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Science / Wildlife

After the manta ray filters out the tiny plankton from the water it ingests, the excess water exits through the dark gill slits on the ray's ventral side. 

Planet Positive

Why Conservationists Are Hopeful About the Manta Ray’s Future

The giant fish faces threats from poachers, boat strikes and climate change

About two to three million birds of prey fly through Panama each fall, in what amounts to the world’s third-largest raptor migration.

Panama

Watch Millions of Raptors Fly Across Panama This Fall

The country’s unique shape makes it a perfect migratory pathway for the birds of prey

Along the Vietnamese coast, temples constructed in reverence to whales and other marine mammals—such as this one in Phan Thiet—house valuable information on the country’s little-studied cetaceans.

Inside Vietnam’s Whale Temples

Centuries-old whale worship shrines are shedding light on the diversity and distribution of marine mammals off the country’s coast

A Haast's eagle hunts moa.

How a Giant Eagle Once Came to Dominate New Zealand

Before the formidable bird went extinct, scientists say it likely hunted the flightless moa

Migrating waterbirds over South Dakota’s Huron Wetland Management District on North America’s Central Flyway.

Scientists Are Using These High-Tech Tools to Study Bird Migration

Tracking the journeys of different species is key to protecting them from habitat loss and other threats

Lions in South Africa’s Greater Kruger National Park are feared by many different prey animals, which will run away as soon as they hear a lion growl.

How Animals Survive in a Savanna Full of Predators

Ecologists have documented a hierarchy of fear in the South African grassland, and the king of beasts is at the top

A male bison atop an arid hillside on Santa Catalina Island in California.

The Uneasy Future of Catalina Island’s Wild Bison

One of Hollywood’s weirdest legacies, the herd of beasts lives under the watchful eye of local conservationists

Birds that wander out of their home ranges can be an unexpected source of revenue. Stella, a Steller’s sea eagle, recently turned up in Maine and Massachusetts, drawing tourists who spent nearly US $500,000.

Birds Wandering Far From Home Can Be a Boon for Local Tourism

When an internet-famous Steller’s sea eagle turned up roughly 11,000 kilometers off course in late 2021, birders flocked to catch a glimpse

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth babies need round-theclock care. Once they’re adults, they’ll be microchipped and released back into the rainforest.

Baby Sloths Are About as Cute As You Would Expect

A Costa Rica rescue center offers blankets and bottle-feeding at a nursery for these young animals

Scientists scanned a fossil of the Jurassic cephalopod Vampyronassa, pictured here, and found clues that it was an active hunter.

What New Tech Is Revealing About Squishy, Prehistoric Cephalopods

Researchers have adopted innovative means, from cutting-edge scans to swimming robots, to reveal more about how the creatures lived

Donkeys often trample plants in the deserts of the southwestern United States, including in Death Valley National Park in California.

Cougars Are Killing Feral Donkeys, and That’s Good for Wetlands

Mountain lions play an important role in the Death Valley ecosystem by preying on the introduced species

In the Mediterranean Sea, ship strikes are the leading cause of death for sperm whales.

A New Detection System Could Save Sperm Whales From Ship Strikes

Scientists have developed a computational technique that can track whales in real time—and potentially prevent collisions

Spotless starling chicks use a bright yellow oil to enhance the color of their mouth, which scientists verified by rubbing a cotton swab over the area.

The Done-Up Bird Gets the Worm

Starling chicks apply their preening oil as a lipstick to get more food from their parents

A sulphur-crested cockatoo bows down at the Madrid Zoo Aquarium. The birds have been seen dancing to music and opening trash bins to get to food.

What Can Dancing Cockatoos Teach Us About Ourselves?

An evolutionary biologist demystifies bird intelligence in an excerpt from her new book

ElSa is a prototype of a machine-learning-driven software that analyzes movement patterns in videos of humans and elephants.

Good News

This Teenager Invented a Low-Cost Tool to Spot Elephant Poachers in Real Time

Seventeen-year-old Anika Puri created a machine-learning-driven model that analyzes the movement patterns of humans and elephants

On Calvert Island, British Columbia, the subtle rock line of an extant clam garden is a reminder of how Indigenous peoples turned the sea into a shellfish garden.

How Indigenous Sea Gardens Produced Massive Amounts of Food for Millennia

Communities created bountiful food without putting populations at risk of collapse

A teabag contains traces of DNA from insects and other animals that interacted with the plants before they were harvested and packaged.

The DNA of Hundreds of Insect Species Is in Your Tea

Minute remnants preserved among dried leaves might help scientists track pests and monitor population declines

Researcher David Webster of the University of North Carolina Wilmington prepares the bones of an Atlantic gray whale for transfer to the National Museum of Natural History.

Scientists Find Most Complete Atlantic Gray Whale Skeleton Ever

The fossil, uncovered in North Carolina, shows signs of butchering

In Blaine, Washington, after the 2020 appearance of the two-inch long invasive species Vespa mandarinia (above: Washington State entomologist Chris Looney holds a native bald-faced hornet to compare it with the huge size of the invader), scientists worked to eradicate it.

Giant ‘Murder’ Hornet Has Landed at the Natural History Museum

After scientists studied the invasive insect, visitors are getting a first look at the fierce creature that could wreak havoc on U.S. agriculture

Sea turtles, such as olive ridleys and loggerheads, spend most of their time just below the ocean’s surface—the perfect place to collect data for tropical cyclone forecasting.

Tagged Turtles Are Helping Scientists Predict Cyclones

In the southeast Indian Ocean, turtle-borne sensors are filling in the gaps researchers need to forecast storms

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