Animal distribution, as a biological process, refers to the spatial and temporal patterns by which animal populations occupy, colonize, and persist in habitats across landscapes and ecosystems. It emerges from the interaction of species-specific dispersal mechanisms, behavioral habitat selection, population dynamics, and biotic interactions such as competition, predation, and mutualism, constrained by abiotic gradients including climate, topography, and resource availability. This process underlies biogeographic patterns, metapopulation structure, range limits, and community assembly, and is quantitatively studied using approaches such as species distribution modeling, spatial ecology, landscape genetics, and movement ecology to link organismal traits and environmental heterogeneity to observed occurrence and abundance.
The critically endangered sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus) appears to have found a refuge off the northern coast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, for mating and reproduction. This was revealed in a study conducted by ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 21, 2026
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University of Michigan researchers have used an AI tool to demonstrate that birds in the group Passeriformes evolved in rapid evolutionary bursts and that these bursts frequently coincided with climate shifts throughout Earth's ...
Evolution
Jul 20, 2026
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22
When you think of carnivorous marsupials, you probably picture the Tasmanian devil or perhaps a spotted-tailed quoll. But these famous predators are only the largest members of a remarkable family of marsupials called dasyurids.
Evolution
Jul 17, 2026
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28
Large seabird colonies have a surrounding boundary known as Ashmole's halo, where food sources are depleted, forcing the birds to travel farther to gather the food they need. The reason seems obvious—the more birds, the more ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 15, 2026
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26
Virtual fences could make managing grazing livestock on farms more flexible and more efficient while improving animal welfare. A new study by the University of Göttingen shows that virtual fences trigger behavior in cattle ...
Biotechnology
Jul 11, 2026
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Sometimes mistaken for a strange-looking mouse with a long, pointed snout, the Asian house shrew is a small, furry animal known for its musky odor. It's usually found lurking near homes and farms, ports and cities, across ...
Ecology
Jul 10, 2026
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11
A recent study reveals geographic biases in how aquatic animals have been tracked and researched across the globe, with a preference toward politically stable, English-speaking countries with high conservation funding. Researchers ...
Ecology
Jul 9, 2026
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10
Two new studies examining gray wolves in California paint a complex picture of life on the state's ranching landscapes: Wolves eat cattle more than anything else, and the presence of the predators causes significant stress ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 8, 2026
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14
A new study published in the Journal of Helminthology by researchers from the Estonian University of Life Sciences and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, together with collaborators from Greenland and the Faroe ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 7, 2026
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14
This year's surveys of gray seals in the Wadden Sea and on Helgoland once again show an upward trend. During the 2025–2026 survey year, 3,385 pups and 12,497 gray seals were recorded during the molting period. The results ...
Ecology
Jul 2, 2026
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