Wildlife(Page 21)

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

Latest in Wildlife

A crow and a vulture with a bright red head stand facing one another on a leaf-covered forest floor.

Endangered Species

The wackiest-looking birds are the most at risk for extinction

By Philip Kiefer

Pileated woodpecker with a red cap and black and white face pecking on wood in nine high speed video frames

Why woodpeckers actually don’t need shock-absorbing skulls to headbang

By Kate Baggaley

Caribou peeking over horizon

Climate change is forcing massive wildlife migrations towards the poles

By Benjamin von Brackel

Forest with mountain and sunset in background.

Why you can’t put a price on biodiversity

By Sara Kiley Watson

fin-whales-drake-passage

An Antarctic feeding frenzy means good news for vulnerable fin whales

By Corinne Iozzio

Fossil frog skeleton in rock from German swamp

A swamp orgy went terribly wrong for these prehistoric frogs

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Fish raining from sky on local news

We may know why fish rained from the sky over Texas

By Paul Richards / Field & Stream

Red fox with eyes closed and teeth bared

Can I have a pet fox?

By Dan Nosowitz

a sperm whale swimming under water

Megalodons liked to snack on sperm whale snouts

By Rachel Feltman

Soil with small green plants.

Diverse microbes are key to healthy soil. Climate change is threatening that.

By Carla Delgado

Fat baby seal looking at the camera

Facial recognition works on seals. No, really.

By Sean Mowbray / Hakai Magazine

shark-near-florida

Sharks are learning to love coastal cities

By Corinne Iozzio

a siberian husky in the snow howls

Ancient wolf DNA is being used to sniff out where our love story with dogs began

By Kate Baggaley

a large black stick bug isolated on a black background

Endangered Species

Macro portraits reveal the glamor and peril of endangered insects

By Lauren J. Young

Farmer holding freshly harvested carrots.

The EU’s plan to halve pesticide use is ambitious, but realistic

By Sara Kiley Watson

a close up of a face mite poking out of a skin pore

The mites that breed on our faces are getting clingier by the day

By Lauren J. Young

a turtle with a bit of moss on its face

Could reptiles and amphibians hold the key to the fountain of youth?

By Kate Baggaley

Ca. Thiomargarita magnifica filamentous bacteria on black

Ever heard of giant bacteria? This new species is way bigger and weirder.

By Maria Parazo Rose

Could an ancient megashark still lurk in the deep seas?

Giant freshwater fish

This is the largest freshwater fish ever caught

By Paul Richards / Field & Stream

Colorful mantis shrimp with giant eyes that have color vision on black background

Do animals feel pain? Science author Ed Yong says that’s the wrong question.

By Philip Kiefer

a family of polar bears walk on a glacier

Greenland’s polar bears are learning to get around in a less icy world

By Kate Baggaley

Starfish spawning in water

8 award-winning photos of nature’s stranger things

By Stephanie Stone

A piping plover shorebird walks on sand, with tawny feathers on his back, a white stomach, a black band of feathers on his neck, and a green band on his ankle

Remembering Monty and Rose, the Chicago shorebirds that became the face of a movement

SpaceX rocket launch facility near Boca Chica, Texas.

What SpaceX’s final Starbase permits could mean for Texas wildlife

By Kristine Liao

What an ancient jawbone reveals about polar bear evolution

What an ancient jawbone reveals about polar bear evolution

By Philip Kiefer

A baby sea turtle on a beach near some sea turtle tracks, and some people in the background.

Endangered Species

Safely share the beach with endangered sea turtles this summer

By Alisha McDarris

A great white shark and megalodon co-existed nearly 4 million years ago.

How great white sharks probably hastened the demise of megalodon

By Kate Baggaley

Inside the Yurok Tribe’s mission to make critically endangered condors thrive

By Brian Oaster / High Country News

A colorful parrot hooked onto a tree with its beak.

What’s got two legs and a head for climbing? Rosy-faced lovebirds.

By Philip Kiefer

A horde of horseshoe crabs mates on the beach

7 animal mating rituals that make horseshoe crab orgies look tame

A recreation of Yorkicystis haefneri, a historic creature

This strange 500-million-year-old sea urchin relative lost its skeleton

By Samuel Zamora / The Conversation

A jackdaw, a Eurasian bird that launches into the sky in flocks of hundreds.

