Feature Channels: Nature

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Dave Christianson and Scott Creel are researching elk in the northwest part of the Yellowstone Ecosystem to see how they're affected by wolves.

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Collaring elk and wolves has become a welcome social event for MSU researchers who live isolated lives from mid-December through April.

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New University of Washington research shows that a regulatory gene named broad, known to be necessary for development of insects that undergo complete metamorphosis, also is key for the maturation of insects that have incomplete metamorphosis.

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Certain species of coral have surprised researchers by showing an unexpectedly successful approach towards survival when seriously bleached. Their innovative strategy is gluttony. The discovery, derived from experiments on coral reefs in Hawaii, provides new insights into how these tiny animals face a multitude of environmental threats.

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The European starling "“ long known as a virtuoso songbird and as an expert mimic too "“ may also soon gain a reputation as something of a "grammar-marm." This three-ounce bird, new research shows, can learn syntactic patterns formerly thought to be the exclusive province of humans.

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Linguists have argued that certain patterns of language organization are the exclusive province of humans. These syntactical capacities have been used to define the boundaries between humans and other creatures. Now researchers have discovered the capacity to recognize such patterns in starlings.

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The Painted Bunting Observer Team (PBOT) at the University of North Carolina Wilmington is seeking help from volunteer citizens to support a research study in North and South Carolina to develop strategies to sustain and increase the numbers of these brightly colored migratory birds whose numbers are dwindling.

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Three previously undescribed species of mites were discovered high in the tree canopy in the Adirondack Park, along with a species of lichen that has not been seen in New York state in some 40 years. The discoveries by a graduate student at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry raise questions about what other secrets the forest holds.

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Frogs and lots of them are being discovered in the Southeast Asia nation of Lao PDR, according to the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which says that six new frog species have been found by scientists over a two-year period.

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When 10,000 honeybees fly the coop to hunt for a new home, they have a unique method of deciding which site is right. And their technique, says Cornell biologist Thomas Seeley, includes coalition building until a quorum develops.

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A team of scientists from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reveal the discovery of the molecular mechanisms that allow animals to switch genes on or off to gain or lose anatomical characteristics.

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Use of insecticides in agriculture is believed to be a major factor in regional declines in bird populations. A new study provides analyses that make objective assessments of the risk to birds at the local level anywhere in the world. The study is published in the latest Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

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Just as baby mammals depend on their mothers' milk, the young of the African amphibian Boulengerula taitanus nourish themselves by stripping off and eating the fat-rich outer layer of their mothers' skin, according to an international team of researchers that includes University of Michigan biologist Ronald Nussbaum.

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The most cost-effective way to stop non-native rats and mongoose from decimating highly endangered species on larger tropical islands is not by intensive trapping, but instead by preserving the forest blocks where wildlife live, according to a new study.

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Scientists have reported an unprecedented number of unaccompanied and possibly abandoned walrus calves in the Arctic Ocean, where melting sea ice may be forcing mothers to abandon their pups as the mothers follow the rapidly retreating ice edge north.

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The living fossil that still patrols the rivers of the Pacific Coast recently received a boost from the US government, but the new 'threatened' listing for the green sturgeon only applies to the southern population, and may fail to protect these fish leaving California's Sacramento River System unless stiff measures are applied over a wide geographical range, said the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

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A study of zoo lions across U.S. by Dr. Bruce Patterson of The Field Museum shows that cold temperatures result in longer, thicker manes. Differences in manes are not a result of natural selection, but a flexible trait matching local weather conditions.

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The Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) today applauded a decision today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Tibetan antelope, also known as "chiru," as an endangered species.

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If you think you've got a bad boss, one who loves to chew people out, or if you work with backstabbing co-workers, be thankful you are not a wasp. If you were, chances are your nestmates might bite you to communicate that it is time for you to leave the nest and forage for the colony.

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A "Red Tide" event that occurred off the coast of El Salvador late last year directly caused the deaths of some 200 sea turtles, according to test results released today by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other organizations.

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Scientists have used the mathematics of information theory to confirm that the songs of humpback whales have their own complex syntax containing the elements of language.

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Novel application of MRI leads to new tools for online digital dissection of preserved fishes from one of the world's most valuable natural history collections.

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Decades of U.S. government-subsidized predator control has failed to prevent a long-term decline in the sheep industry, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

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As spring gardening approaches, concern has spread about the risk of the Formosan subterranean termite moving to other states in mulch produced from Katrina and Rita debris. The termite wreaks millions of dollars of damage annually in a dozen southern states, including Louisiana.

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In the first study to link social evolution to climate change, Cornell's Bryan Danforth and colleagues show that the social behavior of many sweat bees evolved simultaneously during a period of recent global warming, only 20 million to 22 million years ago.

