In the news

From Jake (thank you!) – Earth’s largest ever ape died out because it refused to eat its greens http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/05/earths-largest-ever-ape-died-out-because-it-refused-to-eat-its-greens-study   From Ben McCarthy (thank you!) – Ben says “This is pretty awesome. Thought you plus fellow SEEN viewers would enjoy. 800 year old seeds found inside dug up pot, planted, grown and a extinct species of old […]

Royal Institution Christmas lectures – this year “How to survive in space” http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures   Turkeys are polygynous and therefore display sexual dimorphism due to female choice http://home.olemiss.edu/~byrb/choice.html   Mistletoe distribution is due to presence of climatic conditions rather than particular hosts http://mistletoe.org.uk/homewp/index.php/distribution/british-mistletoe/   Red nose of reindeers http://digg.com/video/science-says-rudolph-the-reindeer-actually-has-a-red-nose   Science of snowflakes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUot7XSX8uA   Evolution […]

From Becks Spake (thank you Becks!) “New totally awesome BBC nature documentary ‘The Hunt’, narrated by David Attenborough: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0342dms/the-hunt-1-the-hardest-challenge”   From Carla Broom (thank you Carla!) Found this the other day on how sticklebacks could be used for drug testing in athletes, not entirely ecology related but very interesting http://io9.com/though-this-fish-cant-pee-it-can-be-used-to-test-for-d-1729965846 Also more Homo floresiensis bones have been found, […]

From Monika Ryll, she says “This one is super relevant to third year Vertebrate Palaeobiology students http://unews.utah.edu/76-million-year-old-extinct-species-of-pig-snouted-turtle-unearthed-in-utah/ but it’s really cool as well.” Thank you Monika!   You can’t have failed to notice 2 current series on BBC at the moment – Autumnwatch http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079t1p David Attenborough’s new series, The Hunt http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0342j63 There is also an […]

Chalotte Alanine says “I found this interesting one on Twitter about crow behaviour around their own dead and enemies” http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150930-the-birds-that-fear-death?ocid=twert (thank you Charlotte!) Harry Aston says “I watched something incredible lately called Cowspiracy, it was a documentary made on the agricultural farming industry and its environmental impacts, as well as the business and economics, if […]

There was an interesting programme about oaks trees on BBC4 last week, watch it on iPlayer here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06fq03t/oak-tree-natures-greatest-survivor   For Ada Lovelace day – Implicit and explicit bias against women in science https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284878277/we-need-to-be-vigilant-to-stop-biases-occurring-solving-the-challenges-of-gender-balance-in-science-an-interview-with-professor-jonathan-eisen/   Dung beetles confused by seeds that smell like dung http://www.biosphereonline.com/2015/10/05/dung-beetles-deceived-by-dropping-like-seeds/   Summer review from the short-haired bumblebee project – http://www.bumblebeereintroduction.org/summer-review-2015/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=summer-review-2015   […]

From 2014-15 SEEN contributor of the year, Owen Middleton – “I saw something on BBC that you may have been aware of anyway but thought it would be good for the next SEEN edition and is relevant to the MRes Wildlife Conservation course as it’s about Kenya! As a way to combat and deter poaching, a […]

Owen Middleton (of SEEN and Bella Vista fame) says “Here’s an interesting article (for SEEN) that involves hunting by echolocation in Harbour Porpoises and touches on convergent evolution: Dolphins, whales, porpoises are similar to bats in that they detect prey location via emitting different frequencies of clicks (echolocation). It was thought that this involved a narrow acoustic range but this study suggests […]

Fhionna Redfern found this article about the noise that peacocks’ tails make http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150303-peacocks-make-din-you-cant-hear (thank you Fhionna!)   How does artificial light at night alter ecological communities? http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1667/20140131   Poll to find first national bird for Britain http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31904842   Every single animal that became extinct in the last 100 years http://www.pixable.com/article/heres-every-single-animal-that-became-extinct-in-the-last-100-years-photos-67674?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_434455   Watch the birth of […]

Owen Middleton found this story, he says “I just read a story about chimps modifying their social communication when presented to ‘foreign’ chimps – in this case Dutch and Scottish chimps. After a while, as the two groups began to bond, the foreign chimps change the frequency of their grunts to fit with the locals […]