Wild Animals News

September 9, 2016

The Adorable Thing Bats Do to Catch Prey

Not One, but Four Giraffe Species

Largest Reforestation Program: Harm Wildlife?

Bees: Flowers a Link to Bacteria Transmission

Latest Headlines

updated 12:22am EDT

The History of Beer Yeast

Sep. 8, 2016 — Today's industrial yeast strains are used to make beer, wine, bread, biofuels, and more, but their evolutionary history is not well studied. Researchers have now described a ... read more

Newly Described Amphipod Species Already Under Threat

Sep. 8, 2016 — Biologists have described a new amphipod species which is endemic to the Alps. While alpine lakes provide relatively undisturbed habitats for Gammarus alpinus, this species ... read more

Pushing a Parasite from Land to Sea

Sep. 6, 2016 — Higher levels of rainfall and coastal development increase the risk of disease-causing organisms flowing to the ocean, according to a study. The work advances earlier work by tracking the parasite T. ... read more

Historical Coexistence With Dingoes May Explain Bandicoot Avoidance of Domestic Dogs

Sep. 7, 2016 — Domestic dogs and cats were introduced to Tasmania two centuries ago, but bandicoots still fail to recognize these ... read more

Age Before Youth: Older Cranes Lead the Way to New Migration Patterns

Sep. 6, 2016 — Whooping cranes are changing migration patterns in response to climate and land use change, and these new patterns are being determined by the older, more experienced, ... read more

Nutrient Pollution Is Changing Sounds in the Sea

Sep. 6, 2016 — Nutrient pollution emptying into seas from cities, towns and agricultural land is changing the sounds made by marine life -- and potentially upsetting navigational cues for ... read more

Four out of Six Great Apes One Step Away from Extinction, Experts Say

Sep. 4, 2016 — The Eastern gorilla -- the largest living primate -- has been listed as Critically Endangered due to illegal hunting, according to the latest update of The IUCN Red List of ... read more

New Model Could Help Improve Prediction of Outbreaks of Ebola and Lassa Fever

Sep. 2, 2016 — Potential outbreaks of diseases such as Ebola and Lassa fever may be more accurately predicted thanks to a new mathematical model. This could in turn ... read more

A New Tool for Wetland Management

Sep. 2, 2016 — A team of environmental engineers and a wetland ecologist have created a computer model that can help wetland managers increase the size of migratory bird habitat and combat ... read more

Of Dogs, Foxes, Cows, Camels, and Men: The Fight Against Rabies in Northern China

Sep. 1, 2016 — China has the second highest number of reported rabies cases in the world, but numbers of human deaths have been decreasing. According to WHO, the ... read more

Tiger Sounds Could Help Save Population

London Zoo's Animals Have Annual Weigh in

Dead Fish Fill NJ Creek

Myanmar's Peacock: A National Symbol Dying Off in the Wild

Throughout History, Humans Have Preferred Their Pigs to Be Black, Suggests Study

Sep. 6, 2016 — An international team of researchers studied the mitochondrial DNA and MC1R gene sequences in tissue samples collected from 57 modern feral Hawaiian pigs. They found a novel mutation in all the ... read more

Zolushka Sighting: The Tiger Cinderella Story Continues

Sep. 2, 2016 — Brought into captivity as a nearly starved, 3-month old cub, the tigress that became known as Zolushka (Russian for "Cinderella") flourished in a rehabilitation center designed to prepare ... read more

Atlantic Cod's Sex Gene Has Been Revealed

Sep. 2, 2016 — Newly developed methods have made it possible to determine the Atlantic cod's gender genetically. This could increase profits on cod in aquaculture, say ... read more

'Gambling' Wolves Take More Risks Than Dogs

Sep. 1, 2016 — Wolves pursue a high-risk, all-or-nothing strategy when gambling for food, while dogs are more cautious, shows a new study. This difference is likely innate and adaptive, reflecting the hunter versus ... read more

