Animals

The wild denizens that share our planet, including videos, photo essays, and news on recently discovered—or increasingly rare—species.

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Latest in Animals

Meadow grasshopper sitting on blade of grass
Technology

Leaping robots take physics lessons from grasshoppers

By Andrew Paul

To lower food emissions, consider what your dinner ate
Environment

To lower food emissions, consider what your dinner ate

By Carla Delgado

Two orca whales, one with it's head and flukes above the water and the other with its nose out of the water.
Environment

Toothed whales turned their vocal fry into a hunting superpower

By Laura Baisas

A giant lacewing as seen under a microscope. The insect is a moth relative with large wings.
Environment

A bug expert went shopping at Walmart—and made a historic insect discovery

By Laura Baisas

The entrance to the Mycenae citadel in Greece called the Lion Gate.
Science

Details of life in Bronze Age Mycenae could lie at the bottom of a well

By Laura Baisas

A mythological Norse beast may have just been a weird, hungry whale
Science

A mythological Norse beast may have just been a weird, hungry whale

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

The partner of one Caribbean flamingo helps it out in an argument with another pair.
Environment

Flamingoes have big personalities—and their friendships prove it

By Laura Baisas

A white-bellied woodstar hummingbird flying. Their colorful throat feathers are believed to help them find a mate.
Environment

This hybrid hummingbird’s colorful feathers are a genetic puzzle

By Laura Baisas

Desert lionesses now reign over beaches on the Skeleton Coast
Environment

Desert lionesses now reign over beaches on the Skeleton Coast

By Ryan Truscott / Hakai Magazine

A glassy-winged sharpshooter rests on a leaf.
Environment

Watch these tiny bugs catapult urine with their butts

By Laura Baisas

Beaver driving construction truck with logs on back to symbolize ecosystem engineer. Illustrated in purple, yellow, and brown.
Environment

Beavers, snails, and elephants are top grads from nature’s college of engineering

By Philip Kiefer

Soft robot inspired by gecko and inchworm moving across surface
Technology

This tiny robot grips like a gecko and scoots like an inchworm

By Andrew Paul

Camels and sharks have small, sneaky antibodies that can help fight human diseases
Health

Camels and sharks have small, sneaky antibodies that can help fight human diseases

By Christina Szalinski / Knowable Magazine

Purple sea urchins clumped together in an urchin barren.
Environment

These urchin-eating sea stars might be helping us reduce carbon levels

By Jack Izzo

An illustration of Hyneria udlezinye, a large, predatory fish, with smaller fish in the Waterloo Farm ecosystem in South Africa about 360 million years ago.
Environment

A gator-faced fish shaped like a torpedo stalked rivers 360 million years ago

By Laura Baisas

Two light brown cows standing on a grassy hill against a yellow sun and purple clouds. Illustration.
Environment

The social lives of cows are remarkably sophisticated

By Brandon Keim

Several European spruce bark beetles on a dry piece of wood.
Environment

These beetles sniff out fungus-infected trees to find their next target

By Laura Baisas

Human interactions can drastically change wolf pack dynamics
Environment

Human interactions can drastically change wolf pack dynamics

By Kylie Mohr / High Country News

An open-source project makes it easier to spot rare fish eggs
Environment

An open-source project makes it easier to spot rare fish eggs

By Annie Roth / Hakai Magazine

An adult humpback whale surfaces above the water in eastern Australia.
Environment

A group of humpback whales is choosing violence

By Laura Baisas

A dark wooden bat house high up on the side of a gray two-story house.
DIY

Benefit your neighborhood bats with this DIY bat house

By Jean Levasseur

Watch the world’s fastest fish on an epic tuna hunt
Environment

Watch the world’s fastest fish on an epic tuna hunt

By Sage Marshall/Field & Stream

A large group of red and orange jellyfish floating in blue water.
Health

A jellyfish sting treatment that actually works

By Sara Chodosh

Hand holding up drone disguised within taxidermy bird body
Technology

Researchers are stuffing drones into taxidermy birds to make them seem more ‘natural’

By Andrew Paul

A European hedgehog on a road with a yellow flower.
Environment

Why Danish citizen scientists were on a quest to find the oldest European hedgehog

By Laura Baisas

A mother chimpanzee with her offspring, which she may teach her style of handclasping.
Environment

Popular chimpanzees set hand-holding trends for the whole group

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Singapore’s new plan to fight mosquito-borne diseases: bug-infecting bacteria
Science

Singapore’s new plan to fight mosquito-borne diseases: bug-infecting bacteria

By Marta Zaraska / Undark

A woma pythron, a large, nocturnal species of snake on the ground by a piece of wood.
Environment

Snakes can actually hear really well

By Laura Baisas

A Eurasian lynch perches in a fallen tree in a forest.
Environment

The endangered Eurasian lynx might never recover fully in France

By Laura Baisas

Millions of dead crabs ended up in the deep sea. Scientists still aren’t sure why.
Environment

Millions of dead crabs ended up in the deep sea. Scientists still aren’t sure why.

