Feature Channels: Nature

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A Texas Tech University professor says this crocodile occasionally robbed from the Cradle of Mankind in Africa’s Olduvai Gorge.

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Paul D. Curtis, Cornell University associate professor of Natural Resources, comments on the recent appearances of coyotes in Chelsea, on the Columbia University campus and other areas of New York City.

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Observing the aerial maneuvers of fruit flies, Cornell University researchers have uncovered how the insects – when disturbed by sharp gusts of wind – right themselves and stay on course. Fruit flies use an automatic stabilizer reflex that helps them recover with precision from midflight stumbles.

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Biologist Scott McRobert, Ph.D., professor of biology at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pa., developed "Fish Cam," an online site for students of all ages to research shoaling (grouping) behavior in fish.

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Chris Palmer, director of American University’s Center for Environmental Filmmaking, is available to discuss whether wild animals—especially predators—should be kept in captivity.

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Rangelands—During the past century, food production in the United States has achieved a remarkable degree of efficiency and the cost of food has remained low, but some of the conditions that made such a system possible are changing. Rising human population, water shortages, and depletion of fossil fuels all threaten current food production systems. In short, the era of cheap food may well be coming to an end.

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A first-of-its-kind study of a Caspian Sea beluga sturgeon (Huso huso) fishery demonstrates current harvest rates are four to five times higher than those that would sustain population abundance. The study’s results, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Conservation Biology, suggest that conservation strategies for beluga sturgeon should focus on reducing the overfishing of adults rather than heavily relying upon hatchery supplementation.

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Georgia Tech researchers conducted the first field study showing how endangered loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings use their limbs to move quickly on a variety of terrains in order to reach the ocean.

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Commentary in The Journal of Wildlife Management: Many state wildlife agencies are dependent, financially and politically, on a single user group—hunters. Although this group should continue to be an integral part of wildlife conservation, agencies should adhere to the foundation upon which they were built—stewardship of the public trust. The Public Trust Doctrine postulates that wildlife is owned by no one and held in trust for the benefit of all.

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Which would be the most frightening to encounter in an African reserve—a pride of lions, a bus full of tourists, or a herd of cattle? In the case of spotted hyenas, the approach of livestock most often puts them on alert. But it is the human connection—herders bringing their livestock to graze—that is the root of the hyenas’ unease.

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Winter Olympians have amazing physical abilities, but for wild animals, strength, speed, agility and endurance are a matter of survival. National Wildlife Federation offers some “Wildlife Olympians” with gold medal-worthy abilities!

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have peered deep into the eye of the chicken and found a masterpiece of biological design. Scientists discovered that receptors were laid out in interwoven mosaics that maximized the chicken's ability to see color.

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Bees prefer nectar with small amounts of nicotine and caffeine over nectar that does not comprise these substances at all, a study from the University of Haifa reveals. "This could be an evolutionary development intended, as in humans, to make the bee addicted," states Prof. Ido Izhaki, one of the researchers who conducted the study.

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New research by Mount Holyoke College professor Gary B. Gillis demonstrates toads anticipate the timing and impact of their landings and adjust the use of their arm muscles accordingly.

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New research from the Weizmann Institute reveals that bats, which “see” with beams of sound waves, skew their beams off-center when they want to locate an object. The study shows that this strategy is the most efficient for locating objects.

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In the natural stream communities of Trinidad, guppy populations live close together, but evolve differently. Upstream, fewer predators mean more guppies but less food for each; they grow slowly and larger, reproduce later and less, and die older. Downstream, where predators thrive, guppies eat more, grow rapidly, stay small, reproduce quickly and die younger.

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Extensive commercial fishing endangers dolphin populations in the Mediterranean. This has been shown in a new study carried out at the University of Haifa's Department of Maritime Civilizations. "Unfortunately, we turn our backs to the sea and do not give much consideration to our marine neighbors," states researcher Dr. Aviad Scheinin.

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A phenomenon dubbed “Beetle Mania” is playing out in northern Arizona. As can be expected, it involves rock music, but instead of screaming fans there are cheering scientists who have found a way to drive bark beetles crazy with sound.

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Warmer, drier climate will have negative effects on waterfowl that need prairie pothole region of central North America for wetlands & nesting habitat.

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Baylor University researchers along with ecologists from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County have developed a new method that measures the impact of human-caused environmental degradation on environmental biodiversity.

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A deadly fish virus that was first discovered in the Northeast in 2005 has been found for the first time in fish from Lake Superior, report Cornell researchers. That means that the virus has now been documented in all of the Great Lakes.

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What happens when a wasp lays its eggs but fails to pollinate the fig? The trees get even by dropping those figs to the ground, killing the baby wasps inside. (Cornell University and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute study, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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Researchers from NIST and the College of Charleston are at work trying to identify the clues that will finger specific, yet elusive, environmental threats to the Atlantic blue crab.

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Wellesley's Heather Mattila studies honey bee hives to find out how colonies work together to find food. Her research, recently featured in Discover Magazine, has gained importance as honey bee populations have declined dramatically — and mysteriously — in recent years.

