FLORA FAUNA - AFRICA DAILY

Oct 30, 2017 (SPX)

That has now changed: in collaboration with Christoph Gerber and Sascha Martin from the University of Basel and Jason Mercer from University College London, sci...

Fields of cover crops serve as stopover grounds for migrating birds

Oct 29, 2017 (UPI)

With much of the Midwest's grasslands converted into farmland over the last century, there are fewer and fewer places for birds migrating across North America t...

Saving Indonesia's birds-of-paradise one village at a time

Oct 26, 2017 (AFP)

The tourists are in luck, their patience is rewarded: Perched on the branch of a tall tree near the remote village of Malagufuk, a red king bird-of-paradise can...

Indonesia seizes 101 pangolins on fishing boat

Oct 25, 2017 (AFP)

Indonesian officials discovered the pangolins on Tuesday in a raid on a fishing boat off the east coast of Sumatra island, the navy said in a press statement. A...

Shrews shrink their heads in preparation for winter

Oct 24, 2017 (UPI)

"We found that each shrew undergoes a dramatic decrease in braincase size from summer to winter," Javier Lazaro, scientist with the Max Planck Institute for Orn...

Birds help raise other's offspring with the expectation of future benefits

Oct 23, 2017 (UPI)

In roughly 10 percent of bird species, some individuals will delay producing offspring and help care for the newborn chicks of their peers. The behavior has als...

Elephant poaching in Africa falls but ivory seizures up: study

Oct 23, 2017 (AFP)

In its latest report, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species also noted that despite the overall fall in poaching, Africa's elephant popula...

Three-quarters of the total insect population lost in protected nature reserves

Oct 20, 2017 (SPX)

In recent years, it became clear that the numbers of many types of insects such as butterflies and bees were declining in Western Europe and North America. 'How...

Adaptation never stops as study challenges long-established theory

Oct 19, 2017 (UPI)

New research out of Monash University suggests there is no such thing as a fitness peak. To better understand the molecular details of adaptation, scientists at...

Nicaragua to sign Paris climate accord: president

Oct 18, 2017 (AFP)

Nicaragua had previously refused to sign the 2015 agreement on the grounds that it did not go far enough to combat global warming. Ortega gave no date for the s...

Navigational view of the brain thanks to powerful X-rays

Oct 18, 2017 (SPX)

Now, a research team led by Eva Dyer, a computational neuroscientist and electrical engineer, has imaged brains at that map-like or "meso" scale using the most ...

'Hungry bear' crisis grips far east Russian region

Oct 16, 2017 (AFP)

Authorities on Sakhalin island last week said 83 bears had to be shot dead because they were hostile, a figure that has nearly tripled from last year. "This has...

Chile penguins win battle in war against mine

Oct 13, 2017 (AFP)

The rare species is only found on the coasts of Peru and Chile, which has created the National Humboldt Penguin Reserve -- but it's also an area rich in natural...

Study reveals secrets of planet formation

Oct 13, 2017 (UPI)

Most planets form as material coalesces in a star's circumstellar disk of dust and debris. But debris disks can also diffuse or be eaten up by their host star, ...

Pangolin trade forces Ghana to look at new wildlife laws

Oct 12, 2017 (AFP)

More than 31,000 kilograms (68,000 pounds) of scales from the nocturnal mammal have been seized across the world this year, according to the International Fund ...

Scientists discover remains of an ancient bobcat-sized predator in Tanzania

Oct 11, 2017 (UPI)

Hyaenodonts were cat-like in appearance, but walked on flat feet. After the dinosaurs bit the dust at then end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago, hy...

Pumas are surprisingly social, study says

Oct 11, 2017 (UPI)

Until now, scientists believed pumas interacted only to mate, settle territorial disputes and raise offspring. But a combination of GPS-equipped collars and mot...

Scientists complete conservation puzzle, shaping understanding of life on earth

Oct 10, 2017 (SPX)

Led by researchers at the University of Oxford and Tel Aviv University, the 39 scientists have produced a catalogue and atlas of the world's reptiles. By linkin...

Iraqi animal lovers go online to help save Baghdad's strays

Oct 09, 2017 (AFP)

Homeless animals typically face cruelty or even extermination on the streets of the city, but now some pet lovers are looking to use social media to change atti...

From poacher to ranger: saving China's Siberian tigers

Oct 06, 2017 (AFP)

But instead of stalking the woods for prey, Liang Fengen now roams the hills without a rifle, working as a ranger to save the area's endangered Siberian tiger p...