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 […]
They live in the most biodiverse place on Earth but they go hungry
Reading Time: 3 minutesMASSIVE seasonal floods mean many ribeirinhos – a marginalised social group who live alongside rivers in Brazil’s Amazonian floodplain forests, struggle to catch enough fish to eat and can go hungry. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] The Purus River, which flows towards the regional capital city of Manaus, undergoes one of the largest annual variations […]
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. […]
Popular cash crops can indirectly impact on fight against malaria
Reading Time: 2 minutesRESEARCHERS at the University of Sydney and University of São Paulo, Brazil, estimate 20 percent of the malaria risk in deforestation hot spots is driven by the international trade of exports including: coffee, timber, soybean, cocoa, wood products, palm oil, tobacco, beef and cotton. “What does this mean for affluent consumers?” asks senior author Professor […]
Fireflies face extinction with habitat loss, pesticide usage
Reading Time: 3 minutesHABITAT loss, pesticide use and, surprisingly, artificial light are the three most serious threats endangering fireflies across the globe, raising the spectre of extinction for certain species and related impacts on biodiversity and ecotourism, according to a Tufts University-led team of biologists associated with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Fireflies belong to […]
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, […]
Dog detectives sniff out pathogens
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRESEARCHERS trained 10 dog detectives to identify citrus huanglongbing, a pathogen that is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid and has devastated orchard production in Florida. The expert sniffers, including Boby, Szaboles, and Bello, could spot Valencia orange trees infected by psyllids roughly 99 percent of the time, according to a study published on February […]
African grey parrots spontaneously ‘lend a wing’
Reading Time: 2 minutesPEOPLE and other great apes are known for their willingness to help others in need, even strangers. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on January 9 have shown for the first time that some birds — and specifically African grey parrots — are similarly helpful. “We found that African grey parrots voluntarily and spontaneously help […]
‘Save the Amazon from fires and deforestation’
Reading Time: 2 minutesTHE recent Amazon forest fires became a subject of discussion among many circles. Suddenly, people were very worried since the Amazon contributed twenty per cent of oxygen to the Earth and such large-scale fires could lead to global warming. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]Before that did anyone have any concern about the history of the […]