Biodiversity

"Researchers said big-headed ants started an “ecological chain reaction” in a Kenya conservancy, impacting lions and other animals".

"Gray wolves that inhabit the Northern Rocky Mountains will not receive protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced Friday."

"Native to the tropics, these pollinators are taking a lead role in one of the latest efforts to conserve the Amazon rainforest."

"As a child, Heriberto Vela, an Indigenous resident of Loreto, Peru, watched his father pull nests of wild stingless bees from trees in the Amazon forest. Together, the two then extracted honey from the nests to help cure colds and other ailments.

"The return of sea otters and their voracious appetites has helped rescue a section of California marshland, a new study shows. Sea otters eat constantly and one of their favorite snacks is the striped shore crab. These crabs dig burrows and also nibble away roots of the marsh grass pickleweed that holds dirt in place."

"A deadly type of bird flu has been found in gentoo penguins for the first time, according to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), stoking concern that the virus could spread among Antarctica's huge penguin colonies."

"The megalodon went extinct 3.6 million years ago, and is thought to be the largest shark that ever swam the Earth. But there's debate over what it looked like."

"Suriname’s Saamaka Maroons still grow rice from seeds an ancestor escaping from a plantation carried in her hair. Now a gene bank seeks to widen use of the rare species to help fight the climate crisis".

"With confirmed or suspected cases in two Antarctic penguin species, researchers fear highly contagious virus could rip through colonies".

"Nine species could soon find themselves on federal threatened or endangered species list, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says."

"With wingspans over a metre and an insatiable love for fruit and nectar, grey-headed flying foxes have settled in massive numbers across South Australia".