As they roam around the African savanna in search for food, giraffes and elephants alter the diversity and richness of its vegetation. By studying the foraging patterns of these megaherbivores across different terrains in a savanna in Kenya, scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and collaborating institutions discovered that these large mammals prefer to eat their meals on flat ground, potentially impacting the growth and survival of plant species on even savanna landscapes, such as valleys and plateaus.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In eu dui non est venenatis lobortis. Donec iaculis iaculis turpis. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Aliquam vitae arcu. Maecenas justo tortor, eleifend sed, fermentum vitae, condimentum vitae, diam. Vivamus mattis, ligula vitae commodo vulputate, lorem tellus semper nulla, vitae cursus nunc eros ut massa. Curabitur velit pede, lobortis a, ultrices sit amet, suscipit non, erat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In eu dui non est venenatis lobortis. Donec iaculis iaculis turpis. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Aliquam vitae arcu. Maecenas justo tortor, eleifend sed, fermentum vitae, condimentum vitae, diam. Vivamus mattis, ligula vitae commodo vulputate, lorem tellus semper nulla, vitae cursus nunc eros ut massa. Curabitur velit pede, lobortis a, ultrices sit amet, suscipit non, erat.

Searching for food at night can be tricky. To find prey in the dark, bats use echolocation, their “sixth sense.” But to find food faster, some species, like Molossus molossus, may search within hearittng distance of their echolocating group members, sharing information about where food patches are located. Social information encoded in their echolocation calls may facilitate this foraging strategy, according to a recent study by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) scientists and collaborating institutions published online in Behavioral Ecology.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In eu dui non est venenatis lobortis. Donec iaculis iaculis turpis. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Aliquam vitae arcu. Maecenas justo tortor, eleifend sed, fermentum vitae, condimentum vitae, diam. Vivamus mattis, ligula vitae commodo vulputate, lorem tellus semper nulla, vitae cursus nunc eros ut massa. Curabitur velit pede, lobortis a, ultrices sit amet, suscipit non, erat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In eu dui non est venenatis lobortis. Donec iaculis iaculis turpis. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Aliquam vitae arcu. Maecenas justo tortor, eleifend sed, fermentum vitae, condimentum vitae, diam. Vivamus mattis, ligula vitae commodo vulputate, lorem tellus semper nulla, vitae cursus nunc eros ut massa. Curabitur velit pede, lobortis a, ultrices sit amet, suscipit non, erat.

Crossing a 23-kilometer stretch of ocean from mainland Panama to Coiba, the largest offshore island in the Eastern Pacific, a group of intrepid biologists hoped to find species never reported there before. But in addition to discovering new species, the 2015 Coiba BioBlitz crew was surprised to find that capuchin monkeys spent so much time on the ground there.

A new species of Triassic reptile from Brazil is a close cousin of a mysterious group called tanystropheids, according to a study published April 8, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Tiane De-Oliviera of the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil and colleagues.

There is no longer a need to guess what ocean temperatures were like in the remote tropical Pacific hundreds of years ago. The ancient coral that lived there know all. A study in Science led by Rice University and Georgia Tech researchers parses the record archived by ancient tropical Pacific coral over the past millennium. That record could help scientists refine their models of how changing conditions in the Pacific, particularly from volcanic eruptions, influence the occurrence of El Niño events, which are major drivers of global climate.

When cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar was shot dead in 1993, the four hippos he brought to his private zoo in Colombia were left behind in a pond on his ranch. Since then, their numbers have grown to an estimated 80-100, and the giant herbivores have made their way into the country's rivers. Scientists and the public alike have viewed Escobar's hippos as invasive pests that by no rights should run wild on the South American continent.

Tropical forests are allies in the fight against climate change. Growing trees absorb carbon emissions and store them as woody biomass. As a result, reforestation of land once cleared for logging, mining, and agriculture is seen as a powerful tool for locking up large amounts of carbon emissions throughout the South American tropics.