Tracking their dinner may be the best way to help North Atlantic right whales in Cape Cod Bay avoid being hit by recreational and commercial boats, according to a team of researchers who studied the whales for two years.

"Auto-detection buoys are making a remarkable attempt at recording the whale sounds to show when whales are in the area," said Susan Parks, assistant professor of acoustics and ecology and senior research associate, Penn State Applied Research Laboratory. "But North Atlantic right whales don't make call sounds when they are eating, so they don't show the whales when they are feeding."

Caroline Chaboo regularly fields phone calls and emails from homeowners, gardeners and even U.S. customs officials who ask her to help identify bugs. The University of Kansas entomologist is a leading expert on beetles and performs research around the world, including in Kansas.

And Chaboo takes the time to help people with their insect-related curiosities and concerns.

“I ask them questions, and they send me pictures,” she said.

Shy salamanders, flitting frogs and other anonymous amphibians, whose secretive ways may lead them into harm’s way, will be better protected thanks to a new conservation tool developed by University of Idaho genetic researchers.

Caren Goldberg, post-doctoral scientist, and Lisette Waits, professor of wildlife resources in the University of Idaho College of Natural Resources, recently conducted a study confirming environmental DNA – eDNA – as a sensitive and efficient tool for documenting stream-dwelling amphibians in the Pacific Northwest.

Cities and organizations in the US state of Maryland have found an original and ecologically sound method to cut the weeds from their parks and gardens: Bring in the goats.

Brian Knox, owner of Eco-Goats, a business based in Davidsonville, Maryland, said the hungry animals graze on dense vegetation and munch unwanted weeds and invasive plants while also leaving fertilizer behind for the grasses that people want.

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers reveal the discovery of how the Guiana dolphin, Sotalia guianensis, is able to sense electric fields of prey in the water using structures found on the animals head.

While electroreception is often seen in fish and amphibians, it is not common in mammals. As a matter of fact, until this new research, the only mammal to show the ability to sense electric fields was the platypus.

The researchers, led by Wolf Hanke from the University of Rostock in Germany studied some rare captive Guiana dolphins at a zoo in Muenster, Germany.

Asian elephants typically live in small, flexible, social groups centered around females and calves while adult males roam independently. However, new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology shows that while Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in Sri Lanka may change their day to day associations they maintain a larger, stable, network of friends from which they pick their companions.

Researchers followed the friendships among over a hundred female adult Asian elephants in the Uda Walawe National Park in Sri Lanka for five seasons and analyzed how these relationships changed over time.

Fifteen pilot whales have died in a mass stranding near the northwestern tip of Scotland, according to a rescue charity.

Rescuers have been trying to save a pod of around 60 long-finned pilot whales in the Kyle of Durness, a sea inlet near Cape Wrath.

Around 35 beached as the water receded at low tide and 20 were refloated using inflatable pontoons as the water level rose again.

A "four-eyed" fish that sees simultaneously above and below the water line has offered up a dramatic example of how gene expression allows organisms to adapt to their environment.

Gregory L. Owens, a University of British Columbia graduate student, found a sharp divide between the upper and lower sections of the eyes of Anableps anableps, a six- to 12-inch fish closely related to guppies. The findings were published today online in Biology Letters.

Where do turtles belong on the evolutionary tree? For decades, the mystery has proven as tough to crack as the creatures' shells. With their body armor and retractable heads, turtles are such unique creatures that scientists have found it difficult to classify the strange animals in terms of their origins and closest relatives.

"We know turtles evolved from a common ancestor along with birds, lizards and snakes about 300 million years ago, but who modern-day turtles are most closely related to is one of the biggest and most controversial questions in the field of systematics," said Tyler Lyson, a Yale University graduate student who studies the evolutionary relationships between different animal groups.

The shape of a hummingbird's beak allows for a "controlled elastic snap" that allows it to snatch up flying insects in a mere fraction of a second —with greater speed and power than could be achieved by jaw muscles alone, says a new study in a forthcoming issue of Journal of Theoretical Biology.

Hummingbird beaks are built to feed on flowers, but hummingbirds can't live on nectar alone. To get enough protein and nutrients they need to eat small insects too, said co-author Gregor Yanega of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina.

"Hummingbirds need the equivalent of 300 fruit flies a day to survive," Yanega said.