One of India’s most isolated tribes, the Dongria Kondh, is preparing to stop British FTSE 100 company Vedanta from mining aluminium ore on their sacred mountain, after police and hired thugs forced protestors to dismantle a barricade over the weekend.

About 150 people had blocked the road in Orissa state on Wednesday after hearing that Vedanta intended to start survey work for a planned aluminium mine which would destroy an ecologically vital hill, and the Dongria Kondh’s most sacred site. Vedanta employees visited the blockade repeatedly, threatening the protestors. On Friday the villagers gave in and took down the barricade, but about 100 are still at the side of the road, blocking traffic when Vedanta vehicles approach.

Vedanta is majority owned by London-based Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal.

Today, Dongria Kondh from all over Niyamgiri, the hill range that would be decimated by Vedanta’s mine, are making arrows and preparing their axes to stop Vedanta reaching their sacred mountain. One Dongria man said today ‘Now our people are very angry. We have to show the Dongria Kondh power to Vedanta.’

When India’s Supreme Court gave Vedanta the green light in August to mine on Dongria land, around 40 Dongrias used tree trunks to block a road leading into their hills, and held banners reading, ‘We are Dongria Kondh. Vedanta can not take our mountain.’ [photos available]

The mountain that Vedanta wants to mine is not only the Dongria Kondh’s most sacred site, it is also integral to the entire ecosystem of the hills, enabling the numerous streams and lush forests which sustain the Dongrias to continue to thrive.

Many bees, ants and wasps live together in highly cooperative societies primarily because this lifestyle offers a good way of passing down the family genes, not because it makes their own lives easier, new research suggests.

Scientists compared the mating behavior of females in 267 species of bees, wasps, and ants. They found that in the older species, females were always monogamous.

This finding supports the idea that monogamy - and, by extension, a high level of relatedness -- was key to the evolution of eusociality (many animals live together as a group without necessarily being social).

A particular type of shorebird (Phalarope) exploits the physical properties of water to transport water droplets to its mouth and feed on the tiny creatures contained within, researchers say.

Because of the shape of its beak, the bird cannot suck the water all the way up to its mouth. What it does instead is quickly open and close its beak many times like a pair of tweezers, and the water actually moves up the long beak — against the pull of gravity — and all the way to the phalarope's mouth.

This action is made possible because of something called "surface tension." It is the first time that scientists have documented this particular way of eating.

Small primates like squirrel monkeys and lemurs expend no more energy climbing than they do walking, according to a new study.

On the other hand, the energy required for a primate to walk in a straight line actually decreases as the primate's size increases, which implies that it makes more sense for larger primates to stay on the ground while, metabolically, it does not matter if smaller primates walk or climb.

The findings may explain the evolutionary edge that encouraged the tiny ancestors of modern humans, apes and monkeys to climb into the trees about 65 million years ago and stay there.

For their experiment, researchers designed and built a novel climbing treadmill -- essentially a loop of rope around two pulleys -- to measure the animals' efforts. As the animals moved at their highest sustainable speed, sensors measured oxygen level changes within a chamber to derive the primates' energy consumption.

A bonnethead shark born in 2001 in a Nebraska zoo was the result of a so-called virgin birth, DNA evidence shows. It is the first confirmed case of a female shark fertilizing her own eggs and giving birth without sperm from a male, a process known as parthenogenesis.

Parthenogenesis has been seen in about 70 species, mainly in insects but also in several lizards, for example. Until now it was thought that all shark species used internal fertilization through copulation to produce their young.

When the bat wing flaps downward, the motion produces a tiny cyclone of air called a “leading edge vortex” that pulls the animal upward. Insects are known to use these vortices while flying, but researchers have wondered whether this mechanism works for larger, heavier animals like bats, especially during slow flight or hovering. Researchers in Sweden and the United States studied small, nectar-feeding bats that were flying in a wind tunnel. With help from a fog machine, the researchers captured the movement of fog particles in the bats' wake as they flew through the tunnel. The results suggested that the vortices provided as much as 40 percent of the lift force that was helping the animals to stay in the air. This research appears in the 29 February 2008 issue of the journal Science.

At a recent UN conference on migratory species, three iconic shark species -- whale sharks, great whites, and basking sharks -- were identified to be in urgent need of protection. Biologist and megafishes expert Zeb Hogan of the University of Nevada in Reno, on location in La Paz, Mexico, explains why the world's largest fish is in big trouble.

The analysis of the rhesus macaque monkey shows that it shares about 93 percent of its DNA with chimps and humans, but that the three species have some significant differences among their genes.

The macaque monkey is widely used for laboratory studies. Researchers say their work will enhance medical research in a wide range of areas, including HIV and neuroscience.

It will also advance scientists' understanding of primate evolution, and how humans are genetically different from our primate relatives.

The 8.1 magnitude quake lifted the Solomons' Ranongga island ten feet (three meters) out of the sea, widening beaches by up to 230 feet (70 meters). The uplift has left some of the island's pristine coral reefs fatally exposed.

In some places the beaches in the Solomons now resemble a barren moonscape with once vibrant corals bleaching under the sun. On one beach the quake even revealed a sunken vessel that locals believe is a Japanese patrol boat from World War II.