Ecology & Zoology

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 ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 7 2015 - 5:49pm

Predators Will Help Prey Evolve With Climate Change

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- ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 16 2015 - 8:01am

Parrots Use Tools, Say Psychologists

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 note ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 16 2015 - 12:30pm

Female Sex Cannibals: Not Angry, Just Picky

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 te ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 16 2015 - 12:26pm

How To See A Mass Extinction Right In Front Of You

There is a bad habit in environmental circles, created by the academics that feed them information: Discovering a new species and immediately declaring it endangered. More evidence-based scientists recognize that over 99.99999% of all species that have go ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 26 2015 - 11:20am

Academics Disagree With Wildlife Biologists On Wolf De-Listing

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 ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 19 2015 - 2:33pm

I'm Not Extinct, Declare Sea Snakes Previously Declared Extinct

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. ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 21 2015 - 10:00am

Why Birds Never Go Gray

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 o ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 21 2015 - 9:00am

Wild Bees Must Be In Decline, Says Computer Estimate

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. ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 21 2015 - 5:19pm

A Call To Change Water Policy: Millions Of Trees In Danger From California Drought

Millions of trees are in peril from the drought in California but that is not the fault of climate change or even bad luck- every 20 years California has a drought as bad as what just ended. It is instead bad policy; California's water infrastructure ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 28 2015 - 4:13pm