Ecology & Zoology

For dogs, just as for people, the saying “you are what you eat” applies. But modern pet foods are a far cry from the old fashioned chicken-bone based foods of yesterday. Many of today’s pet foods…

South Africans don't use bug zappers or commercial flypaper to ward off pesky flies, but instead hang up a bunch of Roridula gorgonias leaves. Attracted to the shiny adhesive droplets on the leaf's…

Sexual harassment from male guppies is so bad that long-suffering females will risk their lives to escape it, according to new research from Dr. Safi Darden and Dr. Darren Croft from Bangor…

Yesterday, newspapers were telling us half of apes and monkeys face extinction and today we find out we could be overwhelmed by them. The Wildlife Conservation Society released a census showing…

You may have laughed when you read in history books that in years gone by maggots were used to cure disease. Laugh no more. It’s not uncommon for someone to suffer from chronic infected wounds for…

Shark researchers from the University of New South Wales, Newcastle University, NSW Department of Primary Industries Fisheries (Australia) and University of California (USA) reveal unprecedented…

The world's smallest species of snake, as thin as a spaghetti noodle and small enough to rest comfortably on a U.S. quarter, has been identified on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The species,…

In vertebrates with separate sexes, sex determination can be genotypic (GSD) or temperature-dependent (TSD). TSD is very common in reptiles, where the ambient temperature during sensitive periods of…

The ocean is a noisy place and although we don't hear much when we stick our heads underwater, the right instruments can reveal a symphony of sound. The noisemakers range from the low-frequency bass…

According to Peter Olson of the Natural History Museum in London, "All free-living organisms host one or more parasites." This can be taken two ways, both of them generally true: a) that each…