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During the Paleozoic era, the evolution of complex land plants forced the evolution of rivers from nothing but vast braided streams to the variety of different forms and sizes we see today according to researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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Shark pups born to virgin mothers can survive over the long-term, according to new research published Jan. 25 in the Journal of Heredity. The study shows for the first time that some virgin births can result in viable offspring.

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How do you scare a 300-pound black bear? This is not a riddle; it is what is in the best interest of the bear—and any nearby people. To keep bears at a safe distance from humans and sources of human food, national park personnel use various methods of aversive conditioning to scare these animals away. Pepper spray, chasing, and projectiles—shooting with rubber slugs, using slingshots, and throwing rocks—were the methods evaluated during a four-year study in Sequoia National Park, California.

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A microbe commonly found in the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways emits a poison not just to protect itself but to stun and immobilize the prey it plans to eat.

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To the casual observer in the Gulf of Mexico, the seemingly sluggish red grouper is more of a couch potato than a busy beaver. But a new study led by researchers at The Florida State University reveals the fish to be both architect and ecosystem engineer.

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Bald eagles are one of the most recognizable birds in the United States, and they are seen in nearly every state. National Wildlife Federation presents a list—divided alphabetically by every state!—of where you and your family can spot the wintering birds of prey.

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Researchers have shown insect colonies follow some of the same biological “rules” as individuals, a finding that suggests insect societies operate like a single “superorganism.”

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Researchers for the Wildlife Conservation Society have discovered for the first time the breeding area of the large-billed reed warbler—dubbed in 2007 as “the world’s least known bird species”—in the remote and rugged Wakhan Corridor of the Pamir Mountains of north-eastern Afghanistan.

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A new and previously unknown species of spider has been discovered in the dune of the Sands of Samar in the southern Arava region by a team of scientists from the Department of Biology in the University of Haifa-Oranim. Unfortunately, however, its habitat is endangered.

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New findings cast uncertainty on previous population size assessments for the severely overfished white marlin and call for reassessment of international recovery efforts.

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Imagine fruit-salad for the eyes: Alstroemeria Tangerine Tango, a new, winter-hardy Inca lily with vivid orange petals, intense lemon yellow highlights, little flecks of nut brown and a hint of lime tint. The plants begin to flower in June, enjoy kissing the summer sun and shoot new stems for months until the first freeze of fall.

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University of Utah biologists found that finches – the birds Darwin studied – develop antibodies against two parasites that moved to the Galapagos Islands, suggesting the birds can fight the alien invaders.

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Scientists have presented a theory of acoustic communication that shows diversity in animal vocal signals can be explained based on the energetic constraints of sound production.

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Scientists at the University of Idaho have discovered not only that different species sometimes use the same gene to produce the same adaptation, but also that how they use it can lead to different outcomes.

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University of Delaware researchers have uncovered a novel means of conquest employed by the common reed, Phragmites australis, which ranks as one of the world's most invasive plants.

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From Scotland’s Midland Valley to Wyoming’s Beartooth Butte to Grahamstown, South Africa, Michael Coates scours sediments hundreds of millions of years old for the deepest branches of vertebrate evolution in the tree of life’s shadowy recesses.

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By making the 2010 Be Out There Resolution to spend more time outside in 2010, Americans will be making a resolution that’s both good for their families and fun to keep. Everyone who makes the 2010 Be Out There Resolution will receive the Know, Go and Grow Be Out There Toolkit with important facts, fun tips and interactive tools to help them keep the resolution.

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It's commonly known that plants interact with each other on an everyday basis: they shade each other out or take up nutrients from the soil before neighboring plants can get them. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have learned that plants also respond to the past.

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A diminutive, colorful bird living in the rocky forests of Laos and Vietnam has been discovered by a team of scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, Lao PDR Department of Forestry, and other groups.

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A Baylor University researcher who has studied the Eastern Screech Owl for more than 40 years says an increase in the number of the owls that are red – known as “rufus” – is another sign of global warming.

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A new study provides credence to the understanding that asexual reproduction allows for the ongoing accumulation and replication of harmful mutations, leaving less room for adaptation to rapidly changing environments.

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The world at large knows koalas as cute, cuddly, lovable iconic animals. The evolutionary biologist, on the other hand, will know them as extremely specialized, endangered animals, the evolutionary history of which is extremely poorly understood.

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An endangered turtle named Anita made history when she became one of the only live marine turtles to ever fly in the passenger cabin of an airplane, thanks to a one-time exemption by American Airlines and the dedication of University of North Carolina Wilmington marine biology professor Alina Szmant.

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The world’s rarest—and most camera shy—great ape has finally been captured on professional video on a forested mountain in Cameroon, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and Germany’s NDR Naturfilm.

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Marty Crump’s new book, 'Sexy Orchids Make Lousy Lovers,' takes readers on a voyage of discovery into the world of extraordinary interactions involving animals, plants, fungi and bacteria.

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Name all the venomous animals you can think of and you probably come up with snakes, spiders, bees, wasps and perhaps poisonous frogs. But catfish?