Wildlife(Page 9)

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

Latest in Wildlife

a small hippo in straw

Endangered Species

5 things to know about pygmy hippos–like Scotland’s own Haggis

By Laura Baisas

two sperm whales singing

New method for finding sperm whales kind of works like a rideshare app

By Laura Baisas

a small bat glides over water

How these tiny bats use a sound map to navigate

By Laura Baisas

a tadpole swimming

A rock in Argentina turns out to be the oldest tadpole fossil ever found

By Laura Baisas

Thalattosuchian skulls. Showing the semi-aquatic species (A and B), and the fully aquatic metriorhynchid (C).

Why don’t we have deep sea crocodiles?

a large rat wearing a red vest holds a dark, round, ball

Giant three-pound rats trained to sniff out illegal poaching

By Laura Baisas

a brown and black spider money sits in a green and leafy tree with a large, round, yellow fruit in its mouth

‘Drunk’ animals might be more common

By Laura Baisas

Male Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) in flight

Feather-inspired wing flaps may prevent planes from stalling

A malabar gliding frog struggles and holds on to twigs to try and escape from the venomous, strong bite of its predator - a Malabar pit viper. The viper didn't let go of the frog, and the frog didn't let go of the twigs either, until it had a little life left in it. However, the frog had to give up finally, and the snake won, and swallowed this beautiful green frog. This is a stack of two images, one for frog eyes, and another for the snake's eyes. We had almost given up hopes of finding any subjects in the rainforest of Agumbe, India, due to heavy rains, but decided to stop at one last place on the way back to our stay, and this was our lucky and only find for the night.

16 brutal and captivating wildlife images from the Close-up Photographer of the Year shortlist

By Popular Science Team

An illustration of Lomankus edgecombei. This arthropod lived about 538 to 485 million years ago in dark and low-oxygen environments.

450-million-year-old arthropod found preserved in fool’s gold

By Laura Baisas

Silhouette of a loving couple hugging and kissing at sunset on the beach.

The origins of kissing may have a lot to do with body hair

a bat with brown, black, and white fur and open eyes

Robert Battinson, Batlor Swift, and more face off in Bat Beauty Contest

By Laura Baisas

Jumping carp disrupt recreational boating and other water-based activities.

Chicago’s dirty water may be keeping invasive species at bay

By Lauren Leffer

A nearly 15-foot-long Burmese python devours a 77-pound deer in Florida.

Burmese pythons stretch their mouths even wider than we thought possible

Jeff VanderMeer next to book cover for Absolution

Jeff VanderMeer talks about his new novel and ‘deranged court jester’ Elon Musk

An illustration, drawn and engraved, of an eastern whip-poor-will, by Richard Polydore Nodder.

What happened to this iconic bird of American horror?

By Jared Del Rosso / The Conversation

Gila monster spit inspired a new way to detect rare pancreatic tumors

As the tide of invasive Pacific pink salmon threatens to overwhelm Norway’s rivers, the locals—above on the Vestre Jakobselv—net or trap as many possible before the fish spawn and die, potentially changing the ecology of the region.

Where the rivers run pink

By Jude Isabella/Hakai Magazine

several orange and black monarch butterflies dot large green leaves

Endangered Species

Scientists build rest stops for monarch butterflies on a volcano

By Laura Baisas

A photograph showing two big and two little Pyrocystis noctiluca.

Why these plankton puff up to 6x bigger than normal

By Laura Baisas

a blue whale skeleton on display at a museum

Blue whale skeleton still leaking oil, 26 years after death

By Laura Baisas

a musuem exhibit with a dinosaur skeleton. a picture of actor jeff goldblum saying "that is a one big pile of poop" is in the lower left.

The Poozeum: Fossilized bug farts, T. rex poop, and more ancient coprolites

By Laura Baisas

An illustration showing an imposing fully-grown male Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus wandering India’a Kashmir Valley, 400,000 years ago, towering over a herd of Central Asian red deer. In the distance, a small band of prehistoric humans set up a campfire to cook their meal.

Mysterious elephant species uncovered with 87 prehistoric stone tools

By Laura Baisas

a small frog with light green coloring and dark spots sits on a green leaf

Seven new frog species named for their ‘Star Trek’-esque calls

By Laura Baisas

a grey squirrel climbs out of a jack-o-lantern

How to squirrel-proof your pumpkins

By Debbie Wolfe

Migrating birds introduce forever chemicals into the food chain.

Migrating seabirds are bringing forever chemicals into the Arctic

By William von Herff / Hakai Magazine

This baby toque macaque was happily suckling milk from it's mother. It was so relaxed it almost fell asleep.

13 memorable and metal Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners

By Popular Science Team

a lion skull with a close up on its teeth. one of the bottom teeth has a large black cavity.

