More Food and Fuel, Less Forests
	The Rights and Resource Initiative warns that by 2030 yet another massive chunk of the tropical rainforest will be gone in favor of agriculture as the demand for food and biofuels increases. The organization also points out that the governments of developing countries are rather reluctant in applying any reforms at all regarding land ownership or governance. "Arguably, we are on the verge of a last great global land grab. It will m ... [read more >>]
	14 July 2008, 09:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Deforestation Renders Frogs Smaller
	It seems that the effect is not manifested only on populations, but on individuals as well. Many of the subtropical environments with high moisture levels have significantly different foliages, some being heavily covered with forests while others have almost no wood at all. Johanna Delgado-Acevedo and Carla Restrepo from the University of Puerto Rico have shown recently that two Puerto Rican frog species collected from various locations in ... [read more >>]
	27 May 2008, 10:23GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sloths Are Not that Lazy
	Sloths really deserve their name: 11 % of the sloths move only 38 m (126 ft) daily, and 38 % of them cannot move at all for 24 hours. Captive two-toed sloths are active about 7 hours each day. Moreover, coming to increase the impression of laziness is the fact that, since sloths are nocturnal, they just s ... [read more >>]
	15 May 2008, 02:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

4 Things About Woodpeckers
	The real woodpeckers may not be able to put on performances like Woody the Woodpecker, but they still make a special group of birds nonetheless. 1. The closest relatives of the woodpeckers are the honeyguides. Out of 204 species of woodpeckers, only the two species of wrynecks (Jynx) do not drill and drum the wood. The largest bird was the imperial woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis), that inhabited pine and oak mountain ... [read more >>]
	09 May 2008, 09:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

9 Things About Hornbills
	1. Hornbills are famous for their huge bills, flattened and curved, with toothed edges and bony helmets over the upper jaw. These large birds have a common origin with the hoopoes. Today, hornbills inhabit only tropical Africa and Asia, but the oldest known species, the Geiseloceros robustus, lived in Saxony (northern Germany) in Eocene, 45-50 Ma ago. 35-40 Ma ago, Cryptornis antiquus lived in the Paris area. 2. The largest hornbills ... [read more >>]
	08 May 2008, 10:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Smallest Tiger
	The world's most beautiful tiger is at the same time the smallest: the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae). This tiger subspecies inhabits the island of Sumatra and is today reduced to a number of 600-800 individuals. The Siberian tiger is the largest cat ever to exist, measuring up to 2.8 m (9.3 ft) without the tail in length and weighing up to 384 kg (850 pounds), which is almost twice the weight of a lion. The B ... [read more >>]
	23 April 2008, 10:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Planet's Last Wild Spaces
	Wild spaces are crucial for the survival of the planet: they contribute to the maintenance of the clime variation, rainfall and snowfall, but, most important, they are a reserve for preserving the biodiversity. With the increasing of human activity, the last wild spaces of the planet are fast disappearing under the attack of the infrastructure, urbanization and agriculture (often generating deforestation). The human presence can be per ... [read more >>]
	17 April 2008, 09:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Indians Of the Orinoco
	Until 1951, nobody knew the source of the Orinoco River. Accumulating continuously torrents and rivers, Orinoco grows gradually while heading northward through the territory of Venezuela on over 2,000 km (1,250 mi) of thick jungle. In some places, the waters of Orinoco are as big as those of the Amazon and discharge into the Atlantic forming one of the largest deltas of the world. The compact and yellow mass of freshwater penetrates deep i ... [read more >>]
	11 April 2008, 17:51GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Fastest Raising Mountains
	The Sino-Tibetan mountainous chain, also called the "the Alps of Sichuan", are located between Tibet and China. The highest peak is Gongga (7,556 m or 25,186 ft), China's highest peak outside Himalaya, located in the Hengduan Mountains. The Sino-Tibetan chain is the place on Earth where the terrestrial crust experiences its highest rising rhythm: 12 cm (4.8 in) per year, much faster than in Himalaya, Andes, Rocky o ... [read more >>]
	11 April 2008, 08:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Spanish Jewel: Doñana
	Doñana National Park is located in southwestern Spain, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. It was created in 1969, initially having a surface of 37,000 hectares. In 1978, the park was augmented to 50,720 hectares, to which 26,540 hectares of protected areas, located at its periphery, are added. The park is in a continuous change, being influenced by both Mediterranean and oceanic clime. The winters are rainy and the summers, long an ... [read more >>]
	09 April 2008, 10:09GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The First Ever Lungless Frog
	So far, scientists have known about some salamanders (of the family Plethodontidae) and caecilians (worm-like amphibians) that had lost their lungs. Now they can add a ... [read more >>]
	08 April 2008, 03:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

