A Ladybug’s Boots Were Made for Walking… (BioZine)

As insects go, the ladybug (or ladybird) is one of the more beloved. They’re not poisonous, they eat insects gardeners consider to be pests, and their red bodies with black dots are pleasingly colorful. Even if they infest your home, they pose more of an annoyance than a threat. However seemingly benign, we can also see the ladybug as a kind of insect action hero. While many insects can walk up and down walls, as well as upside down on ceilings, the ladybug can do all these … even while underwater. And, unlike spiders, ladybugs don’t need to spin webs to do any of it. In recent years, scientists have been looking closely at what gives the ladybug these extraordinary abilities in hopes of finding ways not to improve upon nature, but instead to catch up with it. The desire is to apply their findings to help develop new materials and technologies useful to humans. [Read Full Article]

More than three quarters of large carnivores now in decline (BBC News)

Three quarters of the world's big carnivores - including lions, wolves and bears - are in decline, says a new study.

A majority now occupy less than half their former ranges according to data published in the journal, Science.

The loss of this habitat and prey and persecution by humans has created global hotspots of decline.[Read Full Article]

Lions are critically endangered in West Africa (Biology News Net)

A report published today concludes that the African lion is facing extinction across the entire West African region. The West African lion once ranged continuously from Senegal to Nigeria, but the new paper reveals there are now only an estimated 250 adult lions restricted to four isolated and severely imperiled populations. Only one of those populations contains more than 50 lions. [Read Full Article]

Nuclear weapon test debris 'persists' in atmosphere (BBC News)

Radioactive particles from nuclear tests that took place decades ago persist in the upper atmosphere, a study suggests.

Previously, scientists believed that nuclear debris found high above the Earth would now be negligible.

However this research shows that plutonium and caesium isotopes are still present at surprisingly high concentrations. [Read Full Article]

Orphaned Chimpanzees Play Rougher Than Their Mother-Reared Counterparts (Scientific American)

In central Zambia, at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, dozens of parentless chimpanzees are raised among their peers, without adults. The arrangement is a lucky one for the chimps: in the wild, orphanhood can mean death.

Yet the parentless life—even at a refuge—has its drawbacks. Across a wide range of social species, research has demonstrated how normal social development depends on the presence of mature individuals, which leaves orphans at a disadvantage. [Read Full Article]

What Does the Fox Say? (BioZine)

In the lyrics of a recent popular song, listeners are asked  “What does the fox say?” We’re told that, in contrast to the cow’s “moo” and the duck’s “quack,” the fox gives off some kind of Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! or Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! noise. [Read More]

A Long Winter’s Nap No More (BioZine)

When temperatures get colder and the days get shorter, many mammals settle into a period of hibernation. But what effect will climate change — and the associated changes in weather patterns — have on this annual behavior?

What do you think of when you hear the term hibernation? Do you imagine a bear asleep in its den, curled tightly into a ball? Though hibernation is often thought of as a time when certain animals go to sleep for months at a time, the actual act of hibernation is a bit more complex. [Read Full Article]

Virus Kills over 1,000 Bottlenose Dolphins along U.S. East Coast (Reuters)

ORLANDO (Reuters) - More than 1,000 migratory bottlenose dolphins have died from a measles-like virus along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard in 2013 and the epidemic shows no sign of abating, a marine biologist said on Monday.

The death toll exceeds the 740 dolphins killed during the last big outbreak of the then-unknown virus in 1987-88. [Read Full Article]

As Lionfish Invade the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, Conservationists Say Eat Up (Scientific American)

Conservationists wrestling with the problem of invasive lionfish have suggested that recreationally and commercially harvesting the predatory species for food could put a big dent in its numbers. New findings bolster that view. In one-day derby events in the Florida Keys and Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas, participants caught 1,400 of the fish, reducing local populations of this invasive species by 60 percent. They also enthusiastically ate much of the catch. Stephanie Green, a research fellow at Oregon State University, reported the derby results to the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) in Corpus Christi, Texas, in November. [Read Full Article]

Competitive Hunting of Wolves, Coyotes in Idaho Sparks Outcry (Reuters)

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The first statewide competition in decades to hunt wolves and coyotes in Idaho has sparked outrage among wildlife conservationists, who condemned it as "an organized killing contest."

The so-called coyote and wolf derby is slated for the weekend of December 28-29 in the mountain town of Salmon, Idaho, where ranchers and hunting guides contend wolves and coyotes threaten livestock and game animals prized by sportsmen.[Read Full Article]

Banana Fungus Creeps Closer to World's Key Plantations (Scientific American)

A variant of a fungus that rots and kills the main variety of export banana has been found in plantations in Mozambique and Jordan, raising fears that it could spread to major producers and decimate supplies. The pathogen, which was until now limited to parts of Asia and a region of Australia, has a particularly devastating effect on the popular Cavendish cultivar, which accounts for almost all of the multibillion-dollar banana export trade. Expansion of the disease worldwide could be disastrous, say researchers. [Read Full Article]