Wind energy is a valuable tool for addressing the climate crisis, but wind turbines can be deadly for birds. A recent study found that a low-tech, relatively inexpensive fix can dramatically reduce bird collisions with turbines: A can of paint. When wind turbines rotate their massive white blades can become a transparent blur, making them difficult to discern for birds, a phenomenon known as a motion smear or motion blur. Breaking up that blur, by painting one blade a different color, can theoretically make the turbine more visible to birds so they can navigate around the deadly blades. Researchers recently reported results from a long-term experiment that did exactly that: Between 2020 and 2021, Acciona Energía, owner of El Ruedo wind farm in Cadiz, Spain, painted one of three rotor blades black on four of its turbines. Another 16 turbines had all white blades and served as controls. Every day, from 2012 to 2024 (before and after the turbines were painted), they looked for dead birds under all 20 wind turbines and recorded their data. The researchers found that annual bird fatality rates dropped by nearly 74% for the painted turbines compared to the controls. The Spanish study joins others that have found similar results. A study in Norway found a more than 70% drop in annual bird fatalities after turbines had one of their blades painted black, while a South African study found bird deaths decreased by 83% after painting one of the three blades red. However, a study…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A chance sighting of photos on Instagram, then a five-day expedition, including a last-minute, late-night detour in a Colombian rainforest — that’s what it took for researchers to confirm a new-to-science species of giant water lily. The plant has such large leaves the researchers could also spot it from space, according to a new study. The saga started in 2021, when giant-water-lily expert Carlos Magdalena came across photos posted by Jeremiah Harris on Instagram. In the photos, Harris, who runs a carnivorous-plant nursery in the U.S., was swimming next to giant water lily leaves in Colombia’s Inírida River. Harris had labelled the plant a wild individual of Victoria amazonica, but Magdalena knew that no known species of South American giant water lilies from the genus Victoria had previously been reported from the Orinoco Basin, of which the Inírida River is a tributary. “So the moment I saw the picture on Instagram with a geolocation on Inírida I realized it was remarkable,” Magdalena, a botanical and scientific research horticulturist at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, U.K., told Mongabay by email. Intrigued, Magdalena turned to satellite imagery. Giant water lilies have massive, circular leaves, more than 3 meters (10 feet) in diameter, and Magdalena spotted several Victoria floating pads in the Inírida and nearby lakes. This confirmed there were more Victoria water lilies in that river system. Magdalena then formed a team with researchers, as well as with Nilo Rodríguez, Jaime Hernández, and Gustavo Melo, members of the Río Atabapo, Caranacoa-Yurí-Laguna Morocoto, and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A new-to-science species of egg-eating snake has been documented in the forested mountains of southern Ethiopia, according to a recent study. The snake, which has an ink-black body, bluish skin between its scales, and stark-white throat and belly, has been named the white-throated egg-eater (Dasypeltis albigularis). It’s nonvenomous, feeding entirely on bird eggs, which it cracks using specially adapted vertebrae in its throat before swallowing, the authors say. Arthur Tiutenko of Germany’s University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and his colleagues, first encountered a population of this snake in 2019 in the Harenna Forest, in the Bale Mountains. They collected a young female for identification and initially thought it was an African egg-eating snake (Dasypeltis atra), a similar black, nonvenomous species. But the team also noticed the juvenile had some unusual scales and coloration that differed from the known D. atra. These observations prompted captive-breeding trials, where the researchers mated the female with a male African egg-eating snake, and saw that their offspring showed a mix of traits from both parents. Further genetic analysis and examination of more individuals seen on future field trips confirmed the snake in the Harenna Forest was indeed new to science. “In the case of D. albigularis, it was a classic discovery, like in previous centuries, when one encounters an animal in a place previously not visited by researchers and recognizes it as something new,” Tiutenko told Mongabay by email. To formally describe a new species, researchers would typically have to deposit a dead, preserved physical specimen, known as…This article was originally published on Mongabay