Wildlife

A great white shark off the coast of South Africa

The Secrets of a Shark Attack

In an attack against a Cape fur seal, a great white shark's advantage comes down to physics

A northern cardinal

The City Bird and the Country Bird

As in Aesop's fable, there are advantages and disadvantages for birds living in the city

The skeleton of Oreopithecus bambolii

Human Evolution’s Cookie Monster, Oreopithecus

For the past 60 years, scientists have argued over the enigmatic, human-like fossils of the nine-million-year-old Italian ape

Hawkmoths prefer columbines with long, slender spurs.

The Columbines and Their Pollinators: An Evolutionary Tale

New research provides insight into an evolutionary concept introduced by Charles Darwin

Bottlenose dolphins are good swimmers

For Dolphins, Pregnancy Comes With a Price

A bigger body means increased drag, slower speeds and greater vulnerability to predators

Big Southern elephant seal bulls (Mirounga leonina) fighting for females on beach during breeding season in spring.

Wild Things: Piranhas, Nazca Boobies, Glowing Millipedes

Elephant Seals, Neanderthal evolution and more news from the world of science

Whalers pursued sperm whales for the rich oil in their oversized heads. Now biologists are on the tail of these deep-diving, long-lived, sociable and mysterious sea creatures.

The Sperm Whale's Deadly Call

Scientists have discovered that the massive mammal uses elaborate buzzes, clicks and squeaks that spell doom for the animal's prey

Sea otters have teeth that resemble those of Paranthropus

Strange Animal Models of Human Evolution

What do sea otters, wolves and capuchin monkeys reveal about our hominid ancestors?

A pigeon's turn is very different from that of an airplane

How A Pigeon Is Like A Helicopter

The bird changes direction with its whole body

The outline of a mastodon skeleton, found at a pre-Clovis site in Washington, indicating where a spear hit the animal.

The First Americans

Yellow saddle goatfish

The Fish That Hunt Like Lions

Yellow saddle goatfish collaborate when one finds prey to chase

A marine sea slug

Ocean Creatures In A Warmer World

A new study finds that some marine organisms may have to move fast if they want to survive climate change

No one knows exactly where Vaux's (pronounced "vauks") swifts spend the winter, or the details of their migration route. But we do know the birds need chimneys.

The Disappearing Habitats of the Vaux’s Swifts

Chimneys may be obsolete in modern buildings, but they’re crucial habitat for the bird species on the West Coast

Nursery web spiders

Lying For Sex, Spider Style

Male nursery web spiders aren't necessarily punished for giving false gifts

Luke, the National Zoo's male lion

Secrets of a Lion’s Roar

Not all cats roar, but those that do fascinate us with their mysterious and frightening sounds

A kinkajou in Costa Rica

What In The World Is A Kinkajou?

It's a carnivore, though it mostly eats fruit. It has a prehensile tail, but it's not a primate

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Wild Things: Feathered dinosaurs, king crabs and spotted hyenas

Traveling snails, brainwashed rats and more updates from the world of wildlife

Infamously fierce, rhinoceroses, pictured is a black rhino in Kenya, are victims of rumors that have driven the price of their horn to hundreds of dollars an ounce.

Defending the Rhino

As demand for rhino horn soars, police and conservationists in South Africa pit technology against increasingly sophisticated poachers

A little brown bat with symptoms of white-nose syndrome

Bat Killer Confirmed

The Geomyces destructans fungus causes deadly white-nose syndrome in bats

A side-blotched lizard in Utah

The Lizards That Live Rock-Paper-Scissors

Three color varieties each have advantages and disadvantages relative to the others

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