Ecology & Zoology

The Brazilian Atlantic forest is home to animals, birds, plants, and tourist trains. Credit: EPA By Cristina Banks-Leite, Imperial College London Brazil’s Atlantic forest – Mata Atlântica – is one of…

Honey bees play a vital role in pollination but their populations are under threat in many parts of the world. Flickr/Paul Stein, CC BY-SA By Andrew Beattie One of the biggest problems for…

Everyone's heard of the birds and the bees - why do they leave out the flowers that are being fertilized? Maybe because it is too complicated. The fertilization process for flowering plants is…

A comprehensive study of rhino reproduction over six years encompassed 90% of the European population of captive black rhinos in Europe highlights and finds that hormone analysis could improve the…

By James Smith, Research Fellow in Fisheries at UNSW Australia It may sound overly simple, but just five processes can define us as animals: eating, metabolism, reproduction, dispersal and death.…

When salmon encounter turbulent, fast-moving water, such as rapids or areas downstream of dams, they must move upstream using a behavior known as "burst swimming" that is similar to sprinting for…

A common orb-weaving spider may grow larger and have an increased ability to reproduce when living in urban areas, according to ecologists from the University of Sydney. They believe urbanization may…

By Oliver Griffith, University of Sydney Have you ever wondered why we give birth to live young rather than lay eggs? Scientists have pondered this for a long time and answers have come from an…

In European culture, it is widely accepted that magpies (Pica pica) are the thieves of the bird kingdom, attracted to sparkly things and prone to stealing them for their nests. But psychologists at…

A new paper delineating spiders’ roles within their colonies is intriguing because the spiders’ specialization (like caregiver or hunter-warrior) isn’t determined by size or physical structure, like…