Animals

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

1000 embryos and 123 surrogate dogs were required to make the first pair of cloned dogs, in 2005. Last month, Barbra Streisand revealed that her two dogs, Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett, were clones of her late Coton de Tulear Samantha.

The Real Reasons You Shouldn't Clone Your Dog

It’s easy to understand why someone would want to. It's harder to justify the actual cloning process, both ethically and scientifically

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

For all their flaws, lab mice have become an invaluable research model for genetics, medicine, neuroscience and more. But few people know the story of the first standardized lab mice.

The History of Breeding Mice for Science Begins With a Woman in a Barn

Far more than a mouse fancier, Abbie Lathrop helped establish the standard mouse model and pioneered research into cancer inheritance

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.

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

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

The quolls say: Please reintroduce us, please.

The Super-cute Eastern Quoll Returns to Mainland Australia

Wiped out by a mystery disease and non-native foxes, the spotted, cat-sized predator is being reintroduced in Booderee National Park

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

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

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

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

Scenes from Territorio De Zaguates.

This Costa Rican Paradise Shelters Over 1,000 Stray Dogs

A photographer documents scenes from Territorio De Zaguates, a converted farm in the Santa Bárbara mountains that's giving abandoned dogs a second chance

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.

What’s a "Missing Link"?

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

The World's Last Male Northern White Rhino Dies

Only two individuals of the subspecies remain in the world

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

Rare Yellow Cardinal Spotted at Alabama Bird Feeder

The bird's distinctive coloration may be caused by a genetic mutation or a health issue

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.

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

Thousands of years ago, a herd of Columbian mammoths trudged across present-day Oregon to an ancient lake, recording their interactions in the muddy sediments.

Rare Mammoth Tracks Reveal an Intimate Portrait of Herd Life

Researchers piece together a 43,000-years-old tableau of an injured adult and concerned young

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