Large flightless bird in captivity kills Florida man in ‘horrible’ accident

- A captive cassowary, the large flightless bird considered the most dangerous of its species, killed a man Friday near Gainesville.

The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office is conducting a death investigation, spokesman Lt. Brett Rhodenizer said Saturday.

About 10:30 a.m., authorities received a call from a witness stating the man fell and had been attacked by the bird at a property off Alachua County Road 235 — northwest of the University of Florida in Gainesville — where the cassowary and other captive wildlife are housed.

The man, whose name was not released, had sustained “serious injuries” and was transported to a local hospital, said Alachua County Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Jeff Taylor in an email. He later died.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article229233764.html#storylink=cpy

Mass insect extinction within a century threatens 'catastrophic' collapse of nature’s ecosystems, scientists warn

- Pesticide use is driving an “alarming” decline in the world’s insects that could have a “catastrophic” impact on nature’s ecosystems, researchers have warned.

More than 40 per cent of insect species are at risk of extinction with decades, with climate change and pollution also to blame, according to a global scientific review.

Their numbers are plummeting so precipitously that almost all insects could vanish within a century, the study found.

Ticked-off Canadian crabs are waging war on the United States and scientists are powerless to stop them

- Canada and the United States usually get along pretty well, and that’s probably because Canadians are just so darn nice. They apologize for everything, they don’t mind bizarre weather, and they’re always looking out for each other. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Canadian crabs, which are some of the most absurdly aggressive marine creatures around, and now they’re moving south.

As the Boston Globe reports, green crabs from Canada are beginning to march down to coast of the United States, and they’re picking fights with anyone who comes near. They’re unpleasant, rude, and might actually push away native species that were getting along just fine on their own.

The crabs are actually the same species that can already be found further south along the coast of Maine, but for some reason they’re a whole lot more aggressive. Rather than simply living their lives in flowing sea grass and eating when they’re hungry, the Canadian crabs take a scorched-Earth approach by chopping down vegetation with their claws and killing any small sea creatures that get in their way.

These angry organisms have been found along Maine on occasion, but it seems they’re pushing farther south than before. In a new survey of crab populations in Maine, the nasty Canadians were spotted at a rate of about one out of every 50 green crabs. A study of the local marine ecosystem and the crabs’ impact on it is being prepared for publishing.

As University of New England researchers Louis Logan explains, we might be powerless to stop them. “It will be an entirely different ball game,” Logan told the Boston Globe. “It’s just a question of when more of the crabs come and out-compete the Maine green crabs. We can’t do anything about it. The only thing that we can do is learn how to live with it.”

Firefly twinkles are a sweet reminder that they taste like trash, study says

washingtonpost.com - A biologist was studying bats in the tropics a few years ago and observed that the air was full of glowing, slow-flying insects. Jesse M. Barber was puzzled: How could an animal, which makes no evasive maneuvers of any sort, flash lights that ostensibly say “come eat me” still manage to thrive in a forest full of bats?

Barber, a biologist at Boise State University, knew that, although summery constellations of biochemical light are beautiful, fireflies do not flash for our pleasure. The insects cram a lot of information into their blinks — messages of life, death and reproduction. Along with his colleagues, Barber found evidence that firefly flashes contain more than a dating profile. It’s part warning, too: Don’t mess with this beetle.

The typical nocturnal insect goes out of its way to avoid a bat’s notice. Researchers in Barber’s lab call bats “sky wolves,” and though it’s a running joke, it is not far from reality. When providing milk to their pups, female little brown bats can eat their body weight in insects nightly, which means gobbling thousands of bugs.

These ferocious hunters exert an “incredible selective pressure on their prey,” Barber said. Insect species that can’t avoid or defend against bats are not long for this world.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, Barber and his colleagues introduced common eastern fireflies — Photinus pyralis— to a small group of big brown bats.

The researchers assumed that their bats had never seen a firefly before. “These bats are from the western United States, where there are essentially no fireflies,” Barber said. The only fireflies in that region do not produce light as adults.

The bats and fireflies coexisted in a dark room for one to four days. Each bat grabbed a firefly on the first day, then promptly spit it out. High-speed video cameras showed the bats eating scarab beetles and moths, but not fireflies.

