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Science / Wildlife

Five Unusual Ways Scientists Are Studying Climate Change

Fossilized urine, old naval logbooks and the recent speeds of satellites are among the unexpected records that track changing climate

What is it that makes honey such a special food?

The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life

A slew of factors—its acidity, its lack of water and the presence of hydrogen peroxide—work in perfect harmony, allowing the sticky treat to last forever

Three elephants will be coming to the National Zoo from Canada’s Calgary Zoo in the spring.

HUGE News From the Zoo: Three New Elephants Are Moving In

Three female Asian elephants will come to the National Zoo from the Calgary Zoo in spring of 2014

By analyzing a piece of fish’s DNA, researchers have found that roughly a third of U.S. seafood is mislabeled.

How DNA Testing Can Tell You What Type of Fish You’re Really Eating

By analyzing a the DNA of fish sold across the country, researchers have found that roughly a third of U.S. seafood is mislabeled

The olinguito, a small mammal native to South America, was announced as the first new carnivorous mammal species discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years today.

For the First Time in 35 Years, A New Carnivorous Mammal Species is Discovered in the Americas

The Olinguito, a small South American animal, has evaded the scientific community for all of modern history

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Waters Around Antarctica May Preserve Wooden Shipwrecks for Centuries

Some capsized ships may linger on the ocean floor indefinitely

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What Can Old Menus From Hawaii Tell Us About Changing Ocean Health?

A study of vintage menus reveals the drastic decline of the state’s local fish populations between 1900 and 1950

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Sumatran Tiger Cubs Born at the National Zoo

The Great Cats team at the zoo is celebrating a conservation victory with the birth of two Sumatran tiger cubs

New research shows that, like humans, dogs are prone to yawning when they see someone else do it—and they yawn most frequently in response to their owner.

Dogs Yawn Contagiously Too

Like humans, dogs are prone to yawning when they see someone else do it—and a new study shows that they yawn most frequently in response to their owner

New research shows that bottlenose dolphins are capable of long-term memory, recognizing the distinctive whistles of tankmates up to 20 years after they last lived together.

Dolphins Can Remember Their Friends After Twenty Years Apart

Tests on captive animals reveal that the marine mammals now hold the record for retaining memories longer than any other non-human species

Individual sharks, like people, possess their own distinct personalities.

Do Sharks Really Have Personalities?

A popular online quiz matches you with the shark species that best represents you, but individuals within a species can vary greatly, experts say

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Sharks Made Out of Golf Bags? A Look at the Big Fish in Contemporary Art

Intrigued by the powerful hunters, artists have made tiger sharks, great whites and hammerheads the subjects of sculpture

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Top Ten Stories About Sharks Since the Last Shark Week

Shark tourism, cannibalistic shark embryos, wetsuits designed to camouflage from sharks and more

Bacterial Dragon (Paenibacillus dendritiformis), by Eshel Ben-Jacob

Colonies of Growing Bacteria Make Psychedelic Art

Israeli physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob uses bacteria as an art medium, shaping colonies in petri dishes into bold patterns

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VIDEO: Mantis Shrimp vs. Octopus

Watch as the popular crustacean gets snared by its predator’s tentacles. Will it survive?

A tiger in the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary in India

Forest Corridors Help Link Tiger Populations in India

Some tigers trek the human-filled landscape between nature preserves to find mates, but such opportunities to ensure genetic diversity are getting rarer

Blue fluorescence spreads through a dying nematode worm, revealing the passage of death through its body over the hour and a half prior to the organism’s complete expiration.

A Glowing Blue Death Wave Envelops Roundworms Before They Expire

Studying nematodes as life leaves them may lead to insights into exactly how death travels through the body, and, perhaps, whether we can delay it

Tune into the National Zoo’s newly reinstalled panda cams and watch Mei Xiang and Tian Tian any time of day.

Cool New Panda Cams Deliver Panda Life in Living Color

Watch the pandas munch bamboo on 24-hour live-stream cams at the Zoo and check out new video of Mei Xiang

New work suggests that dolphins each have their own distinctive whistle, and respond to hearing their sound made by calling right back.

Do Dolphins Use Whistles to Call Themselves by Unique Names?

Audio experiments show that the marine mammals each have their own whistle, and respond to hearing their distinct whistle by calling right back

The National Zoo’s senior female cheetah, Tumai, died last night.

Cheetah Dies at the National Zoo

The 13-year-old Tumai gave birth to the Zoo’s first cheetah cubs in 2004

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