FLORA FAUNA

5,060 articles

Aboriginal Hunting Practice Increases Animal Populations
Oct 28, 2013 (SPX)
In Australia's Western Desert, Aboriginal hunters use a unique method that actually increases populations of the animals they hunt, according to a study co-auth...
South African 'living stone' plant adapts to extreme conditions in new ways
Oct 28, 2013 (SPX)
A unique plant that lives underground uses multiple mechanisms to boost photosynthesis and offers new insights into how plants adapt to extreme conditions, acco...
Surfer loses leg in latest Reunion island shark attack
Oct 26, 2013 (AFP)
A 24-year-old surfer was fighting for his life in hospital after a shark bit off his leg off the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion Saturday, authorities sai...
Researchers show how plants tell the time
Oct 25, 2013 (SPX)
Plants use sugars to tell the time of day, according to research published in Nature. Plants, like animals, have a 24 hour 'body-clock' known as the circadian r...
Clean living is a luxury wild animals can't afford
Oct 25, 2013 (SPX)
Domestic animals will choose to steer clear of dirt - but their wild cousins can't be so picky and may be at increased risk of disease as a result. A study of w...
Extinct 'mega claw' creature had spider-like brain
Oct 23, 2013 (SPX)
Research led by University of Arizona Regents' Professor Nick Strausfeld and London Natural History Museum's Greg Edgecombe has revealed that the ancestors of c...
Seeing in the Dark
Oct 23, 2013 (SPX)
The Yangtze finless porpoise, which inhabits the high-traffic waters near the Three Gorges Dam in China, is highly endangered, with only about 1,000 animals ali...
Poorly camouflaged insects can kick off a cascade of ecological impacts
Oct 23, 2013 (SPX)
A California walking stick insect that has evolved to produce individuals with two distinct appearances-an all-green form that camouflages well with broader lea...
Researchers advance toward engineering 'wildly new genome'
Oct 21, 2013 (SPX)
In two parallel projects, researchers have created new genomes inside the bacterium E. coli in ways that test the limits of genetic reprogramming and open new p...
Over 300 elephants poisoned in Zimbabwe park: wildlife group
Oct 21, 2013 (AFP)
More than 300 elephants and other animals have died of cyanide poisoning by poachers in Zimbabwe's largest game park, a wildlife conservation group said Monday....
Constructive conservation: last chance for biodiversity?
Oct 21, 2013 (SPX)
How can biodiversity be preserved in a world in which traditional ecosystems are increasingly being displaced by "man-made nature"? Biologists at the TU Darmsta...
Adaptability to local climate helps invasive species thrive
Oct 21, 2013 (SPX)
The ability of invasive plants to rapidly adapt to local climates -- and potentially to climate change -- may be a key factor in how quickly they spread. Accord...
Clock ticks for Madagascar's lemurs
Oct 20, 2013 (AFP)
Immortalised in the hit cartoon "Madagascar", real-life lemurs face extinction within 20 years short of drastic action to tackle the poverty driving islanders t...
Help at hand to relocate threatened species
Oct 17, 2013 (AFP)
Australian and New Zealand scientists Thursday said they have devised the "first rigorous framework" on deciding whether to relocate endangered animals threaten...
Britain's panda 'suffers miscarriage'
Oct 15, 2013 (AFP)
Britain's only female giant panda is believed to have suffered a miscarriage, Edinburgh Zoo said on Tuesday. It was a doubly sad day for British zoos, after Lon...
Studying the socialside of carnivores
Oct 14, 2013 (SPX)
The part of the brain that makes humans and primates social creatures may play a similar role in carnivores, according to a growing body of research by a Michig...
Climate change threatens Northern American turtle habitat
Oct 14, 2013 (SPX)
Although a turtle's home may be on its back, some North American turtles face an uncertain future as a warming climate threatens to reduce their suitable habita...
Rare mosquito fossil shows female's blood-filled belly
Oct 14, 2013 (AFP)
A unique 46-million-year-old mosquito fossil with a belly full of dried blood has been found in a Montana riverbed, US researchers said Monday. "It is an extrem...
Elephants may understand pointing
Oct 12, 2013 (UPI)
A study by researchers at Scotland's University of St. Andrews found elephants understand pointing by humans without being trained. Dr. Richard W. Byrne and gra...
Ants more closely related to bees than to most wasps
Oct 11, 2013 (SPX)
Ants and bees are surprisingly more genetically related to each other than they are to social wasps such as yellow jackets and paper wasps, a team of University...
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