Wildlife (Page 3)

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

Latest in Wildlife

a new species of lady bug. it is black and the size of a grain of sand

New ladybug species is the size of a grain of sand

By Margherita Bassi

A young lynx playfully throws a rodent into the air before killing and devouring it.

16 astonishing images from the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards

By Popular Science Team

a sea turtle swimming with a boat in the distance

Endangered Species

The world’s smallest sea turtle lives in a noisy ocean

By Margherita Bassi

a cold-stunned green iguana likes on its back on the ground in florida

Florida euthanizes 5,195 frozen iguanas

By Laura Baisas

a whale fluke with hills in the distance

Endangered Species

The lobstermen teaming up with scientists to save endangered whales

By Valerie Shively

Termites eating wood

Termites are swarming Florida even faster than predicted

ROV pilots filmed this glass squid at 1,725 meters while exploring the Colorado-Rawson submarine canyon off the coast of Argentina. CREDIT: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute Due to our legal status as a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation, no media produced by Schmidt Ocean Institute may be used in attempting to influence legislation or lobbying. Additionally, all visual assets (Images, videos, etc) can only be used as stated by creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Marine biologists discover 28 new deep sea species—and an old VHS tape

A white pickup truck is driving away from the viewer across a flat sandy plain with tall, smoothly sculpted dunes rising in the background. Small patches of dry grass are scattered in the foreground.

Endangered Species

Death Valley National Park needs help ID’ing joyriding vandals

A hummingbird’s wings on a micro-CT scanner.

How do you check a hummingbird for broken bones? Very carefully.

a small chick sits on a nest with its parent behind, cleaning its feathers with its beak

Watch an albatross give its brand-new chick a very careful cleanup

By Laura Baisas

Artist illustration of Archaeopteryx

Weird bird mouths go all the way back to the first avian dinosaur

a small primate with large eyes clings to a branch

Endangered Species

This wide-eyed baby primate is cute, cuddly—and venomous

By Margherita Bassi

a green caterpillar on a plant's stem

Caterpillars use tiny hairs to hear

By Margherita Bassi

A young groundhog and its mother lounging in the tall green grass

Groundhogs don’t poop during hibernation and 6 other random facts

By Laura Baisas

family of monkeys

11 stunning finalists for the Youth Photographer of the Year prize

By Popular Science Team

a large dark millipede

These rare, giant millipedes only exist in Florida

By Margherita Bassi

Two images of king cobras seen on or near trains in India

Endangered Species

King cobras take the train in India

She-bear and bear-cubs. Adult female of Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) with cubs on the snow in spring forest.

Facial recognition AI trained to work on bears

three polar bear cubs resting on their mother

Svalbard polar bears are doing surprisingly well (for now)

By Laura Baisas

Hobart, Tasmania - December 27 2016: road side warning sign for Tasmanian kangaroo, tasmanian devil and echidna wildlife

Roadkill is a surprising and untapped source for scientists

an illustration of a large shark holding a flag of the state of maryland.

Megalodon could become Maryland’s official state shark

By Laura Baisas

Abalone shells with numerical tags

Endangered Species

Mysterious, numbered mollusk discovered on Australian beach

a bald eagle with an egg

Bald eagle chick watch 2026: Jackie lays first eggs

By Popular Science Team

a shark with brownish yellow scales and spots curled up among coral

‘Walking sharks’ lay eggs without breaking a sweat

By Margherita Bassi

several nesting pairs of birds on grass with a clear blue ocean water in the background

Snowed in? Watch albatrosses nest on a sunny Pacific island instead

By Laura Baisas

A vibrant culinary photograph featuring a bowl of fresh ceviche made from white fish, red onion, and herbs, surrounded by the raw ingredients used to prepare it. Several whole, striped lionfish with their distinctive venomous spines are arranged around the bowl alongside whole limes, red onions, and bright orange habanero peppers.

Should you eat invasive species? We asked an ecologist.

By Andrew Coletti

a jellyfish with a red center, blue circle on the outer part of its body, and small tentavles

Perplexing blue button jelly looks like something out of ‘Lord of the Rings’

By Margherita Bassi

Group of red kangaroos running in Australia

550-pound Ice Age kangaroos could still hop

a small mammal called a marten stands on a log

Endangered Species

Adorable ferret-sized martens are rebounding in California

By Laura Baisas

a monkey with a red face sits in a hot spring while it snows

Snow monkeys love hot springs. They’re also good for them.

