Saturday, May 23, 2026

 

Wildlife is watching us, too — and changing their behavior in response



A Yale-led analysis of millions of animal movements reveals how the mere presence of people, not just landscape change, can reshape how species use space and environment, with implications for conservation efforts.



Yale University






New Haven, Conn. — A new large-scale study led by a research team from the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change has found that wildlife responds not only to how humans reshape their habitats, but also to the simple presence of humans — and sometimes in surprising ways.

 

Even small changes in how people move through environments can significantly affect animal behavior and could have implications for wildlife conservation efforts, the study finds.

 

“Our findings provide an important nuance in our understanding of wildlife in a rapidly changing world,” said Walter Jetz, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and director of the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change.

 

“Animals are affected by both direct human presence and by human-caused changes to the physical environment, such as agriculture and urbanization,” Jetz said. “This study is the first to directly assess at scale how both causes, separately and in combination, impact wildlife habitat usage.”

 

The study, published in Science, culminates a six-year, global collaboration between Yale researchers and colleagues from more than 5o academic and governmental organizations across the U.S. and abroad.

 

The study was led by Ruth Oliver, formerly a postdoctoral scientist in Yale’s Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology who is now an assistant professor at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management; and Scott Yanco, another former Yale postdoctoral associate who is now a research ecologist at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

 

The study’s overall findings suggest that to protect wildlife, conservationists should consider not just habitat loss, but also where and when people are physically present.

 

In their work, researchers used GPS devices to track 37 species (22 birds and 15 mammals) across the United States. Mammal species included white-tailed deer, wolves, coyotes, raccoons, skunks, and some of the “big cat” species. The birds included large species such as vultures, hawks, ducks, crane, and storks.

 

In all, researchers collected about 11.8 million location points from more than 4,500 animals.

For the first time ever, the team then used mobile phone data, paired with satellite-derived measurements of human habitat disturbance, to study how both aspects of human behavior affected animal movement and habitat use. 

 

“It has been challenging to capture the impact of human presence on wildlife,” said Oliver. “Mobile device data are typically not available, but our study was made possible thanks to a unique partnership that made estimates of human presence available to researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

COVID-19 lockdowns dramatically altered human movement patterns, allowing researchers to study differences in human presence between 2019 and 2020. This enabled researchers to separate the effects of human presence on animal behavior from longer-term landscape changes such as urban development and agriculture.

 

The researchers measured the space that animals used and the variety of habitats they occupied and then applied statistical models to link these behaviors to human activity and environmental conditions.

 

Results showed that more than 65% of species changed their behavior based on the presence of humans, and that this human presence tended to matter most in less-developed, natural settings. But different species responded in different ways. Many reduced the amount of space they used, probably to avoid people, but others had the opposite response.

 

Gray wolves, for example, expanded their range, possibly traveling farther to steer clear of humans. Ravens also covered more ground, likely taking advantage of food sources linked to people, while coyotes tended to restrict their movements.

 

The study also found that individual animals could adjust their behavior from year to year, demonstrating some flexibility in response to changing human activity.

 

“Habitat loss is the key driver of biodiversity loss, but as we show, human’s direct use of the landscape — say for recreation — also mediates this effect,” Jetz said. “Depending on the quality of remaining habitat, animals make behavioral adjustments that either amplify or dampen the negative effects of habitat loss.”

 

The study highlights how new technologies, such as GPS tracking combined with satellite data and measures of human presence, can uncover new insights into how wildlife responds to humans. 

 

The findings also suggest that in addition to habitat preservation, efforts to skillfully manage the timing and intensity of human activity — such as limiting traffic during key periods or reducing disturbance in sensitive habitats — may help wildlife and people coexist.

 

“The cutting-edge technology used in this study allows us to see, with unprecedented detail, how variable wildlife responses to human activities really are,” Yanco said. “This means that conservation strategies need to be very targeted, not one-size-fits-all.”

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Ancient DNA reveals web of marriage and migration in Peru



Long-distance movement, intermarriage and kinship shaped ancient Andean coastal networks before the Inca Empire, new research finds




University of Sydney

Map of the study area 

image: 

Fig. 1 | Map of the study area. A. Locations of the Chincha Valley and other Andean sites referenced in this study that yielded ancient DNA data. B. The archaeological sites under investigation for this study. Basemaps for panels A and B were obtained from the World Imagery dataset (https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=10df2279f9684e4a9f6a7f08febac2a9) and created with ArcGIS Pro v3.6.2. Sources: ESRI, Michael Bauer Research GmbH 2022, Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI), Earthstar Geographics, Vantor. 

