Lauren Leffer

2 weeks ago | audubon.org | Lauren Leffer

Ed Curry has been farming chile peppers in Arizona’s arid southeastern corner for 54 years. Over decades, he’s kept tabs on local groundwater levels, monitored his wells for declines, and done his best to conserve across his 2,000 acres. His father, also a farmer in Cochise County, did the same. But, until very recently, that diligence wasn’t mandatory.

2 weeks ago | popsci.com | Lauren Leffer

Howler infant number 5 on the back of a juvenile capuchin carrier, who is using stone tools at an anvil site in a stream bed.   CREDIT: Brendan Barrett / Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. Observing animals, especially other social primates, can be awe-inspiring.

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Lauren Leffer

Observing animals, especially other social primates, can be awe-inspiring. Seeing non-human species groom, feed, or socialize with their friends and kin echoes the best of our own impulses. It can feel affirming to know that, in many ways, they’re like us. But, like humans, other primates are complicated. And sometimes they do things that aren’t so heartwarming. Members of an isolated group of white-faced capuchins have been kidnapping baby howler monkeys.

3 weeks ago | popsci.co.kr | Lauren Leffer

아마존 열대우림 깊숙한 곳에서 화려한 색채와 강력한 독을 지닌 독화살개구리(poison dart frog) 신종 2종이 국제 연구팀에 의해 확인됐다. 라니토메야(Ranitomeya) 속에서 13년 만에 처음 보고된 신종이다. 브라질 국립아마존연구소(INPA) 등이 함께한 국제 연구팀이 브라질 서부 주루아강(Juruá River) 유역, 페루 국경 인근의 오지에서 두 종의 신종을 찾아냈다. 검은 바탕에 청록색 줄무늬를 지닌 ‘라니토메야 아쿠아마리나(Ranitomeya aquamarina)’와 벽돌색 바탕에 하늘색 줄무늬가 특징인 ‘라니토메야 애티레아(Ranitomeya aetherea)’가 그 주인공이다. ‘애티레아’는 라틴어로 하늘 또는 천상을 의미한다. 에스테반 디에고 코흐 INPA 연구원은 “현장에 가려면 소형 비행기를 탄 뒤 강을 따라 10시간 넘게 배로 이동해야 했다”며 “이 같은 지리적 고립은 신종이 뒤늦게 알려진 주된 이유”라고 설명했다.

3 weeks ago | popsci.com | Lauren Leffer

The “metallic poison frog” Ranitomeya aquamarina (left) and the “heavenly” Ranitomeya aquamarina (right) are the first newly discovered species in their genus in 13 years.   CREDIT: Alexander Tamanini Mônico. Poison dart frogs are hard to miss. They’re bright, agile, and as their name suggests, toxic.