Demo-crow-cy: Jackdaws leave the roost by voting

A photo of a humpback whale and her calf.

Boat noise is driving humpback whale moms into deep, dangerous water

By Marina Wang / Hakai Magazine

a small brown salamander on a log

Skydiving salamanders have mastered falling with style

By Kate Baggaley

a large mass of jumping worms in a bucket is compared to a person's hand size

The jumping worm invasion may be less worrisome than it sounds

Moose in Main are in danger.

Climate change-emboldened ticks are killing off moose in Maine

By Paul Richards / Field & Stream

remora fish attached to swimming manta ray

This amphibious drone hitchhikes like a suckerfish

By Charlotte Hu

A photo of a salmon hybrid.

This wild salmon hybrid is raising concerns in Canada

By Kris Millgate/Field & Stream

Two adults and a child in a rowboat on a calm lake at sunset. The man at the bow is paddling, the man at the back is holding a fishing rod, and the child is sitting between them.

A casual angler’s guide to taking kids fishing for the first time

By Jean Levasseur

The Iron Curtain’s border zone has grown into a wild, ecological haven

The Iron Curtain’s border zone has grown into a wild, ecological haven

By Sarah Baxter

Small brown-black migratory bat help in a person's hand with head facing camera

This itty bitty bat flew across two continents at record speed

A turtle crossing a road.

What to do if you find a turtle in the road

By Natalie Wallington

People standing on a bridge at sunset while bats fly over.

Climate change could introduce humans to thousands of new viruses

By Philip Kiefer

Caribbean flamingo chick tucked into the pink feathers on the back of its parent

Before they grow into splendor, flamingos are just awkward floofs

By Claudio Contreras Koob and Martha A. Salazar

robotic buoy floating in ocean

Whale-monitoring robots are oceanic eavesdroppers with a mission

By Charlotte Hu

A photo of perch on a fish smoker being smoked.

Everything you need to smoke fish

By Jack Hennessy / Field & Stream

two spiders entangled together mating

These male spiders fling into the air to escape post-coital cannibalism

By Lauren J. Young

Two crows attacking a feeding bald eagle along the water

Crows and ravens flexed smarts and strength for world dominance

fluorescent view of an archerfish's skeleton and anatomy

An archerfish family tree is the best shot yet at the evolution of sniper fish

On the left, multicolor eggs form a circle. On the right, a cuckoo finch is with two host chicks.

Thanks to a matriarchal gene, this bird can trick others into caring for its eggs

Eight brightly colored birds from a museum specimens collection laid out on their backs on white

Songbirds near the equator really are hotter, color-wise

By Kate Baggaley

Two mid-sized brown owls sitting on a branch in daylight with horses, rhinos, and soaring birds in the background in an illustration

Meet the ancient owl that embraced daylight

By Purbita Saha

How vampire bats evolved to get the most out of their bloody diets

By Kate Baggaley

a yellow wheeled robot approaches a colony of penguins in the snow

The march of the penguins has a new star: an autonomous robot

By Lauren J. Young

Small brilliant colored reef fish with a pink face, yellow fins, and purple tail on a black background

This rainbow reef fish is just as magical as it looks

By Purbita Saha

Map of vulnerable species in the United States.

Endangered Species

Here’s where biodiversity is disappearing the quickest in the US

By Sara Kiley Watson

An image of a spider web to illustrate a story about a South American species of social spiders.

These spiders go off vibes to hunt in packs

By Maggie Galloway

A galloping horse.

Ancient sea creatures pioneered the gallop

By Kate Baggaley

A black bear, which people can struggle to distinguish from other bears.

Burglar bear Hank the Tank might be even tougher to catch. Here’s why.

Northern fulmar seabird sitting on a grassy hill with small pink flowers

Can birds smell? This ornithologist is debunking a long-standing myth.

By Danielle J. Whittaker

birds flying across the moon at night

A moon-watching robot can demystify what migrating birds do at night

By Charlotte Hu

A black bear in the woods.

A 500-pound black bear keeps breaking into California homes. What’s next?

a bald eagle perched on a branch

Eagles face another major threat in the US: lead poisoning

By Kate Baggaley