Wildlife

Zoo curator Bryan Amaral expects Spike will play nice with the other elephants. "For a bull elephant," he says, "Spike's a pretty amenable guy."

Meet Spike, the Affable Asian Bull Elephant Trucked Up From Florida to Join the National Zoo

With a new male elephant in the mix, zookeepers are hopeful babies will soon be on the way

Sir David Attenborough and His Crew Race to Film a Walking Shark

Step behind the scenes as Attenborough and his intrepid crew battle against the falling tide to capture footage of one of nature's most enigmatic creatures

Ali the Aardvark gets cozy as baby Winsol nurses at the Cincinnati Zoo. Ali is one of hundreds of animals whose milk samples are sent to the Smithsonian National Zoo’s milk repository for scientific research.

What Aardvark Milk Reveals about the Evolution of Lactation

Samples from the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Exotic Animal Milk Repository help scientists study the unifying trait of all mammals

Mid-19th Century specimens collected in Latin America by Alfred Russel Wallace include parrot wings and marsupial pelts.

The Great Feather Heist

The curious case of a young American’s brazen raid on a British museum’s priceless collection

Thanks to its neutral taste, cricket flour hides well in oatmeal and baked goods. But a Canadian grocery chain isn't hiding its unusual ingredient: it's putting a picture of a cricket on its logo.

Why Canada Wants You to Know You’re Eating Crickets

In some countries, insects may finally be getting their due as affordable, nutritious protein sources

In Asia, the biggest threat to elephant survival isn't ivory poaching but habitat loss. Here, men ride Asian elephants in Thailand.

New Research

In a Horrifying New Twist, Myanmar Elephants Are Being Poached For Their Skin

In Asia, the biggest threat to elephant survival has long been habitat loss. That may be changing

This Videographer Strikes Gold with a Dwarf Minke Whale

An experienced cinematographer hoping to capture close-up footage of dwarf minke whales has to rely on a trick or two to lure them close

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute archaeologist Ashley Sharpe contemplates the Ceibal site in Guatemala—one of the oldest Maya sites known.

Dogs Were Transported Across Great Distances for Ancient Maya Rituals

A new paper uses chemistry to shed light on the management of Maya animals

A Honey Badger Cracks Open a Thick Ostrich Egg

Ostrich eggs can weigh up to three pounds and have some of the hardest shells around. This honey badger, however, isn't about to let any of that get in the

A Honey Badger and Mole Snake Fight to the Death

A hungry honey badger and a fearless mole snake are locked in a deadly battle, with survival at stake

At the time of capture, the Smithsonian's coelacanth specimen weighed about 160 pounds and measured a little less than five and a half feet long.

How the Smithsonian’s Coelacanth Lost Its Brain and Got It Back Again

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the discovery of a fish believed to have gone the way of the dinosaurs 70 million years ago

Lioness Underestimates the Strength of an Impala

A solitary lioness in her new home of Akagera, Rwanda, is tracking a herd of impala. Two problems: The impala here are stronger than the ones back home

This Crab Doesn't Take Kindly to Home Intruders

The crown-of-thorns starfish eats coral reefs; coral reefs happen to be the home of the guard crab

An urban coyote makes itself at home in a vacant lot on Chicago's near North Side.

New Research

Foxes and Coyotes are Natural Enemies. Or Are They?

Urban environments change the behavior of predator species—and that might have big implications for humans

The handbones seen in the whale model in the center of this image tell the curious story of how whales went from land to water.

Ask Smithsonian

What’s a "Missing Link"?

While some still use the term, experts abhor it because it implies that life is a linear hierarchy

Manta Rays Use Tiny Fish to Help Them Stay Clean

Wrasse perform a vital cleaning function for other fish, by ridding their bodies of dead cells and parasites

A large female Greenland shark observed near the community of Arctic Bay, Nunavut.

New Research

The World's Most Ancient, Elusive Sharks Were Finally Caught on Video

Greenland sharks, which can live more than 400 years, reveal how little we know about life in the coldest oceans

Kinorhynchs (aka mud dragons) range in size from about 0.13 to one millimeter. Like other meiofauna species, they are integral parts of marine food chains in sediments throughout the world.

King of the Mud Dragons

Robert Higgins has spent his career dredging out tiny creatures from dirt and obscurity

A drone image of a breeding colony of Greater Crested Terns. Researchers used plastic bird decoys to replicate this species in an experiment that compared different ways of counting wildlife.

New Research

When It Comes to Counting Wildlife, Drones Are More Accurate Than People

Technology could be a conservation gamechanger, but we need to interrogate its impact on wildlife

Easter Island is home to at least 142 endemic species, including the Easter Island butterfly fish.

Chile Announces Protections for Massive Swath of Ocean With Three New Marine Parks

The almost 450,000 square miles encompass a stunning diversity of marine life, including hundreds of species found nowhere else

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