Animals (Page 19)

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

Latest in Animals

Group of Marco Polo Sheep on a snowy mountainside.

Montana traffickers illegally cloned Frankensheep hybrids for sport hunting

dung beetles with a ball of poop

When steering balls of poop, dung beetles use the stars to navigate

By Popular Science Team

a group of black and white ring-tailed lemurs sitting in green trees.

Sorry, Darwin: Most male mammals aren’t bigger than females

By Laura Baisas

a cicada in a tree

Cicadas pee in jet streams like bigger animals

By Laura Baisas

Concept art of cyborg jellyfish with forebody attachments

Hat-wearing cyborg jellyfish could one day explore the ocean depths

A potentially new squid species found off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

New squid alert! 100+ species discovered off the coast of New Zealand

By Laura Baisas

How robber flies spear their prey with long sucking mouthparts

How robber flies spear their prey with long sucking mouthparts

By Siddhant Pusdekar / The Conversation

Bowmouth guitarfish on the bottom of sea

How social media helps wildlife trafficking thrive in plain sight

By Marina Wang / Hakai Magazine

two termites trapped in an oval shaped bit of amber

These extinct termites have been stuck in a mating position for 38 million years

By Laura Baisas

fish swimming by a healthy coral reef

Sandy ‘Reef Stars’ help bring life back to coral reefs hurt by dynamite fishing

By Laura Baisas

Siphonops annulatus. Mother with babies starting skin pigmentation.

These legless, egg-laying amphibians secrete ‘milk’ from their butts

By Lauren Leffer

A lineup of the best dog blankets cut into four vertical panels

The best dog blankets to keep your pooch comfortable

a deep sea worm with feathery appendages

Newly discovered deep-sea worm moves like a ‘living magic carpet’

By Laura Baisas

The science of Dune’s magnificent, merciless sandworms

The science of Dune’s magnificent, merciless sandworms

By Robin Andrews

scans of the anatomy of different animals

Take a look inside 13,000 animals–no scalpel required

By Laura Baisas

A silver gar fish with a long snout.

Meet the new king of the ‘living fossils’

By Laura Baisas

An orca whale hunts a great white shark. Blood is seen near the orca's mouth.

Orca observed hunting and killing a great white shark by itself for the first time

By Laura Baisas

tail of a humpback whale in the ocean sticking out of the waves

Why scientists are tracking whale tails with AI

By Mack DeGeurin

Three eggs in a nest, while a bald eagle attends to it.

Watch: Three bald eagles could hatch any day now

By Laura Baisas

Swarm of invasive Apis cerana in Cairns, North Queensland.

How a single honey bee colony led to a species invasion

By Lauren Leffer

a brown spotted butterfly sits on a branch

The butterfly redemption: Inside the quest to save a struggling species

By Brian Payton / Hakai Magazine

A small translucent fish with its organs visible swims in a tank.

This tiny fish is louder than an airplane taking off

By Laura Baisas

Why flamingo milk is pink

Why flamingo milk is pink

By Popular Science Team

Jellyfish glowing green underwater

Jellyfish-inspired glowing dye can glom onto fingerprints at crime scenes

Tiger walking across snow

Endangered Species

NASA and Google Earth Engine team up with researchers to help save tigers

An orange Chaunacops fish swimming in the waters of Chile’s Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park.

See the strange new species discovered near Chile—with the help of a deep-diving sea robot

By Laura Baisas

Sea cucumbers and fish feeding at a coral reef.

Sea cucumbers are the ‘scum suckers’ corals desperately need

By Laura Baisas

Pigs in sty at factory farm

Gene-edited pigs immune to deadly virus could arrive on farms by next year

An eyelash pitviper from the New Wold tropics.

Why are there so many snakes?

By Lauren Leffer

Two sea lampreys. They have circular heads with rows of teeth and a suction cup mouth at the center.

You might have more in common with the sea lamprey than you realize

By Laura Baisas

‘Lost Bird’ not seen in 20 years photographed for the first time

‘Lost Bird’ not seen in 20 years photographed for the first time

By Laura Baisas

The mystery of cats and their love of imaginary boxes

The mystery of cats and their love of imaginary boxes

A single humpback whale calf swimming in the waters off of French Polynesia.

We finally know how baleen whales make noise

By Laura Baisas

Giant Antarctic sea spiders can grow up to 20 inches wide.

Giant Antarctic sea spiders’ reproductive mystery solved after 140 years of confusion

By Laura Baisas

A purple and white carnivorous plant called Arisaema thunbergii growing in a forest. It has a tube and cup shaped flower and uses a musky odor to lure fungus gnats.

Bug-munching plant turns insect nurseries into death traps

By Laura Baisas

Fire in a forest

Fire is driving animals’ evolution

By Kylie Mohr / High Country News

Tridentinosaurus antiquus was discovered in the Italian Alps in 1931 and was believed to be an important specimen for understanding early reptile evolution.

Famous 280-million-year-old fossil is partially fake

By Laura Baisas

Hippocampus patagonicus seahorse

In Brazil, the seahorse black market is bustling

By Marina Wang / Hakai Magazine

Indian Meal Moth

The grain moths have finally reached Antarctica

By Ethan Freedman

Two lionesses. One tilts her head towards the left, while the other sticks out her tongue.

Captive big cats can tell voices apart

By Laura Baisas

Pink lab-grown beef rice in white bowl

Scientists swear their lab-grown ‘beef rice’ tastes ‘pleasant’

The skeletal remains of a frog and a human were uncovered at Seminario Vescovile in Verona, Italy.

Iron Age humans found mysteriously buried with dogs and horses

By Laura Baisas

A Skywalker gibbon in a green and leafy forest. Distinguishing characteristics of Skywalker hoolock gibbons compared to other gibbons include thinner eyebrows, a black or brown beard instead of a white one, and incomplete white face rings on the females, like this adult.

Scientists tracked the love songs of Skywalker gibbons to find them

By Laura Baisas

A smiling bonobo in a body of water.

Primates have been teasing each other for 13 million years

By Laura Baisas

A mother and calf humpback whale swim underwater.

Endangered Species

Close to half of migratory species are in serious decline: UN report

By Laura Baisas

pleurocystitid soft robot

A sea creature extinct for half a billion years inspired a new soft robot

An illustration of an ancient shark called Glikmanius careforum swimming. It was about 10 to 12 feet long and had a powerful bite.

Three new ancient shark species discovered in Alabama and Kentucky

By Laura Baisas

Photo illustration of hawkmoth navigating to flower during vehicle exhaust emission.

Air pollution messes with moths’ ability to smell flowers

By Lauren Leffer

Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria)

Cyborg locusts may one day help search-and-rescue missions

Anchovy sex is a force of nature

Anchovy sex is a force of nature

By Christina Couch / Hakai Magazine

Eight gray seals and four wild horses stand on a sandy beach.

See wild horses and gray seals mingle on Sable Island

By Laura Baisas

The St. George’s Cross medusa is about four inches wide, three inches long, and has about 240 tentacles. It has a red cross on its body when viewed from above.

New jellyfish discovered near Japan may contain multitudes of venom

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of the new pterosaur species Ceoptera evansae. Several of the winged reptiles fly over trees and grass in Jurassic-era Scotland.

New pterosaur species discovered in Scotland

By Laura Baisas

An ermine moth with white wings and black spots sits on a yellow dandelion.

Moths fight against echolocating bats with sounds of their own

By Laura Baisas

For many people, bed bugs are becoming a fact of life again.

Getting rid of bed bugs is trickier than ever

By Ute Eberle / Knowable Magazine

Chronic wasting disease currently is known to infect only members of the cervid family—elk, deer, reindeer, caribou, and moose.

Possibility of wildlife-to-human crossover heightens concern about chronic wasting disease

By Jim Robbins / KFF Health News

Three common clownfish with orange coloring and white stripes swimming in a sea anemone.

Can clownfish count?

By Laura Baisas

‘Jaws’ portrayed sharks as monsters 50 years ago, but it also inspired a generation of shark scientists

‘Jaws’ portrayed sharks as monsters 50 years ago, but it also inspired a generation of shark scientists

By Gavin Naylor/The Conversation

A multiple-exposure photograph of insects circling an artificial light at night. The light can mess with a moth’s sense of what direction is up and which way is down.

Why artificial light—and evolution—trap moths

By Laura Baisas

H5N1 flu has been confirmed in Gentoo penguins for the first time. Over 20 Gentoo chicks have been reported dead from the virus or are showing symptoms of this highly contagious strain of bird flu.

Antarctic penguins are now dying from the H5N1 strain of bird flu

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s reconstruction of the locomotor behavior and paleoenvironment of Lufengpithecus. Six primates that resemble chimpanzees are in a wooded area. Some are walking upright on two legs, while others are on all fours.

Extinct ape’s inner ear holds clues to how humans learned to walk upright

By Laura Baisas

A great white pup swimming in the Pacific Ocean. In July 2023, wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna and University of California, Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes took footage of what could be the first newborn great white shark ever recorded.

This could be the first newborn great white shark ever captured on camera

By Laura Baisas

Biohybrid robot legs in underwater container

Watch this cool, useless biohybrid robot take a stroll

This photograph shows a male dusky antechinus in a naturalistic enclosure located in Cape Otway, Australia.

Sex is more important than sleep for these marsupials

By Laura Baisas