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An interdisciplinary team at Monash University discovered a new universal rule of biological growth that explains surprising similarities in the shapes of sharp structures across the tree of life, including teeth, horns, claws, beaks, animal shells, and even the thorns and prickles of plants. View the full article -
Life in the midst of a pandemic offers precious little to celebrate, but the California condor success story should warm all of our hearts. View the full article
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After an abnormally large number of migratory birds turned up dead in people's backyards in Colorado and other parts of western and central U.S. states, locals began to document their observations on a crowdsourced science platform called iNaturalist. Within the app, a special project was set up specifically for this die-off, which occurred in August and September 2020, so that records of the dead birds could be compiled together. View the full article
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This spring, longtime Central Park birder and naturalist Gabriel Willow is feeling a little less nervous than he did a year ago. View the full article
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Bald eagles, as well as other wildlife, have been succumbing to a mysterious neurodegenerative disease in the southern United States since the 1990s. New research by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Germany and the University of Georgia, U.S., identifies the cause of these deaths: a toxin produced by cyanobacteria that grow on invasive aquatic plants. The problem is potentially exacerbated by herbicides used to control those plants. The results were published in Science. View the full article
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The Amazon rainforest is teeming with creatures unknown to science—and that's just in broad daylight. After dark, the forest is a whole new place, alive with nocturnal animals that have remained even more elusive to scientists than their day-shift counterparts. In a new paper in Zootaxa, researchers described two new species of screech owls that live in the Amazon and Atlantic forests, both of which are already critically endangered. View the full article
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The number of American bald eagles has quadrupled since 2009, with more than 300,000 birds soaring over the lower 48 states, government scientists said in a report Wednesday. View the full article
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For scientists, especially graduate students, who conduct fieldwork, every day is precious. Researchers meticulously prepare their equipment, procedures and timelines to make sure they get the data they need to do good science. So you can imagine the collective anxiety that fell across academia in spring 2020 when COVID-19 struck and many universities suspended in-person activities, including fieldwork. View the full article
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Face masks and gloves designed to protect us are, in fact, dangerous for the animals around us. Scientists from Leiden warn that throughout the world, on land and in the water, animals are ingesting corona waste, or getting entangled in it. The two biologists are asking for everybody's help to better identify the consequences. View the full article
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The largest flightless bird ever to live weighed in up to 600kg and had a whopping head about half a meter long—but its brain was squeezed for space. View the full article
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Ever since the era of Darwin, adaptive evolution has been a cornerstone of evolutionary biology. One essential related question is do animals adapt similarly to a shared environments? Indeed, scientists have long ago observed that animals usually evolve similar phenotypes in similar environments, and thus formulated classic ecogeographical rules, as e.g., "Bergmann's Law," "Allen's Law," and "Gloger's Law." These discoveries have led to a long-term hypothesis that adaptive evolution of phenotype to similar environments is convergent to a high degree. View the full article
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Florida has experienced a relatively mild winter, which typically translates to more mosquitoes in the summer and more birds on which they can feast. If history repeats itself, it's likely there will be an uptick in West Nile virus cases this year, especially in the outer fringes of the suburbs where much of the nighttime illumination emanates from the skyglow of nearby cities. View the full article
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New research from the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology has used innovative technology to study causes of declines in puffin populations in the northeast Atlantic, and found that a lack of prey near some major breeding colonies is driving puffin chicks to starve, ultimately leading to population declines. View the full article
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Islands are biodiversity hotspots. They are home to 20% of the world's plants and animals yet cover only 5% of the global landmass. But island ecosystems are highly vulnerable, threatened by habitat fragmentation and introduced invasive weeds and predators. View the full article
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In recent decades, the increased use of chemicals in many industries has led to environmental pollution of water, soil and also wildlife. In addition to plant protection substances and human and veterinary medical drugs, rodenticides have had toxic effects on wildlife. A new scientific investigation from scientists of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) and the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt—UBA) demonstrate that these substances are widely found in liver tissues of birds of prey from Germany. View the full article
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Fighting among social animals is common as they compete for the resources they need to survive and reproduce. A winner and a loser will inevitably result from these interactions, but do these challenges also leave an unseen, lasting mark? View the full article
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As we pass the spring equinox, lengthening days promise the return of warmth and with it, the return of migratory songbirds. In Canada, we welcome back our songbirds, relishing the profusion of song and color that once again fill wild (and not so wild) places. We revel in their company until summer ends and once again they leave for warmer lands. View the full article
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Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a major factor in global insect decline. In a paper published today in Insect Conservation and Diversity, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) scientists and partners found that using amber-colored filters to remove the blue spectra of light from "warm white" LED (light-emitting diode) lamps drastically reduces insect attraction to nocturnal lighting in a tropical forest. This is the first study to validate quantitative predictions of how lamp color affects insect attraction and provide clear recommendations to mitigate the negative impacts of ALAN on wildlife in rainforest ecosystems. View the full article
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In a genetic surprise, ancient DNA shows the closest family members of an extinct bird known as the Haitian cave-rail are not in the Americas, but Africa and the South Pacific, uncovering an unexpected link between Caribbean bird life and the Old World. View the full article
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Male songbirds usually learn their tunes from adult mentors. But when aspiring crooners lack proper role models, they hit all the wrong notes—and have less success attracting mates. View the full article
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Birds breathe with greater efficiency than humans due to the structure of their lungs—looped airways that facilitate air flows that go in one direction—a team of researchers has found through a series of lab experiments and simulations. View the full article
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The hummingbird is named after the humming sound it makes when it hovers in front of flowers to feed. But only now has it become clear how the wing generates the hummingbird's namesake sound when it is beating rapidly at 40 beats per second. Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology, Sorama, a TU/e spin-off company, and Stanford University meticulously observed hummingbirds using 12 high-speed cameras, six pressure plates and 2176 microphones. They discovered that the soft, complex feathered wings of hummingbirds generate sound in a fashion similar to how the simpler wings of insect do. The new insights could help make devices like fans and drones quieter. View the full article
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Potential predators of the spotted lanternfly are being brought into focus thanks to shutterbugs who have captured images of birds, insects, mammals and even fish consuming the invasive planthopper. View the full article
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Around one year ago, Australia's Black Summer bushfire season ended, leaving more than 8 million hectares across south-east Australia a mix of charcoal, ash and smoke. An estimated three billion animals were killed or displaced, not including invertebrates. View the full article
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Male animals are less likely to try to attract a mate when they are in poor condition, a paper published in Nature Ecology and Evolution has found. View the full article
