Category: Plants & Animals
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When Plantations Replace Rain Forest The Ants Lose
Cutting down rainforest to create oil-palm plantations causes canopy-dwelling ant populations to break up into mutually-exclusive territories with very little overlap, according to new research.
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Bees Scan Flower’s Electrical Field To Evaluate Nectar Value
Now, what we show is that when a bee visits a flower and we could measure that with electrodes that we implanted into flowers, the potential of the flower changes. And when a bee visits that potential changes and when the second bee comes along, and happens to land for instance, that potential changes even more. So, it would be in the interest of a bee to understand that perhaps that flower has been visited and is depleted from nectar.
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Flies Manipulate Fungus And In Doing So, Evolve
The flies are like pirates. They use the fungi as boats to float across a genomic sea and board a plant that is genetically far removed from what they would otherwise be able to feed on.
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Are You As Smart As A Chimpanzee?
As you will see in this post, there is no single anatomical recipe for creating the colorful, fleshy and/or juicy reward for a seed-dispersing herbivore, mortal or otherwise. Many of the myriad flower, fruit and seed structures are variously promoted to the role of what is colloquially thought of as
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He’s Not Really Right For You: Mutualism Fails The Test
Insect-Eating Bat Outperforms Nectar Specialist as Pollinator of Cactus Flowers
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Are Moths "Nectar Foodies"?
For moths, the ability to seek and remember alternate sources of food helps them survive harsh, food-deprived conditions. Scientists knew bees could learn, but this is the first proof that moths can too.
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Ant "Bouncers" Keep Poor Pollinators Out
Most flowers don't want pesky ants hanging around scaring away would-be pollinators. Not so the Singapore rhododendron – the first flower found to recruit ants to chase poor pollinators away.
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Why Do Hummingbirds Do It The Hard Way?
This new high-speed video of feeding hummingbirds may help scientists understand why the birds almost always pollinate flowers that hang upside-down. upside-down.
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Climate Change, Bamboo and Pandas: A Depressing Intersection
A new study predicts that climate change is set to wipe out much of the bamboo on which the bears rely for food.
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Fossilized Kakapo Dung May Save Endangered Plant
A fossilized sample of thousand-year-old parrot dung has revealed a previously unknown ecological relationship that could help save a threatened parasitic plant from extinction.