Death stench: Ancient warning signal to avoid disease, predators

October 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has determined that the catastrophic decline around the world of "apex" predators such as wolves, cougars, lions or sharks has led to a huge increase in smaller "mesopredators" that are causing major economic and ecological disruptions. The findings revealed that in North America, all of the largest terrestrial predators have been in decline during the past 200 years, while the ranges of 60 percent of mesopredators have expanded.

September 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have determined that the role of a predator, before humans colonized New Zealand about 750 years ago, was filled by a giant, extinct raptor known as Haast's eagle. Although the bones of Haast's eagle have been known for well over a century, the behavior of these giants has been a point of debate.

September 10th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have discovered that when animals die, their corpses exude a particular "stench of death" that repels their living relatives, who avoid others that have succumbed to the disease or places where predators lurk. Corpses of animals as distantly related as insects and crustaceans all produce the same stench, caused by a blend of simple fatty acids.

September 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Developing oil rigs in the Arctic is helping predators prey on nesting birds by providing them with subsidised housing. They nest and den around drilling infrastructure and supplement their diets with garbage and nesting birds, says a new study by Wildlife Conservation Society, US Fish and Wildlife Service.

September 7th, 2009 ATHENS - The Greek culture ministry launched an investigation Monday into the disappearance of a large fragment of a column from the archaeological site of Ancient Olympia in the western Peloponnese. A guard at the ancient site reported the column capital, from part of a sixth century basilica, missing at the weekend.

August 27th, 2009 LONDON - In a lab study on fruit flies, entomologists led by an Indian origin scientist at the University of California, Riverside, have discovered a novel class of compounds that could help in developing inexpensive and safe mosquito repellents for combating West Nile virus and other deadly tropical diseases. Under stress, fruit flies emit carbon dioxide (CO2) that serves as a warning to other fruit flies that danger or predators could be nearby.

August 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Scientists report that a newt has evolved a bizarre and gruesome defence mechanism to protect itself against predators, by pushing out its ribs until they pierce through its body, exposing a row of bones that act like poisonous barbs. Scientists say that the Spanish ribbed newt has to force its bones through its skin every time it is attacked.

August 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Ancient Chinese herbal formulas, primarily used for cardiovascular indications like heart disease, can produce large amounts of artery-widening nitric oxide, according to a study at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Nitric oxide is crucial to the cardiovascular system because it signals the inner walls of blood vessels to relax, which facilitates the flow of blood through the heart and circulatory system. The messenger molecule also eliminates dangerous clots, lowers high blood pressure and reduces artery-clogging plaque formation.

August 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new fossil-bat discovery has revealed that a walking bat in New Zealand took its marching orders from a 20-mln-yr-old ancestor, which upends a theory that the lesser short-tailed bat evolved its walking preference independently. Since the bat's native habitat lacks predators, researchers reasoned that-much like flightless birds on isolated islands-the bat had adapted to its safer surroundings in part by walking.

July 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has found that a bizarre New Zealand bat that is as much at home walking four-legged on the ground as winging through the air had an Australian ancestor 20 million years ago with the same rare ability. The study was carried out by an international team of researchers led by Dr Suzanne Hand, a bat expert at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

July 29th, 2009 LONDON - In a new research, scientists have shown that the tactic of insects to squirt toxic blood out of gaps in their body to avoid being eaten by predators really does work. Armoured ground crickets (Acanthoplus discoidalis) are fat, flightless insects that live in the African bush across Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.

July 7th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have identified a species of spider that builds models of itself that it uses as decoys to distract predators, which may be the first example of an animal building a life-size replica of its own body. Many animals try to divert the attentions of predators by becoming masters of disguise.

June 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A Swedish study from Uppsala University has shown that Siberian jays use over a dozen different calls to communicate the level of danger and predator category to other members of their own group when mobbing predators. The new study has shown that birds have evolved call systems that are as sophisticated as those of primates and meerkats.

June 3rd, 2009 LONDON - New evidence, in the form of inferior wood in ancient temples, has emerged for the theory that the Mayan civilization collapsed because they ran out of resources, rather than, say, disease or warfare. According to a report in New Scientist, the evidence was found by researchers led by David Lentz, a palaeoethnobotanist at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, US, in wooden beams and lintels from all six major temples and two palaces within the ancient city of Tikal in Guatemala.

April 27th, 2009 MELBOURNE - There has been a drastic increase in the number of sex crimes Down Under, according to a new report. The recent police figures on pub and club offences have revealed that there were 61 sexual attacks in Victorian licensed premises last financial year including 22 rapes and 39 sexual assaults.