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A few things come to mind when we imagine the alpha male type. They're the ones calling the shots, who get all the girls. But there's a downside to being a strong and powerful alpha stud—at least if you're a baboon.

When it comes time to migrate, Queensland University of Technology research has found how a free-living coral ignores the classic advice and goes straight towards the light.

A new study led by the University of Oxford has used a modeling approach to show that it is unlikely that plants would evolve to warn other plants of impending attack. Instead of using their communication networks to transmit warning signals, the findings suggest it is more likely that plants "eavesdrop" on their neighbors. The study has been published this week in the journal...

Several hundred bees in rural Pennsylvania and rural New York are sporting tiny QR codes on their backs. More than the latest in apiarian fashion, the little tags serve a scientific purpose: tracking when bees go in and out of their hives to better understand how long honey bees spend foraging for food outside of their hives.

A new study indicates that human behavior around 45,000 to 29,000 years ago contributed to a change in the composition of scavenging animal species living nearby. While smaller scavenging animals such as foxes and some bird species benefited from the presence of humans, large scavengers such as hyenas and cave lions tended to be displaced.

A study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that while the baboons noticed and responded to a laser mark shining on their arms, legs and hands, they did not react when they saw, via their mirror reflection, the laser on their faces and ears.

It's difficult to know what birds "think" when they fly, but scientists in Australia and Canada are getting some remarkable new insights by looking inside birds' heads.

Trees need a certain number of warm days in their growing seasons to grow properly; otherwise, the cell walls of new growth don't lignify properly, creating blue rings that appear when wood samples are dyed.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University's School of Zoology have studied the behavior and movement of the common spur-winged lapwing and compared the habits of "urban lapwings" to those of their "rural" counterparts.

To try to understand how harmful algal blooms might evolve in Lake Erie in a warming climate, University of Michigan scientists helped conduct a survey of cyanobacteria in a gulf of Kenya's Lake Victoria.

In conventional agriculture, synthetic chemical pesticides are used in various crops such as arable farming, vegetable growing and viticulture. A study by the RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau, published in Scientific Reports, is the first to examine pesticide contamination over the course of a year.

t doesn't require a degree in ornithology, a lab test or even an app for most growers to determine whether bird poop near their crops presents a food safety risk. They just need to ask themselves a simple question: How big is it?

A new species of caddisfly, Tinodes lumbardhi, was found in a sidestream of the Lumbardhi i Deçanit River in Kosovo's Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park. The discovery, made by Professor Halil Ibrahimi of the University of Prishtina and his research team, underscores the region's high biodiversity and urgent need for conservation. The work is published in the Biodiversity Data Journal.

A spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) has been found in South Eastern Egypt, the first recorded instance of the creature in this region for thousands of years.

Ecologists from the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) and the Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) have identified significant ecological risks associated with the release of hybrid groupers into Hong Kong's coastal waters, a practice often linked to religious 'mercy release' rituals.

Smaller fish species are more nutritious, lower in mercury and less susceptible to overfishing, a Cornell-led research team has found.

A new study reported in Current Biology on January 20 is the first to describe a phenomenon researchers refer to as "contagious urinations." The study in 20 captive chimpanzees living at the Kumamoto Sanctuary in Japan shows that, when one chimp pees, others are more likely to follow.

Cetaceans—marine mammals that include dolphins, porpoises, and whales—are crucial to coastal ecology. Their presence fosters carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling and redistribution, and control of certain prey species. Moreover, they serve as bioindicators of overall ocean health.

Tropical forests host an estimated 62% of global terrestrial vertebrate species on less than 20% of the Earth's land area and provide resources that directly benefit ~1.5 billion people throughout the world.

Freshwater ecosystems cover less than 1% of Earth's surface, but are vital for life on this planet. New research reveals that damage to these environments is pushing freshwater animals to the edge of extinction, with 24% of species in danger of being wiped out.

Michigan State University researchers—along with colleagues at the University of Florida, citizen scientists and their "truffle dogs"—have discovered two new species of truffle. The research was published in the journal Mycologia and featured on its cover.

They are two of Florida's most iconic waterbirds, who look and behave similarly, but it turns out the anhinga and the double-crested cormorant are quite different, new research from the University of Miami indicates.

How can chimpanzees, so closely related to humans, have almost no sense of rhythm? Behavioral biologist Michelle Spierings and two students demonstrated that chimps can actually drum and move rhythmically—each following their own unique beat.

Desert lizards are facing a 'cost-of-living' squeeze as global temperatures continue to rise, a new study finds. For a lizard, the 'cost-of-living' is tightly linked to its body temperature, which dictates both how much food it needs and whether it can go outside to feed. Desert lizards are especially challenged because food is sparse, and it is often too hot to forage.