All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Cheap Taste? Bowerbirds go for bargain decor
When male spotted bowerbirds collect sticks and other doodads to wow females, they don't search for the rare showpiece but go for the cheap trinket.
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When to Change Sex
A research team contends that animals that routinely change sex, even those prompted by mate loss or other social cues, tend to do so when they reach 72 percent of their maximum size.
- Animals
Whale Haunt: Nursing, feeding spot found off south Chile
A survey along the coast of southern Chile has turned up a previously undocumented blue whale hangout that seems to be a feeding ground.
- Ecosystems
Brazil Nut Loss Looms: Harvest may be too heavy to last
A study of 23 spots in Amazonian forests has raised the question of whether the collection of Brazil nuts—praised as a model of gentle forest use—has reached such levels that it may not be sustainable.
- Ecosystems
Brazil Nut Loss Looms: Harvest may be too heavy to last
A study of 23 spots in Amazonian forests has raised the question of whether the collection of Brazil nuts—praised as a model of gentle forest use—has reached such levels that it may not be sustainable.
- Plants
Sweet Lurkers: Cryptic fungi protect chocolate-tree leaves
A whole world of fungi thrives inside tree leaves without causing any harm, and researchers now say these residents may help fight disease.
- Plants
Warm-Blooded Plants?
Research heats up on why some flowers have the chemistry to keep themselves warm.
- Ecosystems
New Farmers: Salt marsh snails plow leaves, fertilize fungus
A salt marsh snail works the leaves of a plant in what researchers say looks like a simple form of farming.
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Plants, bats magnify neurotoxin in Guam
Researchers have found that the natural neurotoxin BMAA gets magnified as it rises through a food chain on Guam, a finding that strengthens a recent hypothesis that attempts to explain a spike in neurological disease on that island.
- Ecosystems
UK halts badger kill after study of TB
Partial results from a new study have pushed the United Kingdom to stop its controversial, decades-old policy of killing local badgers if cattle catch TB.
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Whales of Distinction: Old specimens now declared a new species
Japanese researchers have named a new category of living baleen whales to explain puzzling specimens dating back to the 1970s.
- Ecosystems
Will Climate Change Depose Monarchs? Model predicts too-wet winter refuges
A computer analysis suggests that eastern monarch butterflies may not be able to tolerate the increasingly moist climate in Mexico, their current wintering site.
