Warming climate is changing where birds breed
Reading Time: 2 minutesSPRING is in full swing. Trees are leafing out, flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, and birds are singing. But a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that those birds in your backyard may be changing right along with the climate. Clark Rushing, Assistant Professor in the Department of Wildland Resources […]
Coronaviruses and bats have been evolving together for millions of years
Reading Time: 4 minutesBATS do a lot of good for the world — they pollinate plants, they eat disease-carrying insects, and they help disperse seeds that help with the regeneration of tropical forest trees. Bats and a range of other mammal groups are also natural carriers of coronaviruses. To better understand this very diverse family of viruses, which […]
Pangolins – Protectors of the environment
Reading Time: 2 minutesA SINGLE pangolin is said to consume up to 70 million ants and termites a year. That’s about 191,780 insects per day! Pangolins [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] are natural pest controllers and save both forest trees and agricultural crops from this insect pestilence. One pangolin can protect an area as large as 31 football fields (41 acres) from termite destruction. […]
Coronavirus outbreak raises question: Why are bat viruses so deadly?
Reading Time: 4 minutesIT’S NO coincidence that some of the worst viral disease outbreaks in recent years — SARS, MERS, Ebola, Marburg and likely the newly arrived 2019-nCoV virus — originated in bats. A new University of California, Berkeley, study finds that bats’ fierce immune response to viruses could drive viruses to replicate faster, so that when they […]
Bats – the myths and facts
Reading Time: 3 minutesBY FAISAL ALI ANWARALI KHAN THERE is a saying in Malay Culture “tak kenal maka tak cinta” which can be translated as “you would not fall in love if you don’t get to know the person”. This is the best phrase that we can describe “bats” that are now in the spotlight with the recent […]
Bats Vilified
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East African fish in need of recovery
Reading Time: 2 minutesA STUDY of East African coral reefs has uncovered an unfolding calamity for the region: plummeting fish populations due to overfishing, which in turn could produce widespread food insecurity. In a newly published paper in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series titled “Coral reef fish communities, diversity, and their fisheries and biodiversity status in East […]
Bumble bees prefer a low-fat diet
Reading Time: 2 minutesBEES are an important factor for our environment and our sustenance. Without insect pollination, many plant species – including various crops – cannot reproduce. “Bee mortality therefore affects food supply for human beings,” stated Professor Sara Leonhardt, who specializes in plant-insect interactions. All of the 20,000 over bee species need to be considered. Among these, […]
Disappearing snakes and the biodiversity crisis
Reading Time: 3 minutesA Michigan State University- and University of Maryland-led study should sound alarm bells regarding the “biodiversity crisis” or the loss of wildlife around the world. The loss of any species is devastating. However, the decline or extinction of one species can trigger an avalanche within an ecosystem, wiping out many species in the process. When […]
Bacteria engineered to protect bees from pests and pathogens
Reading Time: 2 minutesSCIENTISTS from The University of Texas at Austin report in the journal Science that they have developed a new strategy to protect honey bees from a deadly trend known as colony collapse: genetically engineered strains of bacteria. An increasing number of honey bee colonies in the U.S. have seen the dwindling of their adult bees. […]