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Two New Owls Discovered in the Philippines

By Guest PostAugust 22, 2012Natureasian ornithology, birdlife international, birdtour asia, camiguin hawk owl, camiguin sur, cebu, cebu hawk owl, deforestation, discovery, DNA, forest, forktail, island, mammalogy, michigan state university, mindanao, new owls, ninox hawk owls, oriental bird club, pam rasmussen, Philippines, species of owls, vocalization

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Two new species of owls have been discovered in the Philippines, and a Michigan State University researcher played a key role in confirming their existence.

The discovery, which is featured in the current issue of Forktail, the Journal of Asian Ornithology, took years to confirm, but it was well worth the effort, said the paper’s lead author Pam Rasmussen, MSU assistant professor of zoology and assistant curator of mammalogy and ornithology at the MSU Museum.

“More than 15 years ago, we realized that new subspecies of Ninox hawk-owls existed in the Philippines,” she said. “But it wasn’t until last year that we obtained enough recordings that we could confirm that they were not just subspecies, but two new species of owls.” (more…)

UF Scientists Find State Record 87 Eggs in Largest Python from Everglades

By Guest PostAugust 18, 2012Natureburmese python eggs, burmese python problem, everglades python, exotic snakes

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers curating a 17-foot-7-inch Burmese python, the largest found in Florida, discovered 87 eggs in the snake, also a state record. (more…)

Study Proves that One Extinction Leads to Another

By Guest PostAugust 15, 2012Natureafrican plains, aphids, carnivore, ecosystem, extinction, food web, frank van veen, insects, parasitic wasps, predatory fish, predatory species, ripple effect, university of exeter

When a carnivore becomes extinct, other predatory species could soon follow, according to new research.

Scientists have previously put forward this theory, but a University of Exeter team has now carried out the first experiment to prove it.

Published today (15 August 2012) in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, the study shows how the demise of one carnivore species can indirectly cause another to become extinct. The University of Exeter team believes any extinction can create a ripple effect across a food web, with far-reaching consequences for many other animals. (more…)

Male Sandpipers That Sleep Less Have More Sex

By Guest PostAugust 14, 2012Nature, Scienceamanda watson, arctic circle, electroencephalogram, electromyogram datalogger, female, Germany, hypothesis, male sandpipers, mating, mating season, max planck institute, more sex, offspring, seewiesen, sleep deprivation, sleep less, stress

A study conducted by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany has shown that the male members of a sandpiper population who spend less time sleeping are more successful at mating with females and have more offspring.

The sandpiper mating season takes place during the summer in the Arctic Circle, when the sun practically never goes down. Males of the species compete to impress females by fighting with each other, defending territory, and flying over the females while making a hooting sound. (more…)

Global Bullfrog Trade Spreads Deadly Amphibian Fungus Worldwide

By Guest PostAugust 14, 2012Natureamphibian fungus, bullfrog farming, bullfrog trade, chytrid fungus, hybridization hypothesis, michigan bullfrog, sex in chytrid

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The global trade in bullfrogs, which are farmed as a food source in South America and elsewhere, is spreading a deadly fungus that is contributing to the decline of amphibians worldwide, according to a University of Michigan biologist and his colleagues. (more…)

Hyenas that Think Outside the Box Solve Problems Faster

By Guest PostAugust 9, 2012Natureproblem solving, puzzle box, spotted hyenas, wild hyenas

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Innovative problem solving requires trying many different solutions. That’s true for humans, and now Michigan State University researchers show that it’s true for hyenas, too. (more…)

Fish-tailing Robots

By Guest PostAugust 9, 2012Environment, Naturealgorithm, asian carp, common carp, environmental parameter, fish behavior, fish tailing robots, gps position, internet, invasive fish, josh vander hook, lakes, minneapolis, oregon, patrick plonski, peter sorensen, pratap tokekar, radiotagged carp, robotic boats, staring lake, Technology, track, trash fish, university of minnesota, volkan isler

Robotic boats track radio-tagged common carp in area lakes

As a stiff breeze sweeps across Staring Lake in suburban Minneapolis, a five-foot, antenna-sporting robotic boat plies the water in a back-and-forth pattern.

On the shore, Volkan Isler follows the action as two graduate research assistants launch a second boat.

Today Isler, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Minnesota, and graduate students Pratap Tokekar and Josh Vander Hook have come to the lake to test the newer of the boats. Their mission: developing a new technology to track invasive fish. (more…)

Yale Study Reveals New Family Tree for Ray-Finned Fish

By Guest PostAugust 7, 2012Natureage of fishes, alex dornburg, bass, bonefishes, bonytongue fish, devonian period, dinosaurs, eels, evolutionary birthday, family tree, fishes, fossil record, freshwater, genetic analysis, kristen l kuhn, lineages of fish, mammals, ray finned fish, ron i eytan, salmon, second age, teleost fish, teleost lineages, teleosts, thomas near, tropical, tuna, yale university

The most common lineages of fish found today in oceans, lakes, and rivers evolved about the same time as mammals and birds, a new Yale University-led study shows.

The comparative genetic analysis of more than 200 fish species, reported the week of Aug. 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, gave an earlier than expected evolutionary birthday to well-known teleost — or ray-finned — fish such as salmon, bass, or tuna.

The analysis also shows that the very earliest lineages of living teleost fish were eels and bonefishes, not tropical freshwater bonytongue fish as some scientists had proposed. (more…)

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