World's Smallest Monkeys and Chimerism
	These are the world's smallest monkeys. The marmosets (22 species are found in Brazil and few in adjacent tropical countries) live in both dry and wet forests. Most of them have a body 25 cm (10 in) long, with a 35 cm (14 in) long tail, while the weight is around 250 grams (0.55 pounds). The long tail, used for balance when jumping from one branch to another, is ornamented with 20 white rings. The pygmy marmoset (Callithrix pymaea) of ... [read more >>]
	01 April 2008, 10:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

One Miracle: The Petrified Forest
	One of the wonders of the American southwest is found in northeastern Arizona: an enormous petrified forest, a real geological treasure the scientists learned about to the end of the 19th century. Petrified Forest National Park from Arizona comprises a surface of 218,533 acres (341.5 sq mi; 885 km²) of petrified wood, mostly of the coniferous species Araucarioxylon arizonicum, 170 million years old, since the Jurassic epoch. ... [read more >>]
	20 March 2008, 10:19GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Who Are the Fang People?
	One of the main Bantu tribes in central Africa is represented by the Fangs, who inhabit Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Gabon. The Fangs came from Nigeria recently, during the Bantu expansion. Fang legends speak about terrible battles their ancestors fought against warriors covered by long clothes and riding horses. The legends say that the Fang people were expelled from their former territories by red giants; fleeing from them, they reach ... [read more >>]
	26 February 2008, 15:21GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Chinese Stone Forest
	The most spectacular calcareous relief in the world could be considered the Chinese Stone Forest. The Stone Forest National Park of Shilin-Lunan (Yunnan) is located in the Lunan Yu Autonomous County, 126 km (79 mi) southeast of Kunming, at altitudes of 1,700-2,000 m. It has an area of over 340 square km (135 square mi) but, together with the forests and localities, the surface of the National Park goes to 400 square km (160 squar ... [read more >>]
	26 February 2008, 08:51GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

10 Things About the Japanese Civilization
	1. Japan is an archipelago made of 4 large islands: Honshū (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyūshū and Hokkaidō, and by numerous small islands and islets. The center of the country is crosses by the Japanese Alps, volcanic mountains that make 80 % of the surface of the country and which reach the highest point in Fujiyama ("Sacred Mountain"), 3,776 m (12,600 ft) in altitude, crowned by ete ... [read more >>]
	14 February 2008, 11:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Monkey Species Discovered!
	In the 21th century, when we thought that all that is larger than a mouse has already been described by zoologists, the surprises keep coming. A new species of uakari monkey has been described in the International Journal of Primatology. Its discoverer is the New Zealand primatologist Jean-Phillipe Boubli of the University of Auckland, who encountered the animal after following Yanomamo Indians on their hunt trips along the Rio A ... [read more >>]
	06 February 2008, 05:09GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Let's Visit The Funky Forest Ecosystem! It's All Interactive...
	This is what happens when art and advanced technology collide. The Funky Forest project, developed by Theodore and Emily Gobeille, is one of the most interactive and crazy stuff for kids I've ever seen, as it consists of a cool interactive ecosystem where children can create trees and flowers using their own body motions. Thus, with nothing but their intuition and bodies, they will also have to divert the water flowing fr ... [read more >>]
	14 January 2008, 10:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

7 Fossil Forests
	1.A rain forest represents an explosion of life, the peak of biological diversity on Earth. But the trees that make the current rainforest emerged during the Cretaceous, at the sunset of the dinosaur realm. So, when did the first rainforest appear? And how did it look like? The underground workings of a coalmine, in Illinois, US, revealed the world's oldest rain forest: it is 300 million years old, from the Carboniferous perio ... [read more >>]
	20 December 2007, 10:23GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Cat Sized Rat Species!
	Most cats are chicken enough not to face regular rats. But this rat would fight from equal to equal with a cat. An expedition made by an American-Indonesian team in a remote jungle in western New Guinea, in the area Papua province of Indonesia, has found a giant rat and a tiny possum that seem to be new undescribed species, pointing to the stunning biodiversity of the area. Further research will clear if the animals are newfou ... [read more >>]
	18 December 2007, 05:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

