Feeding in Biological News

Freshwater fish at the top of the food chain evolve more slowly

... sizes and shapes that will be fairly good at feeding on insects," Collar explains. "But there's really only one way to be good at feeding on fish you need a large mouth that can engulf ... University of California at Davis. One key to feeding on fish is to have a large mouth, but the other ...

Researchers team up to provide new hope for childhood hunger

... years Develop an effective supplemental feeding regimen for moderate malnutrition. Develop a more cost-effective therapeutic feeding regimen for home-based therapy for severe ... malnutrition. Deploy an effective supplemental feeding regimen for moderate malnutrition and a more ...

Breastfeeding duration and weaning diet may shape child's body composition

... Chevy Chase, MDVariations in both milk feeding and in the weaning diet are linked to differences ... child's height. "Most studies linking infant feeding to later body composition focus on differences in ... in infancy between a diet based on milk feeding to one based on solid foods. The subjects' body ...

Bolivian rainforest study suggests feeding behavior in monkeys and humans have ancient, shared roots

... chamek ) to her presence and then observing their feeding habits. She followed 15 individual monkeys (7 ... nutritional content. It is unusual for a study of feeding habits in wild primates to be conducted in this ... consumed far fewer carbohydrates and fats when feeding on items rich in protein," said Dr Felton. She ...

Does mom know when enough is enough?

... interviewed, and the child's weight was measured. feeding diaries were also checked for omissions or ... blame. But maternal sensitivity to the infant's feeding state, as reflected by the feeding Scale scores, suggests that an unwillingness to ...

A biological basis for the 8-hour workday?

... and some are controlled by the cell itself. feeding appears to control one of the 12-hour gene ... expression peak. When the researchers restricted feeding to a different time of day one 12-hour peak ... the 24-hour component which was unshifted by the feeding change," Hogenesch says. The high-density time ...

Texas researchers provide emissions data for livestock industry

... provided answers for the nation's cattle feeding industry after it was given a very short window ... releases of these gases by large confined animal feeding operations to local and state emergency ... summer months, Todd said. "Texas Panhandle feeding operations with more than 1,000 cattle could ...

Mama whales teach babies where to eat

... patterns and scientists have access to their feeding areas, but we don't know where South Atlantic ... suggested southern right whales had six main feeding areas in the South Atlantic. However, scientists ... now. Rather than searching for right whale feeding grounds visually an enormous if not impossible ...

Crib-side studies help struggling newborns go home without feeding tubes

... new strategy developed in the Neonatal and Infant feeding Disorders Program at Nationwide Children's ... able to help 15 out of 20 infants with severe feeding difficulties and airway concerns learn to feed by ... feeders were sent home without the need for feeding tubes. These infants were referred to the ...

New infant feeding and obesity research adds insight to ongoing issue

... into possible associations between infant feeding and health outcomes related to obesity. ... annual meeting last year. The session, Infant feeding and the Development of Obesity: What Does the ... in the long-term effects of breast and bottle feeding may reflect differences in the mothers rather ...

Study sheds new light on dolphin coordination during predation

... study. "The degree of synchrony they display when feeding is incredible especially considering that ... Much of the knowledge about spinner dolphin feeding has been anecdotal because they are primarily ... dolphins. The animals' systematic approach to feeding was eye-opening. Initially a small group of ...

New studies on the Mediterranean diet confirm its effectiveness for chronic disease prevention

... types of disease. The conclusions suggest that feeding and changes in membrane composition affect cell ... prevention of certain diseases. Preventive feeding The researchers' hypothesis "starts from considering feeding as a preventive action of the development of ...

Early cessation of breastfeeding by HIV+ women in poor countries and child survival

... months 84 percent for those who stopped breast- feeding early compared to 81 percent who continued to ... of infants whose mothers continued breast- feeding for as long as the women chose. Four months was ... "Our observation of a clear benefit of breast- feeding for HIV-infected children highlights the ...