The bats loathed the taste of fireflies. Barber said he’d never “seen a stronger negative reaction” to a chemically defended insect. The bats “salivate a bunch and they cough and shake their head and just generally completely despise us for giving them that prey.”

Scientists use test-tube science to save nearly extinct rhino

nbcnews.com - Scientists say they’ve used human test-tube baby techniques to try to save the nearly extinct northern white rhino.

In an improbable experiment, they are trying to resurrect an entire subspecies using dead males, two infertile remaining females, and some closely related southern white rhinos.

And they say they also plan to use stem-cell technology to try to create a population of pure northern white rhinos in the lab.

The European team of researchers created a few early-stage rhino embryos using a technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injectionor ICSI. They used sperm from the last northern white rhino males before they died. Some of this sperm was injected into egg cells taken from females of the southern white rhino subspecies.

They ended up with a handful of embryos, some of which could potentially be implanted into surrogate rhino mothers.

While any resulting baby rhinos would be hybrids — half northern and half southern white rhino — the experiment is a first step to re-creating an extinct subspecies in the lab, the researchers report in the journal Nature Communications.

Northern white rhinos were driven to extinction by poaching and war in the countries they once roamed — Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Congo and Central African Republic.

The last living male white northern white rhino, named Sudan, died last March. Two females remain in captivity, but they are infertile. No northern white rhinos remain in the wild.

Indonesian woman dies after being swallowed whole by a python

foxnews.com - An Indonesian mother has died after being swallowed whole by a 23-foot-long python.

The woman, Wa Tiba, 54, went missing while tending to her vegetable garden near her village on Muna Island in Southeast Sulawesi province on Thursday, according to the village chief, Faris.

When her family went to look for her, they found only her belongings in the garden, including her sandals, a machete and a flashlight.

The village subsequently launched a search for her but were horrified to find the python with a severely bloated belly just 50 yards from the garden.

Faris said the villagers killed the snake and when they cut open its belly, they found the woman's body still intact wearing all her clothes.

Local police chief Hamka, who only has one name like many Indonesians, said: “Residents were suspicious the snake swallowed the victim, so they killed it, then carried it out of the garden.

“The snake’s belly was cut open and the body of the victim was found inside.”

Local villager Ayu Kartika said: "Everyone cried and was in shock. That poor woman. It looked like a horror movie. The people are terrified, afraid to go outside.”

Severed rattlesnake head bites Texas man, nearly kills him

- A Texas man is recovering after he claims the head of a rattlesnake bit him — moments after he had just cut it off.

Jennifer Sutcliffe's husband was reportedly bitten by the beheaded snake on May 27 at his home near Lake Corpus Christi.

Sutcliffe told KIII-TV the two were doing yard work when she came across the four-foot rattlesnake. She said her husband used a shovel to behead the snake, but when he went to dispose of it, it bit him.

The snake, Sutcliffe said, "released all its venom into him at that point" because it no longer had a body, and her husband reportedly began immediately experiencing seizures and internal bleeding, and lost his vision.

The man was transported via helicopter to a hospital, where doctors said there was a chance he wouldn't make it.

Malaysian 'snake-handling celebrity' dies of cobra bite

BBC - A Malaysian man who became famous for his snake-handling skills has died after being bitten by a cobra.

Abu Zarin Hussin, a firefighter, first shot to fame after British tabloids published a story incorrectly identifying him as a Thai man who'd allegedly married his pet snake.

Mr Hussin had trained other firefighters on how to handle snakes.

But he was admitted to hospital on Monday after being bitten a cobra during a snake-catching operation.

According to local news outlet The Star, the 33-year-old who lived in the state of Pahang, often taught other firemen how to identify different snake species and ways to capture them without having to kill.

He had also participated in television programme Asia's Got Talent, where he pulled off the daring act of "kissing" a snake.

Idaho teacher investigated after allegedly feeding live puppy to snapping turtle as students watched

usatoday.com - An Idaho science teacher is under investigation after allegedly feeding a live puppy to a snapping turtle in front of students at his school.

An animal rights activist, Jill Parrish, filed a police report last week after hearing that the teacher, Robert Crosland, who works in Preston, a small city near the Utah border, fed the puppy to the reptile as students looked on, according to local media.

