Ecology & Zoology

Why Does The Pinocchio Lizard Have A Long Nose?

For more than 50 years, people said that the "Pinocchio Lizard" (horned anole lizard), called such for its long, protruding nose, was extinct, but that was just a fib by nature.  In 2005, it was found living at the tops of tall trees in the clou ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 10 2015 - 3:41pm

We Can Fix The Great Barrier Reef- Here's How

An Australian Government report into the state of the Great Barrier Reef found that its condition in 2014 was "poor and expected to further deteriorate in the future". In the past 40 years, the Reef has lost more than half of its coral cover and ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 7 2015 - 12:03pm

Camera Trap Snaps Secretive Black Tinamou

After decades in ornithological obscurity, one of the world's least-known birds is finally coming to light thanks to the persistence of a small group of researchers; a year-long study of the Black Tinamou (Tinamus osgoodi hershkovitzi) has captured s ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 9 2015 - 9:40am

OEH- Hormone Receptor That Allows Mosquitoes To Reproduce Found

 By identifying and comparing the sequences of more than 400 receptors in the genomes of two fruit flies and three mosquito species, entomologists have unlocked one of the hormonal mechanisms that allow mosquitoes to produce eggs. They identified a single ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 14 2015 - 10:04am

The Famed Olive Trees Of Puglia Are Ravaged By Disease – Here's How Science Can Save Them

A common, humble field bug is spreading a disease that has already infected millions of olive trees in Italy. Olive and citrus fruit crops throughout the Mediterranean are threatened, yet there has been a collective failure to recognize the danger and tak ...

Article - The Conversation - Apr 11 2015 - 10:20am

Infectious Ants Become Antisocial

Looking after yourself, and trying not to infect others, is a good strategy to prevent disease from spreading- not only if you are a considerate co-worker, but also if you are an ant, meerkat or other social animal, as revealed by an epidemiological model ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2015 - 9:00am

Testosterone And The Bird Bang Theory

A new study of animal behavior suggests that evolution is hard at work when it comes to the acrobatic courtship dances of  male golden-collared manakins, a tropical bird species. There are about 60 different species of manakins, most of which perform, to s ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2015 - 8:06am

Hawaiian Honeycreeper Back From The Brink Of Extinction

The first three eggs of the rare ‘Akeke‘e have hatched under the auspices of San Diego Zoo Global conservation biologists. The newly hatched chicks represent hope for the survival of a small Hawaiian honeycreeper. Eggs from two species of rare Hawaiian ho ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 28 2015 - 9:05am

Bats Use Both Sides Of The Brain To Listen- The Only Animal Besides Humans To Do So

Researchers have shown that, like humans, mustached bats use the left and right sides of their brains to process different aspects of sounds. No other animal, not even monkeys or apes, has proved to use such hemispheric specialization for sound processing ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 30 2015 - 11:39am

Why Bumblebees Choose Nicotine- It Fights Off Parasites

Researchers gave bumblebees the option to choose between a sugar solution with nicotine in it and one without and found that bees infected with the Crithidia bombi parasite were more likely to go for the nicotine-laced nectar than those that weren't ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 27 2015 - 10:36am