The common or lawn daisy, Bellis perennis, is probably familiar to most people living in temperate climates. But there may be a few things you do not know about this fascinating and perhaps underestimated flower.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7777980

A new study has now provided the first proof of an ant species that lacks both workers and males and consists exclusively of queens.

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Researchers in Uganda have discovered a complex network of animals feeding on bats infected with Marburg virus, for the first time capturing startling footage of potential spillover risks.

The observations, caught on camera traps placed outside the entrance to “Python Cave” in Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda, are the first confirmation “of a dynamic, multispecies exposure network at a known Marburg virus site”, the researchers say.

The casting of ‘invasives’ as ecological villains has long been backed by scientific and political consensus. Yet as species increasingly move into unfamiliar regions, a favouritism towards natives is growing harder to defend. The traditional approach of trying to stop invasions and eradicate successful invaders isn’t just costly and often ineffective. It may be entirely the wrong approach, if we’re concerned about the environment. While some invasive species are truly harmful and need to be fought, others are a healthy ecological response – they’re part of how the biosphere is adapting to humanity’s environmental impact.

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At present, invasive species are not assessed in the same way as native ones. Placed side by side, these treatments reveal a set of double standards. First, native species are presumed innocent, while alien species are presumed dangerous. Second, we are told to learn to live with the former, while eradication is treated as the default response to the latter. But these assumptions don’t seem to be grounded in data. They function instead as prior judgments that shape how evidence is gathered, interpreted and presented. In this sense, ecological nativism is not a scientific discovery, it’s a rigged result we arrive at because we look only for data that will confirm our prejudices.

A healthy ecosystem is healthy because of the complex web of interactions between its participants. These interactions are called ecological ‘functions’. Bees and butterflies pollinate; pollination is an ecological function. Fungi decompose dead wood; decomposition is a function. Plants produce organic compounds through photosynthesis; biologists call this function ‘primary production’. Ecosystems thrive when these functions are performed by the diversity of organisms and processes within them. The first nativist double standard involves calling a function harmful when an alien species performs it, even though the same function would be seen as beneficial when performed by a native species.

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I'm not denying that wildlife can cause serious harms to ecosystems as well as to human health and livelihoods. For example, in conservation circles recently, I’ve been hearing a lot about a species running rampant in parts of Africa, destroying the crops that subsistence farmers depend on, turning healthy forests into expanses of dust, and threatening to attack people, forcing villagers to hide in their homes when they could otherwise be working and socialising. You might not know about all these harms, but I’m certain you’re familiar with this highly destructive animal: the African elephant.

What are we to do about this menace, which threatens so many people, crops and ecosystems over much of the continent? If I suggested a solution that involved killing off elephants in large numbers, you’d probably be appalled, as you should be. Current thinking in conservation science is that human-wildlife conflict should preferably be solved not through eradicating organisms that come into conflict with humans, but by finding means of coexistence.

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When a harmful species is a native species, like African elephants in Africa, people will go to great lengths to peacefully coexist. When a harmful species is an alien, however, the standard response is to eradicate with prejudice.

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Rather than asking whether pythons prey on native species, we should consider a different question: are pythons keeping their prey species in check in ways that lead to healthier ecosystems?

In otherwords, Invasiveness is an analog measurement taken in context within an ecosystem, not a label that can be applied categorically in a yes/no fashion.

“The biggest take home is let’s do a better job of managing our freshwater rivers so we never have to consider full fishing bans as the medicine,” said Cooke. “Although this seems to have been effective here, the collateral damage to fishing communities is immense.”

Now entering its sixth year, the ban is not a permanent fix nor a cure to all ecological issues. Yet the doubling of biomass is a historic milestone.

Note: Since deep-sea mining is mentioned in this article I thought of adding a few of links in an effort to sum up how vast and serious the problem is.

• These polymetallic nodules that mining companies want to extract from the deep sea, well it looks like they produce oxygen through electrolysis [source]. Meaning, without this source of oxygen these deep-sea ecosystems are going to literally suffocate.

• 66% of the entire planet is deep ocean (≥200 m). Data show that humans have visually observed less than 0.001%, a total area approximately a tenth of the size of Belgium [source]. So companies want to move in and exploit the seabed for profit, one them is the notorious TCM / The Metals Company, while marine scientists say that we need to know what the impact is first, before making any move.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7455392

The U.S. Department of the Interior has said it will revoke the grazing permits that have allowed American Prairie to run bison on roughly 63,000 acres of federal public land in Montana. This decision would affect seven parcels managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Phillips County, and it would hinder the organization’s larger goals of conserving large swaths of intact grasslands while restoring the native grazers to those landscapes.

The Interior’s rationale for yanking the permits, according to its Jan. 16 proposed decision, is that under the Taylor Grazing Act, the BLM can only issue grazing permits for livestock managed for “production-oriented” purposes. It claims that American Prairie’s emphasis on conservation runs counter to those purposes.

American Prairie CEO Alison Fox criticized this reasoning as both unfair and inconsistent with long-standing public-lands grazing practices in Montana. She said in a response to the decision that it creates uncertainty, not just for American Prairie — which has been grazing bison using federal leases since 2005 — but for all other livestock owners in the West. She added that American Prairie plans to protest the decision and will take further legal action, if necessary.

“This is a slippery slope,” Fox said in a statement shared with Outdoor Life. “When federal agencies begin changing how the rules are applied after the process is complete, it undermines confidence in the system for everyone who relies on public lands. Montana livestock owners deserve clarity, fairness, and decisions they can count on.”