"What I have learned in the last four days is disgusting. It is sick. It is sick," Parrish told Salt Lake City TV station KSTU.

"Allowing children to watch an innocent baby puppy scream because it is being fed to an animal. That is violence. That is not OK," Parrish added. The animal reportedly was terminally ill.

Este Hull, a 7th-grade student at Preston Junior High, told the station that Crosland usually fed mice or birds to his menagerie of animals, which also include snakes.

“I feel a little bit better that it was a puppy that was going to die, not just a healthy puppy," she said.

Parents Annette Salvesen and Julie Johnson told KSTU that Crosland is the best science teacher at the school.

"If it was a deformed puppy that was going to die anyway, Cros(land) is very much circle-of-life," Salveson added.

In a statement, the school district said it was investigating the allegation.

“On March 7, 2018, Preston School District was made aware of a regrettable circumstance involving some of the biological specimens at Preston Jr. High. The event … was not a part of any school-directed program. We emphasize that at no time was the safety of students or staff compromised.”

According to the Idaho Statesman, Dave Fryar, the sheriff of Franklin County, of which Preston is the largest city and county seat, said he had forwarded a report on the investigation to the county prosecutor. CotinueReading

Atlantic Sixgill Shark: Scientists Confirm New Shark Species After Years Of Debate

inquisitr.com - Scientists recently confirmed the Atlantic sixgill shark as a new and distinct species of shark, following extensive genetic analysis that separated them from their relatives in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Citing a study published in the journal Marine Biodiversity, Science Dailywrote the species was confirmed “after decades of uncertainty,” as researchers weren’t quite sure what to make of the Atlantic sixgills, which share many similarities with their relatives from the Indo-Pacific. The Atlantic species, however, is noticeably smaller, with a maximum length of 6 feet, as compared to the Indo-Pacific sixgills, which can grow to lengths of more than 15 feet. Atlantic sixgill sharks also have “saw-like” rows of lower teeth, slightly setting them apart from their relatives.

Sixgill sharks, in general, get their name from the fact that they have six gills, as opposed to most other shark species, which have five. They are among our planet’s oldest animals, as their ancestry dates more than 250 million years ago, or a few tens of millions of years prior to the emergence of dinosaurs. According to Science Daily, the creatures have long been difficult to study, as they typically can only be found in deep waters, sometimes as far down as a few thousands of feet below surface level.

In the new study led by Florida Institute of Technology assistant professor of biological sciences Toby Daly-Engel, researchers conducted an in-depth analysis of the Atlantic sixgill shark, taking over 1,300 base pairs of two mitochondrial genes to determine whether it is a distinct species or not. Ultimately, it was found that there were enough differences between the Atlantic sixgill’s genes and those of sixgills found in the Indian and Pacific oceans to consider it a new species, which was given the scientific name Hexanchus vitulus. ContinueReading

Scientists Grow Sheep Embryos With Human Cells To Revolutionize Organ Transplant

techtimes.com - Researchers have successfully grown sheep embryos that contain human cells, a breakthrough that may someday save the lives of many patients who need an organ transplant.

Pablo Ross, from the University of California, Davis, and colleagues announced at this week's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Texas that they have grown sheep embryos with human cells.

Researchers have been using genome editing technique to produce animal embryos that do not develop pancreas. The objective is that human cells introduced to these embryos would grow to replace the missing organ.

Researchers have already worked on pig embryos but there are several advantages for using sheep embryos, one of which is that these can be easily produced by IVF. Fewer sheep embryos are also required for an experiment.

"For a pig we typically transfer 50 embryos to one recipient," said Ross. "With the sheep we transfer four embryos to one recipient."

Sheep also have heart and lungs that are similar to those of humans. They also produce organs that are about the right size for the human body. Depending on the organ a patient needs, organs are typically matched using characteristics, which include the size of the organ needed.

"The sheep is a good model for many human conditions," Ross said. "The size of the sheep organs is similar to human size, some of the organs are physiologically similar between sheep and humans and a lot of cardiovascular research is done in sheep because it has some similarities to humans in terms of heart shape."

