FLORA FAUNA - AFRICA DAILY

Jul 27, 2013 (AFP)

In a desperate bid to preserve a critically endangered species, a US zoo is taking the controversial step of trying to mate brother and sister captive Sumatran ...

Populations of grassland butterflies decline almost 50 percent over two decades

Jul 24, 2013 (SPX)

Grassland butterflies have declined dramatically between 1990 and 2011. This has been caused by intensifying agriculture and a failure to properly manage grassl...

Renegade hippo captured in Cape Town

Jul 24, 2013 (AFP)

A roaming hippo which set up home in a Cape Town sewage plant last year has been nabbed and shipped to a game reserve, the city said Wednesday. The young male h...

Czech police crack rhinoceros horn smuggling ring

Jul 23, 2013 (AFP)

Czech authorities said Tuesday they had cracked an international gang smuggling horns of rare white rhinoceroses from South Africa to Asia, where they are prize...

Wolf found in Netherlands, first for 150 years

Jul 22, 2013 (UPI)

A dead animal found by a road in the Netherlands was a wolf, thought to be the first to be discovered in the country for 150 years, official said. DNA tests wer...

Current efforts will not save the world's most endangered cat

Jul 22, 2013 (SPX)

Almost 100 million euros has been spent so far on conservation efforts for the last 250 remaining Iberian lynxes in the wild. But the charismatic species is lik...

Woodrats subsist on toxic plants thanks to gut microbes

Jul 22, 2013 (UPI)

The desert woodrat of the Mojave desert in the Western United States subsists almost exclusively on poisonous plants -- plants that would, in equivalent amounts...

Biologist says 6th grade science project stole his lion fish research

Jul 22, 2013 (UPI)

Whoever said there's no such thing as bad publicity may want to pay attention to the story of Lauren Arrington, the sixth-grader who made national news this wee...

Missing lynx: Climate change to wipe out rarest cat

Jul 21, 2013 (AFP)

Within 50 years, climate change will probably wipe out the world's most endangered feline, the Iberian lynx, even if the world meets its target for curbing carb...

First Persian leopard cubs in 50 years born in Russian breeding center

Jul 19, 2013 (UPI)

The first Persian leopard cubs to be born in Russia in 50 years are part of efforts to reintroduce the endangered species back to the wild, scientists say. The ...

New research shows that temperature influences tropical flowering

Jul 18, 2013 (SPX)

Tropical trees and hanging vines burst into flower, showering the ground below with bright blossoms. Temperature, rather than cloud cover, may be key to the tim...

Phytoplankton social mixers

Jul 18, 2013 (SPX)

Tiny ocean plants, or phytoplankton, were long thought to be passive drifters in the sea - unable to defy even the weakest currents, or travel by their own voli...

Genetic secrets of the world's toughest little bird

Jul 18, 2013 (SPX)

Scientists from Griffith University have taken part in an international study which has revealed the genetic secrets of how a small bird can survive in one of t...

Boldly illuminating biology's 'dark matter'

Jul 16, 2013 (SPX)

Is space really the final frontier, or are the greatest mysteries closer to home? In cosmology, dark matter is said to account for the majority of mass in the u...

Insect discovery sheds light on climate change

Jul 15, 2013 (SPX)

Simon Fraser University biologists have discovered a new, extinct family of insects that will help scientists better understand how some animals responded to gl...

Africa to suffer deadliest ever year for rhino poaching

Jul 14, 2013 (UPI)

More than 500 rhinos -- and more than 150 in just the last two months -- have been killed in South Africa so far this year, putting the country on pace to break...

Snakes Devour More Mosquito-Eating Birds as Climate Change Heats Forests

Jul 12, 2013 (SPX)

Many birds feed on mosquitoes that spread the West Nile virus, a disease that killed 286 people in the United States in 2012 according to the Centers for Diseas...

Birds outpace climate change to avoid extinction

Jul 11, 2013 (SPX)

A new study has shed light on the potential of birds to survive in the face of climate change. In the analysis, based on more than fifty years' detailed study o...

Research suggests Madagascar no longer an evolutionary hotspot

Jul 10, 2013 (SPX)

Madagascar has long been known as a hotspot of biodiversity. Although it represents only one percent of the earth's area, it is home to about three percent of a...

Bipedal rodents survive in the desert with a hop, a skip and a jump

Jul 09, 2013 (SPX)

Researchers have found that bipedal desert rodents manage to compete with their quadrupedal counterparts by using a diverse set of jumps, hops and skips. A new ...