By Laura Baisas

a pod of white beluga whales swimming off the coast of Alaska

Endangered Species

The swinging sex lives of Alaska’s beluga whales

By Laura Baisas

a lionness walks on a misty night

13 gorgeous black-and-white images of the animal kingdom

By Popular Science Team

a bat flying through the night

A robot bat sheds new light on how they hunt in darkness

By Mack DeGeurin

Three harvest mice playing around and entwining their tails together to stop them from falling.

Female mice often have multiple sexual partners—for survival

By Margherita Bassi

a young chimpanzee hanging upside down in a tree

Baby chimpanzees like to free fall through trees

By Margherita Bassi

A shark tooth next to a spoon used to excavate it from sand in Oman

In ancient Arabia, people dined on sharks and stingrays

an iguana with mostly green scales flecked with some orange, blue, and yellow

Don’t pick up frozen iguanas

By Laura Baisas

a close up of a mummified cheetah preserved in a laboratory. it's sharp front teeth are visible

Endangered Species

Mummified cheetahs could help save the critically endangered big cats

By Laura Baisas

a deer stands by a river

Deer markings actually glow

By Laura Baisas

the remains of an ice age wolf

14,000-year-old woolly rhinoceros DNA extracted from wolf’s stomach

By Laura Baisas

White axolotl seen underwater

Endangered Species

Is it illegal to own an axolotl? It depends.

a small black insect standing on white snow

Snow fleas use their tail to jump around the ice

By Laura Baisas

a bird with long legs and colorful feathers

A giant-footed bird showed up in a Massachusetts backyard. It didn’t belong there.

By Margherita Bassi

a mother whale and calf

Endangered Species

2026 is off to a hopeful start for these critically endangered whales

By Margherita Bassi

A pair of Sacabambaspis fish, around 14 inches (35 centimeters) in length, which had distinct, forward-facing eyes and an armored head. No fossils of animals like Sacabambaspis from after the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction event have been discovered.

Mass death paved the way for the Age of Fishes

By Laura Baisas

A vintage photograph of an explosion happening on a baech.

BOOM! That time Oregon blew up a whale with dynamite.

By Shoshi Parks

an iguana with blue and green scales

Endangered Species

10 vulnerable wildlife species to watch in 2026

By Laura Baisas

three side by side images of a large jellyfish in a deep sea canyon

Giant phantom jellyfish spotted deep in Pacific

By Laura Baisas

Close up of Greenland shark with copepod attached to eye

Dissected Greenland shark eyeballs could help humans see forever

an elk with horns in the wood

New wildlife cam features 800-pound elk in northern Michigan

By Laura Baisas

A fluffy beavers sits in front of a fallen tree branch with yellow leaves.

Idaho once dropped 76 beavers from airplanes—on purpose

By Jennifer Byrne

African penguin chick close-up

Aquarium welcomes third endangered penguin chick in less than a month

a cave painting of two warty pigs

Pigs have been island hopping for 50,000 years

By Laura Baisas

a yellow flag with a coiled rattle snake and the words "dont tread on me"Gadsden Flag, Vikkram, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0.

How the timber rattlesnake became a symbol of American independence

By Laura Baisas

Close up of yellow banana slug

An ode to slugs, the mascots of post-holiday laziness

two smuggled spider monkeys hugging

Baby spider monkeys rescued in Texas

By Laura Baisas

close-up of Grey/Gray squirrel holding a walnut

Squirrels can find 85% of the nuts they hide

By Popular Science Team

a small cat walking on leaves

Endangered Species

Tiny wild cat spotted in Thailand for first time in 30 years

By Margherita Bassi

a black horse on dirt

12 award-winning photos of our beautiful world

By Popular Science Team

veteranarians sit in an inflatable pool with a large sting ray

Giving a 140 pound stingray a check-up requires 8 people

By Laura Baisas

Pair of African penguin chicks

Newborn African penguin named after a hot dog

a butterfly with blue wings with black spots

Endangered Species

9 new butterflies discovered in old museum archives

By Margherita Bassi

a close up of a turtle with its head in its shell

Butt breathing and 5 other ways animals stay warm in winter

By Laura Baisas

a large brown bear in italy

Bears in Italy inbreed more, but are less aggressive

By Margherita Bassi