Exotic Species News

April 19, 2024

Top Headlines

Dog Attacks on Mountain Tapirs Highlight a Growing Threat to Endangered Wildlife

Apr. 17, 2024 — Researchers who captured footage of dog attacks on endangered mountain tapirs in Colombia are calling for action to protect threatened ...

Unique Field Study Shows How Climate Change Affects Fire-Impacted Forests

Apr. 17, 2024 — During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb carbon ...

Tropical Forests Can't Recover Naturally Without Fruit-Eating Birds

Apr. 15, 2024 — Natural forest regeneration is hailed as a cost-effective way to restore biodiversity and sequester carbon. However, the fragmentation of tropical forests has restricted the movement of large birds limiting their capacity to disperse seeds and ...

Ants in Colorado Are on the Move Due to Climate Change

Apr. 10, 2024 — Ant species living in Boulder's foothills have shifted their habitat over the last six decades, potentially affecting local ecosystems, suggests a new ...

Latest Headlines

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New Tagging Method Provides Bioadhesive Interface for Marine Sensors on Diverse, Soft, and Fragile Species

Apr. 16, 2024 — Tagging marine animals with sensors to track their movements and ocean conditions can provide important environmental and behavioral information. ...

New Report 'Braids' Indigenous and Western Knowledge for Forest Adaptation Strategies Against Climate Change

Apr. 10, 2024 — Forests could also be potential bulwarks against climate change. But, increasingly severe droughts and wildfires, invasive species, and large insect ...

Deforestation Harms Biodiversity of the Amazon's Perfume-Loving Orchid Bees

Apr. 10, 2024 — A survey of orchid bees in the Brazilian Amazon, carried out in the 1990s, is shedding new light the impact of deforestation on the scent-collecting pollinators, which some view as bellwethers of ...

Cold-Affinity Algae Species Are Gradually Being Replaced by Warm-Affinity Ones Off the Coast of Biscay

Apr. 10, 2024 — A study has analyzed the impact of the rise in sea surface temperature on macroalgae communities over the last four decades. Points at various depths ...

'Teacher Toads' Can Save Native Animals from Toxic Cane Toads

Apr. 9, 2024 — Scientists from Macquarie University have come up with an innovative way to stop cane toads killing native wildlife by training goannas to avoid eating the deadly ...

Melting Glaciers in a Warmer Climate Provide New Ground for Invasive Species

Apr. 1, 2024 — In 2022 and 2023, biologists from research institutes in the UK and the Falkland Islands led two expeditions to South Georgia to study the impacts of ...

Older Trees Help to Protect an Endangered Species

Apr. 2, 2024 — The oldest trees in the forest help to prevent the disappearance of endangered species in the natural environment, according to a new study. This is the case of the wolf lichen -- threatened ...

These Plants Evolved in Florida Millions of Years Ago: They May Be Gone in Decades

Apr. 2, 2024 — Scrub mints are among the most endangered plants you've probably never heard of. More than half of the 24 species currently known to exist are ...

'Winners and Losers' as Global Warming Forces Plants Uphill

Mar. 25, 2024 — Some plant species will 'win' and others will 'lose' as global warming forces them to move uphill, new research ...

Forest, Stream Habitats Keep Energy Exchanges in Balance, Global Team Finds

Mar. 21, 2024 — Forests and streams are separate but linked ecosystems, existing side by side, with energy and nutrients crossing their porous borders and flowing back and forth between them. For example, leaves ...

Researchers Find Energy Development and Tree Encroachment Impact Wyoming Pronghorn

Mar. 26, 2024 — While Wyoming is home to some of North America's most abundant populations of pronghorn that have largely been stable in recent years, a new analysis shows that many herds are experiencing ...

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Species Diversity Is Directly Correlated With Productivity in Eastern U.S. Forests

Mar. 25, 2024 — When officials make tough calls on which areas to prioritize for conservation, biodiversity is often their top consideration. But there are several types of diversity, and not all of them overlap ...

Product That Kills Agricultural Pests Also Deadly to Native Pacific Northwest Snail

Mar. 21, 2024 — A product used to control pest slugs on farms in multiple countries is deadly to least one type of native woodland snail endemic to the Pacific Northwest, according to scientists who say more study ...

