Fewer than 4,000 free-ranging tigers remain in the wild. Efforts to protect these remaining tigers have also been stymied by uncertainty about whether they represent six, five or only two subspecies. Now, researchers who've analyzed the complete genomes of 32 representative tiger specimens confirm that tigers indeed fall into six genetically distinct groups. The findings...
How spider eyes work together to track stimuli
Using a specially designed eye-tracker for use with spiders, biologists Elizabeth Jakob, Skye Long and Adam Porter at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, along with colleagues in New York and New Zealand, report in a new paper that their tests in jumping spiders show a secondary set of eyes is crucial to the principal eyes'...
Glyphosate found in cat and dog food
Got glyphosate? Your pet's breakfast might.
A new Cornell study published this month in Environmental Pollution finds that glyphosate, the active herbicidal ingredient in widely used weed killers like Roundup, was present at low levels in a variety of dog and cat foods the researchers purchased at stores. Before you go switching Fido or Fluffy's favorite...
Male humpback whales change their songs when human noise is present
Male humpback whales reduce or cease their songs in reaction to human-generated shipping noise, according to a study published October 24, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Koki Tsujii from Ogasawara Whale Watching Association and Hokkaido University, Japan, and colleagues.
Increasing human shipping activity is causing a rise in low-frequency ocean noise. Baleen whales...
Growing noise in the ocean can cause dolphins to simplify their calls
Noise levels in the world's oceans are on the rise, but little is known about its impact on marine mammals like dolphins that rely on sound for communication. Researchers from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science laid underwater microphones on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to find out more about the ambient...
Mathematicians propose new hunting model to save rhinos and whales from extinction
Mathematicians have created a new model -- of a variety commonly found in the world of finance -- to show how to harvest a species at an optimal rate, while making sure that the animals do not get wiped out by chance.
According to the theoretical study, hunting thresholds can be calculated for individual populations and...