Ecology & Zoology

Cats Use Sight Over Smell When Finding Food

Cats seem to use their eyes rather than follow their nose when it comes to finding the location of food, according to a new paper by animal behaviorists. Felines have keen smell and vision, so a small study investigated which sense they prefer to use under ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 28 2015 - 9:30am

Our Bright UV-Reflecting Wing Patches Will Settle This!

Megaloprepus caerulatus. Credit: Andres Hernandez, STR I By Jyoti Madhusoodanan, Inside Science (Inside Science)-- In late April, rain begins to pool in the hollows of trees on Barro Colorado Island in Panama. The water-filled tree holes may seem insignif ...

Article - Inside Science - Mar 2 2015 - 8:31am

New Family Of Moth Is Enigmatic Evolutionary Wonder

Male enigma moth, a new species discovered on Kangaroo Island. George Gibbs, Author provided The discovery of a new family of moth is one of the most exciting finds in entomology in the past 40 years. It was found not in some remote and unexplored region ...

Article - The Conversation - Mar 4 2015 - 10:42am

The Acrobatic Hijinks Of Praying Mantises Captured

When a young, wingless praying mantis jumps,  from take-off to landing is a mere tenth of second--literally faster than the blink of a human eye. During a jump, the insect's body rotates in mid-air at a rate of about 2.5 times per second. And yet, the ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 5 2015 - 1:59pm

Bee Bailout: If Dollars Rule The World, Why Isn't The Ecosystem 'Too Big To Fail'?

Attempts to put a dollar value on the natural world – so-called “natural capital” or “ecosystem services” – have produced some frankly staggering numbers. A seminal 1997 paper valued the world’s ecosystem services at US$33 trillion (A$42 trillion) a year. ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 7 2015 - 10:24am

Hibernation Rethink- Bat Species Hibernate At Constant Warm Temperature

Many mammals, and some birds, escape the winter by hibernating for three to nine months. This period of dormancy permits species which would otherwise perish from the cold and scarce food to survive to see another spring. The Middle East, with temperate w ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2015 - 10:22am

How A Blue-Blooded Antarctic Octopus Can Survive The Cold

The Antarctic Ocean hosts rich and diverse fauna despite inhospitable temperatures close to freezing. While it can be hard to deliver oxygen to tissues in the cold due to lower oxygen diffusion and increased blood viscosity, ice-cold waters already contain ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2015 - 10:55pm

In Sickness And In Health: Mice And Mating

It is no surprise that female mice prefer healthy males, most humans are the same way, but a new study tested the belief that attractive males have better mating success than other males.  Sarah Zala and Dustin Penn of the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Etholo ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 13 2015 - 1:11pm

Chitin Lobster Component Discovered In Vertebrates

 Chitin is a molecule that forms hard structures like fungal cell walls and the exoskeletons of invertebrates such as insects and crustaceans. It forms a strong and pliable material that is made even stronger when complexed with other materials (such as pr ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 16 2015 - 7:30am

Light Pollution's Impact On Food Webs Quantified

A generation ago, environmental activists declared war on yet another field of science- astronomy. A new telescope was going to disrupt a squirrel, they alleged, and so astronomy abandoned places in the U.S. like Arizona and began to move to Chile. Environ ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 15 2015 - 10:10pm