News by Subject Biology

Researchers from the Living Primates Research Group in the University of Kent's School of Anthropology and Conservation (SAC), and the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, examined the behaviour of female chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest, Uganda, where chimpanzees (at least in the study community) are particularly prone to committing and suffering infanticide.

Experimental results suggest that dogs have at least a rudimentary neural representation of meaning for words they have been taught, differentiating words they have heard before from those they have not.

Researchers from the CNRS and Université de Rennes 1, in collaboration with Airbus, have designed a visual pattern that elicits long-term avoidance of high-risk areas by raptors. The scientists' work clears the way for further investigation into the visual cognition of these birds, and it has applications for conservation, because raptors are among the most common victims of collisions with planes and wind turbines. Their findings are published in PLOS ONE.

The quality of conversations between California mice couples after one partner has been unfaithful can help predict which mouse pairs will successfully produce a litter of mouse pups and which males are good fathers, according to a study published recently by the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution in a special issue on the evolution of monogamy.

A pioneering study by the University of Kent on the effects of relocating adders due to development has found that males will disperse from their release site -- with one even going so far as to return to his original home. All native reptiles are protected by law, which means that animals found to be present on sites scheduled for development are often moved to alternative habitats.

An intricate network of crevices adorns the skin surface of the African bush elephant. By retaining water, these micrometer-wide channels greatly help elephants in regulating their body temperature. Today, researchers at the UNIGE report that African elephant skin channels are true fractures of the animal brittle and desquamation-deficient skin outermost layer. The scientists show that the elephant hyperkeratinised skin grows on a lattice of millimetric elevations, causing its fracture due to local bending mechanical stress.

New research suggests that there may be a link between higher levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment and higher levels of hyperthyroidism in pet cats as they age. The findings are published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.