Do humans need other #species? Yes! millions of organisms are needed to keep #ecosystems in balance and ensure everyone can survive. Most importantly, #research shows other species make us happy! Be 🐱🐷🐎🐕🐠 #Vegan for the animals 🍅🥦 #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Category Archives: Amazing Animal Adaptations
Celebrate #WorldRhinoDay by leaving the forests alone and #Boycottpalmoil in the supermarket to save Rhinos
Indonesia is home to two of the world’s five rhinoceros species. Both the Javan rhino Rhinoceros sondaicus and the Sumatran rhino Dicerorhinus sumatrensis still exist today, uniquely only in the country. In India’s north east, the Indian Rhino hangs on to survival. Yet their existence has become increasingly fragile due to the unrelenting growth of palm oil in both of these countries.
#WorldRhinoDay is 22nd Sept. But every day should be World Rhino Day as three of the five species of rhino may go extinct as a result of #palmoil #deforestation and illegal poaching. Fight for them each time you shop and be #vegan and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
What elephants’ unique brain structures suggest about their mental abilities
Bob Jacobs, Colorado College Conservationists have designated August 12 as World Elephant Day to raise awareness about conserving these majestic animals. Elephants have many engaging features, from their incredibly dexterous trunks to their memory abilities and complex social lives. But there is much less discussion of their brains, even though it stands to reason thatContinue reading “What elephants’ unique brain structures suggest about their mental abilities”
Back from extinction: a world first effort to return threatened pangolins to the wild
Pangolins are one of the most illegally trafficked animals on the planet and are suspected to be linked to the current coronavirus pandemic. Pangolins are also one of the world’s most threatened species but new efforts are underway to reintroduce pangolins to parts of Africa where the animal has been extinct for decades. Help these remarkable armoured wonders to survive and call out wildlife trafficking when you see it online, also #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🪔🚜🔥☠️⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket!
Chimpanzees once helped African rainforests recover from a major collapse
Most people probably think that the rainforest of central and west Africa, the second largest in the world, has been around for millions of years. However recent research suggests that it is mostly just 2,000 or so years old. The forest reached roughly its modern state following five centuries of regeneration after it was massively fragmented when the dry season suddenly became longer some 2,500 years ago. Help #chimpanzees to survive and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop
How do we protect the rapidly disappearing Javan Rhino?
With only 74 individuals left, the remarkable and beautiful Javan Rhino is on the brink of extinction and can be found on one of the most densely populated islands in the world – Java. Boycotting palm oil is how you can help them. Sunarto, Universitas Indonesia The Javan rhino was once found throughout many partsContinue reading “How do we protect the rapidly disappearing Javan Rhino?”
The mimics among us — birds pirate songs for personal profit
From Roman classics to British tabloids, humans have long celebrated the curious and remarkable ability of #birds and other #animals to imitate the sounds of humans and other animals. A recent surge of research is revealing how and why birds use vocal mimicry to further their own interests. Far from being merely a biological curiosity,Continue reading “The mimics among us — birds pirate songs for personal profit”
A fascinating history of warrior turtles: from ancient myths, warships and teenage mutants
Ask anyone the identity of the world’s most famed turtles, and the answer is likely to be those legendary heroes in a half-shell, the Teenage Mutant Ninjas. Since first appearing in comic book form in 1984, the pizza-eating, nunchuk-wielding characters have shown the world the tougher side of turtles. Help them to survive every time you shop and Boycott Seafood, #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Bonobo mothers meddle in their sons’ sex lives – making them three times more likely to father children
New research shows that for #bonobos, sex really is often a family affair. What’s more, rather than being an embarrassing hindrance, motherly presence greatly benefits bonobo sons during the deed.
Along with #chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus) are our closest living relatives. Restricted to a 500,000 km² thickly-forested zone of the #Congo Basin, these endangered great apes were only formally discovered in 1928, which until 2017 made them the most recently-described living great ape species.
Operating in female-led social systems, bonobos are capable of showing a wide range of what were long held as human-specific feelings and emotions, such as sensitivity, patience, compassion, kindness, empathy and altruism. Help them to survive every time you shop #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Do chimpanzees and orangutans really have midlife crises?
Many people know that chimpanzees and orangutans have personalities, feel emotions and are “almost human”. However a recent paper has found that great apes also have a mid-life slump or a “midlife crisis”. Great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans) are just as socially, politically and cognitively complex as we are. Our “hairy” great ape relatives are like us in every respect. Help them to survive when you shop and be #Vegan #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Bonobos Can Inspire More Peaceful Democracies
Bonobos can inspire a more peaceful democracy. Primatologists explain the fascinating lives of these mostly peaceful primates. Boycott palm oil when you shop!
Humans and Bonobos Share Contagious Yawn Behaviour
Most of us have experienced the overwhelming urge to yawn in response to another person yawning – but we’re not the only species to do this. Research published in PeerJ shows that bonobos – our closest evolutionary cousins – also experience “yawn contagion”. Similarly to how yawning occurs in human beings, the effects of yawn contagion in bonobos is influenced by the quality of relationships shared between individuals.
