Wildlife(Page 2)

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

Latest in Wildlife

a chimp looks at a monarch butterfly

14 moving images from the 2025 Nature Photographer of the Year awards

By Popular Science Team

A monk parakeet preens a friend. Researchers used dye markers to identify individuals for their social experiment.

Parakeets teach a lesson in friendship

By Laura Baisas

ancient reindeer antlers on rocks

Hiker stumbles on massive medieval reindeer traps in Norway

By Margherita Bassi

a black cat sitting in green grass ready to pounce

Cats love to massacre bugs, and scientists have the videos to prove it

By Mack DeGeurin

A close-up photograph of a vibrant yellow snake, coiled around a horizontal brown branch. The snake, a white-lipped island pit viper, has reddish accents on its tail and is looking directly at the camera with large, bright eyes, set against a softly blurred green and blue background.

How do snakes move? It’s not all slithering.

By Clarissa Brincat

Close up of glossy black wolf snake

Endangered Species

New wolf snake honors the late Steve Irwin

Close up of Calumma gallus chameleon. Males of Calumma gallus have a nasal appendage with distinct spines.

Endangered Species

No lie. The long-nosed Pinocchio chameleon is multiple species.

a baby chimp on an adult chimpanzee's back

Chimpanzees’ brutal battle for territory leads to a baby boom

By Laura Baisas

Parasite ant queen amid worker ants as they attack their own queen

Violent queen ant coup staged by parasitic ants

a small brown and white owl on a brown towel

Alaska’s smallest owl gets the royal treatment after life-threatening injury

By Margherita Bassi

a humpback whale follows two dolphins

13 dizzying and dazzling images from 2025 Drone Photo Awards

By Popular Science Team

The frozen carcass of a 39,000-year-old female woolly mammoth named Yuka from the Siberian permafrost is displayed for an exhibition in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo on July 12, 2013 at a press preview before the opening.

Oldest known RNA found in 40,000-year-old woolly mammoth leg

two black whales under water. one is diving down the other is looking at a camera head on

Hawaii’s short-finned pilot whales eat over 77,000 squid a year

By Laura Baisas

Sperm whales swimming in clear water

Sperm whales use vowels like humans, new study finds

By Laura Baisas

person petting a turtle

Endangered Species

Trafficked turtles get a second chance at life in New Jersey sanctuary

By Laura Baisas

An octopus camouflages itself with the seafloor.

What octopus camouflage has to do with sunscreen

By Margherita Bassi

R2-D2 is seen with Star Wars BDX Droids backstage during Star Wars Celebration Japan on April 19, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.

Bird or droid? Starlings nail R2-D2 beeps and boops.

By Mack DeGeurin

a woodpecker with black white and a little bit of red plumage on a tree

Woodpeckers grunt like tennis players

By Laura Baisas

Close up of tree toad

Endangered Species

These toads don’t start as tadpoles

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2025 Bret Saalwaechter Tracy United States Title: I Just Can't Wait To Be King Description: While photographing a pride of lions in the Serengeti, I watched as a group of cubs channeled their innter toddler tantrum, relentlessly demanding milk and attention from their mother, much to the exasperation of the adult lions. Life in the dry season is no picnic—lions are anxiously waiting for the Great Migration and the feast it promises—but it makes for some incredible wildlife behavior and these cubs were the stars of the show. For over an hour, they followed their mother around a famous Serengeti kopje—those iconic rocky outcrops that dot the landscape—alternating between trying to suckle and play. Each time the mother, already in a foul mood from the sweltering heat, would give a quick roar of disapproval and escape the circus. But the cubs, like any persistent little ones, would chase her down, nipping at her and yelping for more attention. This back-and-forth drama played out again and again, until I captured the perfect moment: the entire pride, in perfect unison, seemed to say, “Not this again!” Animal: Lion Location of shot: Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

14 hilarious finalists from the 2025 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

By Popular Science Team

Video screenshot of remoras attached to humpback whale

Ride on a humpback whale with little sucker fish

A warning sign is seen at the closed walking trail to the observatory in the Shirakawago district, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Japan deploys army to fight bears

Seized ivory and rhino tusks photographed by law enforcement

Endangered Species

Endangered rhino horns and elephant tusks seized in California

a bird with white and gray plummage

Rare seabird saved after swallowing four large fishhooks

By Laura Baisas

P. Mikazuki Portuguese Man O'War

Portuguese Man O’War species honors ‘One-Eyed Dragon’ samurai

An orca swims next to a shark with a visible wound. Image by Marco Villegas.

