Children all over the world are learning science by collecting data and running experiments in their classroom. But what if the data they collected during their school day could be used to help scientists? Turns out, it can. Researchers at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and NC State University, running a large-scale camera-trap...
Dracula ants possess fastest known animal appendage: The snap-jaw
Move over, trap-jaw ants and mantis shrimp: There's a faster appendage in town. According to a new study, the Dracula ant, Mystrium camillae, can snap its mandibles at speeds of up to 90 meters per second (more than 200 mph), making it the fastest animal movement on record.
"The high accelerations of Mystrium strikes likely result...
US healthcare costs for animal-related injuries exceed $1 billion every year
The healthcare costs of injuries caused by encounters with animals in the USA exceed US$1 billion every year, finds research published in the online journal Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open.
These figures exclude doctors' fees, outpatient clinic charges, lost productivity, or the costs of rehabilitation, and so are likely to be higher still, warn the...
Stronger pesticide regulations likely needed to protect all bee species, say studies
Pesticide regulations designed to protect honeybees fail to account for potential health threats posed by agrochemicals to the full diversity of bee species that are even more important pollinators of food crops and other plants, say three new international papers co-authored by University of Guelph biologists.
As the global human population grows, and as pollinators continue...
A future for red wolves may be found on Galveston Island, Texas
The American red wolf is one of United States' greatest wildlife conservation stories. Red wolves were on the brink of extinction along the American Gulf Coast during the late 1970s when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) made a bold decision to purposely remove all remaining red wolves from the wild.
But over the past...
'Pest-controlling' bats could help save rainforests
A new study shows that several species of bats are giving Madagascar's rice farmers a vital pest control service by feasting on plagues of insects. And this, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge believes, can ease the financial pressure on farmers to turn forest into fields.
There are few places in the world where relations...