At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a global audience. But with tens of thousands of articles published each year, it’s impossible to see all that research in the same way scientists do. Here are some images that showcase some of the newest findings published in the last month.

Indonesia’s ‘walking sharks’ use coral reefs as nurseries

Indonesia is home to Raja Ampat epaulette sharks, a species also referred to as ‘walking sharks’. Their nickname is due to them moving close to the ocean floor using their well-developed pectoral and pelvic fins. Until recently, little was known about the species growing less than a meter long, but a new Frontiers in Fish Science study has investigated the species’ life history, movement patterns, and spatial ecology to support conservation and management. For their study, the researchers carried out nocturnal surveys between February 2024 and April 2025 at six sites in the Dampier Strait region. Their work, among other things, identified coral reefs as a primary nursery habitat for these sharks. This is likely because the reefs’ structural complexity offers protection from predators and abundant foraging opportunities.

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How floods displace lions and force them closer to people

In Botswana’s Okavango Delta, flood levels vary year-to-year with a single flood pulse but also change on a multi-decadal cycle with consecutive years of high and low flood conditions. Flood conditions impact how lions’ core habitats change in size and connectivity to each other, a new Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution study has shown. During high flood phases the highly connected core habitat shrinks by 55%, becomes fragmented by flood water, and isolated with the exception of a few remaining corridors. Both during high and low flood, connectivity to the south and west is limited, likely by human densities. Reducing human wildlife conflict on the Okavango’s boundaries and improving connectivity to neighboring lion populations could help improve the viability of the Okavango Delta’s lion population.

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Remoras stay stuck to their favorite hosts even when they’re fish out of water

Remora, sometimes called suckerfish, are known to attach to other marine inhabitants like sharks, whales, or sea turtles. This way, they invest less energy into moving around and feeding. It’s debated whether this behavior is advantageous for both parties or parasitic. Sometimes, remoras become so attached to their hosts they accompany them out of the water – where they are unable to breathe. This behavior, however, isn’t well-described. Now, writing in Frontiers in Marine Science, researchers working in Costa Rica described how a common remora remained attached to a sea turtle for 19 minutes after the turtle left the water and began nesting. After being removed and returned to the water, the remora was alive, despite being out of the water for an extended period.

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Lemur ‘roommates’ co-exist peacefully by occupying different parts of forests

Co-existing with other species isn’t always easy and can lead to competition for resources. In Madagascar’s Zombitse-Vohibasia National Park several lemur species share the forests, and scientists set out to understand how these lemurs manage to co-exist in the same area. To this end, they examined how five nocturnal lemur species use vertical and horizontal space by carrying out field surveys over a rainy and dry season. They published their results in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Their findings showed that lemurs spread out across different canopy layers and moved at a horizontal axis when vertical space use overlapped between species. This suggests that peaceful co-existence among Malagasy lemurs is the result of multiple spatial dimensions being used simultaneously.

Camera-trap footage of a pale, fork-marked lemur, one of the nocturnal lemur species included in the study. Camera traps complement ecological surveys by documenting natural behavior within the study forest. Credit: Amanda K Rowe.

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Too few fish in salty waters cause plummet in Chesapeake Bay ospreys birth rates

In the US, Chesapeake Bay supports one of the largest breeding populations of osprey in the world – but recently, researchers found signs of a declining bird population. By monitoring over 500 osprey nests during the 2024 breeding season, they found that breeding success was tightly coupled with salinity levels. In high salinity waters, none of the ten breeding areas reached the demographic threshold of 1.15 young per pair which is believed to be required for population maintenance within the bay. Osprey pairs in the saltier portions of the Chesapeake Bay lost an average of 1.1 young during the 2024 season. This is most likely due to food shortages in high salinity areas, where the supply of menhaden, an energy-dense fish ideal to raise chicks, was inadequate. In low salinity waters, ospreys reproduced above thresholds for population maintenance. The results were published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

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Threatened wattled cranes build their nests on Afro-alpine islands in Ethiopia

The wattled crane is Africa’s largest, rarest, and most wetland-dependent crane species. It is listed as threatened globally, but small, fragmented populations continue to exist in some places, including one in Bale Mountains National Park, located in the south-eastern part of the Ethiopian highlands. Now, researchers writing in Frontiers in Bird Science published their findings about wattled cranes’ breeding ecology. Over three consecutive breeding seasons, they observed nine breeding pairs. Nests were built both in the Park’s wetlands and on islands in alpine lakes. Over the study period, wattled cranes’ nest failure rates increased from no failed nests in 2015 to one failure in 2016 to two failures in 2017. This was due to a variety of causes, including predation and nest abandonment. Once the chicks had hatched, parents were observed using grasses with hues matching the chicks’ color to camouflage their young when danger neared.

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