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Science / Wildlife

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Picture of the Week – Is that Lettuce?

This is a sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, and it looks like a leaf because it has acquired chloroplasts from its algal prey and stored them in its gut lining

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Cook Your Bird with Thermite!

Seven Questions for Turkey Day

In preparation for tomorrow’s big day, I offer you a selection of articles on the theme of turkey science:How did the turkey in my oven get so big?

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Mountain Gorilla Rangers Negotiate Safe Passage in Congo

One of the first Smithsonian articles I worked on was last year’s Guerrillas in Their Midst, about the endangered mountain gorillas of Rwanda and Congo

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I Thought Darwin Studied Finches

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When Will There Be Herds of Mammoths?

With the announcement that the woolly mammoth genome has been sequenced, it seems natural to ask when we will finally see live mammoths

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Sabertooth Cat: More Like a Lion or a House Cat?

It is difficult to figure out the behaviors of an animal that lived thousands—or millions—of years ago when all you have are its fossilized bones

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And the Next Species Predicted to Be Lost to Climate Change is…

…the antilopine wallaroo, a type of kangaroo that lives in wet, tropical areas of Australia

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Insect Trivia

Test your insect knowledge by answering these trivia questions

The large eyes of a red dragonfly.

Bugs, Brains and Trivia

No detail is too small for students at the Linnaean games, an annual national insect trivia competition

Picture of the Week - Deep-sea Octopi

Megeleledone setebos (bottom left), an octopus species endemic to the Southern Ocean, surrounded by related octopus species that evolved in the deep-sea

A fallow deer with its impressive but unevenly formed antler looks straight into the light of the setting sun.

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Bats’ barotrauma, fallow deer, Tahitian vanilla, lucky dinosaurs

A fallow deer with its impressive but unevenly formed antler looks straight into the light of the setting sun.

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Bats’ barotrauma, fallow deer, Tahitian vanilla, lucky dinosaurs

Some biologist suggest that the emergence of the long neck on a giraffe was driven more by sexual success: males with longer necks won more battles, mated more often and passed on the advantage to future generations.

Things Are Looking Up for Niger’s Wild Giraffes

Wild giraffes are making a comeback despite having to compete for resources with some of the world’s poorest people

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Standing Tall

Niger’s giraffes and our 16th president

The Cassowary bird at Lahore Zoo.

Invasion of the Cassowaries

Passions run high in an Australian town: Should the endangered birds be feared—or fed?

Great white shark with its mouth open.

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Great white sharks, endangered frogs and more

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News Flash: You May Be Boring Your Dog

The crocodile, last of the crurotarsans

Dinosaur vs. Crocodile: Who Wins?

Condors can soar 150 miles in a day on their giant wings. The birds often fly for hours at a time with hardly a flap of their wings

Condors in a Coal Mine

California’s lead bullet ban protects condors and other wildlife, but its biggest beneficiaries may be humans

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