Cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) are small, stocky, white herons which have set themselves aside from other egrets, or really any other birds, by independently taking over most of the world in a matter of decades. This rapid expansion is natural. Sort of. They at least haven’t been introduced by people, taking the initiative to spread …
Continue reading Following the Herd: How Cattle Egrets are Taking Over the World
The mountain pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus) is a tiny marsupial no bigger than your palm. They are the only Australian marsupial to naturally hibernate, the females chasing the males out of the best territories in an admirable display of female empowerment. Restricted to just a few specks in the Southern Alps and with climate change looming, …
Continue reading Past its Peak? The Fate of the Mountain Pygmy-Possum
The IUCN lists the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) as an endangered species. For many residents of Europe, this may come as a surprise. Where I live in the UK, some fields are potted and pitted with burrows and it would take genuine effort to avoid see the long-eared fuzzballs wiggle their noses in the air …
Near the start of this month, researchers from Hungary (and one American) published a study in Genes in which they describe what was thought impossible. They had successfully cross-bred Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedii) with American paddlefish (Polyodon spatula), two species of fish from entirely different families. Why is this weird? Because with 180 million years …
Novel Ecology 