Ecology
- Animals
Scientists recruit bloodsucking leeches as research assistants
By analyzing a slimy, bloodsucking leech’s last meal, scientists can identify which animals had been living near it.
- Animals
Venus flytraps tend not to eat their pollinators
A first-ever study of what pollinates a Venus flytrap finds little overlap between the critters that serve as pollinators and those that are prey.
- Animals
Rising carbon dioxide could leave tiny lake dwellers defenseless
Rising carbon dioxide in freshwater lakes may change how predators and prey interact.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists probe new ways to control malaria
In the quest to stop malaria, one researcher studies the disease in birds, bats and other animals. Another focuses on climate change and human sprawl.
- Animals
Humongous land crab dines on remote-island seabirds
A biologist has documented a coconut crab taking out a seabird as part of a study of the huge invertebrates living on an Indian Ocean archipelago.
- Animals
Alligators aren’t just freshwater animals
It’s time to change the textbooks. Alligators have been seen in salty waters snacking on sharks.
- Animals
Poop-eating gulls can be pain in the butt for seal pups
The birds can harm baby fur seals as they try to dine on fresh parasites in the pups’ feces.
- Animals
Wildebeest drownings feed a river ecosystem for years
Hundreds or thousands of wildebeests can drown at a time in the Mara River. Those carcasses, however, will feed a succession of other animals.
- Ecosystems
America’s duck lands: These ‘potholes’ are under threat
North America’s prairies are in trouble. Scientists race against the clock for clues about how to save the plants — and animals — that call it home.
- Animals
Giant slugs snack on baby birds
When they accidentally run into bird nests sitting on the ground, some slugs help themselves to a free, easy meal of bird chicks.
- Animals
Bee underfeeds eldest daughter, creating ‘nursemaid’
By giving a brood’s firstborn female smaller portions and a low-protein diet, a mother bee can turn the offspring into a nursemaid for her younger siblings.
- Agriculture
Sneaky! Virus sickens plants, but helps them multiply
The cucumber mosaic virus helps tomato plants lure pollinators. When the plants multiply, the virus now gets new hosts.
