Ecology & Zoology

The first national estimate of U.S. wild bees suggests they're disappearing in many of the country's most important farmlands--including California's Central Valley, the Midwest's corn belt, and the Mississippi River valley. If losses of these crucial pollinators is happening, the new nationwide assessment indicates that farmers will face increasing costs, and that the problem may even destabilize the nation's crop production. But it is happening? The problem with estimates is that the public is already jaded by claims of a honeybee collapse that never happened. Honeybee colonies can at least…

Scientists from James Cook University have discovered two critically endangered species of sea snakes they thought were extinct. They were basically hiding in plain sight on Ashmore Reef in the Timor Sea, they just hadn't been since in over 15 years. A Western Australia Parks and Wildlife Officer, Grant Griffin, sent a photo of the snakes in for identification.  "We were blown away, these potentially extinct snakes were there in plain sight, living on one of Australia's natural icons, Ningaloo Reef," says lead author Blanche D'Anastasi from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef…

Birds use sophisticated changes to the structure of their feathers, not dyes and pigments, to create multi-colored plumage, and that is why they never go gray.  Using X-ray scattering at the ESRF facility in France to examine the blue and white feathers of the Blue Jay, researchers from the University of Sheffield found that birds demonstrate a surprising level of control and sophistication in producing colors -  it is able to change the color of its feathers along the equivalent of a single human hair using a tunable nanostructure. Instead of simply using dyes and pigments that…

One of the biggest controversies in the western U.S. in the last two decades has been keeping gray wolves listed as endangered. Wolves are predators and with no evidence-based policies regarding herd management, attacks on livestock and threats to humans were greater than ever. That changed recently because the US Fish and Wildlife Service implemented herd management to try and bring the population back down.  A group of academics disagree with the de-listing and cite ecological theory, claiming that wildlife experts are getting it wrong and write in Science that de-listing has led to…

Psychologists say they have evidence of tool use by greater vasa parrots (Coracopsis vasa). They determined this by studying ten captive parrots and seeing that the birds adopt a novel tool-using technique to acquire calcium from seashells. They also noted active sharing of tools among themselves.  The birds used small pebbles or date pits to grind calcium powder from the shells or to break off small pieces of shell to ingest. This behavior is the first evidence of a non-human using tools for grinding, and one of the few reports of non-human animals sharing tools directly, according to…

A new study challenges the popular idea that sexual cannibalism occurs because a female is unable to alter or 'tone down' her aggressive mindset after foraging and hunting for prey. Instead, females are sexually cannibalistic because they are testing the males, rather than just being inherently aggressive, says University of Melbourne scientist Dr. Mark Elgar. In the first trial, 11 of 16 female raft spiders (Dolomedes fimbriatus) that copulated then attacked the males during or immediately after copulation. But only four attacks were fatal. In the second, six of eight females that…

The key to helping animals evolve quickly in response to climate change could actually be their predators, according to a new study which says that species interactions, meaning the way species interact with each other in an ecosystem, like in a predator-prey relationship, is important to understanding how animals will respond to climate change.   "Not only can predators keep prey populations in check but in some cases they can help speed up the evolutionary response to climate change," said Michelle Tseng, a research associate in UBC's Department of Zoology and lead author of the study…

People often think hippos are herbivores with big smiling faces. Every now and then, reports of a hippo of hunting down prey, eating a carcass, or stealing prey from a crocodile are heard, but they're typically considered 'aberrant' or 'unusual' behavior.  Now, however, a collaboration among researchers from 4 continents demonstrates that carnivory, or eating meat, is not uncommon among hippos at all, and that this behavior may increase their susceptibility to mass mortality during anthrax outbreaks. Yes, the same anthrax politicians worry about getting in the mail, and is handled in…

A native Australian grass that plays dead during droughts and culls its own cells to survive could provide genetic keys to help food crops survive worldwide. Like other so-called 'resurrection plants', Tripogon loliiformis has the ability to withstand desiccation (being dried out) for prolonged periods and can be revived by water but scientists have never known how these plants actually do it, or if the existing plant cells really do come alive again from a dormant state, or if its new growth is separate from the old cells. Professor Sagadevan Mundree of Queensland University have now proved…

The armored shells of some marine mollusks have evolved to satisfy two conflicting design requirements, protection and sight, a new study shows. Although many biological tissues serve more than one purpose, rarely are tissues optimized to do multiple tasks well; doing one task efficiently typically comes at the expense of performing another at such a high level. Understanding these tradeoffs, particularly in examples from nature, is important to scientists seeking to develop innovative materials. Here, Ling Li and colleagues studied chitons - the only mollusks with living tissue in their…