Phys.org – Ecology

A new study led by the Konrad Lorenz Research Center for Behavior and Cognition at the University of Vienna sheds light on a long-standing mystery in animal behavior: Why do certain individuals gain more influence […]

As anyone who has tried to hold a conversation in a noisy room knows, it is sometimes easier to rely on hand gestures than to shout over the din. White-throated dippers face a similar challenge […]

On Japan’s desert islands, researchers uncovered a peculiar bathroom ritual among seabirds. Reporting in Current Biology, the team found that streaked shearwaters (Calonectris leucomelas) poop while flying—not while floating on water—and they do so every […]

Behavioral flexibility, the ability to adapt one’s behavior to changing circumstances based on previous experience, is thought to play an important role in a species’ ability to successfully adapt to new environments and expand its […]

Nature often puts on incredible displays. A recent example caught on camera shows thousands of bumblebee catfish (Rhyacoglanis paranensis) climbing waterfalls in southern Brazil. This is the first time the species has been observed in […]

As the world grapples with the intertwined challenges of global forest degradation and climate change, traditional forest restoration approaches have shown critical shortcomings. These approaches, which have long focused exclusively on aboveground carbon storage, often […]

The 66th Supplement to the American Ornithological Society’s (AOS) Check-list of North American Birds, published in Ornithology, includes several significant updates to the classification of bird species found in North America, Central America, and the […]

The inhabitants of the “Lost City of the Amazon” in Ecuador’s Upano River Valley grew corn and planted alder trees for over 1,200 years, but a later occupation that lasted just 300 years was the […]

Many insects live in symbiosis with certain species of bacteria. These bacteria make important contributions to their hosts’ nutrition, digestion, detoxification, reproduction and defense. Due to their close coexistence with insects, symbionts often lose genes […]

For many endangered species, population decline to the brink of extinction leads to inbreeding, exposing a species to deleterious recessive mutations that severely limit its potential to recover. But the red-headed wood pigeon, endemic to […]