Orcas are hunting young great white sharks for their livers

Eastern hellbender salamander underwater in river

Hellbender salamanders are huge—and in trouble

a plump brown spider

Beware, beachgoers: New spider discovered in California’s sand dunes

By Margherita Bassi

Bat flying down to attack a frog in rainforest pond

This tiny bat is one of the world’s deadliest hunters

A dark, grainy infrared or night-vision security camera image shows a mouse or rat on a ledge or windowsill, grappling with and biting a flying bat. The bat is visible on the left, upside down in mid-air with its wings spread, as the rodent lunges at it. The entire scene is dominated by shades of white and gray against a dark background.

Caught on camera: Rats hunting bats mid-flight

A wasp spider in its web inside Sierra Mariola Natural Park in Bocairent, Valencian Community, Spain.

Spiders ‘decorate’ their webs to help trap dinner

By Laura Baisas

Side-by-side of a coiled green mamba and a white llama

The secret ingredient in a snake antivenom? Llamas.

a zombie worm, it is long and cylindrical with tentacles

Zombie worms have gone missing

By Laura Baisas

Screenshot of ROV video showing icefish nests on floor of Weddell Sea

The quest to find Shackleton’s ship uncovered an Antarctic mystery

Artist's recreation of ‘Epiatheracerium itjilik’ in its forested lake habitat, Devon Island, Early Miocene, 23 million years ago. The plants and animals shown, including a rodent, rabbit and the transitional seal ‘Puijila darwini,’ are all based on fossilized remains found at the site.

Rhinos once lived in Canada

By Laura Baisas

Two close up shots of two tube-nosed bat species

Six new bat species discovered in the Philippines

The blue marked Queen of a Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica) colony is searching for a place to insert an egg.

Queen bees are violently ousted if worker bees smell weakness

By Laura Baisas

a dolphin blowing bubbles under water

Dolphins may be getting an Alzheimer’s-like disease due to this neurotoxin

By Margherita Bassi

a close up of leopard spots

Why do animals have spots and stripes?

By Laura Baisas

Northern right whale.Eubalaena glacialis.Courting group. Several males approach a female (on left). Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada

Endangered North Atlantic right whales are making a slow comeback

By Margherita Bassi

a big cat with flamingo in its mouth dead

13 riveting images from the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards

By Popular Science Team

the head of a large brown horse

Why do horses have eyes on the side of their head?

By Katie Navarra Bradley

feather in dirt

You’re actually not allowed to keep bird feathers you find on hikes—and it’s all thanks to two women who got really mad about hats

By Popular Science Team

A ringworm mosquito (Culiseta annulata) is seen on a control monitor connected to a microscope in the laboratory for mosquito monitoring at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) on the island of Riems in Germany.

Iceland was the only country in the world without mosquitos—now they’ve found three

By Margherita Bassi

a rattlesnake with an open mouth bearing its fangs

How snake bites really work

By Laura Baisas

Close up of bearded dragon against black background

Reptile ‘pee crystals’ might help treat kidney stones and gout

A red cusk-eel burrowed in among tubeworms at a methane seep off the coast of El Quisco in central Chile. Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute

Tiny spider crabs snack on parasites from Chile’s favorite fish

World’s only flightless parrot doing okay against ‘crusty bum’ disease

By Laura Baisas

Big bison in the National Park on the shore of a lake or river

This national park uses helicopters for bison round-up duty

A family of grizzly bears, including a mother and three cubs

18 triumphant images from the 1839 Photography Awards

By Popular Science Team

Security camera footage of bear entering grocery store in Japan

Bears have attacked over 100 people in Japan since March

a lemur in a tree

Lemurs keep evolving new species, even after 50 million years

By Margherita Bassi

Close up of stink bug on leaf

These stink bugs use cordycep-like fungus to fend off parasitic wasps

a baby sea turtle crawling on sand

Endangered Species

Green sea turtle no longer Endangered

By Laura Baisas

ASU marine biologist and conservation scientist Jesse Senko fishes a solar-powered illuminated net off the coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Endangered Species

Saving sea turtles with solar-powered fishing nets

By Laura Baisas

bat hanging upside down from tree branch at night

Why do bats spread so many diseases? They’re evolutionary marvels.

a lobster with orange and black coloring

Rare 1-in-30-million calico lobster makes her spooky debut

By Laura Baisas

a group of bird surround a rhino

13 stunning and award-winning black and white photographs

By Popular Science Team

two baby rabbits sit in an open box with grass

Endangered Species

15 baby rabbits born at an NYC zoo released in New England

By Margherita Bassi

Research team lowering Redwing submersible into ocean from a boat

Self-piloting submarine set to begin historic mission to circle Earth’s oceans

Greater noctule bat mid-flight

Europe’s biggest bat captures and devours birds while flying

two baby komodo dragons

Endangered Species

These butter-sized hatchlings will someday be the biggest lizards on Earth

By Margherita Bassi

three birds crowding around a white foraging puzzle

Young birds get by with a little help from their…siblings

By Laura Baisas

Smelt fish under ice. Fish spawning in river. Pacific smelt

Fake fish blood may save your ice cream from freezer burn