For the first time, researchers have succeeded in directly measuring the aerodynamics of flying animals as they manoeuvre in the air. Previously, the upstroke of the wings was considered relatively insignificant compared to the powerful downstroke but, in a new study, biologists at Lund University in Sweden have observed that it is on the upstroke...
Species' longevity depends on brain cell numbers
Scientists have thought that the main determinant of maximal longevity in warm-blooded animals -- which varies from as little as 2 to as many as 211 years -- is a species' metabolic rate, which is inversely related to body size. It follows that at 2 years of life, small animals with high metabolic rates are...
Saving wildlife: Using geology to track elusive hawks
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are perfecting an innovative way to track the migration of elusive wildlife to help in their conservation.
UC professor Brooke Crowley studies feathers plucked from hawks captured for leg-banding in Idaho. Cooper's hawks and sharp-shinned hawks are small, predatory raptors that live across North America. They can be difficult to...
Study shows how vultures evesdrop to gather vital flight information
A new study has revealed how vultures use their very own social networks to work out the best way to take advantage of thermal updrafts to help them fly vast distances.
The research, carried out by a team from Swansea University led by PhD student Hannah Williams, examined how the vultures seemed to make risky but...
New hope for world's most endangered mammal
New genetic analysis of white rhino populations suggests it could be possible to rescue the critically endangered northern white rhinoceros from extinction, using the genes of its less threatened southern cousin.
Analysing genetic samples from 232 rhinos, researchers from Cardiff University and the University of Venda found that despite the northern and southern populations of white...
Protecting adult female north atlantic right whales from injury and death key to recovery
Why is the endangered western North Atlantic right whale population growing far more slowly than those of southern right whales, a sister species also recovering from near extinction by commercial whaling?
NOAA Fisheries researchers and colleagues looked more closely at the question and have concluded that preserving the lives of adult females in the population is...