For more than 3.5 billion years, living organisms have thrived, multiplied and diversified to occupy every ecosystem on Earth. The flip side to this explosion of new species is that species extinctions have also always been part of the evolutionary life cycle. But these two processes are not always in step. When the loss of […]

ASPCA The Effects of Aging As they age, cats often suffer a decline in functioning, including their cognitive functioning. It’s estimated that cognitive decline – referred to as feline cognitive dysfunction, or FCD – affects more than 55% of cats aged 11 to 15 years and more than 80% of cats aged 16 to 20 […]

Courtesy ASPCA Barking is one of many forms of vocal communication for dogs. People are often pleased that their dog barks, because it alerts them to the approach of people to their home or it tells them there’s something that the dog wants or needs. However, sometimes a dog’s barking can be excessive. Because barking […]

Our research reveals that ice melt in the last interglacial period caused global seas to rise about 10 metres above the present level. The ice melted first in Antarctica, then a few thousand years later in Greenland. Sea levels rose 10 metres above present levels during Earth’s last warm period 125,000 years ago, according to […]

Large brains seem not be a requirement for complex societies Max Planck Society – November 2019 Multilevel societies have, until now, only been known to exist among large-brained mammals including humans, other primates, elephants, giraffes, and dolphins. Now, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Konstanz report the existence […]

South Africa has established the world’s first Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology by linking the country’s existing invasion scientists in a facilitated network. John Measey, Senior Researcher at the CIB based in the Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University Developed countries are producing policies to reduce the flow of invasive species and control […]

Humans, the latest tally suggests, have approximately 21,000 genes in our genome, the set of genetic information in an organism. But do we really need every gene we have? What if we lost three or four? What if we lost 3,000 or 4,000? Could we still function? Humans have variation in their genomes, but the […]

ASPCA Whining is one of many forms of canine vocal communication. Dogs most commonly whine when they’re seeking attention, when they’re excited, when they’re anxious or when they’re trying to appease you. Appeasement Behaviour Some dogs whine excessively when interacting with people and other dogs, usually while adopting a submissive posture (e.g., tail tucked, body […]

 Plants are constantly under attack. They face threats ranging from microscopic fungi to small herbivores like caterpillars, up to large herbivores like elephants. But plants are ready, with a whole series of internal and external defenses that make them a less appealing meal — or even a deadly one. Valentin Hammoudi explains some of […]

Nitya Mohanty, Post-doctoral fellow Centre for Invasion Biology (C·I·B) Department of Botany & Zoology, Stellenbosch University Humans keep all sorts of animals as pets and new species are constantly being brought into the trade – some reared in captivity, but many sourced from the wild. As a result, the global pet trade often puts wild […]