FLORA FAUNA

5,060 articles

Shade will be a precious resource to lizards in a warming world
Mar 12, 2014 (SPX)
Climate change may even test lizards' famous ability to tolerate and escape the heat -- making habitat protection increasingly vital -- according to a new study...
Global survey of urban birds and plants find more diversity than expected
Mar 12, 2014 (SPX)
The largest analysis to date of the effect of urbanization on bird and plant species diversity worldwide confirms that while human influences such as land cover...
Serpentine ecosystems shed light on the nature of plant adaptation and speciation
Mar 12, 2014 (SPX)
Plants that live in unusual soils, such as those that are extremely low in essential nutrients, provide insight into the mechanisms of adaptation, natural selec...
Herbivores can offset loss of plant biodiversity in grassland
Mar 12, 2014 (SPX)
Two wrongs may not make a right. But when it comes to grassland plant species diversity, it just might. Two impacts often controlled by humans - being fertilize...
Canada offers tax breaks to promote moose breeding
Mar 11, 2014 (AFP)
A conservation group has teamed up with the Canadian tax man to offer deductions for land donations to help lovelorn moose. The Nature Conservancy of Canada is ...
Europe's largest badger study finds rare long-distance movements
Mar 10, 2014 (SPX)
Animal movement is a key part of population ecology, helping us understand how species use their environment and maintain viable populations. In many territoria...
Elephants can tell difference between human languages
Mar 10, 2014 (AFP)
African elephants can differentiate between human languages and move away from those considered a threat, a skill they have honed to survive in the wild, resear...
Not even freezing cold stops alien species in high altitudes
Mar 06, 2014 (SPX)
They hitchhike with us under the soles of our shoes and muddy car tires. Harsh and cold climates don't seem to stop alien plants from establishing themselves in...
Are plants more intelligent than we assumed?
Mar 06, 2014 (SPX)
Plants are also able to make complex decisions. At least this is what scientists from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the University o...
New fins evolve repeatedly in teleost fishes
Mar 06, 2014 (SPX)
Though present in more than 6,000 living species of fish, the adipose fin, a small appendage that lies between the dorsal fin and tail, has no clear function an...
Uganda president wants poachers 'shot on sight'
Mar 06, 2014 (AFP)
Uganda's president has said armed poachers operating in national parks should be shot on sight because of the damage they could inflict on tourism to the centra...
Indonesian clerics issue fatwa to protect wildlife
Mar 05, 2014 (AFP)
Indonesia's top Islamic clerical body has issued a religious fatwa against the illegal hunting and trade in endangered animals in the country, which the WWF hai...
30,000-year-old virus from permafrost is reborn
Mar 03, 2014 (AFP)
French scientists said Monday they had revived a giant but harmless virus that had been locked in the Siberian permafrost for more than 30,000 years. Wakening t...
Ancient beasts roam Spain's wilderness
Mar 02, 2014 (AFP)
In an oak wood spanning the border of Spain and Portugal, an ancient sight unfolds: wild horses, not saddled or shoed, but roaming free as they did centuries ag...
Virginia Tech scientist proposes revolutionary naming system for all life on Earth
Feb 28, 2014 (SPX)
A Virginia Tech researcher has developed a new way to classify and name organisms based on their genome sequence and in doing so created a universal language th...
Peru's Manu National Park sets new biodiversity record
Feb 28, 2014 (SPX)
Peru's treasured Manu National Park is the world's top biodiversity hotspot for reptiles and amphibians, according to a new survey published last week by biolog...
Scientists unlock a 'microbial Pompeii'
Feb 27, 2014 (SPX)
An international team of researchers have discovered a 'microbial Pompeii' preserved on the teeth of skeletons around 1,000 years old. The key to the discovery ...
Kenya rhino-poaching doubled last year
Feb 27, 2014 (AFP)
Armed poachers slaughtered double the number of Kenyan rhinos in 2013 compared to the year before amid a surge in wildlife killings, government officials said T...
New study on plant speciation
Feb 26, 2014 (SPX)
A new study by a Wits University scientist has overturned a long-standing hypothesis about plant speciation (the formation of new and distinct species in the co...
Mauritius kestrels show long-term legacy of man-made habitat change
Feb 26, 2014 (SPX)
The widespread loss of forest to sugarcane fields on the island of Mauritius has forced kestrels living there to survive by speeding up their life histories, ac...
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