Recent research led by Newcastle University and Imperial College London shows that half the world’s forest habitat is now within 500m of a ‘forest edge’ due to the expansion of road networks, logging, agriculture and other human activity. Combining two of my favorite fields of study — spatial analysis and conservation — the researchers looked more deeply at those forest edges and discovered that 85% of species’ abundances are affected, either positively or negatively, by forest edges.
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The Bird That Isn’t the Blue Mot Mot
What’s a blue mot mot? I wish I could say it’s a bird, but it’s not: it’s my *mishearing* of a bird’s name from a guide who was trying to tell me about these phenomenally gorgeous — and, according to the guide, also phenomenally stupid — birds. “Look!” he said. “They don’t even know to fly away from the tourists!”