These lions devoured 28 humans, wildebeest, and more in 1898

By Laura Baisas

a finch with a sharp beak and dark plumage holds a round seed in its beak

Scientists simulate calls of ‘future finches’

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a large hawk-like bird carrying a long tailed rodent in its claws

With fearsome feet, hawk-sized Cretaceous birds could scoop up baby dinos

By Laura Baisas

five toothbrushes in a cup on a bathroom sink

The next lifesaving antibiotic might be a virus on your toothbrush

By Laura Baisas

two oval comb jellyfish fusing together as one

Two comb jellies can fuse together into one–and keep both butts

By Laura Baisas

Brown tarantulas mating

Male tarantulas seek love, find death around Halloween

a penguin looks at the camera while swimming in icy waters

14 soaring and stunning images from 2024 Bird Photographer of the Year awards

By Popular Science Team

Young Cuckoo, Canorus cuculus, in Reed Warblers nest in reedbed, Norfolk UK.

Are you my baby? The clever ways that brood parasites trick other birds

By Sofia Quaglia / Knowable Magazine

Side by side of nature camera and brown bear

How the Fat Bear Week crew gets that beautiful bear footage

Geckos have a ‘sixth sense’

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a pterosaur with a short tail walking with legs and its wings on the ground

The first true flying vertebrates walked before they could soar

By Laura Baisas

a grayish brown wombat walking next to shrubs

Can wombats kill with their butts? We found the hard truth.

By Laura Baisas

a microscope image of a small crustacean with a round body, two large antennae come from its head, and several small legs

Sorry, zooplankton don’t want to eat your poop

By Laura Baisas

Aerobat uses a combination or rigid and soft 3D-printed materials to mimic a bat's malleable wings.

Bats’ weird wings inspired this drone

By Mack DeGeurin

Montana Mountain King sheep

Endangered Species

Montana breeder of illegal, giant sheep hybrid clones gets 6 months in prison

Group of Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) on haulout, Vaygach island, Barents sea

Walrus DNA suggests meetings between Vikings and Indigenous Inuit

the moment a jaguar delivers a fatal bite to the head of a caiman in a muddy river.

11 unforgettable scenes from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards

By Popular Science Team

Two Fingered Sloth close-up

Sloths may be in danger by the end of the century

a condor, a large bird with black plumage, stands near a creek

4 endangered California condors will be released into the wild

By Laura Baisas

Group of Snow Geese in elegant flight against blue sky at Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge in New Mexico in winter.

Why do birds migrate? Scientists have a few major theories.

By Lauren Leffer

a sea robin fish with wide pectoral fins and six crab-like legs

This fish has 6 legs that act like tongues

By Laura Baisas

a platypus floating in a creek on the Eungella National Park , Queensland, Australia

Platypus-like robot skin inspired by scientist’s daughter

a CT scan of two jaw fossils from early mammals

A 225-million-year-old fossilized jaw joint shifts evolutionary timeline

By Laura Baisas

a spook-fish with a narrow snout and large pectoral fins

Boo! New species of ghost shark uncovered in New Zealand

By Laura Baisas

three species of crane stand in tall grass. the first has grey, black and white plumage and is the tallest. the second has mostly white plumage. the last one is small with gray plumage.

Cranes can migrate 4,000 miles, but that’s not the hard part

By Laura Baisas

dark and finger-like fungi arise from under a piece of wood

Is this the creepiest fungus in the forest? Yes, definitely.

By Laura Baisas

a snake with an open mouth and visible fangs

New tool helps scientists identify venomous snakes

By Laura Baisas

a Byrde's whale surfaces to breathe in the Pacific Ocean

Elusive whale’s vocalization could be their version of ‘Marco Polo’

By Laura Baisas

a small baby pygmy hippopotamus sits on the ground

Humans likely wiped out Cyprus’ tiny hippos and elephants in record time

By Laura Baisas

Water anole breathing through air bubble underwater

This lizard’s skin creates an underwater bubble helmet

a red fish with a grumpy expression and large teeth

Seriously grumpy-faced fish discovered in Red Sea

By Laura Baisas

a polar bear cub comes out of a den with its paw up

Polar bears adapted to the Arctic just 70,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

A Syntretus perlmani wasp larva bursts from a fruit fly’s abdomen.

Gnarly wasp gruesomely rips apart fruit flies from the inside out with its larvae

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a long gray coelacanth swimming in its native habitat

The ‘living fossil’ that thrived during a mass extinction

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a small bird with light brown, black, and white plummage. it has a long beak with sharp teeth

‘Weird’ prehistoric bird had a weaponized beak with teeth

By Laura Baisas

a whale surfaces next to a large fishing trawler

Whales need krill to survive. We want it for supplements.

By Laura Baisas

Mini mum is one of the smallest frogs in the world, described by Mark D. Scherz and his colleagues in 2019. These tiny frogs from southeastern Madagascar live in amongst the leaf litter and feed on tiny mites. They are amongst the target species of the GEMINI project, because their closest relatives are ten times larger.

Researchers want to unlock genetics of the world’s tiniest animals