Tag: "prey" at biology news

Vampire bats keep out of trouble by running

...od at a time for sustenance. They feed while their prey are sleeping, spending perhaps 10 minutes drinking... to run evolved long ago, when vampire bats had to prey on faster South American athletes such as the agouti, a rodent about the size of a hare, which might...

Camera Traps Catch Eye of the Tiger

...tat types and determine whether there are adequate prey species for tigers to subsist. The results could have significant implications for species and forest preservation here and around the world. "Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, with as few as 400 left in the wild," said Dr. Sybille Klenzend...

Gray wolves maintain the food chain in winter

...tain lions and grizzly bears, wolves abandon their prey (usually elk or moose) once sated, leaving much-coveted leftovers for ravens, eagles, coyotes, bears, and other scavengers. Altogether, their modeling studies show that shorter winters without wolves will create intermittent food supplies that no lon...

Super predators and mass extinctions

...ators whose numbers fluctuate only slightly as the prey population waxes and wanes. Inevitably, their stab...ead to a super predator that quickly decimates the prey population, which in turn leads to its own demise. The few creatures that survive the predatory apoc...

Scientists journey to southern Africa to unravel the secret world of elephant communication

... animals use seismic signals to find mates, locate prey and establish territories," she notes. "But there have only been a few studies focusing on the ability of large mammals to communicate through the ground." Her insights generated international media attention after the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami disaste...

Grizzlies set to invade high Arctic?

...vity? What impact will grizzlies, already known to prey on polar bear cubs, have on these northern bears? For now, however, the greatest issue might be for the geologists themselves, says Dr. Jonathan Doupé, a postdoctoral researcher working with Dr. England. "We have bear safety courses when we go up t...

Elephant seal pups suffer from ocean warming

...increase in water temperature usually causes their prey to migrate to cooler areas, depleting local food r...mother seals during their pregnancy. Because their prey has migrated to colder waters, female seals have to swim further and spend more time searching for f...

Bobbing birds do it for a reason

...ideo techniques. The cranes search both for mobile prey (frogs and insects) and for items such as acorns, seeds, and tubers. The research team found that the time devoted to holding the head still decreased with walking speed; at a very slow pace, the head was still most of the time, but when the birds be...

At the molecular level, the predator is the prey

...logical arms races that go on between predator and prey are really driven at the molecular level. We have no evidence, nor reason to believe, that TTX is changing too, but rather that the toxin responds in quantity. Pour on more toxin, change the snake's sodium channel. Add more toxin, force further chang...

Venom doc tracks down snake bioweapons

...ersity of ways that venomous snakes can kill their prey and why they have so much potential use in medical research," Fry explains. Fry hopes that his findings will further research efforts focused on the use of snake toxins for therapy and treatment of diseases, including cancer, arthritis, and heart di...

Innovative coating could give medical implants a longer life

...e at antifouling do not last long in-vivo, falling prey to chemical degradation or to the body's enzymes. In contrast, the molecular compound developed at Northwestern, which sticks securely to a surface and prevents cell and protein buildup, works for a long period of time. In laboratory studies, the ne...

Shark attack worries? Driving to the beach is more deadly

... he says. "They don't regard the human shape as a prey item. Sometimes you hear reports of surfers having their boards hit by a shark, and it's probably because the board resembles the shape of a seal, which is a prime food source for sharks." McEachran says some common sense can go a long way in avoidi...

New HIV drug candidate developed in Sweden

... he says. "They don't regard the human shape as a prey item. Sometimes you hear reports of surfers having their boards hit by a shark, and it's probably because the board resembles the shape of a seal, which is a prime food source for sharks." McEachran says some common sense can go a long way in avoidi...

Agilent Technologies introduces advanced zebrafish, mouse microarrays for stem cell and developmental biology research

... he says. "They don't regard the human shape as a prey item. Sometimes you hear reports of surfers having their boards hit by a shark, and it's probably because the board resembles the shape of a seal, which is a prime food source for sharks." McEachran says some common sense can go a long way in avoidi...

Researchers reveal secrets of flying snakes

...nto the prey. Whether or not the snake's choice of prey is related to its gliding ability is unknown. ...

Ocean climate predicts elk population in Canadian Rockies

...wolves tend to kill one another as their available prey dwindles, so a stasis is maintained naturally. Nevertheless, Hebblewhite is excited about his findings because they provide a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between climate and ecosystem, and they open the door for more research in...

Siberian tigers hang tough

...minary. Still to come will be an assessment of the prey species tigers are dependent on, and a more rigorous analysis of tiger distribution and abundance. According to Miquelle, "Over the next few months, we will be completing the geographic database to ensure these data are preserved, and then we will be...

Molecular miners find pain relief drugs from the sea

...ne snails produce venom which they use to paralyse prey before killing and eating them. The venom of some cone snails is toxic to humans ?as many as 30 people are known to have died from cone snail envenomation. The cone snails that are dangerous to humans feed on fish by impaling them with a harpoon sty...

When in danger humans are similar to a deer in the headlights

.... This ancestral and automatic behavior allows the prey to stay unnoticed by a potential predator. A new study published in Psychophysiology finds that humans, like many other complex animals, freeze when encountering a threat. The mere picture of an injured or mutilated human induces this reaction. When ...

Otter adaptations: How do otters remain sleek and warm

... Yellowstone National Park.) Weisel examined wolf prey hair with light and electron microscopy with the idea of accurately identifying wolf diet from wolf scat. "While we have engaged molecular biologists in studies of animal genetics and isotope dynamics, John is the first structural molecular biologist...

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