News by Subject Biology

Law enforcement K-9s face the same dangers their human handlers confront. Recognizing a gap in care for law enforcement K-9s injured on the job, a team of veterinarians, emergency medical services experts and canine handlers has developed protocols for emergency medical service personnel who may be called upon to help treat and transport the injured dogs.

The first example of 'nest'-building in an African amphibian, the Goliath frog, has been described in a new article in the Journal of Natural History, and could explain why they have grown to be giant.

Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) are showing up in places previously understood to be animal-free. The growing trend includes 'certifying' animals to provide emotional assistance to a person with a diagnosable mental condition or emotional disorder. 'Emotional Support Animal Assessments: Toward a Standard and Comprehensive Model for Mental Health Professionals' outlines the ethical challenge and offers possible solutions to better serve both people who feel they need ESAs and those who must comply with the animals.

Staring at seagulls makes them less likely to steal your food, new research shows.

Most research on human-wildlife conflict has focused on the ways tigers, wolves, and other predators impact livestock even though noncarnivores also threaten livestock. New research by Dr. Shari Rodriguez and Dr. Christie Sampson from Clemson University, publishing August 6, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, examines the effects of these less-studied relationships, particularly for feral hogs and elephants, and the potential consequences of excluding these animals from research focused on mitigating wildlife impacts on livestock.

Wolves are charismatic, conspicuous, and easy to single out as the top predator affecting populations of elk, deer, and other prey animals. However, a new study has found that the secretive cougar is actually the main predator influencing the movement of elk across the winter range of northern Yellowstone National Park.

Bats can find motionless insects on leaves in the dark. This was thought to be impossible, because the acoustic camouflage provided by the leaves should confuse their echolocation system. Inga Geipel and colleagues discovered how bats overcome this problem.