Wildlife(Page 6)

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

Latest in Wildlife

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

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
Animals

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.
Animals

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.
Environment

Why are there so many birds?

By Lauren Leffer

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

One in 100 million cotton candy lobster caught in New Hampshire

By Laura Baisas

Wound care and amputation in a Camponotus maculatus ant.
Science

Ants perform teeny tiny operations to save their injured comrades

By Popular Science Team

an orange, black, and white monarch butterfly on a pink milkweed flower
Animals

How everyone can help monarch butterflies

By Laura Baisas

a pair of brown frogs mating, with the male on the female's back
Animals

The upside-down sex lives of Charles Darwin’s frogs

By Laura Baisas

a firefly with its bottom half illuminated
Environment

A new theory on why fireflies glow—and why they need help

By Laura Baisas

a walrus calf with a cut on its right eye is cared for by two technicians
Animals

Abandoned Pacific walrus calf rescued in Alaska

By Laura Baisas

dead bird specimens with blue and green plumage in museum storage
Animals

All living birds share an ‘iridescent’ ancestor

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of an long cylindrical arthropod. it has big blue eyes, a body that looks like a taco shell, several short red legs, and a tail
Animals

This taco-shaped critter is a big (evolutionary) deal

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of two mouse-like animals in a forest, with a stegosaurus walking by and a mosquito flying over them
Animals

Baby teeth reveal surprisingly long lifespans of small Jurassic mammals

By Laura Baisas

a peacock butterfly on a pink plant. its wings are primarily red, with black, yellow, and blue circles
Animals

Butterflies and moths suck up pollen with static electricity

By Laura Baisas

Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) breaching ocean in an attack.
Environment

Sharks are testing positive for cocaine

By Andrew Paul

five chimpanzeess sitting in tall, green grass
Animals

Chimp conversations can take on human-like chaos

By Laura Baisas

a crocodile, kangaroos, and shark
Environment

15 photographs documenting the silly, serene, and savage side of the animal kingdom

By Popular Science Team

a bear lays flat on its belly on a rocky beach with its legs projected backwards
Environment

It’s sploot season: Animals strike a pose to chill out

By Popular Science Team

a bee kicks away an ant
Animals

Ant gets bee-slapped, and other strange bug moments

By Laura Baisas

a baby crocodile hatches from an egg, surrounded by other eggs.
Animals

106 critically endangered Siamese crocodile eggs spotted in Cambodia

By Laura Baisas

Nubian spitting cobra (
Animals

Breakthrough cobra venom antidote discovered

By Andrew Paul

a 3D rendering of three early humans butchering a giant armadillo
Animals

Early humans butchered enormous armadillos

By Laura Baisas

a long, dark brown millipede crawling on brown and green leaves
Animals

Expedition finds a 10-inch long millipede lost to science for 126 years

By Laura Baisas

A blue Bird Buddy Smart Bird Feeder filled with seed is mounted to a green post.
Gear

The Bird Buddy is the best bird feeder camera at its best price ever for Prime Day

By Stan Horaczek

several snakes entwined together on a rock
Animals

Ssssso many snakes: Watch a ‘mega-den’ of rattlesnakes in real time

By Laura Baisas

beluga whales
Environment

Beluga Whale Live Cam brings the ‘canaries of the sea’ to your screen

By Laura Baisas

Close up of bald eagle
Animals

Hunters’ bullets are poisoning bald eagles

By Andrew Paul

Bag filled with smuggled snakes
Animals

Chinese Customs caught man with 104 snakes in his pants

By Andrew Paul

a male lion sits in a tree
Environment

Lion brothers take risky swim across crocodile-infested channel

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a large shark jumping out of the water and eating a winged dinosaur
Animals

When the ocean got hot, the sharks bulked up

By Laura Baisas

A sampling of haplochromine cichlid fish.
Environment

One fish, two fish, 3,000 fish …

By Curtis Abraham / Knowable Magazine

a nearly complete skeleton of a salamander-like creature that lived 300 million years ago. it's head is round and shaped like a toilet seat
Animals

This giant tetrapod sucked in prey with its ‘toilet seat-shaped’ head

By Laura Baisas

a small grey and black reef fish swims
Animals

Fish in Earth’s hottest water defy the odds

By Laura Baisas

beaver at a dam
Environment

How beavers are helping the Tule River Tribe of California fight wildfires

By Taylar Dawn Stagner / Grist

Five of the comb jelly species featured in a new study on how their cells adapt to water pressures. Red coloration as seen in the two specimens at right is common among deep-sea animals.
Animals

