You are here: Home

Archives: All features

Birds call to warn friends and enemies

Date published: December 12, 2009

Birds' alarm calls serve both to alert other birds to danger and to warn off predators. And some birds can pull a ventriloquist's trick, singing from the side of their mouths, says a new UC Davis study. Overall, the birds' alarm calls were relatively omnidirectional, suggesting that they were given to warn other birds in the vicinity. However, the main species tested — juncos, warblers and finches — all showed an ability to focus their calls in the direction of the owl, so these calls could also function to warn off a predator. A Wildlifewatch report.

Orphaned mountain gorilla babies return home to Congo National Park

Date published: December 12, 2009

Founded in 1986 shortly after the death of Dian Fossey, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project provides veterinary care to the approximately 750 mountain gorillas living in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It monitors the health of wild mountain gorillas, treats trauma and illness, researches significant issues in gorilla health, and develops protocols and partnerships to support the Mountain Gorilla One Health Program in the Virungas and environs. It works in close partnership with the governments of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other gorilla conservation organizations to achieve mutual goals, and its work is shared to strengthen wildlife conservation efforts around the world. A Wildlifewatch report on a recent recovery project.

Birds and climate change: indicators of a changing world

Date published: December 9, 2009

This week, the world's governments are meeting at the United Nation's Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark to attempt to agree action to tackle climate change. The outcomes of this will have resounding consequences for biodiversity. Climate change is already having multiple impacts on birds and their habitats, and is exacerbating many of the factors which have put one in eight of the world's birds at risk of extinction. Many species may have to shift their ranges to survive, and considerably more losers than winners are expected. A Wildlifewatch report on BirdLife International's concerns.

By feeding the birds, you could change their evolutionary fate

Date published: December 9, 2009

Feeding birds in winter is a most innocent human activity, but it can nonetheless have profound effects on the evolutionary future of a species, and those changes can be seen in the very near term. That's the conclusion of a report showing that what was once a single population of birds known as blackcaps has been split into two reproductively isolated groups in fewer than 30 generations, despite the fact that they continue to breed side by side in the very same forests. A Wildlifewatch report.

Lizard changes its diet to avoid predators

Date published: December 9, 2009

A recent study shows that reptiles threatened by predators become less selective and eat a more diverse range of foods. The scientists studied the Acanthodactylus beershebensis lizard's diet data (trophic ecology) in two different situations -- with and without predators. One researcher analysed the contents of faecal pellets taken from different lizards in order to reconstruct their diet. Ants were the prey most commonly consumed by the lizards, both by those at risk and the controls, followed by insects such as termites. The difference could be clearly seen in the consumption of seeds, because the lizards hardly consumed these when they were under threat from predators. A Wildlifewatch report.