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Only two blue whale births have ever been recorded in human history, both decades ago. This remains an extraordinary mystery, given there used to be hundreds of thousands of blue whales before whaling started—even today, blue whales number around 10,000 to 25,000—and they give birth every two to three years.

A small team of marine biologists at the University of Bristol, in the U.K., working with a colleague from the Regional Research and Innovation Agency of West Papua, Indonesia, has found that wild broadclub cuttlefish adapt their body shape and color in certain ways, depending on circumstances, to hide from unsuspecting prey.

In a rugged stretch of desert in one of the nation's most remote national parks, a volunteer's eyes were caught by a colorful sight sprouting up from the beige and brown of the Chihuahuan Desert—"devil"-ish blooms, flowers like bright red horns.

Studying the social behavior of animals in their natural environments is necessary for advancing our understanding of neurological processes. To achieve this, tracking multiple individuals simultaneously and accurately as they interact in shared spaces is crucial.

The White-bellied Heron (WBH), the world's second-largest heron, is a symbolic bird for the people of Bhutan and also a typical "umbrella species" that requires a habitat with a vast, preserved environment. In recent years, the WBH's habitat has been severely disturbed by human activities, and its population has decreased significantly.

Large birds—our closest relations to dinosaurs—are capable of technical innovation, by solving a physical task to gain access to food. This is the first time scientists have been able to show that palaeognath birds such as emus and rheas can solve tricky problems.

New research shows that turtles are responding to climate change by nesting earlier. Researchers monitoring nesting green and loggerhead turtles in Cyprus have discovered they are returning to their regular nesting spots earlier each year to compensate for rising temperatures.

In a succession of studies published this week and last month in the journals PeerJ and Zootaxa, researchers at Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) Toonen-Bowen (ToBo) Lab, using a technique that explores both genes and structural characteristics, have introduced 10 new species of marine sponge. Despite their distinction as one of Earth's oldest lifeforms and the key role they play in sustaining coral...

A new study by Connecticut College provides strong evidence that palm trees once thrived in subarctic Canada, reshaping scientific understanding of past Arctic climates.

Mild, proactive exposure to environmental stress can help biological communities resist severe disturbances and maintain genetic diversity, a recent study from McGill University has found.

Humanity can farm more food from the seas to help feed the planet while shrinking mariculture's negative impacts on biodiversity, according to new research led by the University of Michigan.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have examined how social models influence memory in great apes. They presented young and adult apes with videos of either a human hand (a social model) or a mechanical claw (a non-social model) building a tower. The results showed that while adult apes remembered towers built by a human hand better than...

Glaciers are huge white ice masses that can reflect a lot of sunlight. However, especially where the glaciers are not covered in snow and the bare ice is exposed, they sometimes have dark patches. These are microscopic algae that grow on the ice and darken its surface. As a result of this darkening, the tiny inhabitants cause the ice to warm up and melt...

The discovery of a new species in the Andean cloud forests of northern Peru has reinforced the vital role of citizen science in plant research.

Most orchids live in a symbiotic relationship with fungi in their roots: The plants provide sugar they produce through photosynthesis and in return receive water and minerals from the fungi. However, some orchids have stopped producing their own food and completely feed on fungi.

New University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka research shows Aotearoa has been increasingly accepting new bird species from around the world since the start of the Ice Age, offering clues into future migration patterns.

For years, scientific divers at a research station in the Mediterranean Sea had a problem: at some point in every field season, local fish would follow them and steal food intended as experimental rewards. Intriguingly, these wild fish appeared to recognize the specific diver who had previously carried food, choosing to follow only them while ignoring other divers.

Tropical riparian ecosystems—those found along rivers and wetlands—recovered much faster than expected following the end-Permian mass extinction around 252 million years ago, according to new research.

It's spring, the sun is shining and something is about to happen with the plankton in the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean. Long bright days and rising temperatures have awakened the phytoplankton. The spring bloom has begun, and populations of these tiny plankton are growing explosively beneath the surface.

Plants play a key role in regulating Earth's climate, but recent research suggests that rising temperatures could disrupt this balance, because plants are leaking more water than previously thought.

Humans have been poisoning rodents for centuries. But fast-breeding rats and mice have evolved resistance to earlier poisons. In response, manufacturers have produced second generation anticoagulant rodenticides such as bromadiolone, widely used in Australian households.

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising rapidly, with numerous negative consequences for the climate. However, there is also a positive effect, as scientists from WUR have discovered: for the past century, the extra CO2 has led to more efficient photosynthesis in tropical trees.

Animals are not just inhabitants of the natural world—they are its architects. A new study led by Professor Gemma Harvey from Queen Mary University of London has revealed how hundreds of species shape the landscapes we depend on, from vast termite mounds visible from space to hippos carving drainage systems and beavers creating entire wetlands.

Scientists with the National Audubon Society published research in Nature Ecology & Evolution that will help inform global efforts to protect migratory birds. In the study, "Multispecies migratory connectivity indicates hemispheric-scale risk to bird populations from global change," the researchers propose a new way to measure risk and identify where conservation efforts are most needed for species that travel between specific breeding and non-breeding...