Grounded U.S. whooping cranes taking to the road

Reuters: Environment Fri, 3 Feb 2012

(Reuters) - A flock of young whooping cranes stuck in Alabama have lost interest in following an ultra-light plane leading them to a Florida winter habitat, so the rare birds' human coaches prepared on Friday to drive them to a nearby marsh.

Unique Andes Species Lack Protection, Study Finds

LiveScience.com Fri, 3 Feb 2012

A new study based on data collected over the last 100 years shows that many of the species unique to the Andes-Amazon basin of Peru and Bolivia lack vital national-level protection.

Elephants Took 24 Million Generations to Evolve From Mouse-Size

National Geographic News Fri, 3 Feb 2012

For mammals, evolving into bigger sizes takes a lot longer than shrinking, new evolution study shows.

Calif. salmon return is encouraging

Latest News - UPI.com Fri, 3 Feb 2012

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Silver salmon in California's Marin County, long considered a bellwether of salmon health in California, are spawning in local creeks, conservationists say.

A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago?

ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News Fri, 3 Feb 2012

They are tiny, ugly, disease-carrying little blood-suckers that most people have never seen or heard of, but a new discovery in a one-of-a-kind fossil shows that 'bat flies' have been doing their noxious business with bats for at least 20 million years.