#Dams exacerbate the consequences of climate change on river fish

“#Dams exacerbate the consequences of climate change on river fish” Santa Ana Dam at the Noguera Ribagorzana River in the Ebro River catchment, Spain Credit: Manuel Portero/CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) A potential response of river fish to environmental changes is to colonize new habitats. But what happens when dams and weirs restrict their movement? And are…

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#Physical deformities linked to inbreeding discovered among cougars in the Santa Monica Mountains

“#Physical deformities linked to inbreeding discovered among cougars in the Santa Monica Mountains” Credit: AskJoanne/Wikipedia The discovery was heartbreaking for biologists, who consider the mountain lions of Southern California to be among the most threatened mammals in North America: a young male with the distortions of inbreeding—a tail kinked like the letter “L” and only…

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#Galapagos guides to ‘barcode’ wildlife

“#Galapagos guides to ‘barcode’ wildlife” Animals have replaced tourists in once-busy parts of Isabela Island Credit: Carolina Proano Galapagos tourist guides are being retrained to catalog the islands’ famous biodiversity. The COVID-19 pandemic has left many eco-tourism workers unemployed, and the “Barcoding Galapagos” scheme will see them survey wildlife and plants using “genetic fingerprinting”. The…

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#Heated rivalries for pollinators among arctic plants

“#Heated rivalries for pollinators among arctic plants” Even in the Arctic, most plants are insect-pollinated – but here, most pollinators are small, black midges or flies. Avens is one of the most attractive plants and, when in flower, it robs pollinators from other plant species. Credit: Tuomas Kankaanpää. Insect pollination is as important to Arctic…

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#Primates are facing an impending extinction crisis—but we know very little about what will actually protect them

“#Primates are facing an impending extinction crisis—but we know very little about what will actually protect them” Credit: Nicholas Santasier/Pexels From lemurs to orangutans, tarsiers to gorillas, primates are captivating and sometimes unnervingly similar to us. So it’s not surprising that this group of more than 500 species receives a great deal of research and…

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