Animals

Deciding when to get divorced is a difficult calculation—even for birds.

Birds Struggle to Keep Their Marriages in Rapidly Changing Urban Environments

Deciding whether to get divorced is a complex calculation, even for birds

Peregrine falcons are found on every continent except Antarctica

Ten Fun Facts About Falcons, the Birds

As the Atlanta Falcons prepare to play in the Super Bowl, learn about the remarkable raptors behind the name

Preening automaton

This Robotic Silver Swan Has Fascinated Fans for Nearly 250 Years

It preens, fishes and impresses

How Vampire Bats Suck Blood for 30 Minutes Unnoticed

Thanks to a local anesthetic in their spit, vampire bats are able to drink blood from their prey without being detected

Diet Deficiency Can Lead to Cannibal Hamsters

A new study may explain why the rodents are declining in western Europe

A new study on grey reef sharks turned up a few surprises.

Ocean Preserves Keep Fishing Boats Away from Grey Reef Sharks

Scientists tracked hundreds of reef sharks to find that massive marine refuges can work—with one caveat

The Zoo's female bobcat was found on the property of the Zoo.

Ollie the Bobcat Is Back at the Zoo and Off the Streets of Washington, D.C.

National Zoo bobcat ends her city sojourn

Frogs have a sticky secret: spit.

Special Spit Helps Frogs Get a Grip on Insects

Secretly sticky spit snatches snacks, study shows

Gotcha! A frog's tongue can be five times faster than the blink of a human eye.

Inside Every Frog's Mouth Is a Sticky, Grabby Bullet

Investigating frog tongues—and some human ones!—in the name of science

CERN Weasel 2

Museum Displays the Weasel that Brought Down Particle Physics

A stone marten that disrupted the Large Hadron Collider in November goes on display in Rotterdam in an exhibit about human-animal mishaps

An artist's recreation of what the ancient creature looked like.

Bag-Like, Big-Mouthed Sea Creature Could Be Earliest Human Ancestor

This minute wriggly sea blob could represent some of the earliest steps along the path of evolution

The Carnivorous Plant That Feasts on Mice

While the carnivorous cravings of most flesh-eating plants are limited to small insects, one exception is the pitcher plant

An illustration of Australia's past megafauna.

Changing Climate, Not Humans, Killed Australia’s Massive Mammals

But that mass extinction could help us predict what today’s human-wrought climate change may bring

A Puff Adder Swallowing a Rat Is Something You Can't Unsee

A puff adder has just bitten a rat, injecting it with enough venom to finish it off. The next step is to swallow it whole

Komodo Dragons Can Taste Their Prey From Miles Away

A Komodo dragon's strongest sensory organ is its deeply forked tongue. It acts as a meal detector that samples the air for dead or dying animals

A gecko uses millions of tiny hairs to cling powerfully to surfaces. A new device exploits this adaptation by using ultraviolet light as a switch.

Scientists Can Turn This Gecko-Inspired Gripping Device On or Off With the Flick of a Light

The mighty lizard inspires yet another innovation that could prove a boon to robotics and manufacturing

Victorian mores influenced ideas not just about men and women but animals too.

How Victorian Gender Norms Shaped the Way We Think About Animal Sex

No, females aren't always choosy and males don't always get around

Incredible: A Gaboon Viper Strikes a Bird in Slo-Mo

Gaboon vipers don't have the fastest strike in the snake world--but they don't need to be faster than other snakes, just their prey

Two thylacines at the Smithsonian National Zoo around 1905. A thylacine brain from the Smithsonian Institution was scanned as part of a study to learn more about the extinct marsupial, but it is unclear whether that brain belonged to one of the animals pictured.

How Scientists Reconstructed the Brain of a Long-Extinct Beast

This dog-like marsupial went extinct 80 years ago, but its preserved brains help us glean how its mind worked

This aerial view shoes the weird wonder of "fairy circles" in the Namibian desert.

Dueling Theories on the Cause of “Fairy Circles” Could Both Be Right

New research brings together competing concepts to describe how the mysterious features form

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