Comb jellies won’t give into the extreme pressures of deep-sea life

By Laura Baisas

a marine biologist and an actor fist bump while sitting on a dive boat in the ocean
Animals

Actor Anthony Mackie and marine biologist Jasmin Graham talk sharks

By Laura Baisas

Shark Embryos
Environment

Scientists built an artificial shark uterus

By Claudia Geib / Hakai Magazine

Green and gold bell frogs in artificial hotspot shelter.
Environment

Frog saunas could help the amphibians cope with a deadly fungus

By Lauren Leffer

a blue lobster in an aquarium tank
Environment

Why blue animals are so rare in nature

By Laura Baisas

a large lizard with yellow spots in the dirt
Animals

Giant lizards could keep flesh-eating maggots off Australia’s sheep

By Laura Baisas

A Barred Owl hangs upside down from a thin tree branch, its body horizontal, its face turned and looking at the camera. Above it hangs a squirrel on a branch. Its head is nearly completely severed and is held in the owl’s talons. Its fur is bloodied.
Environment

Mating, murder, and parenting: The complex lives of birds on display in 2024 Audubon Photography Awards

By Popular Science Team

wombat
Science

Inside the secret lives of wombats

By Amber Dance/Knowable Magazine

an illustration of three long-necked and marine reptiles swimming with four paddle shaped limbs in an ancient sea
Environment

This giant polar reptile once stalked an ancient super-ocean

By Laura Baisas

Katie Tyson, 18, first runner up for the Miss Snake Charmer pageant poses for a portrait in a snake pit during the 2021 Rattlesnake Roundup at the Nolan County Coliseum in Sweetwater, Texas on March 13, 2021. - The town of Sweetwater holds the largest rattlesnake roundup in the world, launched in 1958 with the sole purpose of getting rid of rattlesnakes, killing an average of 5,000 pounds of snake each year. (Photo by PAUL RATJE / AFP) (Photo by PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images)
Environment

Despite criticism, the last of the rattlesnake roundups hang on

By Ted Willians / Yale Environment 360

Hammerhead shark
Environment

A scientific mission to save the sharks

By Angela Posada-Swafford / Knowable Magazine

a long and lean sei whale swimming in the ocean
Animals

Dozens of rare, endangered whales spotted off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard

By Laura Baisas

Brooding squid
Environment

Incredible footage shows new squid species tending to enormous eggs

By Andrew Paul

a black widow spider on a leaf. the spider is black with a red marking on its abdomen.
Animals

New experimental black widow venom antidote uses human antibodies

By Laura Baisas

a juvenile dolphin lifts its head out of the water
Animals

Young dolphins mimic sex as part of play

By Laura Baisas

two juvenile elephants greet each other near a watering hole. their trunks are interlocked.
Animals

African elephants use name-like calls to address each other

By Laura Baisas

A colorful adult female Joro spider. These arachnids are native to parts of Southeast Asia.
Science

No, ‘flying’ venomous spiders are not coming for you this summer

By Laura Baisas

a school of yellow and white swim near a reef
Animals

Fish swimming together fare better in turbulent waters

By Laura Baisas

a tiger shark swimming in the ocean (left). a small spiky mammal with a pointy nose canned an echidna (right) on land
Environment

Unlucky shark vomits up hedgehog-like animal, shocks scientists

By Laura Baisas

oysters plate
Environment

Climate change is coming for your oysters

By Devon Fredericksen / Hakai Magazine

a large bird with blue plummage and orange eyes called a cassowary
Environment

The world’s most dangerous bird is at risk of extinction

By Laura Baisas

OceanXplorers sub
Animals

Watch the exclusive trailer premiere for James Cameron’s new ‘OceanXplorers’ series

By Andrew Paul

Zebrafish
Science

Why do we send so many fish to space?

By Briley Lewis

an american flamingo. the bird has pink and white plumage with a black beak
Environment

A ‘pink wave’ of flamingoes settles into the Sunshine State

By Laura Baisas

a snake spits venom out of its mouth
Environment

Snake venom’s deadly secrets decoded with fake blood vessels

By Laura Baisas

Common cuttlefish
Technology

Cuttlefish tentacles and origami inspired a new robotic claw

By Andrew Paul

An artistic life reconstruction of Genyornis newtoni, the last of the dromornithids, at the water’s edge
Environment

Giant 500-pound geese once honked around the Australian outback

By Laura Baisas

Orcas only need one breath between dives
Environment

Orcas only need one breath between dives

By Laura Baisas

a brown snail sits on a green lettuce leaf
Animals

Slimy slugs and snails surprisingly thriving in LA

By Laura Baisas

an otter eating while floating on its back
Environment

Female sea otters use tools more than males

By Laura Baisas