- www.ecoticias.com This solar panel has shattered the theoretical limit: scientists can't explain this when it receives sunlight
This solar cell has created a totally new type of energy generation and now it will change everything: almost free electricity at home
- gizmodo.com John Oliver Explains Why Ethanol Fuel Is a Lie
The disastrous financial and environmental effects of corn ethanol subsidies, broken down by the late-night Brit.
- www.sciencenews.org This snake goes to extremes to play dead — and it appears to pay off
When dice snakes fake their death to avoid predators, those that use a combination of blood, poop and musk spend less time pretending to be dead.
- phys.org Cicada-palooza! Billions of bugs to blanket America
They're loud. They're sexually aroused. And for one special, cacophonous month up to a trillion of them will engulf suburbs and woodlands across America.
- www.theguardian.com ‘If we don’t shoot wolves, we will lose caribou’: the dilemma of saving endangered deer
Researchers in Canada studying interventions to stem decline of mountain caribou have found wolf culls most effective
- www.livescience.com The deadly sea slug that steals venom from its prey
The blue dragon may be too weak to resist the ocean's current, but it can take on a Portuguese man o'war and even steal its venom.
- phys.org Iconic savanna mammals face genetic problems due to fences and roads
Whether by way of Attenborough, Disney or National Geographic, the iconic scene is familiar to many. The ground trembles and clouds of dust swirl as enormous hordes of large animals thunder across the African savanna, cross rivers en masse and are picked off by lions, hyena and crocodiles.
- www.newsweek.com Mammal feared extinct spotted on remote farm
This creature "was thought to be extinct a couple of decades ago, so it's a really rare and threatened species," said Bush Heritage Australia's Nick Mogford.
A critically endangered critter has been sighted on a farm in the middle of nowhere.
The central rock rat is one of Australia's rarest animals, and experts feared it had gone totally extinct a few years ago.
- phys.org Rare Javan rhino calf spotted in Indonesia
A new Javan rhinoceros calf has been spotted at an Indonesian national park, giving hope for the conservation of one of the world's most endangered mammals.
- news.mongabay.com Cerrado mammals change their habits to escape humans, study shows
How do wild animals manage to continue hunting and reproducing in areas occupied by houses, roads, domestic animals and crops? Scientists increasingly point out that the only solution for most species is to drastically change their habits, in a forced adaptation process whose consequences for the su...
- phys.org Heat stress from ocean warming harms octopus vision
While climate change has led to an increase in the abundance of octopuses, heat stress from projected ocean warming could impair their vision and impact the survivability of the species.
- www.abc.net.au Two tennis balls surgically removed from scrub python
A Far North Queensland wildlife carer says he has seen just about everything in his 20 years on the job until he was called about a surprise find in a Cooktown backyard.
- phys.org Hair from tiger thought to be extinct found by conservationist on Java
A team of environmentalists and zoologists affiliated with several institutions in Indonesia has confirmed that a tiger species once thought extinct is still living on the island of Java. In their study, published in the journal Oryx, the group conducted a DNA analysis of a hair found by a conservat...
- phys.org As climate change and pollution imperil coral reefs, scientists are deep-freezing corals to repopulate future oceans
Coral reefs are some of the oldest, most diverse ecosystems on Earth, and among the most valuable. They nurture 25% of all ocean life, protect coasts from storms and add billions of dollars yearly to the global economy through their influences on fisheries, new pharmaceuticals, tourism and recreatio...
- abcnews.go.com Scientists are using underwater speakers to help restore degraded coral reefs: Study
Researchers have discovered a new method that could encourage the restoration of degraded coral reef populations, which have been declining around the world.
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New research shows unintended harms of organic farming
Paper : https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado4083
- phys.org Two coral snakes recorded battling for prey in a scientific first
Two red-tailed coral snakes have been observed competing over a caecilian in the first documented wild case of kleptoparasitism within the family Elapidae.
- phys.org Almost a third of Australia's plant species may have to migrate south if we hit 3 degrees of warming
For ecologists, one of the most pressing questions is to understand how ecosystems will change or adapt as the climate changes rapidly. We are already seeing many species of plant and animal moving uphill and towards the poles in response to higher temperatures. It's very likely most species will mo...
- www.sciencenews.org American bullfrogs may be threatening a rare frog species in Brazil
A search for environmental DNA from critically endangered Pithecopus rusticus frogs turned up DNA from invasive American bullfrogs instead.
- news.mongabay.com No joking: Great apes can be silly and playfully tease each other, finds study
Being silly and indulging in humor may sound easy, but our brains need to do a lot of heavy lifting to pull it off. Landing a joke requires recognizing what’s socially acceptable, being spontaneous, predicting how others may react, and playfully violating some social expectations. Until now, researc...
- www.abc.net.au Sperm whales drop 'bubble of poo' off WA to prevent orca attack in rarely recorded encounter
Observers look on in amazement as sperm whales off WA's southern coast successfully defend themselves from a pod of attacking killer whales by defecating at will, creating a "cloud of diarrhoea".
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/7838159
> Even ScoMo would be proud. Escaped in a cloud of diarrhea
- www.livescience.com Hidden DNA found in blue whales reveals they've been mating with other species — and their hybrid offspring
Newly sequenced genomes of blue whales in the Atlantic Ocean contain "unexpectedly high" levels of fin whale DNA, hinting that the two species have been interbreeding much more than previously realized.
