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  1. An article published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation presents a five-step protocol to mitigate the mortality of birds of prey due to accidents with infrastructure (power lines, ponds, etc.) and other unnatural causes (direct hunting). The protocol, which could also be applied to the conservation of other terrestrial vertebrates, including marine species, is a new scientific contribution from the Conservation Biology Group, led by the lecturer Joan Real, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona.

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  2. Humans are not the only ones who have beliefs; animals do too, although it is more difficult to prove them than with humans. Dr. Tobias Starzak and Professor Albert Newen from the Institute of Philosophy II at Ruhr-Universität Bochum have proposed four criteria to understand and empirically investigate animal beliefs in the journal Mind and Language. The article was published online on 16 June 2020.

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  3. New research suggests that the first dinosaurs laid soft-shelled eggs—a finding that contradicts established thought. The study, led by the American Museum of Natural History and Yale University and published today in the journal Nature, applied a suite of sophisticated geochemical methods to analyze the eggs of two vastly different non-avian dinosaurs and found that they resembled those of turtles in their microstructure, composition, and mechanical properties. The research also suggests that hard-shelled eggs evolved at least three times independently in the dinosaur family tree.

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  4. A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Portugal and the U.S. has found that a single enzyme is responsible for gender-based plumage color differences in mosaic canaries. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes narrowing their search for the factors involved in gender-based color differences in canaries and what they found. In the same journal issue, Nancy Chen with the University of Rochester has published a Perspective piece detailing the history of the study of gender-based color differences in birds, and outlines the work by the team in this new effort.

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  5. Around 194 million birds and 29 million mammals are thought to be killed each year on European roads, according to a new study that has ranked the most vulnerable species.An international research team used 90 roadkill surveys from 24 European countries to create a new method of estimating both the birds and mammal species killed most often on roads, and the species most vulnerable to being wiped out of certain areas.The research, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, found that the species killed most often were not necessarily the ones most vulnerable to disappearing completely. This means action to preserve wildlife when new roads are built risks being targeted at the wrong species based on current methods.

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  6. After a particularly long week of computer based work on my Ph.D., all I wanted was to hike somewhere exciting with a rich wildlife. A friend commiserated with me—I was based at Newcastle University at the time, and this particular friend wasn't keen on the UK's wilderness, its moorlands and bare uplands, compared to the large tracts of woodland and tropical forests that can be found more readily abroad.

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  7. From March to December every year, Humboldt penguins nest in vast colonies on the Peruvian and Chilean coasts. The lucky ones find prime habitat for their nests in deep deposits of chalky guano where they can dig out sheltered burrows. The rest must look for rocky outcrops or other protected spaces that are more exposed to predators and environmental extremes.

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