The grazing permits now in limbo were approved by the BLM in 2022 after years of analysis and public comment. The agency noted in its record of decision that the feeding habits of bison could lead to habitat improvements there, and that it had granted similar bison grazing permits on BLM lands in Colorado, North Dakota, Wyoming, and other Western states.

This approval, however, drew intense pushback from industry livestock groups and politicians in Montana, who considered it a radical proposal and an attack on the state’s ranchers. Those same groups challenged the BLM’s approval in court, and they are now celebrating the Interior’s more recent decision — one that was signaled in December, when Interior secretary Doug Burgum used his authority to assume jurisdiction over the long-running legal battle.

The study: The Cerrado crisis review: highlighting threats and providing future pathways to save Brazil's biodiversity hotspot

Cooperative breeders remind us that success in nature doesn’t always come from independence—sometimes, it’s interdependence that keeps species thriving. These birds thrive not in isolation, but in networks of shared responsibility, patience, and long-term care.

In a new report published in Nature Plants, researchers based at more than 50 botanic gardens and living plant collections warn that a patchwork of incompatible, or even absent, data systems is undermining global science and conservation at a critical moment.

They call for a unified and equitable global data system for living collections to transform how the world's botanic gardens manage and share information. This would enable them to work together as a 'meta-collection' to strengthen scientific research and conservation efforts.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7273877

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/18005

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — One of the world’s rarest whale species is having more babies this year than in some recent seasons, but experts say many more young are needed to help stave off the possibility of extinction. The North Atlantic right whale’s population numbers an estimated 384 animals and is slowly rising after several years of decline. The whales have gained more than 7% of their 2020 population, according to scientists who study them. The whales give birth off the southeastern United States every winter before migrating north to feed. Researchers have identified 15 calves this winter, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday. That number is higher than two of the last three winters, but the species needs “approximately 50 or more calves per year for many years” to stop its decline and allow for recovery, NOAA said in a statement. The whales are vulnerable to collisions with large ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. This year’s number is encouraging, but the species remains in peril without stronger laws to protect against those threats, said Gib Brogan, senior campaign director with environmental group Oceana. The federal government is in the midst of a moratorium on federal rules designed to protect right whales until 2028, and commercial fishing groups have pushed for a proposal to extend that pause for even longer. There is still time left for more baby whales to be born this winter, but 50 is not a reasonable expectation because of a lack of reproductive females in the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7236623

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17077

Camera traps installed in the world’s largest tiger reserve, in China, have captured footage of an Amur tigress and her five cubs for the first time. Recorded in November 2025, the footage from Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park shows an adult tigress ambling along a dirt road, and four young cubs tootling behind her. After a few seconds, as two of the cubs pause to sniff what looks like a stone, a fifth tries to catch up with the rest of the family. Scientists say they believe the tigress is about 9 years old (tigers typically live for about 10-15 years in the wild), and the cubs are about 6-8 months old.   The 14,100-square-kilometer (5,400-square-mile) national park has China’s largest populations of Amur, or Siberian, tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis). It’s seen an increase in tiger numbers in recent years: in 2024, 35 cubs were born there. Amur tigers, which roam the dense forests and snowy mountains of northeast China, Russia’s far east and parts of the Korean peninsula, are endangered due to poaching, forest logging, habitat fragmentation and prey scarcity. By the 1930s, scientists estimated there were fewer than 30 Amur tigers left in the wild. Latest estimates from the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, suggest there might be 265-486 tigers in Russia and roughly 70 in China, mostly in Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park. “Amur tigers were all but written off in China only twenty-five years ago when,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7237081

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17116

The death of a well-known wild animal is an odd kind of news. It is intimate, because so many people feel they have met the creature through photographs and video. It is also impersonal, because the animal has no public life beyond what humans project onto it. For elephants, that tension is sharpened by history. Their bodies have been turned into luxury goods, their habitats into development sites, and their survival into a test of whether conservation can work at scale. That is why today’s news from Kenya traveled quickly. Craig, the Amboseli bull famous for tusks that nearly brushed the ground, died at the age of 54. Conservation groups and wildlife authorities said he died of natural causes after showing signs of distress overnight, with rangers staying close by. His final hours seemed to reflect age, not violence: intermittent collapsing, short attempts to stand and move, and evidence that he was no longer chewing properly as his last molars wore down. For an elephant, teeth often write the closing chapter. Craig was not obscure. He was, by most accounts, one of the most photographed elephants in Africa, and perhaps the best-known “super tusker” alive—one of the rare bulls whose tusks weigh more than 45 kilograms each. He was also known for temperament: calm around vehicles, patient in the presence of cameras, and unusually tolerant of the attention that followed him. That quality, as much as the ivory he carried, helped make him a symbol of what protection can look…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Three species of the melodic African warbler bird refuse to get up early and sing their customary daybreak songs when the weather is cold. This new discovery was made recently by a team of soundscape ecologists in South Africa’s mountainous Golden Gate Highlands National Park. The team’s research co-leader, Mosikidi Toka, studies how animals and the environment make and use sounds, especially in mountains, and is currently completing a PhD on the sounds of natural habitats. He deployed automated audio recorders to record the birdsong and find out how the birds were affected by freezing temperatures.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/32243294

• The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve is a 12-hectare (30-acre) estate on Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas, dedicated to conserving and educating people about the island-nation’s native plants.
• Since 2009, resident botanist Ethan Freid has led a local restoration effort prioritizing native plants of the Bahamas’ subtropical dry forest ecosystem.
• The Levy preserve also offers a summer internship for university students interested in environmental science and biology, which teaches them about native plant taxonomy — filling a generational knowledge gap.
• Though small in scale, the project provides a haven for the Bahamas’ native plants; has a herbarium of plant specimens for research; and manages an online digital database of Caribbean plant species.