Ross and colleagues transplanted human stem cells into the preimplantation embryos of sheep. The embryos are then allowed to grow for a week before these were implanted into a surrogate sheep. The researchers are currently allowed to let these chimeric embryos develop for 28 days so the surrogate animal is slaughtered after 21 days.

About one in 10,000 cells in the sheep embryos that the researchers developed are human. Nonetheless, they said that more work is needed to raise the proportion of humans cells in the chimera. continueReading

Tanzania: Plans to auction 3.5 tonnes of hippo teeth sparks outrage

independent.co.uk - Wildlife conservation groups have criticised plans by Tanzanian authorities to auction 3.5 tonnes of hippo teeth next week. They said the move could increase poaching.

Licensed dealers will be able to bid for 12,500 pieces of hippo teeth at the tourism and natural resources ministry in the city of Dar es Salaam, wildlife authorities in the east African nation said.

Conservationists said the sale could encourage the killing of the creatures, which are classified as “vulnerable” on the international “red list” of endangered species.

There are up to 130,000 hippos in sub-Saharan Africa, according to estimates.

But the animal has become increasingly threatened by a demand for their meat, skin and teeth as well as habitat loss.

A regulated trade in hippo parts is allowed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Their teeth are carved for ornaments and sold in parts of Asia.

The bones predominantly come from Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, according to CITIES data.

Even though some countries still have healthy populations, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) "discourages the consumption of hippopotamus ivory and are disappointed to see auctions such as this taking place,” said Colman O'Criodain an expert in wildlife trade at the organisation. ContinueReading

Giant centipedes can kill prey 15 times bigger than they are, thanks to this critical toxin

sciencemag.org - Centipede venoms pack a serious punch—causing rapid paralysis in lizards, cockroaches, and other animals unlucky enough to be on the invertebrate’s dinner menu. They’ve even been known to kill people, but until recently, we had no idea why. Now, scientists have identified a nasty toxin in centipede venom that wreaks havoc on the cardiovascular, respiratory, and nervous systems of other animals—allowing centipedes to kill mice 15 times their size in 30 seconds flat. The team first purified multiple toxins from the venom of the 20-centimeter-long golden head centipede (above), which lives in forests, farmlands, and cities across eastern Asia. Then, they experimented with the toxins, one by one. They found that something called Ssm Spooky Toxin shut off the channels that pump potassium in and out of cells—channels that are critical for sending brainwaves, maintaining a regular heartbeat, and controlling a whole host of other bodily functions, the team reports today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Without this one critical toxin, the venom isn’t nearly as deadly—giving scientists hope that an antivenom treatment could be made using drugs that open potassium channels. ContinueReading

(A video of one deadly centipede-mouse encounter has been posted by the scientists here, but it may disturb some viewers.)

Animal-smuggling 'kingpin' arrested in Thailand

skynews.com - A man accused of being one of world's most notorious wildlife traffickers has been arrested in Thailand.

Boonchai Bach, 40, is alleged to have made a career out of helping to smuggle thousands of tonnes of rhino horns and elephant tusks from Africa to Asia.

But he was arrested by police at his base in Nakorn Panom, Thailand, next to the Mekong River, on Friday.

Bach, a Vietnamese national with Thai citizenship, is being held in relation to the trafficking of 14 rhino horns in December.

Authorities said they are also investigating allegations he supervised groups trafficking large quantities of poached elephant ivory, rhino horns, pangolins, tigers, lions, and other rare and endangered species for more than a decade.

At a news conference at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, Police Colonel Chutrakul Yodmadee told reporters that the arrest was "significant for many reasons".

"The confiscated items are high in value.

"And we are able to arrest the whole network involved, starting from the courier, the facilitator, the exporter who plan to export goods through the Thai-Laos border.

"We even got the moneyman (investor) behind the gang.

"That means we are able to arrest the whole network."

The Bach family is alleged to have run the international supply chain of illicit wildlife from Asia and Africa to major dealers in Laos, Vietnam and China, including to the notorious Vixay Keosavang.

Keosavang, based in Laos, was named Southeast Asia's biggest wildlife dealer by the New York Times in 2013.

It is claimed Boonchai Bach took up a leading role in the organisation in 2005 when he began to share power with his brother.

