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Continental European snakes, geckos and Italian wall lizards are making their way to northern Europe undetected among imports of ornamental olive trees destined for gardens and green spaces.

Life isn't always a beach for Phillip Island's beloved penguins, who have been found to divorce their partners and find a new mate if they aren't satisfied with the number of young filling the nest—but it's a risky decision that can lower success in their next breeding attempt.

Our world is warming, and how exactly that will affect our ecosystems is a critical question. As the climate shifts, plants and animals are already responding in some obvious ways—like your daffodils blooming a bit earlier each spring—but the finer details are still unfolding. This timing of natural events, known as phenology, is changing across species and ecosystems as the climate warms, with potentially...

It's all connected: coronaviruses and other emerging infectious diseases, loss of biodiversity, and destruction of the environment by humans. Around the world, pathogens and parasites are responding to the changes in unexpected ways, fueling the rise of pandemics and the extinction of countless plant and animal species.

Shell-dwelling cichlids take intense care of their offspring, which they raise in abandoned snail shells. A team at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence used 3D-printed snail shells to find out what happens inside.

A mussel bed along Northern California's Dillon Beach is as healthy and biodiverse as it was about 80 years ago, when two young students surveyed it shortly before Pearl Harbor was attacked and one was sent to fight in World War II.

A research team from the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) studied the global variability of plant hydraulics in relation to wind speed. Their findings are published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Scientists have developed a new method to monitor the elusive eastern indigo snake, the longest native snake in the United States. This innovative approach looks for traces of environmental DNA in soil samples and can significantly bolster efforts to conserve this threatened species.

Hummingbirds are extremely small but remarkably tough. Some species make migrations of more than 9,000 km (about 5,590 miles) a year. Their journeys are largely fueled by nectar, which is sipped from wildflowers and converted to fat.

Researchers have used dung records to create high-resolution maps of herbivore distribution around the world. Their study, published in Nature Food, reveals a strong positive relationship between dung presence and grazing pressure, meaning the amount of dung found in a particular location could help us understand approximately how many herbivores live there.

While fishing off the coast of Honduras in 2023, a group of anglers stumbled upon a rare sight: a pod of orcas hunting down a sperm whale.

An international team of environmentalists, zoologists and land use specialists has developed an extinction probability metric for land that is converted to agriculture. Their paper is published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Northern pike are moving through salt water to invade freshwater habitats in Southcentral Alaska, according to a recent study published in the journal PLOS ONE.

An international research team led by the University of Konstanz and Oxford Brookes University concludes that gentle touch is not only good for mental health, but also for the evolution of cooperation.

A new study shows distinct effects of neonicotinoid pesticide exposure in different bumble bee body parts, explaining why pesticides have diverse harmful effects and highlighting the need for more sensitive safety testing. The study is published in the journal Science of The Total Environment.

When a bird drapes its nest with snake skin, it isn't just making an interesting home décor choice. For some birds, it keeps predators at bay.

On the east coast of Australia, in tropical North Queensland, lies the Daintree rainforest—a place where the density of trees forms an almost impenetrable mass of green.

Mosquitoes are able to survive prolonged droughts by drinking blood, which helps to explain how their populations quickly rebound when it finally rains, biologists at the University of Cincinnati said.

The night sky teems with migrating songbirds, aloft in their millions following routes etched in evolutionary time. But those flight paths may not be entirely innate, according to research led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Evidence from over 18,300 hours of recorded flight calls suggests songbirds may "talk" to other species as they migrate, forming social connections and—just maybe—exchanging information about the journey.

Small-scale fisheries play a significant but overlooked role in global fisheries production and are key to addressing hunger and malnutrition while supporting livelihoods around the world, according to research featured in the journal Nature.

A team of environmental scientists at Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research, in New Zealand, the University of Adelaide and the University of Auckland has found that the now-extinct flightless bird moa once consumed the colorful, truffle-like fungi that still grows in New Zealand. In their study published in the journal Biology Letters, the group conducted a DNA analysis of fossilized moa dung.

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have discovered sophisticated behavioral strategies that enable parasitic crickets to survive within ant colonies. Led by Ryoya Tanaka, the team documented how these insects successfully navigate life among potentially lethal hosts through precise evasion tactics. Their findings, published in Communications Biology, reveal remarkable adaptations that allow these cricket species to thrive in a hostile environment.

Tree crops—for example, apple, cherry, olives, nuts, coffee, and cacao—cover more than 183 million hectares worldwide, yet remain largely overlooked in agricultural policies, despite their critical role in achieving the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Seabirds are the most threatened group of birds in the world. A new study led by researchers at Bangor University reveals the sophisticated decision-making seabirds known as Manx shearwaters must make to find fish at sea.