MIT solves gravity-defying bird beak mystery

... bird beaks are exquisitely adapted to the birds' feeding strategy. A team of MIT mathematicians and ... or oil. Some species rely exclusively on this feeding mechanism, and so are extremely vulnerable to oil ... Wildlife biologists have long noted the unusual feeding behavior of phalaropes, which spin in circles on ...

Ancient ecosystems organized much like our own

... journal PLoS Biology, suggests that networks of feeding relationships among marine species that lived ... to those of today. Food webs depict the feeding interactions among species within habitats--like ... worm Ottoia prolifica. However, in most cases, feeding interactions were inferred from where species ...

Food for thought

... a new survey of research on the topic finds that feeding may not always bring a positive outcome for the ... over the last decade. In many cases, bird feeding was shown to have immediate positive outcomes. A ... those that were not given extra food. But feeding is a complex business and can lead birds to make ...

Armed beetles find a mate, whatever their size

... The largest male beetles wait for females at the feeding areas and fight for the right to mate the males ... and they use these to search for the feeding sites which are unoccupied by large males. The ... a completely different tactic they stay at the feeding sites with the big males, and attempt sneaky ...

Isotope analysis reveals foraging area dichotomy for Atlantic leatherback turtles

... is whether these locations represent two distinct feeding areas or simply an extra stopover in their ... ratios) are indicative of a dichotomy in the feeding areas of the two groups: one fed in the high ... coasts. The existence of these two distinct feeding areas remains to be confirmed over the long run ...

Thousands of starving children could be restored to health with peanut butter program

... a three-year study to implement the peanut-butter feeding program using the existing health-care system in ... RUTF, 85 percent recovered. "The peanut-butter feeding has been a quantum leap in feeding malnourished children in Africa," Manary said. ...

'Alien' jaws help moray eels feed

... Moray eels have a unique way of feeding reminiscent of a science fiction thriller, ... "This is really an amazing innovation for feeding behavior for fishes in general," said Rita Mehta, ... used a high-speed digital camera to film eels feeding in the laboratory, and was able to capture the ...

Scientists report first remote, underwater detection of harmful algae, toxins

... ingested sardines and anchovies, which had accumulated the domoic acid by feeding on a bloom of the toxic algae. In the spring of 1998, a mass mortality ... lions in and around the Monterey Bay area was attributed to the sea lions' feeding on domoic acid contaminated anchovies. Since that time, Pseudo-nitzschia ...

Work of Field Museum scientist addresses question of chance in evolution

... (zooids). In the simplest, most primitive cheilostomes, the soft feeding organ is squeezed out of the box by muscles pulling on a flexible ... of a water sac inside the box to provide enough volume to squeeze out the feeding organ. Lineages showing each of these stages are alive today. Then as now, ...

UW-Madison study reveals new options for people with PKU

... GMP, in fact, is completely phenylalanine-free. The first GMP human feeding trial was published in February in the Journal of Inherited Metabolic ... from whey. A few years ago, when things got to the point of starting human feeding trials, the researchers discovered they already had a long list of eager ...

Flies may spread drug-resistant bacteria from poultry operations

... and staphylococci isolated from flies collected near confined poultry feeding operations" are Lance Price, Sean Evans and Thaddeaus Graczyk. The study ... Lawrence, MD, director of the Center for a Livable Future, confined animal feeding operationswhere thousands of animals are crowded together and are fed ...

Oil spray reduces greenhouse gas emissions from pig finishing barns

... MADISON, WI, DECEMBER 8, 2008 Animal feeding operations are an important emission source of air pollutants including ... variations. Quantification and mitigation of air pollution from animal feeding operations helps researchers to understand and reduce the industry's ...

Researchers study how pistachios may improve heart health

... The researchers conducted a randomized, crossover design, controlled feeding experiment to test the effects of pistachios added to a heart healthy moderate-fat diet on cardiovascular disease risk factors. Controlled feeding experiments provide all the food eaten by study subjects for the duration ...

