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One out of three roadkilled animals goes undetected by science

Animals may escape and die away from the road after the collision, rebound off the road or retain by vehicle. In these cases, it is so extremely difficult to be recorded through typical roadkill surveys. The study has been carried out by the Doñana Biological Station within the SAFE project to assess wildlife mortality on Spanish roads

Identifican nuevos linajes de parásitos sanguíneos exclusivos de aves que habitan en entornos urbanos

Los resultados del estudio han revelado que algunos parásitos del género Plasmodium, responsables de la malaria aviar, son más diversos en la ciudad que en el campo, presentando algunos linajes que sólo se encuentran en aves de ciudades europeas y que tienen su mayor representación en la ciudad de Granada

Invasive blue crabs can travel more than 100 km upstream

Scientists from the Doñana Biological Station – CSIC warns of the capacity of the blue crab to invade river stretches located far from river mouths. This migrating capacity of blue crabs introduce a new threat for native freshwater species, some of them highly threatened, such as the European eel, which was already in a critical situation before the invasion

Easter rains bring relief to Doñana, but more rainfall is needed this spring

145.3 l/m2 have been collected during March, mostly during Easter, according to ICTS-Doñana data. Rains come late for wintering, but will still be useful for waterfowl breeding. The annual hydrological cycle, which runs from September to August, has already accumulated a precipitation of 404.4 l/m2. This exceeds that of the three previous years at this time, but still does not reach the historical average per cycle, which exceeds 500 l/m2.

The discovery of fossils of phantom midges suggests an extreme climatic event in New Zealand

Phantom midges are present today on all major landmasses, except Antarctica and New Zealand, where it was believed that they had never inhabited until now
The causes of the extinction of these aquatic insects in New Zealand are not known, but it may be indicative of some drastic environmental change in the islands, such as a severe drought or submersion of New Zealand’s landmass.