Animals

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

Latest in Animals

Common cuttlefish
Animals

Cuttlefish tentacles and origami inspired a new robotic claw

By Andrew Paul

a close up of a cicada with blue eyes
Animals

A ‘one-in-a-million’ blue-eyed cicada spotted by 4-year-old child

By Laura Baisas

While scientists have seen colossal squid before—like this specimen examined by New Zealander researchers in 2014—their interactions have always been with animals that were either pulled from the depths, washed up on shore, or otherwise removed from their natural habitat.
Animals

Visiting the kraken at home

By Evert Lindquist / Hakai Magazine

An artistic life reconstruction of Genyornis newtoni, the last of the dromornithids, at the water’s edge
Animals

Giant 500-pound geese once honked around the Australian outback

By Laura Baisas

How do animals get their spots and stripes? A Turing mechanism holds clues to patterns
Animals

How do animals get their spots and stripes? A Turing mechanism holds clues to patterns

By Amber Dance/Knowable Magazine

Cute jack russell dog terrier puppy sleeping on yellow knitted blanket. Funny small sleepy white and brown doggy. Concept of cozy home, comfort, warmth, autumn, winter.
Animals

Do dogs dream? The answer might make you appreciate your pup even more.

By Keith Wagstaff

Close-up of three cows
Agriculture

Cow poop might make cleaner hydrogen gas a reality

By Andrew Paul

Orcas only need one breath between dives
Animals

Orcas only need one breath between dives

By Laura Baisas

a brown snail sits on a green lettuce leaf
Animals

Slimy slugs and snails surprisingly thriving in LA

By Laura Baisas

an otter eating while floating on its back
Animals

Female sea otters use tools more than males

By Laura Baisas

coral polyps before spawning
Animals

Scientists are studying the mysterious sex lives of coral

By Laura Baisas

a green stick insect blending into a green plant
Animals

Chance or pattern? Stick insects show repeatable evolution in action

By Laura Baisas

CBD for dogs
Animals

Fit for a dog? The latest science on CBD for pets

By Ula Chrobak / Knowable Magazine

Carrion crow (Corvus corone) perched on wooden fence post and calling. (Photo by: Sven-Erik Arndt/Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Animals

Crows can ‘count’ similarly to toddlers, according to new study

By Lauren Leffer

A proboscis monkey in a mangrove conservation forest in Tarakan, North Borneo, Indonesia. It is light brown in color with a very large, round, droopy, and prominent nose.
Animals

These monkeys have giant noses for exactly the reason you think

By Laura Baisas

closeup of bumblebee
Animals

How scientists accidentally found out that some bees can hibernate underwater

By Popular Science Team

‘Lungless’ frog species actually had little lungs all along
Animals

‘Lungless’ frog species actually had little lungs all along

By Harri Weber

Small Plastic pellets on blue cloth
Animals

Every human testicle contained microplastics in a new study

By Andrew Paul

To find out the age of dolphins, ask their poop
Animals

To find out the age of dolphins, ask their poop

By Jason Bittel / Hakai Magazine

little baby
Animals

Making babies may take 10 times more energy than we thought

By Lauren Leffer

Nature can’t run without parasites. What happens when they start to disappear?
Animals

Nature can’t run without parasites. What happens when they start to disappear?

By Jesse Nichols / Grist

an orangutan sits in the forest with its mouth open wide, showing its teeth
Animals

Orangutans’ distinct yells decoded with help from AI

By Laura Baisas

wasp uses viruses
Animals

The wasps that turned viruses into tiny biological weapons

By Nala Rogers / Knowable Magazine

two mantis shrimp punching one another
Animals

Bullet-fast mantis shrimp punches caught by super-speed cameras

By Laura Baisas

Chicken looking at camera against black background
Agriculture

Chicken fat supercapacitors could store green energy of the future

By Andrew Paul

How Viking-age hunters took down the biggest animal on Earth
Animals

How Viking-age hunters took down the biggest animal on Earth

By Andrew Chapman / Hakai Magazine

amphibian parents
Animals

The tender art of tadpole parenting

By Tim Vernimmen / Knowable Magazine

Scotland suddenly has a lot of mosquitoes
Animals

Scotland suddenly has a lot of mosquitoes

By Tom Hawking

A dog dyed black and white to mimic a panda cub at Cute Pet Games cafe in Chengdu in China's southwestern Sichuan province on October 23, 2019.
Animals

Chinese zoo dyes chow chows to look like ‘panda dogs’

By Laura Baisas

a small, blue fish called the Devils Hole pupfish swims in a hole
Animals

Devils Hole pupfish are clawing their way back from the brink of extinction

By Laura Baisas

A male African elephant named Doma and a female named Kariba greet one another. Doma touches Kariba´s temporal gland while flapping his ears and Kariba holds her ears spread.
Animals

Expressive elephants use gestures and vocal cues to communicate

By Laura Baisas

These snakes play dead, bleed, and poop to avoid being eaten
Animals

These snakes play dead, bleed, and poop to avoid being eaten

By Harri Weber

two adult green-rumped parrots with three nestlings behind them with their mouths open waiting for food
Animals

Why these parrots sometimes kill each other’s chicks

By Laura Baisas

Snail robots forming a staircase to reach rock ledge
Animals

Swarm of tiny snail robots stick together to form new structures

By Andrew Paul

wild green honeykeeper bilateral gynandromorphism
Animals

These birds break the sex binary like it’s nothing

By Popular Science Team

Control your hungry kitty’s portions with up to 40% off PETLIBRO automatic cat feeders at Amazon
Animals

Control your hungry kitty’s portions with up to 40% off PETLIBRO automatic cat feeders at Amazon

By Amanda Reed

three sperm whales swimming near the surface of the ocean
Animals

Sperm whales may have their own ‘alphabet’

By Laura Baisas

an adult peregrine falcon feeds four chicks
Animals

Watch four Peregrine falcon chicks in a nest on Alcatraz Island

By Laura Baisas

a sea lion on its front legs on a pier
Animals

Gaze at the gregarious sea lions setting records in San Francisco

By Popular Science Team

a seagull stands on a post by a large and sparkling body of blue water
Animals

Bigger-brained gull species thrive in urban spaces

By Laura Baisas

What happened when scientists taught parrots to video chat?
Animals

What happened when scientists taught parrots to video chat?

By Mack DeGeurin

Belugas may be jiggling their melons to communicate
Animals

Belugas may be jiggling their melons to communicate

By Tom Hawking

Close up of orangutan
Animals

Orangutan observed using a plant to treat an open wound

By Andrew Paul

They swim and they spin: Meet the aquatic spiders
Animals

They swim and they spin: Meet the aquatic spiders

By Amber Dance/Knowable Magazine

Boston Dynamics Spot robot in puppet dog costume sitting next to regular Spot robot.
AI

Boston Dynamics gives Spot bot a furry makeover

By Andrew Paul

A mechanical analysis of the distinctive canines of California's saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis) suggests that the baby tooth that preceded each saber stayed in place for years to stabilize the growing permanent saber tooth, perhaps allowing adolescents to learn how to hunt without breaking them.
Animals

How saber-toothed cats’ baby teeth kept their adult fangs from breaking

By Laura Baisas

close up of tire
Animals

Tire toxicity faces fresh scrutiny after salmon die-offs

By Jim Robbins / KFF Health News

mice in a cave
Animals

Lab mice might be doing their own experiments

By Lauren Leffer

a small red squirrel with perked up ears sits on a tree branch
Animals

Early trauma can shorten a red squirrel’s lifespan

By Laura Baisas

robot v roach
Animals

Why animals run faster than their robot doppelgängers… for now

By Mack DeGeurin

a spike-toothed salmon fossil with its mouth open
Animals

This 400-pound prehistoric salmon had tusks like a warthog

By Laura Baisas

These birds help humans hunt for honey—but it’s not as sweet as you might think
Animals

These birds help humans hunt for honey—but it’s not as sweet as you might think

By Popular Science Team

a bioluminescent coral shaped like a fan with a central hub
Animals

Bioluminescence may have evolved 300 million years earlier than scientists previously thought

By Laura Baisas

A deadly Australia eastern brown snake
Animals

Don’t bring us the snake that bit you, Australian hospital says

By Harri Weber

an orange, black, and white lemur sits in a tree
Animals

Critically endangered lemur attacked by vulnerable fosa in Madagascar

By Laura Baisas

a circular lamprey mouth dotted with teeth
Animals

Lampreys offer clues to the origin of our fight-or-flight instinct

By Laura Baisas

a juvenile shark following an autonomous underwater robot
Animals

Baby sharks stick to the shallows

By Laura Baisas

Anterior trunk vertebrae of Vasuki indicus.
Animals

Enormous snake in ancient India was longer than a school bus

By Lauren Leffer

Close-up photos of ReachBot.
Animals

Daddy long-legs-inspired robot could one day squirm through Martian caves

By Mack DeGeurin

an illustration of a large marine reptile beached on the sand, surrounded by two two-legged dinosaurs and several flying dinosaurs
Animals

New species of extinct marine reptile found with help from 11-year-old child

By Laura Baisas

an orange and black butterfly lands on a green leaf with purple flowers
Animals

This butterfly hybrid thrived against evolutionary odds

By Laura Baisas

a tardigrade floating around
Animals

How super resilient tardigrades can fix their radiation-damaged DNA

By Laura Baisas

an infected periodical cicada with a white fungal plug on its abdomen
Animals

This gnarly fungus makes cicadas hypersexual

By Laura Baisas

a toucan with an orange beak and black and white plumage sits in a tree with its mouth open
Animals

How fruit-eating birds could help regrow tropical forests

By Laura Baisas

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