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Feeding wildlife can influence migration, spread of disease

Animal migration patterns are changing as humans alter the landscape, according to new research from the University of Georgia. Those changes can affect wildlife interactions with parasites-with potential impacts on public health and on the phenomenon of migration itself.

In a paper published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Leone Brown, a recent postdoctoral...

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New guidelines on preventing and treating 'equine strep throat'

Just as strep throat can run rampant in elementary schools, strangles, the "strep throat" of horses, caused by a different Streptococcus bacterium, Streptococcus equi sp equi, is highly contagious. Lymph nodes in the head and neck region become swollen and develop abscesses, resulting in nasal discharge and drainage from the throat. Though rarely fatal, strangles...

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Mowing the lawn less often improves bee habitat

When it comes to improving habitat for beleaguered native bee species, doing less may accomplish more. New research by the USDA Forest Service and partners funded by the National Science Foundation found that mowing the lawn less frequently can significantly improve pollinator habitat.

Susannah Lerman, a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station,...

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Hunger guides mountain lions' actions to enter residential areas

In late February, CBS News Denver reported that mountain lion sightings were on the rise in Colorado's high country. Lion attacks on people in the state and around the world are rare, but the story referenced an attack on a 5-year-old boy in 2016 by a mountain lion near Aspen.

Wildlife biologists around the world studying...

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Breeding trouble: Meta-analysis identifies fishy issues with captive stocks

A group of researchers based at the University of Sydney has uncovered patterns that may be jeopardising the long-term success of worldwide animal breeding programs, which increasingly act as an insurance against extinction in conservation, and for food security.

The meta-analysis, led by the University of Sydney's Faculty of Science, found captive-born animals had, on average,...

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Color-changing hogfish 'sees' with its skin

Some animals are quick-change artists. Take the hogfish, a pointy-snouted reef fish that can go from pearly white to mottled brown to reddish in a matter of milliseconds as it adjusts to shifting conditions on the ocean floor.

Scientists have long suspected that animals with quick-changing colors don't just rely on their eyes to tune their...

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