Cattle ranching, agriculture and other human activities are breaking up Costa Rican forests into isolated patchy fragments, but causing more problems for native plant populations than for monkey species sharing the same habitat.
A study published in the journal Primates shows that while plants growing near the edges of cleared regions are negatively impacted by human...
Elephant declines imperil Africa's forests
Poaching and habitat loss have reduced forest elephant populations in Central Africa by 63 percent since 2001. This widespread killing poses dire consequences not only for the species itself but also for the region's forests, a new Duke University study finds.
"Without intervention to stop poaching, as much as 96 percent of Central Africa's forests will...
Humans behind majority of raptor deaths in Ontario, Canada
Human encroachment is the leading cause of death among Ontario's at-risk birds of prey, according to a first-ever University of Guelph study.
Among deceased raptors submitted to the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative over a 23-year period, a majority of the wild birds died of trauma and starvation, said pathobiology professor Nicole Nemeth.
"The most common cause of...
Early warning system for deadly amphibian pathogen
New technology being developed at Washington State University could help save amphibians around the world from a deadly fungal pathogen.
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd is a particularly nasty type of fungus that attacks the skin of frogs and salamanders.
Over the past 30 years, the highly lethal pathogen has caused the catastrophic decline or extinction of at...
Digging up the Precambrian: Fossil burrows show early origins of animal behavior
Researchers led by Nagoya University discover penetrative trace fossils from the late Ediacaran of western Mongolia, revealing earlier onset of the “agronomic revolution”.
In the history of life on Earth, a dramatic and revolutionary change in the nature of the sea floor occurred in the early Cambrian (541–485 million years ago): the “agronomic revolution.” This phenomenon...
Life in the fast flow: Tadpoles of new species rely on 'suction cups' to keep up
Indonesia, a megadiverse country spanning over 17,000 islands located between Australia and mainland Asia, is home to more than 16% of the world's known amphibian and reptile species, with almost half of the amphibians found nowhere else in the world. Unsurprisingly, biodiversity scientists have been feverishly discovering and describing fascinating new animals from the exotic...