Flying foxes, or fruit bats, are familiar to many Australians. So it may come as a surprise to learn two of the four mainland species, both gray-headed and spectacled flying foxes, are threatened with extinction.
Plants & Animals
Mar 24, 2024
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Flying foxes. Megabats. Fruit bats. Whatever name you choose, these fox-faced creatures are remarkable. Our four species help pollinate eucalyptus trees in eastern Australia, spread the seeds of rainforest trees, and make ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 26, 2024
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A high-sugar diet is bad news for humans, leading to diabetes, obesity and even cancer. Yet fruit bats survive and even thrive by eating up to twice their body weight in sugary fruit every day.
Plants & Animals
Jan 9, 2024
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Recent research led by Tigga Kingston, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Texas Tech University, delivers a stark warning concerning the distressing decline of flying foxes and related species, also known ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 1, 2023
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Once a year, a small forest in Zambia becomes the site of one of the world's greatest natural spectacles. In November, straw-colored fruit bats migrate from across the African continent to a patch of trees in Kasanka National ...
Ecology
Jul 3, 2023
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264
Many mammals suffer hearing loss in old age, but bats were thought to be immune to this phenomenon because of the importance of hearing for echolocation. However, researchers in Israel have discovered that bats lose their ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 30, 2023
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9
Protecting wildlife across the world could significantly enhance natural carbon capture and storage by supercharging ecosystem carbon sinks, a new study led by Yale School of the Environment Oastler Professor of Population ...
Ecology
Mar 28, 2023
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146
Preserving and restoring natural habitats could prevent pathogens that originate in wildlife from spilling over into domesticated animals and humans, according to two new companion studies.
Ecology
Nov 16, 2022
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161
You only get 52 teeth in your lifetime: 20 baby teeth, followed by 32 adult teeth.
Evolution
Sep 22, 2022
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7
Hundreds of animals eat fruit, from toucans to fruit bats to maned wolves to humans. But most fruit-bearing plants evolved relatively recently in Earth's history, showing up for the first time in the Cretaceous, the final ...
Ecology
Aug 16, 2022
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