Predators in Biological News

Parasites outweigh predators in Pacific Coast estuaries

In a study of parasites living in three estuaries on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California, researchers have determined that biomass of these parasites exceeds that of top predators, in some cases by more than 20 times. Their findings, which could have significant ecological and b...

Ocean's fiercest predators now vulnerable to extinction

This release is available in French . Sharks are disappearing from the worlds oceans. The numbers of many large shark species have declined by more than half due to increased demand for shark fins and meat, recreational shark fisheries, as well as tuna and swordfish fisheries, where millio...

Hidden interactions between predators and prey: evolution causes cryptic dynamics in ecology

When the populations of two species oscillate together (for example, predators and prey), its a good bet that they are tightly coupled ecologically. A famous example is the Canadian lynx and snowshoe hare, documented in the trapping records of the Hudsons Bay Company. But is the opposite also true...

Venomous sea snakes play heads or tails with their predators

In a deadly game of heads or tails venomous sea snakes in the Pacific and Indian Oceans deceive their predators into believing they have two heads, claims research published today in Marine Ecology . The discovery, made by Dr Arne Redsted Rasmussen and Dr Johan Elmberg, showed that Yellow-lip...

Siberian jays use complex communication to mob predators

When mobbing predators, Siberian jays use over a dozen different calls to communicate the level of danger and predator category to other members of their own group. A Swedish study from Uppsala University, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences , shows birds have ev...

Sexy or repulsive? Butterfly wings can be both to mates and predators

New Haven, Conn. Butterflies seem able to both attract mates and ward off predators using different sides of their wings, according to new research by Yale University biologists. Trying to find the balance between these two crucial behaviors is one of nature's oldest dilemmas, according to Je...

Photos reveal Myanmar's large and small predators

NEW YORK (September 4, 2008)Using remote camera traps to lift the veil on Myanmar's dense northern wild lands, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society have painstakingly gathered a bank of valuable data on the country's populations of tigers and other smaller, lesser known carnivores (s...

Study shows parasites outweigh predators

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) - In a study of free-living and parasitic species in three estuaries on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California, a team of researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, the United States Geological Survey, and Princeton University has determined ...

Sand dollar larvae use cloning to 'make change,' confound predators

Nature is full of examples of creatures that try to look as big as possible in an effort to scare away potential predators. But to avoid being eaten alive the larvae of sand dollars appear to have a different strategy, in a way exchanging a dollar for a couple of dimes. University of Washingt...

Slow-motion video study shows shrews are highly sophisticated predators

Strange as it seems, the smallest mammal Is the shrew, and not the camel. And that is all I ever knew, Or wish to know, about the shrew. --Ogden Nash Shrews are tiny mammals that have been widely characterized as simple and primitive. This traditiona...

Researchers view swimming tactics of tiny aquatic predators

By applying state-of-the-art holographic microscopy to a major marine biology challenge, researchers from two Baltimore institutions have identified the swimming and attack patterns of two tiny but deadly microbes linked to fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways. The study, report...

Super predators and mass extinctions

Mass extinctions seem to occur on Earth roughly every 26 million years, leading some scientists to propose that they may be caused by rare collisions with comets or asteroids. A researcher in Poland thinks it may be possible that extraordinary predators are at fault instead. Adam Lipowski (Adam M...

Marine phytoplankton changes form to protect itself from different predators

Suppressing colony formation is a useful strategy against copepods because they prefer to eat colonies of phytoplankton. A tiny single-celled organism that plays a key role in the carbon cycle of cold-water oceans may be a lot smarter than scientists had suspected. In a paper published June 1...

Prey not hard-wired to fear predators

Are Asian elk hard-wired to fear the Siberian tigers who stalk them" When wolves disappear from the forest, are moose still afraid of them? No, according to a study by Wildlife Conservation Society scientist Dr. Joel Berger, who says that several large prey species, including moose, caribou an...

Sustainable agriculture at the ESA Annual Meeting

...ifornia Berkeley surveyed the abundance of flies, ladybugs, wasps and other predators of a common agricultural pest, the cabbage aphid, in croplands ranging from...natural enemies in the croplands. Chaplin-Kramer shows that increases in predators didn't always result in fewer aphids in the croplands, but she points out t...

Animal and plant communication at the ESA Annual Meeting

...with prey." Specialists are better at avoiding predators Insect herbivore species often specialize on t...ased slightly. These results suggest that the bird predators were preferentially targeting generalists. The...g the three trophic levels plants, herbivores and predators are the key to understanding the species' ecology...

Urban water ecology at the ESA annual meeting

..., breathe air at the water's surface through a specialized siphon. Chaves says that this combination of an increase in food and a potential decline in predators could be the key to these mosquitoes' success. Larger mosquitoes tend to result from a longer lifespan, which is dangerous because it gives mosquito...

Bizarre walking bat has ancient heritage

...walking is rare in bats because it has advantages for them only in special circumstances. Competition with other mammals and pressure from terrestrial predators does not deter modern vampire bats from walking. Likewise, the rich rainforest environment in which the ancestors of the mystacinid bats evolved in an...

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

...mouth bass and fellow fish-feeders have remained relatively unchanged compared with their insect- and snail-eating cousins. As these fishes became top predators in aquatic ecosystems, natural selection put the breaks on evolution, say researchers. A highly sought-after game fish, the largemouth bass belongs...

Noise pollution negatively affects woodland bird communities, says CU-Boulder study

...t to indicate that at least a few bird species opt for noisy areas over quiet ones, perhaps because of their vocalization pitches, a reduction in nest predators and less competition from other songbirds that prefer quiet environments. The three-year study compared nesting birds inhabiting pinyon-juniper woo...

