Nature News

Gibbon-speak is real language.

Gibbon-speak is real language.

Posted Sun, 11 Jan 2015 19:39:12 GMT by Dave Armstrong

How will we tell our children about the dangers of life? The gibbons have evolved a language of sounds and songs that possibly resemble those we first used to warn our offspring of the leopard or elephant danger.

Gibbon-speak is real language.

Shark self-conservation

Shark self-conservation

Posted Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:45:19 GMT by Dave Armstrong

The conservation of are animals has many and varied techniques, some of which could be exclusive to one species. The maintenance of living sperm within the female body after mating is a device that is useful to ensure diversity. In this case, it could prove useful when the last living male shark is killed and a mated female still exists.

Shark self-conservation

Support your local orcas.

Support your local orcas.

Posted Sat, 03 Jan 2015 13:06:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Whale-watching is varied. You can watch the biggies or find your way north to where most killer whales patrol. Dolphins are probably the easiest to see, if you are lucky to live in the right area, but the orca really ticks boxes for conservation, huge intelligence and quite a glam. appearance (but not in the Aquarium, please!)

Support your local orcas.

Mongoose inbreeding maintains social system?

Mongoose inbreeding maintains social system?

Posted Sun, 28 Dec 2014 12:42:23 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Incest becomes a topic we can talk about as genetics is responsible for informing us about the lives of almost every species, living or extinct!

Mongoose inbreeding maintains social system?

Humans are lightweights

Humans are lightweights

Posted Tue, 23 Dec 2014 08:31:00 GMT by JW Dowey

How does our skeleton fit us? Is it designed for the activity and sports that we love so much, because of a past of long-distance running and hunting and gathering. Is it more suited to the couch potato, who rarely needs his or her joints to mobilise their frame? The answer lies in agriculture apparently, needing hard work, but from a more gracile form than that of our relatives such as the Neanderthals. The great apes here have heavy frames apart from the 2 extremes, the leaping gibbon and the agricultural human!

Humans are lightweights

Mammals as they used to be.

Mammals as they used to be.

Posted Thu, 18 Dec 2014 11:40:00 GMT by Paul Robinson

The mammals are great at adaptation to different niches, but we can’t easily study many lost species that must have contributed to the ecology of living species, as well as being their ancestors!

Mammals as they used to be.

Femme fatale mantis is a cheating cannibal

Femme fatale mantis is a cheating cannibal

Posted Wed, 17 Dec 2014 08:45:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

The mantids earn their popularity from the fearsome triangle of a head while the elegant bodies and displays they give us only add to the mystique. Now the background to that grisly mating habit can be revealed !

Femme fatale mantis is a cheating cannibal

Birdsong proves geographical races have different responses.

Birdsong proves geographical races have different responses.

Posted Sun, 30 Nov 2014 12:25:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

In racial discrimination, we have problems, but in birds it is all about the mating prospects of similar individuals. In this case, the stonechat has already successfully colonised many parts of the Old World over millions of years. Here is an insight into evolution of the song and the bird as it continues the selection and the speciations that have made it successful for so long. The nightingale is mentioned as a plastic song

Birdsong proves geographical races have different responses.

Remember Wallace for his birdwing but conserve this incredible insect too

Remember Wallace for his birdwing but conserve this incredible insect too

Posted Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:59:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Our humble attempt to stir interest in the most intriguing species on earth moves to the Mollucas. Wallace discovered more animals than almost any other explorer in the richly biodiverse islands we can now call Wallaceana (Indonesia, Australasia and Malaysia.) What a man!

Remember Wallace for his birdwing but conserve this incredible insect too

The artful crocodiles can hunt cooperatively.

The artful crocodiles can hunt cooperatively.

Posted Sat, 22 Nov 2014 20:44:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

How stupid we are. For thousands of years, many have regarded reptiles and crocodilians in particular as slow and stupid themselves. From these papers, you can understand how wrong we were and how artful the croc can be. Just ask Captain Hook! (Who actually proves that some people always thought the scaly monster was not just tough, but wily too.)

The artful crocodiles can hunt cooperatively.

Monkeys' and apes' cultural learning

Monkeys' and apes' cultural learning

Posted Wed, 12 Nov 2014 04:00:00 GMT by JW Dowey

The human species exploded with tools and cultural learning at several stages in their distant history. Just how mentally-equipped are other primates for a cultural rush of tool using and rapid evolution?

