Ecosystems

Animals

Eggs and other land foods won’t feed polar bears

Polar bears will not be able to survive on land by eating birds, eggs and vegetation, a new review concludes.

Environment

Five years on, Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s impact lingers

Five years after the Gulf of Mexico’s largest disaster, researchers are still studying its ecological impact and struggling to learn the fate of most of the spilled oil.

Animals

Parasites make cannibal shrimp hungry

Parasites make sometimes-cannibalistic shrimp more cannibalistic, a new study suggests.

Ecosystems

Even fast-breeding rabbits can’t withstand Everglades python invasion

Even marsh rabbits in the Everglades can’t breed fast enough to keep their population going when Burmese pythons warm up for summer hunting.

Animals

Flowers make the menu for nearly all Galapagos birds

Almost every species of Galapagos land bird has been found feeding on the nectar and pollen of flowers. Such an expansion of diet has never before been observed.

Ecosystems

When animals invade human spaces

‘Feral Cities’ explores the wildlife living amongst us, sometimes noticed and sometimes not.

Animals

Lemurs expected to lose much of their ranges this century

As the climate warms, Madagascar’s little primates will lose habitat, threatening some with extinction.

Plants

Tropical plant knows whose bill is in its flowers

A rainforest plant avoids inbreeding by accepting pollen only from hummingbird species that must travel to reach it.

Ecosystems

Bubonic plague was a serial visitor in European Middle Ages

Outbreaks of Black Death in medieval Europe may have been triggered by faraway weather patterns and hungry gerbils.

Ecosystems

Bluebird moms inadvertently fuel wars between species

Extra hormones delivered to eggs holding sons in tough times end up driving one bluebird species to chase off another

Ecosystems

Fooled you! Whirling tails of luna moths deflect bat attacks

Luna moths can use their tails to reflect the echolocation pings of bats, tricking the predators into striking the tails instead of less expendable body parts.

Animals

Cats and foxes are driving Australia’s mammals extinct

Since the arrival of Europeans in Australia, a startling number of mammal species have disappeared. A new study puts much of the blame on introduced cats and foxes.