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Science / Wildlife

A blood-sucker creeping around on a potential victim's pristine white sheets.

Cool Finds

How Our Modern Lives Became Infested With Bed Bugs

After being bitten by the tiny pests, author Brooke Borel set out to learn all she could about her blood-sucking foes

The marbled salamander is increasing its distribution and range in response to warming winter temperatures.

Anthropocene

Climate Change Will Accelerate Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction

The pace at which species disappear is picking up as temperatures rise, and things are looking especially troubling in the tropics

Ask Smithsonian: Are Cats Domesticated?

There is little genetic difference between a tabby and a wild cat, so scientists think the house cat is only domestic when it wants to be

The Eurasian tree sparrow is one of 30 bird species in decline around Fukushima.

Birds Are in a Tailspin Four Years After Fukushima

Like the proverbial canary in a coalmine, avian abundances may paint a grim picture of the effects of nuclear disasters on wildlife

Bat-like Yi qi is the flying dinosaur this forest deserves.

New Research

This Fluffy Little Dinosaur Had Bat-Like Wings

About the size of a sparrow, Yi qi probably glided through Jurassic forests on membrane-covered appendages

A Diana monkey, perhaps tuning in to the distress calls of fellow primates.

New Research

Monkeys Can Hack Each Other’s Grammar

Campbell’s monkeys add suffixes to alarm calls to indicate specific threats, and Diana monkeys tune in for their own benefit

The Jurassic dinosaur Chilesaurus diegosuarez, a plant-eating theropod.

New Research

Meet Chilesaurus, a New Raptor-Like Dinosaur With a Vegetarian Diet

A seven-year-old and his family found the unusual Jurassic theropod while out for a hike in southern Chile

The makech, a beautiful beetle from Central and South America has been worn as a living pendant for centuries.

Meet the Makech, the Bedazzled Beetles Worn as Living Jewelry

The unusual bugs from the Yucatán have a backstory as colorful as their rhinestone-studded rumps

This is a close mimic of the coral snake, but the real version has a singular venom.

Decoding the Deadly Secret of Snake Venom

The world’s animals have developed an incredible variety of venoms. But how?

Could we bring back the woolly mammoth?

These Are the Extinct Animals We Can, and Should, Resurrect

Biologist Beth Shapiro offers a guide to the science and ethics of using DNA for de-extinction

A walrus rests on an iceberg in Canada's Hudson Bay.

Inuit Wisdom and Polar Science Are Teaming Up to Save the Walrus

Traditional knowledge and scientific study are helping us begin to understand what a changing Arctic means for the marine mammal

The sperm, taken from a nine-year old panda named Hui Hui will be used to impregnate the Zoo’s 16-year-old female panda Mei Xiang (above).

To Transport Frozen Panda Semen From China, Zoo Officials Went All the Way

After consulting a “stud book,” the Zoo brought a male panda’s sperm back to D.C., setting an exciting precedent

A worker rescues a severely oiled brown pelican along the Louisiana shore in June 2010.

Anthropocene

The Gulf Oil Spill Isn’t Really Over, Even Five Years Later

Two Louisiana scientists reflect on the event and how its lingering effects are continuing to change the Gulf Coast

A student shares a loving gaze with a Labrador retriever.

New Research

Dog Gazes Hijack the Brain’s Maternal Bonding System

When a dog looks into your eyes, it’s bonding with you in the same way babies bond with their human moms

The oceans are teeming with tetrapods—“four-legged” birds, reptiles, mammals and amphibians—that have repeatedly transitioned from the land to the sea, adapting their legs into fins.

Take a Deep Dive Into The Reasons Land Animals Moved to the Seas

Synthesizing decades of discoveries, scientists have revealed links between changing environments and animal movements

Urchin Spheres, (Echinoidea sp.), Thailand, Philippines, United States, Mexico.

Art Meets Science

10 Gorgeous Mosaics Made From Real Animal Specimens

Artist Christopher Marley’s meticulous arrangements capture the incredible variety within families, genera and species

The Panamanian golden frog has become the flagship species for amphibian conservation around the world.

The Race to Protect Frogs from a Deadly Pathogen Gets a Much-Needed Boost

A new amphibian lab in Panama will help researchers to return charismatic golden frogs to the wild

Welcome back, Brontosaurus?

New Research

Back to Brontosaurus? The Dinosaur Might Deserve Its Own Genus After All

The popular name could be pulled back out of the scientific wastebasket, based on new analysis of dozens of related dinosaurs

A female specimen of the newly discovered Alto Tambo woodlizard.

New Research

New Dwarf Dragons Have Been Found in the Andes

It seems that every time herpetologists wander into the Andean cloud forests, they emerge with colorful lizard species in tow

Rehabilitated sea lion pups head back to the ocean after being released from The Marine Mammal Center in March.

California Sea Lions Are Starving, But Do They Need Our Help?

Instead of just rehabilitating the fuzzy pups, some ecologists say we should be focusing on the underlying troubles of climate change and fish declines

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