Shark-Bitten Orcas in the Northeastern Pacific Could Be a New Population of Killer Whale

Mar. 15, 2024 — Researchers believe a group of killer whales observed hunting marine mammals including sperm whales, as well as a sea turtle, in the open ocean off California and Oregon could be a new population. ...

Exploring Arctic Plants and Lichens: An Important Conservation Baseline for Nunavut's Newest and Largest Territorial Park

Mar. 13, 2024 — A comprehensive study of the floristic diversity of Agguttinni Territorial Park, Nunavut's newest and largest Territorial Park, has documented 141 vascular plant, 69 bryophyte, and 93 lichen ...

Giant Sequoias Are a Rapidly Growing Feature of the UK Landscape

Mar. 12, 2024 — Imported giant sequoia trees are well adapted to the UK, growing at rates close to their native ranges and capturing large amounts of carbon during their long lives, finds a new ...

Rainforest's Next Generation of Trees Threatened 30 Years After Logging

Mar. 12, 2024 — Rainforest seedlings are more likely to survive in natural forests than in places where logging has happened -- even if tree restoration projects have taken place, new research ...

Mapping the Future's Sweet Spot for Clean Energy and Biodiversity

Mar. 8, 2024 — A new study of Joshua trees, kit foxes and solar energy developments highlights the need to consider climate-induced range shifts for species as we expand clean ...

Reptile Roadkill Reveals New Threat to Endangered Lizard Species

Mar. 7, 2024 — The chance sighting of a dead snake beside a sandy track in remote Western Australia, and the investigation of its stomach contents, has led researchers to record the first known instance of a ...

Herbivores, Displaced by Ocean Warming, Threaten Subtropical Seagrass Meadows

Mar. 6, 2024 — The findings suggest that subtropical seagrasses are less resilient to heavy grazing from marine herbivores, in part because they receive less sunlight relative to their tropical counterparts. As ...

Invasive Plant Time Bombs: A Hidden Ecological Threat

Mar. 6, 2024 — Invasive plants can stay dormant for decades or even centuries before rapidly expanding and wreaking ecological havoc, finds a new ...

Antarctica's Coasts Are Becoming Less Icy

Mar. 4, 2024 — Scientists found unexpected evidence the area of polynyas around Antarctica is increasing dramatically, and it follows an intriguing cycle, growing and shrinking roughly every 16 ...

In Wake of Powerful Cyclone, Remarkable Recovery of Pacific Island's Forests

Mar. 2, 2024 — After one of the most intense cyclones in world history tore through the Pacific island of Tanna in Vanuatu, new research showed the resilience of the island's ...

Bottlenecks and Beehives: How an Invasive Bee Colony Defied Genetic Expectations

Mar. 1, 2024 — An invasive Asian honeybee colony in northern Australia has defied expectations, displaying emergent genetic variation in a short period of time. While bad news for biosecurity agencies, it could be ...

Birds and Bee Lessons as Pacific Field Trips Also Solve 'Michener's Mystery'

Feb. 29, 2024 — Eight new Pacific bee species and new insights into Fijian bird behaviour on Viti Levu Island have been described in new scientific studies. The research highlights the potential for species ...

Climate Change Threatens Thousands of Archaeological Sites in Coastal Georgia

Feb. 28, 2024 — Thousands of historic and archaeological sites in Georgia are at risk from tropical storm surges, and that number will increase with climate change, according to a new ...

Study Finds Drought Fuels Invasive Species After Wildfires

Feb. 28, 2024 — Scientists uncover the intricate dance between drought, wildfires and invasive species in Southern California's coastal sage scrub ...

Modeling Tree Masting

Feb. 21, 2024 — The effects of a phenomenon called tree masting on ecosystems and food webs can be better understood thanks to new theoretical models validated by real world ...

Converting Rainforest to Plantation Impacts Food Webs and Biodiversity

Feb. 21, 2024 — Every day, new areas of rainforests are converted into plantations, drastically changing tropical biodiversity and the way the ecosystem functions. Yet, the current understanding of the consequences ...

First-Ever Report of Nesting of Incredibly Rare and Endangered Giant Turtle

Feb. 20, 2024 — Knowledge from local communities has resulted in the first-ever nesting evidence and discovery of a breeding population of an incredibly rare turtle in ...