Ecosystems

Animals

Hammerhead sharks’ diets may affect if they roam or stay home

Understanding hammerhead sharks’ food preferences could aid efforts to protect the critically endangered fish.

Animals

Stinky penguin poop strikes fear into the hearts of Antarctic krill

A chemical in Adélie penguin guano may have cued krill to take evasive maneuvers in lab tests.

Animals

Dolphins and humans team up to catch fish in Brazil

In Brazil, where humans and dolphins fish in tandem, cooperation both within and between species is essential for the longstanding tradition.

Climate

Warming is chasing cloud forests steadily uphill

Cloud forests are biodiversity hot spots and crucial water sources. But climate change and deforestation are shrinking their range, new data show.

Animals

A fungus named after Sir David Attenborough zombifies cave spiders

The new fungus species Gibellula attenboroughii forces reclusive cave spiders to exposed areas, likely to benefit spore dispersal.

Ecosystems

Extinct moa ate purple trufflelike fungi, fossil bird droppings reveal

DNA analysis reveals the big, flightless moa birds ate — and pooped out — 13 kinds of fungi, including ones crucial for New Zealand’s forest ecosystem.

Ecosystems

Like flyways for birds, we need to map swimways for fish

Mapping fish migration routes and identifying threats is crucial to protecting freshwater species and their habitats, ecologists argue.

Animals

American burying beetles are making a comeback in Nebraska

Thanks to decades of conservation to restore private grasslands, numbers of the threatened insect are on the rise in the Loess Canyons.

Life

Trees are failing to adapt to climate change. Losing fungi partners may be why

Certain fungi give trees nutrients and water, but heat and drought are putting both at risk.

Ecosystems

New videos reveal the hidden lives of Andean bears

The footage give clues to the range of plants the bears eat and how they mate, information important for conservation.

Health & Medicine

Dengue is classified as an urban disease. Mosquitoes don’t care

Infectious diseases are often labeled “urban” or “rural.” Applying political labels to public health misses who is at risk, experts argue.

Science & Society

The U.S. empire was built on bird dung

A mid-1850s act let the United States seize islands rich in bird guano. Those strategic outposts fueled the U.S. rise to power, a researcher says.