Can Lemurs Help Us Avoid ‘Inflammaging’?

What lemurs might teach us about chronic inflammation; plus, honey bees hog pollen, algal blooms may induce dolphin dementia and more wildlife news

By Laura Tangley
Wildlife Science
Mar 26, 2026

What Lemurs Might Teach Us About Chronic Inflammation

As people grow older, they begin to suffer from low-grade chronic inflammation—a process scientists call “inflammaging”—that in turn can trigger health problems, from heart disease, stroke and diabetes to osteoarthritis and cancer. Researchers long have assumed inflammaging was universal among primates. But in a recent study, published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology B, Duke University scientists found that this assumption may not be true at all. Investigating how inflammaging unfolds in two kinds of lemurs—ring-tailed lemurs and sifakas (Coquerel’s sifakas, above)—living in captivity at the Duke Lemur Center, the scientists collected urine samples to analyze for markers of the process. “Surprisingly, neither species … exhibited age-related change in inflammation; if anything, contrary to our prediction, ring-tailed lemurs showed marginal declines in inflammation with age,” says co-author and Duke biological anthropologist Elaine Guevara. Because lemurs share a common ancestor with humans, they offer insights into human evolution and biology. With today’s rapidly aging human population, “these insights are essential for mitigating disability and improving quality of life in later years,” Guevara says.

An image of a honey bee covered in pollen on a sunflower.

Honey Bees Hog the Pollen

Long celebrated for their agricultural value, honey bees (above) threaten native species and habitats in some regions by monopolizing pollen and overwhelming native pollinators. In a study conducted in Southern California—a global hotspot for native bee diversity—University of California San Diego scientists found that nonnative honey bees can remove up to 80 percent of pollen from experimental plots in a single day, depriving hundreds of native bee species of essential food. The researchers, who published their results in Insect Conservation and Diversity, estimate honey bees comprise some 98 percent of the region’s bee biomass. “Although honey bees are rightly considered an indispensable asset to humans, they can pose a serious ecological threat to natural ecosystems where they are not native,” says co-author Keng-Lou James Hung, now at the University of Oklahoma. “When it comes to conservation issues in North America,” he adds, “honey bees are likelier to be part of the problem, not a solution.” He and his colleagues say resource managers must be mindful of where they allow beekeepers to place hives—and consider excluding nonnative bees from natural preserves and areas sheltering threatened native bee populations.

An image of a common bottlenose dolphin.

Algal Blooms May Induce Dolphin Dementia

Scientists long have pondered the mystery of why so many whales and dolphins swim ashore and fatally strand themselves. In a study examining the brains of 20 bottlenose dolphins (above) that stranded in Florida, researchers found a possible clue: The dolphins’ brains, they report in Communications Biology, contained high levels of toxins produced by cyanobacteria—or blue-green algae—that thrive in warm waters polluted by nutrients. Previous research showed that humans who regularly consume foods high in cyanobacterial toxins can develop brain abnormalities similar to those seen in Alzheimer’s disease. Like people with dementia, dolphins exposed to the toxins may become disoriented, the scientists suggest. “Since dolphins are considered environmental sentinels for toxic exposures in marine environments, there are also concerns about human health,” says co-author David Davis of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

An image of a red-spotted purple.

Microscope

Pollinators Face Extinction Risk

Assessing extinction risk for 1,579 native North American pollinator species, including bees and butterflies (red-spotted purple, pictured), scientists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that more than one-fifth are at “elevated risk.”