[unable to retrieve full-text content]Just like with humans, the skin on marine mammals serves as an important line of defense against pathogens in their environment. A new study sheds light on the skin microbiome -- a group of microorganisms that live on skin -- in healthy humpback whales, which could aid in future efforts to...
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Carefully managed fire can promote rare savanna species
[unable to retrieve full-text content]In the first continent-wide study of the effects of fire on bird and mammal diversity in the African savanna environment, researchers have found that increasing 'pyrodiversity' boosts the variety of species of mammals by around 20 percent and of birds by 30 percent in savannas with high rainfall....
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Medical care for wounded ants
The African Matabele ants (Megaponera analis) tend to the wounds of their injured comrades. And they do so rather successfully: Without such attendance, 80 percent of the injured ants die; after receiving "medical" treatment, only 10 percent succumb to their injuries.
Erik T. Frank, Marten Wehrhan and Karl Eduard Linsenmair from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Bavaria,...
Diet or regular? Decoding behavioral variation in ant clones
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Clonal ants appear to be diverse in responding to sweetened water, suggesting epigenetic regulation in behavioral variation and colony survival....
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Longer-lived animals have longer-lived proteins
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Researchers studying half-lives of evolutionarily related proteins in different species uncovered a link between species lifespan and protein lifespan....
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Ocean winds influence seal pup migration
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Scientists have confirmed what native Alaskans have observed for centuries -- maritime winds influence the travel patterns of northern fur seal pups. New research shows strong winds can potentially displace seal pups by hundreds of kilometers during their first winter migration....
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