The tendency for humans to mirror the behaviours and emotions of another – sometimes referred to as “emotional contagion” – is also thought to reflect our heightened capacity for empathy. Help all non-human primates to survive extinction and be #Vegan #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
African Forest Elephants’s Movements Depend on Their Personalities
African forest #elephants roam the dense rainforests of West and Central Africa where they subsist largely on a diet of fruit. They shape forests by dispersing fruit and seeds, browsing, and creating an extensive trail network. But because it’s difficult to track animals in thick forest, little is known about the movements of the AfricanContinue reading “African Forest Elephants’s Movements Depend on Their Personalities”
The Amazonian Royal Flycatcher: A flurry of feathers
The Amazonian Royal Flycatcher is a member of a family of birds called the tyrant flycatchers, which occur throughout North and South America. This is the biggest family of birds in the world, with more than 400 species. As the name implies, the majority of tyrant flycatchers are entirely insectivorous (though they do not necessarily specialise in flies), while the ‘tyrant’ part comes from the noisy, aggressively territorial behaviour of some species in the group. Help them to survive every time you shop and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
Meet Chimbu, the blue-eyed, bear-eared tree kangaroo
Tree kangaroos are so unusual that when Europeans first encountered them in Australia in 1872, back on the continent they were sceptical if they were real! Who would believe a #kangaroo could climb a tree? The Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo is an endangered species of the genus dendrolagus living in the Central Cordillera mountain ranges ofContinue reading “Meet Chimbu, the blue-eyed, bear-eared tree kangaroo”
Laughs, Cries and Deception: The Complex Lives of Birds
#Birds can certainly get very angry – and the owner of a galah or corella would be well advised not to get near this bird when the head feathers are raised — but birds can be joyful and playful, can get depressed and, as studies have shown, a neglectful or bare environment can even make them pessimistic.
Birds may feel for others (have empathy) and even console them, may have a sense of justice, may show deep affection for their partner and grieve for their loss. I witnessed the mate of a fatally injured tawny frogmouth not moving from the spot next to their dead partner for three days, and then dying on the fourth. 🌴🩸🧐 Be #vegan for them! ❌ #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
For primates, having a mother helps them learn social skills
Wild #bonobos, like other Great #Apes and humans, spend long childhoods with their mothers, learning the social skills they need to function as emotionally stable members of their community. But orphaned bonobos at sanctuaries don’t have that kind of upbringing. Can they still learn the skills they need to get by in bonobo society? A study by Zanna Clay and Frans de Waal in PNAS found that the mother-infant bond is vital in developing healthy social and emotional skills. Help these mighty and intelligent primates when you shop and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
What, Why and Where of Black Leopards
Did you know that Black #leopards only differ from other leopards by the colour of their coat, a genetic variation that’s #recessive also known as melanism? One of their threats is #palmoil #deforestation. Help their survival be #vegan #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket
What’s my name? How wild parrots identify their young
Ground-breaking research has found that wild parrots teach their chicks unique sound signatures so that they can identify their parents. We are only just scratching the surface of knowledge about these immensely intelligent non-human beings, protect them! Be #Vegan and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
We don’t know how many mountain gorillas live in the wild. Here’s why
How important are the mountain #gorillas of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park to global populations? Their importance to the health of the forest is immeasurable and irreplacable! Mountain gorillas are one of the two subspecies of eastern gorillas. They are divided into just two populations: one in the Virunga Massif that spans the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and one population that lives in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda and the adjacent Sarambwe Nature Reserve in DRC. Help them to survive, be #vegan and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Nature’s Hidden Wealth: Conservation’s Opportunity
Animals and plants constitute a very small part of our native biodiversity (roughly 5%). The vast majority – fungi, bacteria and the enormous diversity of other microscopic organisms, including invertebrates – is a massive, largely unexplored economic resource.
The best known examples of commercial uses for biodiversity are the thousands of drugs secreted by bacteria and fungi. But others are examples of what is known as “bio-inspiration” and “bio-mimicry”, where wild species provide the blueprints for products. The combination of nature and biotechnology can offer us all a tentative reason to hope for the future.
Monkey minds: what we can learn from primate personality
Did you know our primate cousins exhibit similar personality profiles to humans? Explore fascinating evolutionary research on primate social behaviour
Rainbow Cliffs: Why Parrots in the Amazon Eat Clay
Our world holds a whole host of glorious natural spectacles, from great starling murmurations to the ethereal display of coral reef spawning. But none is more thrilling than catching a glimpse of a majestic #macaw.
Screeching their way through the #Amazon rainforest, leaving scattered fruit, broken branches, and a considerable quantity of parrot poop in their wake, #parrots are simply animals like no other. But high in the treetops, flying far above the dense, dark foliage below, how can you ensure that you see their bright colours? A safe bet is to find a clay lick.
Inside the colourful world of animal vision
Want to hear something trippy? Unlike other aspects of an object such as its size or mass, colour is not an inherent property. Perceiving colour is a function of an organism’s sensory system. In other words, colour is a construct of the mind. But whose minds? Aside from the human experiences of colour, other-than-human eyes perceive colour in radically different ways.
The lengthy childhood of endangered orangutans is written in their teeth
Orangutan populations of all three species are critically endangered in the wild. One of the things that may hamper their survival is the time they take to rear new generations.
Just like human mothers, primate mothers raise only a few slow-growing offspring during their reproductive years. An orangutan mother will not give birth again until she’s finished providing milk to her previous offspring. Nursing can take a long time and vary across seasons, as found in research published in Science Advances. Help these beautiful and rare great apes to survive when you #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket!
The Stealth and Beauty of the Clouded Leopard
Beautiful and unique Clouded Leopards are #endangered by #palmoil, #meat #mining #deforestation and human persecution across their range. Help them every time you shop and be #vegan, #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4wildlife
Palm Oil Detectives 