8 Amazing Things about Reindeer
	Waiting for Rudolph to bring you Santa Claus with the presents? Well, here is some data about this amazing Ice Age deer. 1.Reindeer are believed to have appeared during the last glaciation, 15,000 years ago. Their roots seem to be in South America. 5 million years ago, South America and North America got united through the Panama Isthmus. Then, fauna interchange took place: deer, jaguars and monkeys entered South America, while opossum ... [read more >>]
	15 December 2007, 06:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Why Sloths Are Special?
	Do you know which are the most abundant mammals on the tropical South American forest? Monkeys? Wrong! Sloths... Sloths are solitary and arboreal (tree dwellers) mammals. Today, there are 2 genera of sloths: three toed sloths (Bradypus) and two toed sloths (Choelepus), each one in its own family (thus, not so closely related). All sloths have three digits on the rear limbs and three, respectively two, in the two genera, as their names p ... [read more >>]
	13 December 2007, 11:57GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The South Chinese Tiger, Saved in South African Reserve!
	Last year, the South China Tiger, also known as Amoy tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), a subspecies native of south China, was catalogued as the fourth race of tiger extinct in the wild in just 100 years. The last one was seen in the wild in 1964. In 1994, the last known wild South Chinese tiger was shot by poachers in the Hunan province. The Amoy tiger is considered to be the most primitive tiger, it originated 2 million years ago, a ... [read more >>]
	10 December 2007, 05:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Best Fruits of the Taiga
	The taiga or northern coniferous forest harbors about 50 plants producing berries, most of them edible. These fruits are vividly colored, have a strong aroma and are rich in vitamins and minerals. They also contain fibers that help stabilize the blood's sugar level and lower the cholesterol level. Their flavone and phenolic compounds are also beneficial for our health. The taiga fruits can be served at breakfast with yogurt, gran ... [read more >>]
	07 December 2007, 12:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Who Are the Pygmies?
	Europeans regarded them as part of myths for long, the old Egyptian and Greek texts mentioned the existence of very short people in Africa. Ancient Greeks spoke about "Pugmaeus" ("foot" as a measure unit). But in 1874, a German explorer met the first pygmies ever seen by a European in the current Congo republic. Still, pygmies are not dwarf individuals. Amongst those of pure blood, men have an average height of jus ... [read more >>]
	30 November 2007, 13:21GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Mighty Amazon: Records and Fragility
	It is the "father of all rivers". With 6,800 km (4,250 mi) in length, it overpasses the Nile (6,695 km or 4,184 mi). But the Amazon's debit is 60 times bigger than that of the former: 200,000 cubic meters/second (the largest in the world, delivering 20 % of the freshwater volume penetrating the oceans). While the Nile does not have any affluent on its last 2,400 km (1,500 mi), the Amazon receives 1,100 along its course, ... [read more >>]
	24 November 2007, 04:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Kilimanjaro, The Highest African Mountain: Records and Puzzles
	It is considered the roof of Africa. When German missionaries reported in 1848 a snow-covered mountain in equatorial Africa, everybody in Europe laughed. But later expedition confirmed this. Kilimanjaro is located in northeastern Tanzania, close to the border with Kenya, standing at only 3 degrees south of Equator (330 km). Kilima Njaro means Shining Mountains in Swahili language. Masai people call it Oldoinyo Oibor (White Mountain). ... [read more >>]
	21 November 2007, 10:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Amazing Orchids: Some May be Tricksters, Some May Stink
	You may not like flowers, but if you like vanilla, you actually like ... orchids. Vanilla is the only comestible orchid and the vanilla stick is nothing else than the fermented and blackened pod of an orchid, Vanilla planifolia that is to be found in Mexico. (in fact "vanilla" means "little pod" in Spanish). Did you know that the name "orchid" comes from the Greek "orchis" (testicle), due to the ... [read more >>]
	17 November 2007, 04:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Rare Bearded Monkey Warns About the Speed of the Climate Change
	Scientists were taken by surprise when they found out about the existence of a new population of De Brazza's monkeys, a threatened species in eastern Africa, in Kenya, far away from the wet forests of central Africa, good news for those hoping to save the world's primates. A recent report signaled that habitat loss has pushed 25 species of primates to the brink of extinction. De Brazza's is not on the red list, but it ... [read more >>]
	06 November 2007, 07:09GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Giant Forest Pig Discovered!
	These are the New World's native wild boars: the peccaries. And till now, the largest pig-like species have stood hidden from scientists in the southeastern Amazon region of Brazil. It is the largest peccary in the world, about the size of a large dog. The new species, the forest giant peccary (Pecari maximus) was discovered first in 2004 in the basin of the Rio Aripuanã and recent DNA analysis made at the Leiden Centre for Env ... [read more >>]
	05 November 2007, 03:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Fast Melting Glaciers Expose 7,000 Years Old Fossil Forest
	Melting ice has ‘provided’ us with frozen mammoths and even frozen people, like the famous Oetzi from the Alps, as if they were kept in a fridge. No wonder that melting glaciers in Western Canada, which recently reached a historic minimum, have unveiled 7,000-year-old tree stumps. The prehistoric tree stumps were left behind by the retreating melting glaciers in Garibaldi Provincial Park, some 40 mi (60 km) north of Vancouver, British ... [read more >>]
	01 November 2007, 06:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Gibbons: 5 Unknown Issues
	1. Gibbons are the smallest living apes. They are restricted to the southeastern Asia (Indochina, and three big islands of Indonesia: Borneo, Sumatra and Java). Gibbons split from the line that evolved towards humans over 10 million years ago. Experts say that all living gibbons evolved from one species, 2 million years ago. There are 13 species of gibbons living today, but each one has its own areal separated from that of the othe ... [read more >>]
	22 October 2007, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

