WILDLIFE UPDATES

SHADY BUSINESS

It’s the sheer scale of giant kelp forests, not their nutritional value, that makes them so species-rich, reports the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. By shading out other algae, the huge fronds allow encrusting animals such as sponges and sea squirts to flourish, which in turn attracts mobile predators.

CLOSE CALL

Barbasteelle bats specialise in hunting eared moths, which can hear echolocation calls and take evasive action. Functional Ecology reports that not only do the bats produce unusually quiet sonar clicks, but they lower the volume even further as they close in on their quarry.

WAR VETERANS

Forget the recklessness of youth. Biology Letters reports that when Japanese Reticulitermes termites go into battle with predatory ants, it’s the oldest soldiers that risk their lives at the frontline. The strategy spares younger soldiers, whose deaths would be a greater loss to the colony.

BREAKFAST IN BED

By day, yellow-billed oxpeckers rummage through the fur and folds of large African herbivores for ticks and scabs. But according to the African Journal of Ecology, big mammals serve ass both kitchen and be edroom. A favourite no octurnal roosting site is between the warm in ner thighs of f giraffe.