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Credit: Basemaps for panels A and B were obtained from the World Imagery dataset (https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=10df2279f9684e4a9f6a7f08febac2a9) and created with ArcGIS Pro v3.6.2. Sources: ESRI, Michael Bauer Research GmbH 2022, Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI), Earthstar Geographics, Vantor.





 Friday 22 May 2026 

Long-distance migration along Peru’s Pacific coast began at least 800 years ago, centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire and much earlier than previously thought, a new international study reveals. 

By analysing ancient DNA (aDNA) alongside archaeological and historical data, the study provides some of the strongest evidence to date of population movement along the Pacific coast prior to Inca rule (AD 1400 to 1532), demonstrating that pre-Inca coastal communities were far more mobile and connected at local and interregional scales than historically believed. 

Published in Nature Communications, it suggests people travelled more than 700 kilometres from Peru’s north coast to the Chincha Valley in the south. Here, they settled and intermarried with neighbouring populations, while maintaining distinctive cultural traditions – such as cranial modification and painting the dead with red pigment – for generations. The study also identified a single grave containing relatives who engaged in endogamy, or close-kin procreation.  

“Migration and kinship have long been part of the human story and the development of powerful societies,” said co-lead author Dr Jacob Bongers, digital archaeologist and member of the Vere Gordon Childe Centre at the University of Sydney, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian Museum Research Institute.  

“What’s most interesting about this research is that it shows the close-knit and far-reaching social networks of pre-Inca coastal communities, as well as how people maintained cultural traditions of marking group identities for centuries, even as they intermarried with distinct groups,” he said. 

Tracing ancient movement and mating patterns through aDNA  

The research team analysed aDNA samples of 21 individuals recovered from burial sites in the Chincha Valley to reconstruct family relationships and explore genetic diversity over time.  

“The genome-wide data and radiocarbon dates suggest migrants arrived in the Chincha Valley by at least the thirteenth century AD, well before Inca expansion,” Dr Bongers said. “Their ancestry traced back to the Peruvian north coast, more than 700 kilometres away, and the aDNA of these early migrants revealed no evidence of mixing with local populations.” 

Genetic evidence revealed mixed ancestry between people from the north, central and south coasts over subsequent generations. “This likely means that, after northerners migrated to Chincha, they intermarried with groups from neighbouring coastal areas, a practice that continued during the Spanish Colonial Period (AD 1532-1825),” Dr Bongers said.  

Genetic and bioarchaeological data from the aDNA samples also indicated close-kin procreation.  

“The burial of family members together and the evidence for close-kin unions in the lower Chincha Valley highlights the importance of the familial unit for ancient Andeans,” said co-lead author Assistant Professor Jordan Dalton from the State University of New York, Oswego. 

“The close biological relationships suggest the sampled individuals were members of an ayllu or parcialidad, a traditional, kin-based group that shares common territory, resources and ancestry. Close-kin unions may have served as a strategic means of retaining control over resources within the group,” she said.  

Cultural traditions endured across centuries    

All sampled individuals had some north coast ancestry, demonstrating population continuity for at least 200 years. This coincides with persistent cultural traditions maintained in Chincha from at least the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. 

“In the sampled individuals from the lower and middle valley we observed practices such as cranial modification, a process carried out in infancy to shape the head using boards and bindings, human vertebrae strung on reed sticks, and the postmortem application of red pigment to the skull,” Dr Bongers said.  

“Postmortem red pigment application and cranial modification are cultural traditions that have long been documented on Peru’s north coast, so this evidence shows migrants may have brought their body modification traditions south to mark group identities." 

The timing of migration from northern Peru aligned with major social and political changes along Peru’s coast, yet the precise reasons for population movement remain uncertain, Dr Bongers said. 

“Climate hazards, the expansion of powerful northern polities such as the Chimú, and access to valuable resources including seabird guano, are all possible drivers of ancient Andean migration,” he said. 

"Importantly, this research expands our understanding of how and when interregional interaction occurred along the Andean Pacific coast and makes it clear the Inca incorporated highly mobile and deeply connected coastal communities into their empire." 

-ENDS- 

IMAGES/VIDEO 

Images and video available for download here. Please see documents within the folder for captions.  

Images of human remains associated with cultural practices available on request. 

RESEARCH 

Read the research here (available once embargo lifts): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-72216-y 

Bongers, J, L., Dalton, J. A., et al., ‘Ancient DNA reveals a family ossuary and long-distance migration on the Pacific coast before the Inca Empire’ (Nature Communications, 2026). 

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-72216-y 


DECLARATION 

This research was carried out in collaboration with descendant communities and governing agencies in Peru. Fieldwork, exportation of samples, and laboratory analyses were conducted under permits issued by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture. For the middle valley, permits were granted in 2013 (206-2013-DGPC-VMPCIC/MC), 2015  

(218-2015-DGPA-VMPCIC/MC), 2016 (107-2016-VMPCIC-MC), 2017 (145-2017-DGPA-VMPCIC/MC), and 2018 (148-2018-DGPA-VMPCIC/MC). For Las Huacas, permits were granted in 2017 (001379-2017/DGPA/VMPCIC/MC) and 2019 (035-2019-VMPCIC-MC, 101-2019-VMPCIC-MC). This project emerged from long-term, collaborative research programs (2012–current) involving archaeological fieldwork among archaeologists and university students from Peru and the United States, as well as community members from the Chincha Valley. This study was fully authorised by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture. We complied with all legal and ethical norms for the study of aDNA and will continue to work with local leaders and museums to share our research findings with communities and incorporate their questions into further research projects.


Aerial view of a cemetery in the middle Chincha Valley 

Aerial view of a cemetery in the middle Chincha Valley. Photo by Jacob L. Bongers. 

Aerial view of a cemetery in the middle Chincha Valley 

Aerial view of a cemetery in the middle Chincha Valley. Photo by Jacob L. Bongers. 

Aerial view of a cemetery in the middle Chincha Valley 

Aerial view of a cemetery in the middle Chincha Valley. Photo by Jacob L. Bongers.


SPACE/COSMOS

 

Tiny black holes: crystals of space and time



A team from Vienna and Frankfurt has found a formula describing a strange phenomenon: space and time can form a kind of “crystal” that may turn into a black hole



Vienna University of Technology

Spacetime crystals 

image: 

Left: visualization of a spacetime-crystel. Right: a cubic crystal structure

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Credit: TU Wien





Alongside the famous gigantic black holes, physics also allows for microscopic versions. They emerge from so-called critical states, when spacetime organizes itself into a regular, crystal-like structure during a process known as critical collapse. A team from Goethe University Frankfurt and TU Wien has now succeeded, for the first time, in describing this phenomenon with an exact mathematical formula using an unusual mathematical trick.

Black holes usually form in spectacular events, such as the death of a massive star. But in theory, arbitrarily small black holes are also possible: tiny microscopic objects that can emerge from special critical states after the slightest addition of energy. Such states may have existed shortly after the Big Bang, when the universe was still a chaotic mixture of particles, potentially giving rise to so-called primordial black holes.

The theoretical possibility of such critical structures had already been demonstrated in computer simulations. Now, researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt and TU Wien have managed to confirm these results with a mathematical formula — using nothing more than paper and pencil.

Critical Collapse

“Sometimes a tiny, seemingly insignificant cause is enough to trigger a huge and dramatic change,” says Prof. Daniel Grumiller from TU Wien. “Take liquid water at zero degrees Celsius, for example. A very small change is enough to make the water freeze. The water molecules then spontaneously arrange themselves into a regular pattern and form an ice crystal.”

According to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, something very similar can happen in space and time. Whenever particles move from one place to another, they affect spacetime itself. “We say that spacetime is curved by mass,” explains Christian Ecker from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Goethe University Frankfurt. “Large objects such as stars curve spacetime strongly — for example, we can observe this when light rays are deflected by massive stars. But smaller masses also produce spacetime curvature, just to a lesser extent.”

Just as physics allows water molecules to form a regular crystal out of disordered liquid water, relativity allows spacetime curvature to organize itself into a regular structure — a repeating pattern in space and time. A kind of “spacetime crystal” emerges. Physicists refer to the process leading to this state as critical collapse.

“This spacetime crystal is a very peculiar and fascinating object,” says Grumiller. “It is a kind of intermediate state, an unstable point that can evolve in two different directions. It may simply dissolve again, leaving behind ordinary spacetime filled with freely moving particles. But if a tiny amount of energy is added, the evolution takes a completely different path: the inconspicuous spacetime crystal turns into a black hole.”

Confirming an Old Hypothesis

Computer simulations had already suggested back in 1993 that black holes might form spontaneously in this way. Since then, researchers have tried to describe the process mathematically and derive the correct formulas — but this turned out to be extremely difficult. The team from Vienna and Frankfurt has now solved the problem using a remarkable trick.

 

“Our universe has four dimensions — three dimensions of space and one dimension of time,” explains Christian Ecker. “But in principle, nothing prevents us from writing down physical equations for a larger number of dimensions — five dimensions, forty-two dimensions, or even infinitely many.”

One might expect the theory to become vastly more complicated that way, but that is not necessarily the case. The team showed that, in the limit of infinitely many dimensions, some highly complex questions become surprisingly simple. The next step is to check whether the solution can be translated back to a smaller number of dimensions. In this way, the researchers were able to gain insights into our four-dimensional universe by taking a detour through a hypothetical universe with infinitely many dimensions.

“Our technique turns out to be remarkably stable. Depending on the desired precision, we can systematically improve our formulas using additional approximation methods,” says Florian Ecker from TU Wien. “This gives us a new method for studying black-hole-related phenomena that could previously not be analyzed analytically.”

Astronomers de-fog exoplanet atmospheres with new cloud-detecting method


Discovery by Johns Hopkins researchers of daily cloud cycle on a Hot Jupiter planet provides unique window into its make-up and evolution



Johns Hopkins University

Exoplanet WASP-94A b 

image: 

Artistic representation of  WASP-94A b, a gas giant in the Microscopium constellation. Clouds build as air flows over the dark side of the planet, reaching a large swell by daybreak. The clouds dissipate on the dayside, leaving clear skies in the early evening.  

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Credit: Hannah Robbins/Johns Hopkins University





Sand clouds form every morning but clear up by nightfall on WASP-94A b, a well-studied gas giant in a constellation located nearly 700 light years away from Earth. 

The research, which uses data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is among the first to detect cloud cycles on a Hot Jupiter exoplanet. By isolating the clouds, researchers can more accurately measure the planet’s atmosphere and provide one of the clearest pictures to date of the planet’s composition — a significant advance in planetary science.

“I've been looking at exoplanets for 20 years, and general cloudiness has been a thorn in our side. We’ve known for quite a while that clouds are pervasive on Hot Jupiter planets, which is annoying because it’s like trying to look at the planet through a foggy window,” said co-author and program PI, David Sing, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins. “Not only have we been able to clear the view, but we can finally pin down what the clouds are made out of and how they’re condensing and evaporating as they move around the planet.”

The results are published today in the journal Science.

To study WASP-94A b in the Microscopium constellation, Sing and his team of researchers gathered data as the planet passed directly in front of its star. Using the high-powered, space-based JWST, the researchers were able to take separate measurements of WASP-94A b's leading edge as it started to cross in front of the star and the trailing edge as the planet completed its transit. At the leading edge, the air flows from the night side of the planet to the day side, effectively making it the morning. Air flows from day to night at the trailing edge, making it the evening.

Observations revealed that mornings and evenings on WASP-94A b have extremely different weather patterns: mornings are riddled with clouds made of magnesium silicate, a common mineral found in rocks, while the evening has clear skies. 

The researchers think one of two things could be happening. Powerful winds might lift clouds high into the sky on the cooler side of the planet and then plunge downward on the hotter dayside, dragging the clouds deep into the planet’s interior and effectively burying them out of sight before sunset. Alternatively, the phenomenon may be akin to morning fog burning off on Earth, but on an extreme scale. Clouds would form in the darkness of the planet’s nightside. As they drift into the scorching heat of over 1,000 degrees on the day side, the chemicals that make up the clouds boil away, and the clouds simply vaporize.

“It was a huge surprise. People have expected some differences, like its cooler in the morning than the evening—that’s something natural that we experience here on Earth,” Sing said. “But what we saw was a real dichotomy between the weather on both sides of the planet, and huge differences in cloud coverage, and that changes our whole picture of the planet.”  

Because the evenings are clear of clouds, the researchers could look to the trailing edge specifically to see what the atmosphere of the planet looked like—something the Hubble telescope could not provide. 

“With the Hubble telescope, when we used to do this type of observation, we got an average view of the whole planet with data from the clouds and the atmosphere squished together and indistinguishable,” said first author Sagnick Mukherjee, a postdoctoral fellow at Arizona State University who was a student at Johns Hopkins and UC Santa Cruz at the time of the research. “This approach with the JWST lets us localize our observations, which helped us see the cloud cycle.”

When the researchers looked at the clear evening sky, they found that WASP-94A b was much more like Jupiter than they thought. Previously, when the clouds were averaged in, the data suggested the planet was made of hundreds of times more oxygen and carbon than Jupiter—a finding that baffled researchers given it couldn’t be explained by planet formation theory. The new data, however, shows WASP-94A b has only five times the amount of oxygen and carbon.

Hot Jupiter planets orbit much closer to their stars—closer even than Mercury to the sun—and therefore are much hotter and are exposed to more radiation. Because of their extreme environments, these planets also make good laboratories to study the chemistry and physics of cloud dynamics. 

Using WASP-94 Ab as a benchmark, the team looked at eight other hot gas giants and discovered the same distinctive cloud cycle on two other worlds: WASP-39 b and WASP-17 b. Next, Sing and his team will be using data from a new large JWST program to study cloud cycling across a wide variety of exoplanets, including an eccentric gas giant planet in the habitable zone.