Power-generating wind turbines have long been recognized as a potentially life-threatening hazard for birds. But at most wind facilities, bats actually die in much greater numbers. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology, a Cell Press journal, on August 26th think they know why.
Ninety percent of the bats they examined after death showed signs of internal [...]
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The Scottish government has declared war on increasingly aggressive urban seagulls.
The initial battle will be joined in the southwestern town of Dumfries during next spring’s breeding season when a special anti-gull “task force” will seek to destroy nests and drive out the birds.
“Seagulls are a menace to Scottish towns and cities,” said [...]
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THEY met on the local hot rod scene. They saw one another at tattoo conventions around the area, comparing bikes. They looked like heavies, a band of Hells Angels, with nicknames equally tough: Mike Tattoo, Big Ant, Johnny O, Batso, Sal, Angel, Des.
They meant no harm. Clad in leather, inked to the hilt in skulls [...]
Bay County Sheriff’s deputies were forced to use a Taser to subdue an escaped emu named Plop-Plop. The large female bird escaped from a farm last weekend and on Monday, she holed up with some horses and goats in a pen.
When deputies arrived, the emu “went kind of crazy,” said Sheriff’s deputy Randolph Grob.
The deputies [...]
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A new test for West Nile virus in horses that could be modified for use on humans and wildlife may help track the spread of the disease, according to an article in the September issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology.
West Nile virus infects a wide range of animals, including humans, horses, dogs, cats, bats, [...]
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Some years ago, within the Department of Conservation Biology of the Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Seville, Spain), a recently established group (colloquially named the Night Ecology Group) started to explore the possibility of visual communication in crepuscular and nocturnal birds.
New research on this topic challenged the common belief that social [...]
Continue reading about Foul Owls Use Feces To Show They Are In Fine Feather
Self-recognition, it has been argued, is a hallmark of advanced cognitive abilities in animals. It was previously thought that only the usual suspects of higher cognition—some great apes, dolphins, and elephants—were able to recognize their own bodies in a mirror.
Psychologist Helmut Prior and colleagues have shown evidence of self-recognition in magpies—a species with a brain [...]
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Pigeons come in many shades in New York City — but purple is typically not one of them.
That’s why animal lover Joe Mora was stunned when he saw a pigeon at a Queens playground that had been painted a violet hue.
The pigeon was taken Friday to licensed wildlife rehabilitator Bobby Horvath. He said the bird [...]
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Ever since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have wondered why some lineages have diversified more than others. A classical explanation is that a higher rate of diversification reflects increased ecological opportunities that led to a rapid adaptive radiation of a clade.
A textbook example is Darwin finches from Galapagos, whose ancestor colonized a competitors-free archipelago and rapidly radiated [...]
Elton John, Paul McCartney and Sony boss Howard Stringer have all got one. Now it’s the turn of a three-foot high King Penguin.
Six-year-old Nils Olav was granted a knighthood and the title of “Sir” on Friday, on behalf of Norway’s King Harald V. Loudon. The title was bestowed by a British major general. Nils took [...]
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