South America is currently home to a single species of ursid, the highly elusive and uniquely patterned spectacled bear ( Tremarctos ornatus ). This species is slightly diminutive in size compared to other bears, and is known for being fairly docile and highly vegetarian (one study found that the only 7% of spectacled bear scat sampled contained animal remains, and even those were just beetles and ants; Troya et al. 2004). These tractable traits, however, belie a fearsome family tree.... Read more

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Although many people tend to think of nature as being “red in tooth and claw,” with different species constantly at odds with one another in a scramble for survival, ecological communities are actually bursting with mutualistic relationships in which species actually benefit one another in any of a variety of ways. Cleaner wrasses glean dead skin and parasites from larger predatory fish that, in turn, opt not to have the wrasses for lunch; hummingbirds pollinate the plants that give them... Read more

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