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Agriculture's impact on insect diversity is more severe than previously thought, according to a new study from the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg.

Often studied in sterile laboratory conditions far removed from the natural habitats of rivers, lakes and seas, the cognitive abilities of fish have long been underestimated. Now, researchers at Wageningen University & Research have developed a simple and cost-effective method to assess the learning capacity of fish directly in the wild—with striking results.

A new study by Wageningen University & Research shows that offshore wind farms not only produce energy, but may also contribute to the protection of marine life. Several shark and ray species were detected in and around Dutch wind farms based on traces of DNA in the seawater (eDNA).

It's spring, the birds are migrating and bird flu (H5N1) is rapidly evolving into the possibility of a human pandemic. Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Public Health have published a comprehensive review documenting research on bird flu in cats and calling for urgent surveillance of cats to help avoid human-to-human transmission.

Researchers have shed new light on how the environment promotes the generation of new species. A study led by Dr. Benjamin Jarrett from Bangor University looked at what happens when two populations of the same species are evolving in different environments. It asks if they are more or less likely to interbreed than populations evolving in the same environment.

Parental care might help invasive brown widow spiders spread. Valeria Arabesky and colleagues at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found that invasive brown widow spiders effectively defend their egg sacs against wasp parasites. The spiders use multiple defense strategies, including guarding behaviors and constructing their egg sacs with denser spikes when wasps are around. These strategies may benefit the invasive species and protect the...

Most of India's snow leopard population live in a remote region in the north of the country, where they co-exist alongside rural communities, according to a study published in PLOS One by Pankaj Raina at Union Territory of Ladakh's Department of Wildlife Protection, and colleagues.

A trio of researchers from institutions in Africa have explored whether honeyguides in Mozambique sometimes lead human hunters to dangerous animals as punishment for not giving them a proper reward on previous hunts. In their study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, David Lloyd-Jones, Musaji Muamedi, and Claire Spottiswoode accompanied locals on several hunts to determine why the birds behaved as they did.

Accessing carbon and nature payments from governments and other organizations often requires robust measurements to quantify restoration's positive impact, but these can be beyond the capacity of community organizations.

The fact that humans who are not related by blood help each other repeatedly over time is demonstrably true—think of the ongoing mutual support that sustains your longest-running friendships.

Two recent studies published in Biological Conservation and Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, led by researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, highlight the profound impacts of hydropower on biodiversity in river channels and at the land-water surface.

In the urban parks of Barcelona, Spain, the calls of a tropical parrot fill the air. The bright green monk parakeet, native to South America, has found a new home in European cities. Monk parakeets thrive in huge colonies where they communicate with each other using many distinct sounds—offering scientists a unique window into understanding the interplay of individual social relationships with vocal variety.

The ambient temperature has a profound impact on the physiology and behavior of most species. In regions where individuals rely on low temperatures to hibernate effectively, global warming is likely to significantly affect their survival.

Some reef fish have the unexpected ability to move their jaws from side to side, biologists at the University of California, Davis have discovered. This ability—which is rare among vertebrate animals—allows these fish to feed rapidly and efficiently on algae growing on rocks. The work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sophie Cohen-Bodénès and Peter Neri, neuroscientists at École Normale Supérieure, in France, report possible evidence of cuttlefish communicating by waving their 'arms' at one another. Their paper is posted on the bioRxiv preprint server.

Friendship comes with complex pros and cons—possibly explaining why some individuals are less sociable, according to a new study of gorillas.

The Monte Gordo grasshopper (Eyprepocprifas insularis) has proved to be a rare and elusive species: its last, and, until now, the only sighting was a single specimen found in 1980. This is why researcher Dr. Michel Lecoq declared it extinct in 1996.

Some red algae exhibit structural color that gives their growth tips a blue hue and the rest of their bodies, including their fruiting structures, a white hue. Moreover, since the color-producing structures are located together with anti-herbivory chemicals, the Kobe University discovery is the first to suggest that red algae use colors for inter-species communication.

Intensive farming is one of the biggest factors contributing to biodiversity loss. While prior research has focused primarily on the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, intensive farming also has other environmental effects, including the use of pesticides in agricultural environments.

Endemic to China's Yangtze River, the Yangtze finless porpoise is known for its intelligence and charismatic appearance; it looks like it has a perpetual smile on its face. To track how this critically endangered porpoise's habitat range has changed over time, a team of biodiversity and conservation experts compiled 724 ancient Chinese poems referencing the porpoise from historic collections across China.

Even biologists only capture a glimpse of the lives of whales. There are still many species whose lives are largely a mystery, particularly the deep diving whales.

A new study has revealed how the loss of experienced individual elephants stops the knowledge transfer between generations, putting elephant societies at risk.

By using antibodies from a human donor with a self-induced hyper-immunity to snake venom, scientists have developed the most broadly effective antivenom to date, which is protective against the likes of the black mamba, king cobra, and tiger snakes in mouse trials. Described in the journal Cell, the antivenom combines protective antibodies and a small molecule inhibitor and opens a path toward a universal...

The intensification of existing farmland can sometimes be more harmful to local biodiversity than expanding the area covered by agricultural land, finds a new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers.