Cheetahs in the Serengeti National Park adopt different strategies while eating to deal with threats from top predators such as lions or hyenas. A new study in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology shows that male cheetahs and single females eat their prey as quickly as possible. Mothers with cubs, on the other hand, watch...
Birds migrate away from diseases
In a unique study, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have mapped the origins of migratory birds. They used the results to investigate and discover major differences in the immune systems of sedentary and migratory birds. The researchers conclude that migratory species benefit from leaving tropical areas when it is time to raise their young...
How spiders can harm and help flowering plants
Interactions between organisms such as plants and animals can be found everywhere in nature. Anina Knauer and Florian Schiestl, a professor at the Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany of the University of Zurich, have taken a closer look at one such instance: the interaction between crab spiders and the buckler-mustard, a yellow flowering plant...
Rats, cats, and people trade-off as main course for mosquitoes in Baltimore, Md.
Understanding how neighborhood dynamics regulate mosquito bites is key to managing diseases like West Nile virus and Zika virus. Today in Parasites & Vectors, researchers report that in Baltimore, Maryland, socioeconomic differences between neighborhoods influence bite risk, with rats being a primary blood meal source in lower income neighborhoods.
Shannon LaDeau, a disease ecologist at the...
Substance that guides ant trail is produced by symbiotic bacteria
Researchers working on the Ribeirão Preto campus of the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have discovered that a bacterium found in the microbiota associated with leafcutter ant species Atta sexdens rubropilosa produces the so-called "trail pheromones," i.e, the aromatic chemical compounds used by the ants to lay a trail to their nest.
An article...
Giant ichthyosaur is one of largest animals ever
The 205 million-year-old jaw bone of a prehistoric reptile belongs to 'one of the largest animals ever' say a group of international palaeontologists.
The new discovery has also solved a 150 year old mystery of supposed 'dinosaur bones' from the UK.
The bone belongs to a giant ichthyosaur, a type of prehistoric aquatic reptile, and experts estimate...