New discovery suggests trees evolved camouflage defense against long extinct predator

...herbivores and in response they have evolved a variety of defences to deter predators such as thorns and noxious chemicals," said lead researcher Dr Kevin Burns ...ellington, New Zealand. "In contrast animals often use colours to hide from predators or advertise defences, but until now there has been little evidence of colo...

Wolf reintroduction proposed in Scottish Highland test case

..., which has demonstrated that the absence of large predators such as wolves and cougars has allowed deer, elk a...e's an increasing awareness that the loss of large predators is a global issue, both marine and terrestrial," R..." scientists point not just to the effect of large predators in helping to control the populations of grazing a...

Finding the constant in bacterial communication

...ia to deliver different types of drugs or selectively kill cancer cells" For example, You has already gained insights into the relationship between predators and prey by creating a synthetic circuit involving two genetically altered lines of bacteria. The findings from that work helped define the effects of...

Your own private global warming

...their vulnerability to temperature change could seriously damage population levels within a few generations. In addition, since active species such as predators fared better than sessile ones when dealing with temperature increase, a disruption in the food chain could add up to the direct effect of global warm...

Your own private global warming

...their vulnerability to temperature change could seriously damage population levels within a few generations. In addition, since active species such as predators fared better than sessile ones when dealing with temperature increase, a disruption in the food chain could add up to the direct effect of global warm...

Evolution of a contraceptive for sea lamprey

...feed on fish by attaching themselves to the fish and sucking their body fluids. Their aggressive consumption of game fish has eliminated many natural predators of the alewife, another invasive species on the Great Lakes. This has allowed the alewife population to explode, with adverse effects on many native ...

Geographic profiling applied to track hunting patterns of white sharks in South Africa

...and fascinating interactions in nature, and sharks are some of the fiercest predators on Earth. However, their hunting pattern is difficult to study because it i... and inter-shark competition. "The study expands our knowledge of how large predators hunt and offers a new scientific reference for studying other predator-prey...

From Jack the Ripper to great white sharks

..."Shark hunting patterns are extremely difficult to study and the work here will have important implications for our understanding of the ways in which predators hunt their prey." ...

Discovery of a water snake that startles fish in a way that makes them flee into its jaws

...g its actual movement. "I haven't been able to find reports of any other predators that exhibit a similar ability to influence and predict the future behavior...tial position and then adjust its direction as the fish moves the way most predators do. Instead it heads directly for the location where it expects the fish's ...

Common fish species has 'human' ability to learn

... this particular species of fish does not offer significant protection from predators to forage alone safely. They may have been 'forced' to learn from others about where to feed while hiding from predators as they themselves cannot risk looking for food sites in the open. The s...

U of Minnesota-led study finds that hunters are depleting lion and cougar populations

...eting lion and cougar populations as managers respond to demands to control predators that threaten livestock and humans, according to a study published in the J...ker says. "It's important to educate the public about the risks these large predators pose to rural communities and to help hunters and wildlife managers develop...

Not 1, but 2 kinds of males found in the invasive round goby

...gh competition and predation. Researchers at McMaster University discovered evidence that in addition to round goby males which guard the nest from predators and look after their offspring, there exists what scientists call "sneaker" males little males that look like females and sneak into the nests of the...

A tiny frozen microbe may hold clues to extraterrestrial life

...ls and the thin liquid film on their surfaces. Small cell size is considered to be advantageous for more efficient nutrient uptake, protection against predators and occupation of micro-niches and it has been shown that ultramicrobacteria are dominant in many soil and marine environments. Most life on our pl...

Work of Field Museum scientist addresses question of chance in evolution

...eeze out the feeding organ. Lineages showing each of these stages are alive today. Then as now, these steps are seen as evolved defenses against small predators and parasites on the colony surface. What is remarkable is that the molecular genealogy of the living species shows their origin only 15 million ...

Biologist discovers pink-winged moth in Chiracahua Mountains

...winter at higher elevations, hibernating when there is snow on the ground and flying off at the first signs of spring. Walsh said bats are the primary predators of moths, and so if the insects can make it through the winter, when bats hibernate, they will likely do well as the weather gets warmer. As to why...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- June 3, 2009

...tentially toxic substances, known to exist in the skin of poison frogs of the family Dendrobatidae. Frogs use them as a chemical defense to discourage predators from biting and eating them. Western Colombian natives have used skin extracts from another group of frogs, unrelated to those in the new study, to co...

Midge keeps invasive mosquito in check, aiding native mosquitoes

...Alto describes his research on the interactions of predators and prey. This is the audio for an audio slide sho...ith the invasive mosquitoes in certain areas where predators are present," Alto said. The Asian tiger mosqui...es that afflict humans. The interaction between predators and native and invasive mosquitoes is one of sever...

When evolution is not so slow and gradual

...r reproductive effort to match their surroundings. In the environment where predators were present, females produced more embryos each reproductive cycle. This makes sense because where predators abound, one might not get a second chance to reproduce. In less dangerous w...

Who will pick up the bill?

...evels to form shells successfully. Subsequent losses of prey such as plankton and shellfish would also alter food webs and intensify competition among predators for nourishment. As harvesting levels drop, job losses are likely to follow. The seafood industry is big business, bringing in large revenues and e...

Komodo even more deadly than thought: Research

...enon known as island gigantism, since there are no other carnivorous mammals to fill the niche on the islands where they live. The lizards are apex predators and dominate the ecosystems in which they live. Although Komodo dragons eat carrion, they also hunt and ambush prey including invertebrates, birds, an...