Freeland, a Bangkok-based anti-trafficking organisation, has been working with Thai authorities on the investigation after tracking the group for more than two decades.

Founder Steven Galster said Bach's arrest had stopped a wildlife trafficking kingpin.

He added: "The security officers of Suvarnabhumi Airport, Suvarnabhumi Airport Police Station, Thai Customs and Immigration Police at Nakhon Panom are to be congratulated for breaking open the country's largest wildlife crime case ever."

This week's arrest follows the routine X-ray of cargo on a flight from Ethiopia to Bangkok in December which revealed rhino horns hidden in a suitcase.

Officials let the luggage through and then followed it to a Thai officer in the airport who was arrested along with one of Bach's relatives.

Bach was once believed to be untouchable, and campaigners hope his arrest will encourage crackdowns around the world.

Brutal Fungal Disease Could Threaten Snakes on a Global Scale

gizmodo.com - It starts with a single lesion. And then another. Soon, the snake’s entire body is covered in the unsightly sores. If the snake is lucky, its skin will start molting, expunging the reptile of the infection. Less fortunate snakes will die. And in some cases, desperate snakes will spend more time in the sun to expedite the molting process—a risky move that makes them vulnerable to predators.

This awful fungal infection is caused by a pathogen called Ophidiomyces ophidiodiicola, and it’s starting to make scientists quite nervous. As a new study published in Scientific Advances points out, this infectious disease, which is known to afflict a handful of snake species in the United States and Europe, could soon reach global, pandemic proportions.

A team of scientists from the American Museum of Natural History, the US Geological Survey, and the University of Maryland, College Park, say snake fungal disease (SFD) can infect many species of snake regardless of genetic predispositions, physical characteristics, or habitat (this fungus doesn’t harm humans, in case you’re wondering). Disturbingly, virtually every snake on the planet is at risk—and the call is now out for scientists to be on the look-out for this emerging threat. (ontinueReading

Wild Monkeys & Deer Are Now Having Sex With Each Other And Scientists Don't know Why

*Contains strong suggestive language

Newsweek.com - After video went viral that showed a snow monkey sexually mounting a sika deer, scientists have published a research paper on the behavior.

What they found was that monkeys’ predisposition to mount deer, while surprising, was not abnormal. In fact, it’s a cultural action, either a fad or an ingrained tradition among the primates.

In research published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, scientists documented repeated attempts by Japanese macaques, also known as snow monkeys, to climb on the backs of deer and thrust their pelvises.

Because of the anatomical differences between the species, videos of the interactions don’t show actual sexual penetration. (And don’t worry, even if they did actually copulate, monkeys and deer are too far removed genetically to make baby hybrids called “meer” or “donkeys.”) Additionally, it was primarily adolescent females that were humping the cervines. Incidentally, both species have mating seasons at the same time.

The scientists are certain that the monkeys’ advances toward the deer are sexual in nature, because the actions resemble the actions that the female monkeys make toward male monkeys before they actually mate. Oddly, the female monkeys were primarily observed mounting male bucks. It’s unknown whether that’s because female deer and juveniles would buck them off, or because the monkeys actually had a sexual preference for stags.

The researchers documented interactions between snow monkeys and their sexual partners. They found that snow monkeys have no preference between sex within their own species or with another. There was no difference in how long the monkeys spent on top of their partner of either species, but they did prefer doggy-style with the deer. (Other positions would prove logistically challenging.)

The deer, for their part, didn't seem to mind.

“Killer” mosquitoes are being unleashed in the US to fight disease

zmescience - Not only are mosquitoes annoying, but they can transmit a whole host of dangerous viruses. To tackle the mosquito-problem, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the release of lab-reared mosquitoes. These mosquitoes are under-cover agents that have one goal: to kill other mosquitoes. They will be released in 20 states and Washington DC. Here’s what you need to know.

The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus is a vector for viruses, such as dengue, yellow fever, and Zika. These diseases are a large health threat and now the EPA has decided which direction they will take to reduce the threat. They have paired with the Kentucky-based biotechnology start-up MosquitoMate, which engineers special mosquitos. The mosquitoes will be raised to contain the bacterium Wolbachia pipientis and the males are sorted out from the females. Only the males, called ZAP males by the company, will be released because they don’t bite so you don’t have to worry. These males will then mate with unsuspecting wild females and produce fertilized eggs that don’t hatch because the paternal chromosomes do not form correctly. As the number of released males increases, then the total population eventually declines.