- phys.org Increasing sea temperatures associated with higher bull shark abundance
Increasing sea surface temperatures over the past 20 years in Mobile Bay—an estuary in the US state of Alabama—have coincided with five-fold increases in the abundance of juvenile bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas), according to a study published in Scientific Reports.
- phys.org New study shows mother chimps play with their offspring through good times and bad
When it comes to nurturing their young, mother chimpanzees go the extra mile, according to a new study. Using 10 years of observational data on wild chimpanzees, researchers found that while adults often play, and young chimps play a lot, when food gets scarce, the adults put mutual play aside and f...
- phys.org Rangers hunt endangered Indonesian tigers after deadly attacks
Indonesian rangers along with an animal whisperer are hunting multiple critically endangered Sumatran tigers after two villagers were recently killed in separate attacks that stoked local anger, officials said Thursday.
- phys.org Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape
Imported giant sequoia trees are well adapted to the UK, growing at rates close to their native ranges and capturing large amounts of carbon during their long lives, finds a new study led by UCL researchers with colleagues at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
- www.latimes.com Wolverines vanished from California a century ago. Is it time to bring them back?
Proposed legislation seeks to reintroduce wolverines to California, which lacks a permanent population of the protected animals.
- news.mongabay.com Java rice farmers suffer crop failure as copper mine pollutes local irrigation
PACITAN, Indonesia — Parno looked weary at he stared out over his rice field, occasionally shaking his head as he considered prospects for the coming harvest. “How can I not be angry?” the 69-year-old told Mongabay Indonesia at his field in Cokrokembang village. “It’s been 20 days and the plants are...
- www.sciencedaily.com Good news for coral reef restoration efforts: Study finds 'full recovery' of reef growth within four years
While the majority of the world's reefs are now under threat or even damaged potentially beyond repair, a new study offers some encouraging news: efforts to restore coral reefs not only increase coral cover, but they can also bring back important ecosystem functions, and surprisingly fast.
- www.sciencenews.org Giant tortoise migration in the Galápagos may be stymied by invasive trees
An invasion of Spanish cedar trees on Santa Cruz Island may block the seasonal migration routes of the island's giant tortoise population.
- www.scientificamerican.com This Flower Refrigerates Itself to Survive Scorching Summers
A humble thistle blossom in southern Spain somehow keeps itself up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the surrounding air
- news.mongabay.com ‘Shocking’ mortality of infant macaques points to dangers of oil palm plantations
For 12 years, primatologist Nadine Ruppert and her colleagues have had one recurring task on their calendar: tagging along with a group of southern pig-tailed macaques in Segari, Peninsular Malaysia, as these primates hop between native rainforests and the neighboring oil palm plantations. Over the ...
- phys.org 'Janitors' of the sea: Overharvested sea cucumbers play crucial role in protecting coral
Corals are foundational for ocean life. Known as the rainforests of the sea, they create habitats for 25% of all marine organisms, despite only covering less than 1% of the ocean's area.
- www.cbsnews.com Climate change may cause crisis amid important insect populations, researchers say
Scientists estimate that 40% of insect species are in decline, and a third are endangered.
- www.newsweek.com Migrating whales forced into danger's path in "wild west" Arctic
The whales are leaving feeding grounds 6 weeks later than they did in 2008 as a result of climate change.
- theconversation.com Gut bacteria may explain why grey squirrels outcompete reds – new research
New research suggests the gut bacteria of red and grey squirrels differ significantly, potentially explaining the decline of the native red and the success of its grey counterpart.
- phys.org Birds have been adapting to human activity for millennia, research suggests
Roughly 14,500 to 10,500 years ago, in the transition from the last glacial period, Epipaleolithic and Neolithic peoples harvesting vegetation from the wetlands of eastern Jordan created a habitat for birds that would otherwise have migrated, a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Me...
- www.nature.com Drought response of the boreal forest carbon sink is driven by understorey–tree composition - Nature Geoscience
Carbon sink in young boreal forests is more vulnerable to drought than in mature forests due to the greater contribution and drought sensitivity of understorey relative to trees, according to carbon flux assessments of managed boreal forests in northern Sweden during the 2018 European summer drought...
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Very intelligent dolphins
www.theguardian.com Why dolphins are deep thinkersThe more we study dolphins, the brighter they turn out to be, writes Anuschka de Rohan
Kelly, a dolphin, was rewarded with fish by her trainers for bringing them litter and dead gulls to clean her pool. She began hiding fish under a rock in her pool and used them to lure gulls, which she then brought to her trainers to receive more fish. She even taught her calf the same strategy.
Not only do the dolphins understand the meaning of individual words, they also understand the significance of word order in a sentence. (One of their star dolphins, Akeakamai, has learned a vocabulary of more than 60 words and can understand more than 2,000 sentences.) Particularly impressive is the dolphins’ relaxed attitude when new sentences are introduced. For example, the dolphins generally responded correctly to “touch the frisbee with your tail and then jump over it”.
- www.telegraph.co.uk Alligator snapping turtle from Americas which can bite through human bone turns up in Cumbria
Invasive carnivorous reptile with armour-like shell found in lake by local councillor after probably being dumped by its owner