Wildlife (Page 16)

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

Latest in Wildlife

A bioluminescent sea cucumber called Scotoplanes or the “sea pig.”

Surprise! These sea cucumbers glow

By Laura Baisas

A piping plover walks along L Street Beach in South Boston. The bird is small, with white and grey plummage.

Piping plovers are in trouble, but there’s some good news

By Laura Baisas

Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, photographed by a camera trap.

Elusive egg-laying mammal caught on camera for the first time

By Laura Baisas

A lateral view of Loncovilius carlsbergi. It is a six-limbed beetle less than an inch long, with two antennae protruding from its head.

These newfound beetles have male genitals shaped like a bottle opener

By Laura Baisas

An Anna’s hummingbird with bright pink plumage flies near some leafy green trees.

Hummingbirds have two creative strategies for flying through tight spaces

By Laura Baisas

Smallmouth buffalofish caught at Apache Lake, Arizone

Century-old buffalofish are still living in their prime

Illustration in green, yellow, orange, and purple of big sauropod dinosaurs lifting weights in front of a prehistoric landscape

The mystery of why some dinosaurs got so enormous

A side view of a great white shark. Regional endothermy in fish has been seen in apex predators like the great white sharks or giant tuna.

Megalodon’s warm-blooded relatives are still circling the oceans today

By Laura Baisas

A louse on human hair under a microscope. Humans and lice have coevolved for thousands of years. The oldest human louse known to scientists is a 10,000 year-old specimen from Brazil.

What head lice can tell us about human migration

By Laura Baisas

A baby loggerhead turtle pokes out of a shell on the sand. Its head and front flippers are out of the shell, with the lower half remaining inside.

Endangered Species

Endangered sea turtles build hundreds of nests on the Outer Banks

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Ekgmowechashala, the last primate to inhabit North America before humans. The animal has a white furry face, with a pink nose, and large dark eyes like a lemur. It is sitting in a leafy tree.

North America was once home to some unusual wild monkeys

By Laura Baisas

An orange starfish, or sea star, on a black backgorund. The unusual five-axis symmetry of sea stars has long confounded our understanding of animal evolution.

The sea star’s whole body is a head

By Laura Baisas

An artist's illustration of an early lamprey's teeth and sucker. The Jurassic lampreys Yanliaomyzon had a feeding apparatus that surprisingly resembles that of the pouched lampreys. It foreshadows the ancestral flesh-eating habit of present day. lampreys.

Giant prehistoric lamprey likely sucked blood—and ate flesh

By Laura Baisas

Ma Rainey, a post-reproductive female of the Ngogo community of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and her adult son Wes. The two are sitting among trees in a forest.

Wild chimpanzees show signs of potential menopause—a rarity in the animal kingdom

By Laura Baisas

A long torpedo-shaped fish swims among green plants. Knifefish like the black ghost knifefish are known for their shimmying motions and electrical pulses. and live in freshwater lakes and rivers in Central and South America.

Why electric knifefish ‘shimmy’

By Laura Baisas

AlgaRay robot floating atop water in Antigua

This seafaring robot ‘eats’ stinky seaweed and dumps it in deep water

A kingfisher with blue and yellow feathers and outstretched wings dives through the air.

How kingfishers pull off breakneck dives without hurting their brains

By Laura Baisas

a collection of woolly mammoth figurines on petri dishes on a blue background to represent Colossal's de-extinction project

Endangered Species

Is de-extinction only a pipette dream? This startup has a big, expensive plan to find out.

By Andrew Zaleski

A view from the summit of Volcán Salín, one of three Andean volcanoes where researchers uncovered the mummified cadavers of mice. Analyses of the mummies, combined with the capture of live specimens, suggest that the rodents scaled the Mars-like peaks on their own — and are somehow managing to live on them.

How did mummified mice end up on volcanoes in the Atacama Desert?

By Laura Baisas

four of the best bird feeder cameras sliced together against a white background

The best bird feeder cameras

By Becki Robins

A blue Bird Buddy is mounted on a post in front of a house.

Bird Buddy Smart Bird Feeder review: A camera that’s not just for the birds

By Abby Ferguson

An illustration of a newly discovered shark species called Strigilodus tollesonae. The shark looks somewhat like a stingray, with outstretched wings, fan-like top fins, and a long tail with black spots.

Prehistoric shark called Kentucky home 337 million years ago

By Laura Baisas

Smallmouth bass.

It’s not too late to stop a bass invasion in the Colorado River

By Ben Goldfarb / High Country News

A group of worker bees surround the queen bee on a honeycomb. All worker honeybees are female and they can go to extreme lengths to serve their queen even shedding their own ovaries.

Female honeybees may pass down ‘altruistic’ genes

By Laura Baisas

An endangered Texas ocelot in the vicinity of the highway.

Endangered Species

Wildlife exits on Texas roads could help endangered ocelots

By Laura Baisas

Galapagos giant tortoises are restoring their own ecosystem

Endangered Species

Galapagos giant tortoises are restoring their own ecosystem

By Syris Valentine/Hakai Magazine

Two frogs mating in a body of water.

Female frogs appear to play dead to avoid mating

By Laura Baisas

Grazer looking chunky and getting ready for winter on September 14, 2023. The bear is in the river intensely staring for salmon.

Fierce mama Grazer takes 2023’s Fat Bear Week crown

By Laura Baisas

An underwater closeup of Cayo margarita (a new species) in the coral reef of the Florida Keys. Note the two long tentacles, used by the snail to spread the mucus net for feeding.

New neon-yellow snail from the Florida Keys gets a happy hour-ready name

By Laura Baisas

A capybara standing on a riverbank. Capybaras are semi-aquatic rodents that can weigh up to 174 pounds.

