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Mammals

Dolphins living in captivity often make an open-mouth facial expression while playing with each other.

Bottlenose Dolphins ‘Smile’ at Each Other During Playtime, Study Finds

Researchers still don’t know what the open-mouth facial expression means or whether it’s akin to smiling in humans—but several animals make a similar face during play

Scientists observed two bowhead whales synchronizing dive schedules whenever they were within earshot of each other.

How Did Two Bowhead Whales That Were 60 Miles Apart Sync Their Diving?

Researchers suspect the marine mammals may have been communicating across the vast distance

Orcas are the oceans’ apex predator, even outranking the great white shark, but their hunting behaviors are still not fully understood by scientists.

Rare Drone Footage Captures Orcas Feeding on Dusky Dolphins

The predatory pod hunts off the coast of Chile and is led by a matriarch called Dakota

A Bryde’s whale photographed in the Mariana Archipelago

Mysterious ‘Mechanical-Sounding’ Noise Near the Mariana Trench May Now Have an Explanation

An acoustic survey in 2018 and new analysis with A.I. suggest the sounds are vocalizations from the elusive Bryde’s whale

Moo Deng, born this summer, with her mother Jona at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand.

Trending Today

‘Adorable’ Baby Hippo Moo Deng Is More Than a Viral Sensation. She Offers a Rare Glimpse of an Endangered Species

The baby pygmy hippopotamus in a Thailand zoo has taken the internet by storm, and keepers hope she will help gain momentum for conservation efforts

The Horned Serpent Panel, painted by the San people in southern Africa, shows a mysterious creature's tusks in blue at the upper right.

Remarkable 200-Year-Old Rock Painting May Depict a Strange Animal That Went Extinct 250 Million Years Ago

The Horned Serpent Panel from southern Africa predates the first Western scientific description of the dicynodont, a large mammal ancestor with tusks, by at least a decade

Cinnamon, the escaped capybara, was born at Hoo Zoo, along with her twin brother, Churro. They live there with their parents, Chimu and Chincha.

A Runaway Capybara Is Evading Capture and ‘Living Her Best Life’ in England

The “beloved” rodent named Cinnamon was spotted this week with help from drones. She has been wandering and eating grass after escaping her zoo enclosure last Friday

Healthy little brown bats in Mt. Aeolus cave in Vermont in 2012

The Surprising Link Between Bats Dying and Human Infant Mortality

A new study finds that when bats in U.S. counties were decimated by the deadly white-nose syndrome, human deaths followed closely behind

A mother manatee and her calf in Florida's Crystal River amid eelgrass, which is crucial for supporting the large mammals.

See 13 Captivating Images From the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest

The highly commended shots provide a preview of the 60th annual competition, which spotlights astounding animal behaviors and the conservation issues they face

A bottlenose dolphin photographed in Honduras shows its teeth.

A Dolphin Keeps Biting People in Japan. Researchers Think It’s Just Lonely

A series of dolphin attacks in Wakasa Bay is believed to be the doing of a lone male bottlenose dolphin looking for friends or a mate—but finding only humans

Hundreds of sea lions have inundated a beach in central California.

See Hundreds of Sea Lions Take Over a Popular California Beach

The pinnipeds are resting on San Carlos Beach as part of their annual northward journey from the Channel Islands, prompting officials to close it down

Columbian mammoths were larger and less hairy than woolly mammoths.

20,000-Year-Old Columbian Mammoth Bones Discovered in Texas

While fishing at an undisclosed lake, Sabrina Solomon slipped and fell—and came face to face with the remains

A still from a video captured by Vermont resident Gary Shattuck, featuring the lynx walking alongside a road in Rutland County, Vermont, on August 17.

Rare Endangered Lynx Spotted in Vermont for the First Time Since 2018

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department has only confirmed seven sightings of the wildcats since 2016

More than 10,000 Clovis points have been discovered in North America, but researchers still aren't sure how early humans used them.

How Did Ice Age Humans Kill Huge Animals Like Mammoths? Probably Not by Throwing Spears, Study Finds

New research theorizes that hunters used pikes planted in the ground—with their sharp tips pointing upward—to impale approaching wildlife using the creature’s own weight and momentum

Archaeologists discovered stone tools at the site, though they dated to a few thousand years after the mastodon’s death. 

13,600-Year-Old Mastodon Skull Uncovered in Iowa

The hulking creature may have overlapped with Indigenous people

An ocelot rests on a rock in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona, in 2007. Only seven ocelots, including the one just spotted, have been seen in the state in the last two decades.

Rare Ocelot Caught on Camera in Arizona, the First Sighting in Its Area for 50 Years

Ocelots were federally listed as endangered in 1972, and their current U.S. population is thought to be fewer than 100 individuals

This specimen is the first complete tusk of its kind found in Mississippi.

Cool Finds

Rare Seven-Foot Mammoth Tusk Unearthed in Mississippi Creek

The enormous fossil belonged to a Columbian mammoth, a larger relative of the woolly mammoth

An artist's impression of the shrew-like Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis, which a new study suggests lived long and matured slowly, in contrast to modern small mammals.

Two Rare Jurassic Skulls Could Help Unlock the Secrets of Mammals’ Evolutionary Success

Fossils reveal a prehistoric, mouse-like creature matured slower and lived longer than similar mammals of today

A rhesus macaque on Cayo Santiago, which is less than a mile east of Puerto Rico. Rhesus macaques spend upwards of 20 percent of their time engaged in cooperative behaviors like grooming.

How Do Animals Change Their Social Habits as They Age?

In patterns that may sound familiar, long-term studies reveal what elderly deer, sheep and macaques are up to in their twilight years

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There's More to That

How to Sweat Like an Olympian

This summer, don’t be embarrassed by those pit stains or your drenched workout clothes. Our expert on the science of sweat says perspiration is what makes humans faster, higher and stronger

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