Scavenger birds chew the fat

... to transport and swallow. As he had expected, bones left in the feeding stations and ossuaries, which had not been selected by the bearded ... and breeding of the vultures should use the most nutritive bones in feeding programs. He pinpoints tibias, tarsals and extremities as being ...

Unique study shows oil, gas seismic work not affecting Gulf sperm whales

... living in the Gulf," Biggs explains. "However, some individual whales feeding at depth reduced the rate at which they searched acoustically for their ... It's also raised new questions we need to know more about, such as their feeding and breeding patterns. There's still a lot we don't know about these huge ...

Great white's mighty bite revealed

... University of California (USA) reveal unprecedented information about the feeding habits of the two carnivores by analysing anatomical and biomechanical ... immobilised its huge prey by biting off their tail and flippers before feeding at will. A comparison of Tyrannosaurus rex with megalodon suggests that ...

Long-term study of middle-aged mice shows

... mice were placed on different diets: a standard diet (SD); every-other-day feeding (EOD); and a high-calorie diet (HC). Mice in each dietary regime were ... team also found that many genetic pathways were similarly altered by EOD feeding or resveratrol treatment: 82 percent (liver); 76 percent (muscle); 96 ...

Following traumatic brain injury, balanced nutrition saves lives

... patients should be given nutritional supplementation through a gastric feeding tube as soon as possible, which they say can improve their chances of ... ingested, the better their likelihood for survival. Without gastric feeding within the first 5-7 days of suffering their injury, patients had a two- ...

Bee disease a mystery

... wing virus in large amounts in mite faeces suggests it is picked up during feeding on an infected bee," said Professor Santillan-Galicia. "However, one ... Unfortunately, not enough is known about the anatomy of the mite, or their feeding mechanism, to suggest other routes of transmission. "It is likely that ...

Thinking ahead: Bacteria anticipate coming changes in their environment

... in time. To help them along, the researchers gave the bugs cues before feeding them, but the cues had to appear in just the right pattern to indicate ... This happened for every pattern of cues that the researchers tried. The feeding response of these gastronomically savvy bugs peaked just when food was ...

National Science Foundation funds research addressing enduring questions of life

... Diego State University will study the origins and evolution of the unique feeding method that supports some of the world's biggest eaters: baleen whales. ... and genetic changes involved in the evolution of the baleen whale's feeding method. In addition to improving our understanding of baleen whales, this ...

School of Robofish provides basis for underwater robot teams

... team trained some live fish to respond to a stimulus by swimming to the feeding area. The scientists discovered that even when less than a third of the fish were trained, the whole school swam to the feeding area on cue. "The fish that have a strong idea tend to dominate over ...

Otters reveal their identity

... alone, but can also be applied to other kinds of animal traces (i.e. feeding traces, tracks and traces from activity) according to the international ... dawn: eroded fish remains bare witness the following morning to the otters feeding habits. Since these nocturnal and dawn-active animals are particularly ...

Healthy parents provide clues to survival of young haddock on Georges Bank

... various factors that control recruitment, from egg and larval retention, feeding conditions for larvae, size of juveniles in the fall and their estimated ... patterns like the North Atlantic Oscillation to timing of spawning and the feeding environment. Friedland and colleagues suggest a new paradigm, that the ...

New study finds most North Pacific humpback whale populations rebounding

... coordinator for the SPLASH project, matched photographs from six different feeding and breeding areas. By matching whale flukes photographed in their feeding areas with those photographed in the wintering areas, researchers were ...

Hunger hormone: Makes food more attractive

... homeostatic and non-homeostatic or hedonic food consumption. Homeostatic feeding is controlled by hormones such as ghrelin, that act on the brain to tell ... of addictive drugs (like cocaine and nicotine), and are also targets of feeding signals like ghrelin, explains Dr. Dagher. Participants in the study ...

Are you looking at me?

... person is just as close, but their eyes are turned away, the birds resumed feeding earlier and consumed more food overall. Carter said This is a great ... more quickly to a foraging patch (as in the study), will gain valuable feeding time before others join the patch. Responses to obvious indicators of ...