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Science / Wildlife

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Why Geckos Don’t Slip Off Wet Jungle Leaves or Hotel Ceilings

A surface’s ability to attract and repel water heavily influences the degree to which a gecko can cling overhead, new research shows

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Sugar Cube-Sized Robotic Ants Mimic Real Foraging Behavior

Researchers use tiny robots to study how ants navigate a labyrinth of networks, from the nest to the food and back again

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The Otherworldly Calm of Wolfgang Laib’s Glowing Beeswax Room

A German contemporary artist creates a meditative space—lined with beeswax—at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

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Sea Monkeys, Ferns and Frozen Frogs: Nature’s Very Own Resurrecting Organisms

As Easter draws near, we celebrate creatures that seemingly die and then come back to life

Polar bear-brown bear hybrids like this pair at Germany’s Osnabrück Zoo are becoming more common as melting sea ice forces the two species to cross paths.

Brown Polar Bears, Beluga-Narwhals and Other Hybrids Brought to You by Climate Change

Animals with shrinking habitats are interbreeding, temporarily boosting populations but ultimately hurting species’ survival

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Video: This Lizard-Inspired Robot Can Scamper Across Sand

It’s a product of the emerging field of terradynamics, which studies the movement of vehicles across shifting surfaces

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Untangling the Mysterious Genetic Tentacles of the Giant Squid

Contrary to prior speculation about the elusive creatures, all giant squid belong to a single species and they all share very similar genetics

This cicada is part of Brood XIX, a 13-year recurrent swarm from the southern US.

After 17 Years, the Northeast Is About to Be Blanketed by a Swarm of Cicadas

An inch and a half long with bright red eyes, the swarm of Brood II cicadas is coming

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VIDEO: Herons Crash the Zoo

Black-crowned night herons have been using the Zoo’s grounds for breeding for more than a century and the tradition continues

Roosters have an internal circadian rhythm, which keeps them crowing on schedule even when the lights are turned off.

How Do Roosters Know When to Crow?

Their internal circadian rhythms keep them crowing on schedule, even when the lights are turned off

At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, nearly eight miles below the ocean’s surface, abundant communities of bacteria thrive.

Nearly 8 Miles Down, Bacteria Thrive in the Oceans’ Deepest Trench

The Mariana Trench may serve as a seafloor nutrient trap, supporting remarkable numbers of microorganisms

Shanti the Asian elephant plays with a tire in the National Zoo’s new Elephant Community Center, which opens on Saturday, March 23.

Look Out! Look Out! Elephants Get New Digs

The Elephant Community Center, the newest addition to the National Zoo’s “Elephant Trails” habitat, opens on Saturday, March 23

Ribbon worms come in all shapes and sizes. This one, with white stripes along the body, was found off the coast of Mexico.

14 Fun Facts about Marine Ribbon Worms

Ribbon worms swallow prey whole, grease themselves with their mucus to slide quickly through mud, split into new worms if severed, and much more

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Prehistoric Birds May Have Used Four Wings to Fly

A study of fossils of prehistoric birds suggests two sets of wings—one set on the creature’s hind legs—helped avians stay aloft

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Why We Should All Celebrate Save a Spider Day

Insect keeper Dan Babbitt of the Natural History Museum explains what makes spiders so cool

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Stressed Corals Dim Then Glow Brightly Before They Die

Measuring how coral fluorescence changes may serve as an early indicator of the declining health of a reef

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An Otter Learns to Play Therapeutic Basketball at the Oregon Zoo

Zookeepers show that it is possible to teach an old otter new tricks

The quiet highway that leads through Cotopaxi is a bike-friendly route.

Cold, Hungry and Happy in the High Andes

40 bucks in cash, a warm sleeping bag and plenty of wine carry the author through his final days in Ecuador, in the remote high country outside of Quito

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The (Natural) World, According to Our Photo Contest Finalists

From a caterpillar to the Milky Way, the ten finalists in the contest’s Natural World category capture the peculiar, the remarkable and the sublime

Locusts covering a bush during the 2004 swarm near the Red Sea cost in Israel.

A Plague of Locusts Descends Upon the Holy Land, Just in Time for Passover

Israel battles a swarm of millions of locusts that flew from Egypt that is giving rise to a host of ecological, political and agricultural issues

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