EurekAlert! In the Spotlight

This August, we're exploring the science behind the animals that share our planet. From the behaviors and adaptations that help species thrive to the conservation efforts protecting wildlife around the world, animal awareness days like World Lion Day, World Elephant Day, International Cat Day, and International Wolf Day are an opportunity to celebrate biodiversity and discover the research helping us better understand and protect the species that call our planet home.

Sabah's ferret badger found nowhere else on Earth

University of Oxford
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The largest-ever study of the endangered Bornean ferret badger (Melogale everetti) has confirmed that this elusive mammal is found only in mountain landscapes of western Sabah.

Journal: Ecology and Evolution

10-Jun-2026

Living with cats does not worsen asthma in children, suggests study

Frontiers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Epidemiologists did a study on more than 30,000 children in Sweden between four and 17 years of age with an existing diagnosis of asthma and allergies. They found that asthma severity and lung function measured over the period 2023 to 2024 did not differ between children in households with at least one cat and children living without cats. There wasn’t any association between the cats’ sex, age, and number per household and asthma outcomes. The authors concluded that exposure to cats does not appear to worsen the outcomes of pediatric asthma, at least in the short term.

Journal: Frontiers in Allergy
Funder: Swedish Research Council, Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association’s Research Foundation project, Region Stockholm ALF project, Foundation Frimurare Barnhuset in Stockholm, Jerring Foundation

9-Jun-2026

Finding the best habitats for humpbacks

Kyoto University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Kyoto, Japan -- Humpback whales are one of the most popular species for whale watching. Since they are active close to the water's surface, groups of whale watchers can often see them breaching and diving during breeding periods. One popular whale watching destination is the Ogasawara Islands -- also known as the Bonin Islands -- a remote archipelago about 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo. These isles serve as a key breeding ground for humpback whales, which migrate in large numbers every December to May to these coastal waters.

Scientists have identified one of the main habitats of humpback whales in the Ogasawaras to be the Chichijima Island group, also home to the archipelago's main human settlement. Yet exactly which areas around Chichijima are critical for these whales has remained a mystery. This motivated a team of researchers at Kyoto University, the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology to model the whales' distribution using sighting survey data.

The team examined visual survey data collected from vessels used by the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association in 2013 and also from 2015 to 2018. This data includes the locations of 160 groups of whales, totaling 234 individuals, that were confirmed during the five-year survey. The team then used two species distribution models to combine this data with topographic factors such as water depth, seabed slope, and distance from the coastline in order to predict the most suitable habitats for humpback whales.