By Fanni Szakal / Hakai Magazine

Bird intelligence researcher in maroon shirt with flock of captive Goffin's cockatoos on his arms and head
Environment

These clever cockatoos carry around toolkits to get to food faster

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A woman in a field observes a plant.
Environment

Citizen science is another great form of nature therapy

By Laura Baisas

Two giraffes on a sunny day with one looking directly at the viewer.
Environment

Why giraffe sex is a tall order and hinges on pee

By Laura Baisas

How hunting deer became a battle cry in conservation
Environment

How hunting deer became a battle cry in conservation

By Brian Payton / Hakai Magazine

Two orca whales swim in the ocean with mountains in the distance.
Environment

Raising male offspring comes at a high price for orca mothers

By Laura Baisas

A flock of chickens, including five hens and rooster, peck at a backyard
DIY

6 things to know before deciding to raise backyard chickens

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

The secrets to fighting the next pandemic could be in fruit bats
Environment

The secrets to fighting the next pandemic could be in fruit bats

By Jim Robbins / KHN

Underwater snake robot from MIT
Technology

This robot eel could be the start of a new breed of ‘voxel’ robots

By Andrew Paul

An uncooked brown crab sitting among among seaweed and water.
Science

Neanderthals caught and cooked crabs 90,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

The best dog backpacks composited
Gear

The best dog backpacks

By Carsen Joenk

A wolf-like puppy surrounded by other puppies tries howling.
Environment

Do domesticated dogs howl back at wolves?

By Laura Baisas

A scan of a mastodon skeleton with an arrow pointing to the trajectory of the spear.
Environment

Ancient humans used mastodon bones to hunt the giant beasts

By Laura Baisas

Fly with cordyceps zombie fungus growing out of its head on black background
Environment

Nightmare-fuel fungi exist in real life

By Matt Kasson

Best dog vitamins
Environment

The best dog vitamins

By Maddy Morris

Bat hanging upside down from branch
Technology

Bat-like echolocation could help these robots find lost people

By Andrew Paul

The bizarre story behind a viral man-eating lion hoax
Environment

The bizarre story behind a viral man-eating lion hoax

By Katie Hill / Outdoor Life

A white and brown dog eating with its teeth out a treat by a hand of a person in front of it.
Environment

The best dog treats

By Maddy Morris

A fossilized fish brain alongside of a penny for size comparison.
Science

Scientists find 319-million-year-old fossilized fish brain

By Laura Baisas

migrating birds above body of water
Environment

No one can predict exactly where birds go, but this mathematical model gets close

By Charlotte Hu

Two translucent Golden-line Barbell fish, also known as Sinocyclocheilus hyalinus, swim in a tank at Taipei, Taiwan on June 2, 2005.
Environment

Unicorns do exist—as a cave fish in China

By Laura Baisas

An emperor tamarin monkey sits in a tree.
Environment

Animals at the Dallas Zoo keep vanishing from their enclosures

By Laura Baisas

A northern pygmy owl with brown and white feathers perched on a tree branch and staring.
Environment

Songbird species team up to ‘mob’ owls and other predators

By Laura Baisas

What to do when your fishing lure hooks a bird, otter—or gator
DIY

What to do when your fishing lure hooks a bird, otter—or gator

By Joe Cermele/Field & Stream

A dolphin breaching near a fisherman standing in the water in Laguna, Brazil.
Environment

When humans and dolphins fish together, they both win

By Laura Baisas

Best dog vitamins
Environment

The best KONG dog toys

By Kristen Mulrooney

When wolves hunt otters on this Alaskan island, deer suffer
Environment

When wolves hunt otters on this Alaskan island, deer suffer

By Marina Wang / Hakai Magazine

Two small prairie voles.
Environment

These fuzzy burrowers don’t need oxytocin to fall in love

By Laura Baisas

Golden retriever sitting on couch in front of laptop
Technology

Chewy is doggedly trying to expand into pet telehealth

By Andrew Paul

Brown cat and white cat fighting and playing in a sunny room
Environment

Fun or feud? These are the tell-tail signs that a catfight has gone sour.

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Two T. rex dinosaurs cuddling in bed after sex. Illustration in pink, purple, and gray.
Science

Scientists are still banging out theories about how dinosaurs had sex

By Riley Black

Artist's reconstruction of Ignacius dawsonae surviving six months of winter darkness in the extinct warm temperate ecosystem of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada.
Environment

These primate ancestors were totally chill with a colder climate

By Laura Baisas

Two long, dark, Koh Tao worm salamanders on a swampy soil
Environment

One wormy Triassic fossil could fill a hole in the evolutionary story of amphibians

By Laura Baisas

When wind turbines kill bats and birds, these scientists want the carcasses
Environment

When wind turbines kill bats and birds, these scientists want the carcasses

By Emma Foehringer Merchant / Undark

a dark furred rabbit with short ears in the brush. the image was taken at night
Environment

How a peculiar parasitic plant relies on a rare Japanese rabbit

By Zayna Syed