Biodiversity: How a rodent’s fear of big cats shapes a Central American rainforest

As rodents called agoutis avoid areas where ocelots prowl, they spread fewer of the palm seeds they eat, which could lead to a cascade of changes in biodiversity throughout Panama’s forests Life 8 March 2022 By Jake Buehler An agouti gnawing on a palm seed Steven Paton A game of cat and mouse is playing … Read more

A Cat in Pennsylvania Caught The Delta Variant. But It’s Not All Bad News

SARS-CoV-2 is not picky about its host. Since the virus first started spreading among humans, it has jumped from our species to pets, livestock, and even wild animals. Cats appear to be particularly susceptible to contracting COVID, although they often don’t show symptoms, and it’s unlikely that they can pass the virus back to us. Even … Read more

Chlamydia: Infectious disease found in 1 in 3 birds tested at Australian animal hospital

A survey of birds entering an Australian animal hospital shows a huge number of them carry chlamydia, including strains never seen before in Australia Life 31 January 2022 By Alice Klein The laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae), native to Australia electra kay-smith / Alamy Nearly one-third of hospitalised Australian birds are carrying chlamydia, including some novel … Read more

Study Confirms Suspicions That Cat Brains Are Smaller Than They Used to Be

As cats have become domesticated over the last 10,000 years or so, their brains have shrunk significantly in size, a new study confirms – a finding that could lead to important new insights into how animals adapt when they start being regularly kept by human beings.   Researchers compared the size of craniums (an indicator … Read more

Australian wildlife: Reintroductions help threatened mammals recover

Conservationists are reintroducing threatened mammals to their former ranges with fences to keep out cats and foxes Environment 29 December 2021 By Alice Klein A greater bilby scavenging at night cbstockfoto / Alamy Stock Photo Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world, having lost 34 mammal species in the past 200 years. … Read more

Croydon cat killer: DNA analysis confirms foxes, not humans, were to blame

By Jason Arunn Murugesu Foxes are notorious scavengers Jamie_Hall/Getty Images Between 2014 and 2018, more than 300 mutilated cat carcasses were found on London streets, leading to sensational media reports that a feline-targeting serial killer was on the loose. The fact that the cats often had their heads or tails cut off, as well as … Read more