It's a Boy: Controlling Pest Populations With Modified Males

Sep. 1, 2016 — Populations of New World screwworm flies -- devastating parasitic livestock pests in Western Hemisphere tropical regions -- could be greatly suppressed with the introduction of male flies that ... read more

Deadly Duo: Study Reveals Role of Killer Shrimps in the Disappearance of Species in Central European Rivers

Sep. 1, 2016 — Researchers have discovered that the amphipod crustacean, which is native to the Ponto-Caspian region, is not a true predator and only plays an indirect role in the massive species extinction of ... read more

LED-Lighting Influences the Activity of Bats

Sep. 1, 2016 — The widespread replacement of conventional bulbs in street lighting by energy-saving light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has considerable influence on bats as urban nocturnal hunters. Opportunistic bats ... read more

Habitat Is a Crucial Factor in Survivability of Released Tortoises

Aug. 31, 2016 — A team of wildlife experts has analyzed the effect of habitat quality on the survival and dispersal of released desert tortoises. Juvenile tortoises used in this study originated from eggs produced ... read more

Massive Loss of African Savannah Elephants

Aug. 31, 2016 — The results of the first-ever pan-African survey of savanna elephants using standardized data collection and validation methods, has now been announced. The report confirms substantial declines in ... read more

First Test of Oral Rabies Vaccine Brings Hope to the World's Rarest Canid

Aug. 31, 2016 — A new study reports on field trials of the oral vaccine SAG2 in Ethiopian wolves, Africa's most threatened carnivore and the world's rarest canid. The trials are the first ever conducted in ... read more

Bird Bugs Shed New Light on Malaria Infection

Aug. 31, 2016 — A study into bird malaria could provide important clues about the causes of parasite co-infections in animals, including people, report investigators. They found that not only the bird's habitat ... read more

Which Snowy Owls Thrive in Saskatchewan's Winters?

Aug. 31, 2016 — Snowy owls capture the imagination, but ornithologists know surprisingly little about how these birds of the far north fare during the harsh winters they endure. The researchers behind a new study ... read more

A Lost Century for Forest Elephants

Aug. 30, 2016 — Because forest elephants are one the slowest reproducing mammals in the world, it will take almost a century for them to recover from the intense poaching they have suffered since ... read more

Social Networks Key to Crickets' Success

Aug. 30, 2016 — Human relationships and interactions form our social network. Crickets are no different, except their networks are simpler. A researcher found the insects' social network remains mostly ... read more

Monkeys in Zoos Have Human Gut Bacteria

Aug. 30, 2016 — Monkeys in captivity lose much of their native gut bacteria diversity and their gut bacteria ends up resembling those of humans, new research shows. The results suggest that switching to a low-fiber, ... read more

What's Hiding Behind the Trapdoor?

Aug. 30, 2016 — A researcher has discovered several new species of trapdoor spider -- and you'd never guess where. Trapdoor spiders spend most of their life underground their true number and diversity has been ... read more

Why Mole Rats Are More Flexible Than We Previously Thought

Aug. 29, 2016 — One of the most interesting facts about mole rats -- that, as with ants and termites, individuals specialize in particular tasks throughout their lives -- turns out to be wrong. Instead, a new study ... read more

Discovery of an Ape Virus in an Indonesian Rodent Species

Aug. 26, 2016 — The gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) is a medically important tool in cancer therapies. GALV is a retrovirus pathogenic to its host species, the southeast Asian lar gibbon (Hylobates lar) and thought ... read more

Newly Discovered 'Multicomponent' Virus Can Infect Animals

Aug. 25, 2016 — Scientists have identified a new 'multicomponent' virus --one containing different segments of genetic material in separate particles -- that can infect animals. This new pathogen was ... read more

Whiskers Help Animals Sense the Direction of the Wind

Aug. 24, 2016 — Rats use information from their whiskers to localize an airflow source, new research has shown. This discovery could pave the way for the design of novel airflow measurement devices that imitate ... read more

Tuesday, September 6, 2016