4 capybara facts you’ll love, and 1 you’d like to forget

By Laura Baisas

Blue bins of fish and other seafood caught near the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan

This nuclear byproduct is fueling debate over Fukushima’s seafood

Disease plagues Tasmanian devils—except for on one island

Endangered Species

Disease plagues Tasmanian devils—except for on one island

By Jessica Wynne Lockhart/Hakai Magazine

A lioness bears her teeth. Mammals in a new study were twice as likely to abandon a waterhole when hearing human voices than the sounds of a lion.

Humans are now the African savannah’s top predator

By Laura Baisas

Two chimpanzees share a meal. A new study found that same-sex sexual behavior helps establish and maintain positive social relationships in animals including chimpanzees, bighorn sheep, lions, and wolves.

Mammals may use same-sex sexual behavior for conflict resolution, bonding, and more

By Laura Baisas

The Morona-Santiago stubfoot toad (Atelopus halihelos) in Ecuador is listed as critically endangered.

Endangered Species

How we can help the most endangered class of animals survive climate change

By Laura Baisas

Four legged robot inspired by frog

This robot trio mimics the life cycle of a frog

A green monk parakeet standing in dirt. Parrots could have a unique tone of voice just like humans do.

No two parakeets sound exactly the same

By Laura Baisas

Animal deterring robotic wolf sentry

Robotic ‘Super Monster Wolves’ are guarding Japanese towns against bears

This fluffy anteater could be a new species

This fluffy anteater could be a new species

By James Hall/Hakai Magazine

A killer whale in the Salish Sea is observed harassing a porpoise, a behavior that has long perplexed scientists.

Why are these orcas harassing porpoises? Scientists have 3 theories.

By Laura Baisas

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA

By Laura Baisas

A volcano spews lava and ash. In roughly 250 million years, massive tectonic activity could push together all of our current landmasses into a supercontinent like Pangea and make the climate inhospitable to humans and other mammals.

A boiling hot supercontinent could kill all mammals in 250 million years

By Laura Baisas

A hyenea shows its jaws. Giant hyenas went extinct about 500,000 years ago, but were roughly 240 pounds and skilled scavengers like their modern counterparts.

How many ancient humans does it take to fight off a giant hyena?

By Laura Baisas

To protect wild bumblebees, people have to find them first

To protect wild bumblebees, people have to find them first

By Sarah Trent / High Country News

Aerial view of a hot air balloon over Namib desert. The circular “fairy circles” are derived from any vegetation & surrounded by tall grass.

Mysterious ‘fairy circles’ may appear on three different continents

By Laura Baisas

A tarantula with a mostly black body, but bright blue legs and pincers. Chilobrachys natanicharum is the first tarantula species found in Thailand’s mangrove trees. CREDIT: Yuranan Nanthaisong/ZooKeys.

Meet the first electric blue tarantula known to science

By Laura Baisas

South Africa’s Missing sharks have been found

South Africa’s Missing sharks have been found

By David Shiffman / Hakai Magazine

Grizzly bear mom and cubs crossing road in Yellowstone National Park

Grizzlies are getting killed by roads, but the risks are bigger than roadkill

A Caribbean box jellyfish on a black background. It has a round, bell shaped body, with about 11 visible tentacles. It also has four parallel brain-like structures with roughly 1,000 nerve cells in each.

These 24-eyed jellyfish learn from their mistakes

By Laura Baisas

Manatee in a patch of sunlight

Sea the beauty of the world’s oceans with these 12 award-worthy photos

By Popular Science Team

A pied tamarin monkey sits on a large rope. Pied tamarin monkeys live in a small geographic range in Brazil, where they eat fruits, flowers, and various tree gums and saps.

Endangered Species

As humans get louder, monkeys mark more territory

By Laura Baisas

Egyptian fruit bats on a fruit feeder at a zoo

How do bats stay cancer-free? The answer could be lifesaving for humans.

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A dissected ant and where you can see the encapsulated parasites (white oval structures) spilling out of the hind body.

This parasite deploys mucus slime balls to make ‘zombie ants’

By Laura Baisas

An Australian lungfish named Methuselah swims in a tank at the Steinhart Aquarium. The fish has a flat snout, olive-green scales, and a long torpedo-shaped body.

Endangered Species

World’s oldest living aquarium fish could be 100 years young

By Laura Baisas

Giant African land snail, an invasive species in Florida, on a red bucket

Invasive snails are chomping through Florida, and no one can stop them

By Maddi Langweil

Plastic fishing gear brings in a better catch, but there’s a big tradeoff

Plastic fishing gear brings in a better catch, but there’s a big tradeoff

By Alastair Bland/Hakai Magazine

Can animals give birth to twins?

Can animals give birth to twins?

By Michael Jaffe and Tracy Jaffe/The Conversation

Revo Foods 3D-printed salmon

The world’s first 3D-printed salmon is hitting store shelves, and it looks kind of good

A gray tufted titmouse perches on a scientist's hand.

What songbirds can teach us about being smart

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A rare fish with ‘hands’ is spotted in a surprising place

Endangered Species

A rare fish with ‘hands’ is spotted in a surprising place

By Sara Kiley Watson

Dogs and wolves remember where you hide their food

Dogs and wolves remember where you hide their food

By Laura Baisas

Oysters can’t sleep—and your lights might be the cause

Oysters can’t sleep—and your lights might be the cause

By Hannah Seo/Hakai Magazine

Possum eating on a doorstep

11 jaw-dropping photos of marsupials, mushrooms, and more

By Popular Science Team

two jackdaws (Corvus monedula) on a branch

These crow relatives put food over friendship

By Sara Kiley Watson