The benefits are that this is a non-chemical approach and that other insects and mosquitoes are not harmed. It will still require millions and millions of mosquitos to have any effect on the population. The setback at the moment is that male and female mosquitoes are sorted by hand and mechanically. Either MosquitoMate will be putting out many jobs ads for “mosquito sorter” or have to automate the process.

This mosquito strategy is already being implemented in Guangzhou, China where 5 million Wolbachia-infected mosquitos are released each week. Their secret? They use mechanical sorters bases on the difference in size between males and females at the pupal stage, which is more than 99% efficient. The rest of the mosquitoes are sterilized with low-dose radiation that is just enough to only affect the females.

For now, the southeastern US, which has the densest mosquito populations is excluded from the trials as testing was not conducted under those climates. However, Florida has been hosting trials of the more-controversial genetically modified versions of the Zika vector, Aedes aegypti. We will see soon if this strategy is successful at reducing mosquito populations and mosquito-carried diseases. (ontinueReading

Going Ape: New great ape species identified in Indonesia

BBC. - Scientists who have been puzzling for years over the genetic "peculiarity" of a tiny population of orangutans in Sumatra have finally concluded that they are a new species to science.

The apes in question were only reported to exist after an expedition into the remote mountain forests there in 1997.

Since then, a research project has unpicked their biological secret.

The species has been named the Tapanuli orangutan - a third species in addition to the Bornean and Sumatran.

It is the first new great ape to be described for almost a century.

Publishing their work in the journal Current Biology, the team - including researchers from the University of Zurich, Liverpool John Moores University and the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme - pointed out that there are only 800 individuals remaining, making this one of the world's most threatened ape species.

Early on in their study, researchers took DNA from the orangutans, which showed them to be "peculiar" compared to other orangutans in Sumatra.

So the scientists embarked on a painstaking investigation - reconstructing the animals' evolutionary history through their genetic code.

One of the lead researchers, Prof Michael Krützen from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, explained to BBC News: "The genomic analysis really allows us to look in detail at the history.

"We can probe deep back in time and ask, 'when did these populations split off?'."

The analysis of a total 37 complete orangutan genomes - the code for the biological make-up of each animal - has now shown that these apes separated from their Bornean relatives less than 700,000 years ago - a snip in evolutionary time. (ontinueReading

Massachusetts boy, 7, mauled by pit bulls, cops say

Foxnews.com - A 7-year-old boy was attacked and killed by two pit bulls in Massachusetts after apparently entering an enclosed area Saturday Oct. 21 officials said.

The Middlesex district attorney's office said a preliminary investigation suggests the boy was attacked in Lowell around 6 p.m. after entering a fenced area where the dogs were located.

Officers responding to a report of an injured child at the home arrived at the scene to find the child already dead.

"I heard someone yelling, 'It's my baby! It's my baby!' and I come to find out that it was my daughter's friend's son," neighbor Annmarie Dizazzo told Boston 25 News.

Authorities said one of the pit bulls escaped after the attack before it was captured and euthanized. The other pit bull is in the custody of the city's animal control.

The district attorney's office has not yet identified the child, and charges have yet to be filed as of early Sunday.

Lowell is located about 30 miles north of Boston.

New study suggests insect populations have declined by 75% over 3 decades

(CNN) A new scientific study has found "dramatic" and "alarming" declines in insect populations in areas in Germany, which researchers say could have far-reaching consequences for the world's crop production and natural ecosystems.

The study, published on Wednesday in peer-reviewed journal PLOS One has found that, in German nature reserves, flying insect populations have declined by more than 75% over the duration of the 27-year study.

"The flying insect community as a whole... has been decimated over the last few decades," said the study, which was conducted by Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands and the Entomological Society Krefeld in Germany.

"Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services."

Co-author Caspar Hallman said he and his colleagues were "very, very surprised" by the results.
"These are not agricultural areas, these are locations meant to preserve biodiversity, but still we see the insects slipping out of our hands," he told CNN.