Monkeys' and apes' cultural learning

Oil palm ecology suits some.

Oil palm ecology suits some.

Posted Tue, 11 Nov 2014 17:40:00 GMT by Paul Robinson

How can we cope with the burgeoning oil palm plantations. Instead of just complaining, here is one piece of evidence from the Journal of Applied Ecology . Perhaps some other organisms can survive in these nightmares for many almost-extinct animals and plants.

Oil palm ecology suits some.

Cultures can exist beyond the (naked) apes.

Cultures can exist beyond the (naked) apes.

Posted Wed, 05 Nov 2014 07:00:00 GMT by JW Dowey

For years, humans have been advancing slowly on how animal culture might be transmitted. In efforts to understand both our own ancestors and the mechanisms of social behaviour everywhere, we are seeing achievements at many levels of discovery.

Cultures can exist beyond the (naked) apes.

 Spot (or hear) the vole - in the snow

Spot (or hear) the vole - in the snow

Posted Wed, 29 Oct 2014 00:00:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

The ways of the prey organism must be known to an efficient predator, and there are no one more deadly that the mustelid race. Fortunately for humans, we don’t have to hide under the snow as one of these hunters searches above. The nearest I can think of is to be stalked by those fascinating Madagascan fossa..

Spot (or hear) the vole - in the snow

Horse Sense

Horse Sense

Posted Mon, 13 Oct 2014 20:04:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

After the great interest shown by our articles on the recent evolution of dogs, cats and horses, we thought it better to follow these up, rather than spout on about relatively unknown species, much as we’d love to. North Americans love to think that horses belong there, but they became extinct there for an odd combination of circumstances, like camels and many others.

Horse Sense

We’re mad about Madagascar.

We’re mad about Madagascar.

Posted Sat, 11 Oct 2014 09:17:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

How much research flows out of Madagascar, on the lemurs, chameleons and frogs alone. We have to preserve this island and sustain its people in their struggles with nature, including climate change. The age of introspection is over. This is one planet and we all are one with it – just investigate the biodiversity and the climate change conferences mushrooming in response to popular demands.

We’re mad about Madagascar.

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Bowhead whales rock- all winter long.

Posted Wed, 04 Apr 2018 08:39:22 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Untamed Travel Possibilities for your imagination or your future plans.

Posted Tue, 26 Sep 2017 09:34:49 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Sneeze to leave, and wild dogs vote for a hunt!

Posted Wed, 06 Sep 2017 07:15:00 GMT by JW.Dowey

Sheep hunted before domestication in the Middle East.

Posted Wed, 23 Aug 2017 09:25:00 GMT by JW. Dowey

Stream insects live well in Yorkshire

Posted Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:55:00 GMT by JW.Dowey

Bees that buzz and those that help the economy!

Posted Fri, 23 Jun 2017 08:15:00 GMT by JW. Dowey

Climate Change drives early laying/hatching, but not only Temperature!

Posted Thu, 27 Apr 2017 07:16:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Bees succeed against the odds, even when solitary.

Posted Tue, 18 Apr 2017 08:16:55 GMT by JW. Dowey

Fascination in rocky pools and their invertebrate inhabitants

Posted Thu, 23 Mar 2017 11:25:01 GMT by JW. Dowey

Army ants tolerate multiple evolutions of beetle mimics

Posted Wed, 15 Mar 2017 09:50:00 GMT by JW. Dowey

Ants, plants and pitchers

Posted Thu, 23 May 2013 18:07:19 GMT by Dave Armstrong

For baboons it pays to be sociable

Posted Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:11:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Pilot whales and New Zealand strandings.

Posted Sun, 15 Feb 2015 12:36:00 GMT by Paul Robinson

Wildlife, Genes and Speciation Part I

Posted Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:57:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Change partners for the capuchin social event of the year

Posted Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:10:03 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Salmon farming puts wild populations at risk

Posted Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:44:01 GMT by Louise Murray

Yeti crabs colonised the deep sea

Posted Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:57:46 GMT by Dave Armstrong

The Grey Whale in the Eastern Pacific

Posted Fri, 11 May 2012 10:51:02 GMT by Dave Armstrong

The memory of squamates is better than you think

Posted Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:39:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Orangutan engineer gains degree

Posted Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:23:24 GMT by Dave Armstrong