BES Facebook groupBES in the News: Recent Press Cuttings
BBC News, 8 June 2010
Crocodiles 'surf' long distance on ocean currents
Katia Moskvitch
Saltwater crocodiles enjoy catching a wave and can travel hundreds of kilometres by "surfing" on ocean currents, a study suggests. Australian researchers used sonar sensors and satellite transmitters to monitor 20 reptiles' movements. They found the crocodiles undertook numerous trips of over 10km (6.2 miles), but only when a current flowed in their direction of travel. The results of the research appear in the Journal of Animal Ecology …
Daily Telegraph, 8 June 2010
Crocodiles 'surf' to cross seas
The discovery answers how the saltwater crocodile, the largest living reptile, was able to colonise a number of South Pacific islands separated by vast stretches of water. It could also account for reports of large crocodiles being sighted far out to sea …
Nature, 8 June 2010
Crocodiles go with the flow
Natasha Gilbert
Crocodiles are bad long-distance swimmers. Instead, their talents lie in surfing, according to a study published today in the Journal of Animal Ecology ...
Daily Mail, 8 June 2010
Crocodiles 'surf' on waves to cross oceans
Crocodiles 'surf' waves to cross many miles of ocean, scientists have learned. The discovery explains how the saltwater crocodile - the world's largest living reptile - came to colonise numerous South Pacific islands separated by huge stretches of water. It may also account for reports of large crocodiles being sighted far out to sea ...
The Independent, 8 June 2010
Crocodiles 'surf' the seas, study finds
John von Radowitz
Crocodiles "surf" waves to cross many miles of ocean, scientists have learned. The discovery explains how the estuarine crocodile - the world's largest living reptile - came to colonise numerous South Pacific islands separated by huge stretches of water. It may also account for reports of large crocodiles being sighted far out to sea ...
Time, 8 June 2010
Report: Crocodiles Travel by Surfing Ocean Currents
Nate Jones
Crocodiles who surf? What's next, Tyrannosaurs in F-14s? Unfortunately for people who like awesome things, the report from a team of Australian scientists finds that saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) surf for business, not pleasure ...
USA Today, 8 June 2010
Giant crocodiles surf to far-flung habitats
The estuarine crocodileis a bad swimmer. So how has it managed to colonize northern Australia, eastern India, part of southeast Asia and multiple South-east Pacific islands separated by enormous swaths of ocean? Easy, a team of researchers in Australia has found. They surf ...
Oxford Mail, 3 May 2010
Wytham Woods: 60 years of ecological research
Andrew Ffrench
If you go down to Wytham Woods today... you will probably find a bunch of scientists measuring trees. For scientists have been keeping tabs on the wildlife in the Oxford wood for the past 60 years - and they haven't finished yet. On Thursday, ecologists gathered at the site to celebrate 60 years of scientific discovery - and a new book about monitoring the natural habitat ...
Scientific American, 15 April 2010
Don't eat that: Endangered quolls my benefit from aversion therapy
John Platt
Eat something that's bad for you and you get sick, effectively teaching you to never eat that thing again. But if you eat something that kills you, there's not much room left for learning, is there? ...
CBC, 14 April 2010
Marsupials learn to avoid poisonous toads
The fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood has inspired Australian scientists to invent a new weapon in the fight to save endangered native marsupials from being poisoned by cane toads. Cane toads have driven the northern quoll to extinction in many parts of northern Australia and they are threatening to invade Western Australia's Kimberley region, one of the quoll's last strongholds ...
LA Times, 14 April 2010
Teaching an Australian marsupial to choose life
Amina Khan
Scientists working to save the endangered (and voracious) quoll came up with a clever solution: They trained it to hate the taste of toad so it can avoid getting poisoned ...
The Times, 14 April 2010
It's raining toxic toad sausages in lifeline to the quoll
Hannah Devlin
Anyone witnessing toads raining down from the sky would be forgiven for assuming that freak weather or biblical wrath were responsible. In northern Australia, however, aerial deployment of toads is a radical way of trying to save a bushy-tailed marsupial from extinction ...
ABC news, 18 February 2010
Scientists up ante to give toads a caning
Sarah Collerton
Native meat ants and cat food can help control the spread of cane toads, scientists have found. University of Sydney biology professor Rick Shine and his colleagues, Georgia Ward-Fear and Greg Brown, used cat food to help lure the native meat ants to kill baby cane toads ... Professor Shine says the cat-food bait research, funded by the Australian Research Council and published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, is one way scientists are trying to curtail the cane toad population.
Press & Journal, 17 Februrary 2010
Raven unfairly blamed for drop in wading birds
Joanna Skailes
It is associated with death, superstition and the security of the British Crown - but now the reputation of the much-maligned raven has been given a boost. The portentous bird's cunning and wily nature has led to it becoming steeped in myth, legend and folklore but concerns that it is responsible for dramatic declines in the numbers of wading birds are unfair, says a new report ... The research, published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology and funded by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), found little evidence of an association and that changes to habitat, and increases in other predators, could be responsible instead.
BBC Online, 16 February 2010
Ravens 'not behind' wader decline
A large crow considered one of the most intelligent native British birds has been ruled out as the cause for a decline in the number of wading birds ... The new study, published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, will help SNH when considering applications to legally kill ravens to protect other species.