9 Things You Did Not Know About Orangutans
	1. The Orangutan is the only Asian ape, closely related to humans, chimps and gorillas, from which they split more than 8 million years ago. Today they live in the islands of Borneo and Sumatra (southeastern Asia). Till recently, they were believed to represent the same species, but DNA analysis showed there are two species: Borneo orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) (12,500 to 20,500 individuals) and Sumatra orangutan (Pongo abelli) from northern ... [read more >>]
	18 October 2007, 13:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Fresh Cattle Blood Is Booming the Number of Vampires
	If you think vampires exist just in books, movies and the rich imagination of some people, you're wrong. There are real vampires which have bat wings, are nocturnal, feed on blood and kill tens of people every year. But the similarities with Bram Stroker's character Dracula – who served as the ‘prototype’ for vampires in modern western culture and was inspired by the Romanian Prince Vlad Dracul (which means "The Devil&quo ... [read more >>]
	16 August 2007, 13:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Indeed, Greenland Was Once Green
	Today's Greenland is an icy polar desert; just on the southern coast, there is some tundra vegetation, with its giants represented by dwarf birch and willows that do not grow taller than 1-2 ft (0.3-0.6 m). The name "Greenland" was given by the first Viking explorers just to attract colonists to the area. Wood drifted by sea from Labrador peninsula also made them believe there were forests nearby. But now ancient DNA recover ... [read more >>]
	06 July 2007, 04:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Why is Amazon the River of the Superlatives?
	This is the river of the superlatives. Nile is consensually considered the longest river on Earth, with 6,695 km in length, but some say the Amazon has this honor, with 6,800 km in length. Some researchers even state that Amazon is 7,100 km long. The problem is that nobody could tell where Amazon ends, due to its huge mouth. Anyway, Amazon's debit is 60 times bigger than that of the former: 200,000 cubic meters/second (of course, the ... [read more >>]
	03 July 2007, 12:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Largest Flower in the World
	When first European explorers crossed the jungles of Sumatra in the 19th century, they were amazed to discover flowers as big as a wheel, lying apparently on the ground. The flower with the fleshy juicy petals had a vivid red color, crossed by fine brown-yellow networks. On the upper part of the floral cup the reproductive organs were found. On the bottom of the cup there was enough nectar to fill a small pot. Another thing: the flower ... [read more >>]
	21 June 2007, 15:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

World's Oldest Forest
	When did the trademark of Robin Hood appear? And how did the first woods look like? Scientists have now found complete fossils of the world's oldest forest, during the Devonian era, 385 million years ago. But this forest may have looked like young palm trees as it was made of slender trees about three stories tall and with a top made of branches lacking leaves that resembled bottlebrushes. Two newfound fossil ... [read more >>]
	19 April 2007, 03:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Mysteries of the Easter Island
	Rapa Nui or Easter Island, also called by the locals Tepitothenua (the navel of the world) is an almost barren triangular island of 170 square kilometers, believed to be the most isolated inhabited place on Earth, at 3,760 km (2,300 mi) off Chile, to which it belongs, at 27o 08' S and 109o 23' V. It is a volcanic island with two impressive craters: Orongo and Rano Aroi (618 m or 2,060 ft tall) on the sole mountain, Rano Raraku. D ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2007, 12:18GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia