Wildlife(Page 10)

The latest on the fascinating flora and fauna of our planet.

Latest in Wildlife

an illustration of a pterosaur with a short tail walking with legs and its wings on the ground

The first true flying vertebrates walked before they could soar

By Laura Baisas

a grayish brown wombat walking next to shrubs

Can wombats kill with their butts? We found the hard truth.

By Laura Baisas

a microscope image of a small crustacean with a round body, two large antennae come from its head, and several small legs

Sorry, zooplankton don’t want to eat your poop

By Laura Baisas

Aerobat uses a combination or rigid and soft 3D-printed materials to mimic a bat's malleable wings.

Bats’ weird wings inspired this drone

By Mack DeGeurin

Montana Mountain King sheep

Endangered Species

Montana breeder of illegal, giant sheep hybrid clones gets 6 months in prison

Group of Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) on haulout, Vaygach island, Barents sea

Walrus DNA suggests meetings between Vikings and Indigenous Inuit

the moment a jaguar delivers a fatal bite to the head of a caiman in a muddy river.

11 unforgettable scenes from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards

By Popular Science Team

Two Fingered Sloth close-up

Sloths may be in danger by the end of the century

a condor, a large bird with black plumage, stands near a creek

4 endangered California condors will be released into the wild

By Laura Baisas

Group of Snow Geese in elegant flight against blue sky at Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge in New Mexico in winter.

Why do birds migrate? Scientists have a few major theories.

By Lauren Leffer

a sea robin fish with wide pectoral fins and six crab-like legs

This fish has 6 legs that act like tongues

By Laura Baisas

a platypus floating in a creek on the Eungella National Park , Queensland, Australia

Platypus-like robot skin inspired by scientist’s daughter

a CT scan of two jaw fossils from early mammals

A 225-million-year-old fossilized jaw joint shifts evolutionary timeline

By Laura Baisas

a spook-fish with a narrow snout and large pectoral fins

Boo! New species of ghost shark uncovered in New Zealand

By Laura Baisas

three species of crane stand in tall grass. the first has grey, black and white plumage and is the tallest. the second has mostly white plumage. the last one is small with gray plumage.

Cranes can migrate 4,000 miles, but that’s not the hard part

By Laura Baisas

dark and finger-like fungi arise from under a piece of wood

Is this the creepiest fungus in the forest? Yes, definitely.

By Laura Baisas

a snake with an open mouth and visible fangs

New tool helps scientists identify venomous snakes

By Laura Baisas

a Byrde's whale surfaces to breathe in the Pacific Ocean

Elusive whale’s vocalization could be their version of ‘Marco Polo’

By Laura Baisas

a small baby pygmy hippopotamus sits on the ground

Humans likely wiped out Cyprus’ tiny hippos and elephants in record time

By Laura Baisas

Water anole breathing through air bubble underwater

This lizard’s skin creates an underwater bubble helmet

a red fish with a grumpy expression and large teeth

Seriously grumpy-faced fish discovered in Red Sea

By Laura Baisas

a polar bear cub comes out of a den with its paw up

Polar bears adapted to the Arctic just 70,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

A Syntretus perlmani wasp larva bursts from a fruit fly’s abdomen.

Gnarly wasp gruesomely rips apart fruit flies from the inside out with its larvae

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a long gray coelacanth swimming in its native habitat

The ‘living fossil’ that thrived during a mass extinction

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a small bird with light brown, black, and white plummage. it has a long beak with sharp teeth

‘Weird’ prehistoric bird had a weaponized beak with teeth

By Laura Baisas

a whale surfaces next to a large fishing trawler

Whales need krill to survive. We want it for supplements.

By Laura Baisas

Mini mum is one of the smallest frogs in the world, described by Mark D. Scherz and his colleagues in 2019. These tiny frogs from southeastern Madagascar live in amongst the leaf litter and feed on tiny mites. They are amongst the target species of the GEMINI project, because their closest relatives are ten times larger.

Researchers want to unlock genetics of the world’s tiniest animals

an x-ray image of an eel escaping from a fish's stomach

Watch an eel escape a fish’s stomach through its gills

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a striped tasmanian tiger with sharp teeth eating the body of a wombat-like creature

New bone-crushing Tasmanian tiger species dug up by paleontologists

By Laura Baisas

a northern elephant seal with wide eyes looks into a camera next to an underwater acoustic monitoring device

Northern elephant seals know a ‘dinner bell’ when they hear one

By Laura Baisas

Peach blossom jellyfish

Invasive jellyfish ‘clones’ are spreading into Canada

a pregnant porbeagle shark swims under water with two tags. one is on her dorsal fin and the other is on her back

Who ate the pregnant porbeagle shark?

By Laura Baisas

Timelapse image of springtail jumping backwards

Watch the world’s fastest backflipping bug

a huge swarm of thousands of mosquitoes

Mosquitoes can barely see–but a male’s vision perks up when they hear a female

By Laura Baisas

birds have culture

Birds have ‘culture.’ Just look at these nests.

By Lauren Leffer

an orange starfish with four arms of similar size and one shorter arm sits on some rocks

How starfish lose limbs (on purpose) and survive

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a crocodile biting an ancient seacow with a shark lurking behind it

Crocodile attacks sea cow. Tiger Shark picks apart sea cow.

By Laura Baisas

a small white and red squid

New images of deep sea wonders are surprisingly adorable

By Laura Baisas

a moth with a yellow body, pink legs, and pink and yellow wings sits on a green leaf

The ‘disco’ gene could help moths tell time

By Laura Baisas

Mastodon skull in Iowa creek bed

Huge mastodon skull found in a rural Iowa creek

a green parrot with an open beak and orange and black eye

These parrots have accents

By Laura Baisas

several white circles surround a humpback whale with an open mouth

Humpback whales use bubble-nets as ‘tools’

By Laura Baisas

A male and a female Aphonopelma jacobii. Their small size can be seen when compared to the acorn cap, pine needles, and oak leaf.

Newly discovered tarantulas may already be in danger

A freshly-collected batch of venomous cone snails.

Precise, lethal sea snail toxin could one day lead to better medicines

By Laura Baisas

a python with a wide open mouth swallows a white rat whole

How pythons can eat such giant meals

By Laura Baisas

Anatomically accurate sculpture of a dodo

The dodo was faster and smarter than you think

a spider traps a glowing firefly in its web

Spiders may be hacking firefly signals to trap dinner

By Laura Baisas

baby sloth poses for the camera on the tree

Which animals can and can’t fart?

By Alex Hazlett

This eyeless cavefish grows extra taste buds on its head

Port Jackson sharks sleeping on the seafloor at Beagle Marine Park.

Watch a huge ‘No Boys Allowed’ shark slumber party

By Laura Baisas

A transparent zebrafish in a tank in a laboratory at the Pasteur Institute in Paris on June 20, 2023.

Zebrafish regenerate their spinal cords in a surprising way

By Laura Baisas

Columbian mammoth tusk fossil in creek

Man finds gigantic mammoth tusk in a Mississippi creek

Specimen photographed with autofluorescence under confocal microscope at 639 nm; different colors indicate z-depth, with violet to red gradient representing the shallowest to deepest planes, respectively.

Extremely rare tardigrade fossils seen in unprecedented detail

a spotted cat walks through a mountain region at night

Endangered Species

Rare, endangered ocelot caught on camera

By Laura Baisas

Using rodenticides is projected to increase and may be contributing to declines in many carnivore species around the world.

Rat poison is moving up through food chains, threatening carnivores around the world

By Meghan P. Keating / The Conversation

Colorful atlantic puffin sitting on a cliff

In Iceland, humans throwing baby puffins is a good thing

By Alisha McDarris

a close up of a burmese python.

The 2024 Florida Python Challenge begins

By Laura Baisas

A deceased blue tit is being held in a womans hand

More than a billion birds could be dying from flying into buildings each year in US

By Lauren Leffer

two sea lions swim in blue water, with their heads above the water

Sea lion camera crews help scientists map unexplored seabeds

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a small penguin with light black, yellow, and white feathers on a new zealand beach

Tiny fossil reveals when penguins evolved their surprisingly useful wings

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s reconstruction of Shishania aculeata as it would have appeared in life as viewed from the top, side and bottom (left to right). This early mollusk lived about 514 million years ago.

A ‘rotting little plastic bag’ was actually a 514 million-year-old fossil

By Laura Baisas

A rare visitor, a Mandarin Duck, showed up in Central Park, New York City in 2018.

Why are there so many birds?

By Lauren Leffer

a lobster with blue, pink, and purple coloring on a white tray

One in 100 million cotton candy lobster caught in New Hampshire

By Laura Baisas

Wound care and amputation in a Camponotus maculatus ant.

Ants perform teeny tiny operations to save their injured comrades

By Popular Science Team