put forward to explain these differences but none are based on a comprehensive study. Therefore, an international team of experts set out to analyze data on 1,800 of the approximately 9,000 different species of birds as their study organisms. The results show that adult sex ratios are the main driving force for differences in sex roles. A paper on this study was published in Ecology Letters on 25 February.

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  3. With lush green jungles brimming with wildlife, Costa Rica has become a global tourism hotspot—and government leaders would like to keep it that way. They worked with researchers from the Stanford Natural Capital Project to understand how nature supports the country's most visited and valuable tourist destinations. The team found that tourists flock to areas where roads and hotels make it easy to access Costa Rica's famous wildlife, including charismatic mammals like howler monkeys and reptiles like crocodiles. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates the importance of protecting nature to keep tourism revenue flowing. Costa Rica plans to build on the study's results to create a nationwide accounting system to track the benefits that nature provides to its economy.

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  4. "Who's peeing in the water?" Unlikely as it may seem, there is a great deal of science behind this question. Determining the source of fecal contamination—an important public health issue—requires years of research. Doctoral student Rose Ragot and Professor Richard Villemur of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) are working on genetic primers, a short DNA sequence that serves as a starting point for sequencing. Primers make it possible to identify potential sources of fecal contamination, particularly in water that flows through urban and agricultural environments. Their work has been published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

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  5. How migratory animals find their way to the wintering grounds, thousands of kilometers apart from their breeding ground, is a fascinating riddle of nature. Previous studies have suggested they possibly follow the geomagnetic field lines and olfactory cues to determine the direction. However, the physiological mechanisms behind this magnetic orientation remain unknown. Now, neuroscientists and ecologists from Doshisha University and Nagoya University, Japan, conducted a study to understand how birds know which direction to follow during long-distance flight. The study has been published on Feb 4, 2022, in the latest issue of the journal Science Advances.

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