The Leibniz-IZW regular publishes press releases on key findings and insights from its research and on events, awards or personalia. The press releases are distributed directly to journalists on our press release distribution mailing list. Press releases are also disseminated through the distribution services Informationsdienst Wissenschaft, AlphaGalileo and EurekAlert. Are you interested in receiving our press releases directly via e-mail? In this case please send us an email to seet@izw-berlin.de.
Current press releases
Committed to relatives: Hounds and wolves share their parasites
Grey wolves, as all wild animals, are hosts to a variety of parasites. The presence of grey wolves in German forests has little influence on the parasite burden of hunting dogs. This reassuring conclusion is the result of a new study at the Berlin-based Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife-Research (IZW). The study examined the faeces of 78 hunting dogs over several months in an area without wolves and in one that had been recolonised. The results have been published in the open access scientific journal “International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife”.
Read more … Committed to relatives: Hounds and wolves share their parasites
Cheetah populations are endangered – Red List status should be immediately upgraded
A comprehensive assessment of cheetah populations in southern Africa reveals the critical state of one of the planet’s most iconic wild cats. An international group of scientists presents evidence that realistic population estimates of cheetah in southern Africa are lower than previously recognised and that their population decline support a call to list the cheetah as “Endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The study is published in the open-access journal PeerJ.
Read more … Cheetah populations are endangered – Red List status should be immediately upgraded
Contests for female attention turns males into better performers - in fruit flies
Giving females an opportunity to choose the male they mate with leads to the evolution of better performing males, according to new research into the behaviour of fruit flies performed by University of Sheffield, University of St Andrews and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany.
Read more … Contests for female attention turns males into better performers - in fruit flies
Establishing a conservation breeding programme to save the last saola
The saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), a primitive wild cattle endemic to the Annamite mountain range in Vietnam and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), is in immediate danger of extinction. The primary threat to its survival is intensive commercial snaring to supply the thriving wild meat trade in Indochina. In order to save the saola it is essential to establish a conservation breeding programme. In a letter published in Science, a group of conservationists and conservation scientists, including members of the IUCN Saola Working Group and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research Berlin, have voiced their concern about the future of the species and stressed the importance of urgent ex situ management.
Read more … Establishing a conservation breeding programme to save the last saola
Leibniz IZW researcher receives international “Four Paws Animal Welfare Award”
On September 11th, Dr. Frank Göritz, scientist and Head Veterinarian received the “Vier Pfoten Tierschutzpreis” in Vienna.
Read more … Leibniz IZW researcher receives international “Four Paws Animal Welfare Award”
Novel poxvirus threatens juvenile squirrels
A previously unknown poxvirus causes severe disease in European red squirrels from Germany. Molecular genetic investigations revealed a new virus species in the family of Poxviridae. Results of the study are published in the scientific journal „Emerging Infectious Diseases“.
Leibniz IZW welcomes Berlin panda bears
Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz IZW) support the Berlin Zoo in their future panda breeding programme.
Can we see monkeys from space? Emerging technologies to map biodiversity
An international team of scientists has proposed a new multi-disciplinary approach in which an array of new technologies will allow us to map biodiversity and the risks that wildlife is facing at the scale of whole landscapes. The findings are published in Nature Ecology and Evolution. This international research is led bythe Kunming Institute of Zoology from China, University of East Anglia, University of Leicester and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.
Read more … Can we see monkeys from space? Emerging technologies to map biodiversity