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Salamanders and the tuatara, a lizard-like animal that has lived on Earth for 225 million years, were the first vertebrates to walk and run on land, according to a recent study by Ohio University researchers.

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U.M. professor Cynthia Moss has found that bats have methods for echolocating food in "clutter" that may be more complex than scientists have thought. Bats adjust their sonic pulse output to respond to information they receive from echolocation.

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For centuries scientists have thought of deep-sea pelagic fish as nomadic wanderers. But new results from the ongoing Mid-Atlantic Ridge Ecosystems program have revealed that these fishes may in fact be gathering at features such as ridges or seamounts to spawn.

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Marine scientists from the University of South Florida College of Marine Science and colleagues at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution investigated the issue of whether sonar can be correlated with the stranding of beaked whales, as some reports have claimed.

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In an extensive study, researchers from the University of Montana, University of California - Santa Cruz, and the University of California - Davis have shown that a top predator strongly affected plants and animals at the bottom of an island food web by eating organisms that transport nutrients between ecosystems.

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It may still be "king of the beasts," but the African lion's kingdom is dwindling, according to a new report released by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) that says lions have vanished from 82 percent of their historic distribution over the past several decades.

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The authors of a paper in last week's Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Section B, who say their 7.9 mm-long fish from Southeast Asia is the smallest fish and vertebrate known, have failed to make note of work published last fall that describes a sexually mature, male anglerfish measuring 6.2 mm.

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Killer whales, which lure gulls by setting traps, are now among the animal species known to demonstrate "cultural learning," a phenomenon in which animals of the same species learn from other members of their group.

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The test complies with federal guidelines requiring that by 2007 post-harvest treated oysters must not contain more 30 Vibrio vulnificus bacterium per gram of oyster meat.

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The government of Madagascar has scored a significant victory for conservation by bringing one million hectares of wild landscapes and seascapes under protection to conserve the island nation's unique fauna and flora, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

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The Big Woods of Arkansas provides rare suitable habitat for the ivory-billed woodpecker, including old-growth forest that was decimated from the southern United States after the Civil War.

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Responding to recommendations to increase protection for the green sturgeon in coastal waters, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission recently voted to lower retention-size limits for commercial fisheries that harvest this species, an important step to ensuring a future for this living relic.

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Researchers using GPS technology will track 100 deer every five hours for a year in the hopes of discovering a link between their movement and the spread of chronic wasting disease.

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West Virginia University and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources are using cutting-edge technology to gain a better understanding of the state's black bear population.

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The New England Aquarium is rehabilitating an endangered leatherback seaturtle. This marks the first time in 30 years that a live leatherback has been brought to the Aquarium. If rehabilitation efforts succeed, this may be only the second leatherback in history to be successfully rehabilitated and returned to the wild, and the first for the Aquarium.

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Thirty tick-killing bait stations were deployed last month in what is likely the largest tick control project in the nation. The bait stations are being used to kill Lyme disease-carrying deer ticks where they concentrate and are most vulnerable -- on deer.

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"Secret Weapons: Defenses of Insects, Spiders, Scorpions and Other Many-Legged Creatures" by Cornell University's Thomas and Maria Eisner and Emory University's Melody Siegler tells 69 stories about the defensive strategies of insects and other many-legged creatures.

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Montana researchers have answered some of the questions about how a national animal ID program would work.

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Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and their Russian colleagues from the Russian Far East recently fitted three wild 40-day-old Siberian tiger cubs with tiny radio-collars, marking the youngest wild tigers to be tracked by scientists.

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The New England Aquarium has named Irving as its Founding Corporate Research Partner for the protection of the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Irving Oil and the New England Aquarium are working together to find practical, science-based solutions to problems facing right whales.

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A sensitive new genetic test can now detect a crippling disease called QPX occurring in clam beds from Cape Cod south to Virginia and north to Canada. The disease can have a significant impact on a local economy by killing clams and devastating shellfish harvests and commercial aquaculture operations.

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An Iowa State University researcher is working to stop invasions of zebra mussels, spiny water fleas and other exotic species that hitch rides in the ballast tanks of ships. The marine exotics can overwhelm native ecologies and cause billions in economic damage.

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What do an African researcher and the fictional character Captain Ahab have in common? Both were searching for a legendary white beast, and whereas Ahab searched for his white whale, Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Charles Foley sought"”and finally found"”his white giraffe.

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In a scene reminiscent of the famous Samsonite luggage commercial when a gorilla puts the product's durability to the test, grizzly bears at the Bronx Zoo gave a bear-proof food canister designed for backpackers a real beating, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

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A combination of natural and man-made threats is killing gorillas and chimpanzees in Central Africa, and experts say $30 million is needed for special programs to save some of mankind's closest relatives from disappearing.