Human activity may be enabling the expansion of golden jackals across Europe by reducing the suppressive effect of gray wolves, suggests research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. This human-mediated interaction could allow jackals to occupy up to 75% of the continent, almost six times more than the current area, the authors suggest.
You probably think you know yourself pretty well. So when you make a plan, you assume you have a reasonably accurate picture of what future you will do. New research suggests that assumption is wrong, and that the gap has real consequences for the decisions we make every day.
A 2021 outbreak of leptospirosis that sickened more than 200 dogs in Los Angeles County reveals critical gaps in vaccination practices and raises broader concerns about the spread of the disease between animals and people, according to new research led by the University of California, Davis. The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
The government has promised a new era of youth justice reform focused on protecting vulnerable children and reducing harm.
If people form opinions online before they fully evaluate whether information is true, then the fight against misinformation may begin far earlier than most platforms are designed to address.
People often look to dogs' behavior, especially their facial expressions, for indications of their states of mind. Numerous studies show that this is a popular interpretation strategy. However, modern dog breeds vary greatly in size and structure, and few studies have explored how breed-specific morphology might affect humans' ability to assess visual cues from the faces of different breeds of dogs.
For about half the global population, rice is the staple food. Yet every year, a fungal disease—rice blast—destroys harvests that could feed 60 million people. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have uncovered how the pathogen outsmarts the rice plant's defense system. The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, open up new possibilities for making rice more resilient, directly benefiting global food security.
Cattle ranching is the biggest driver of tropical deforestation, but it is also a key livelihood for nearly 1 billion smallholder farmers. A global study by Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) shows that this tension can be eased by reintroducing trees into pastureland. Planting trees in cattle pastures nearly doubles biodiversity compared to conventional pastures. However, these plantings cannot replace the protection of native forests. The study is published in the journal Ecological Applications.
New research from Queen Mary University of London shows how extreme seasonal patterns are causing rainforest butterflies to adapt their reproductive strategies at a rapid pace, with implications for species resilience under accelerating climate disruption.
Europe, which is in the throes of a record-smashing heat wave this week, is the world's fastest-warming continent and stretches into an even more rapidly heating Arctic.
