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Animals

This adorable orca could be plotting its next heist.

Trending Today

Crafty Killer Whales Are Harassing Alaskan Fishing Boats

Hungry orcas are making off with tens of thousands of pounds of cod and halibut

New Research

Puppy Pics May Add Spark to Struggling Relationships

A new study asked couples to look at photo streams that paired images of their spouses with pictures of pooches

The sun may get all the attention, but our lunar lodestar helps creatures navigate the swells and tides of ocean life.

How Moonlight Sets Nature’s Rhythms

Lunar luster triggers mating orgies, guides travelers and even can even provoke magical transformations

A painting depicting a tribute giraffe and a handler sent to China in the 15th century.

The Peculiar Story of Giraffes in 1400s China

During China’s short-lived golden age of exploration, two giraffes came to the imperial court

This elk is unimpressed by your feeble attempts to hunt her.

New Research

Female Elk Learn to Give Hunters the Slip

The majestic beasts learn how to outsmart hunters—and even modify their behavior based on the kinds of weapons used to kill them

Cats rule the world. But how did they get here?

New Research

How Cats Conquered the World

Scientists use 9,000 years of feline genetics to chart their global rise to power

Although scientific discoveries about blood started happening in the seventeeth century, blood transfusions are (mostly) a twentieth-century thing.

350 Years Ago, A Doctor Performed the First Human Blood Transfusion. A Sheep Was Involved

Early scientists thought that the perceived qualities of an animal—a lamb’s purity, for instance—could be transmitted to humans in blood form

The American Lobster, 'Homarus americanus,' found on the northern area of the Atlantic coast of America.

Climate Change, and Cod, Are Causing One Heck of a Lobster Boom in Maine

The complex relationships between humans, lobster, and cod are creating boom times—for now

Pasteur took blood samples from a cow, a sheep and a horse who had died of anthrax.

How Sheep’s Blood Helped Disprove This Wacky Nineteenth-Century Theory of Illness

Scientists didn’t understand that bacteria caused disease, but then enter Louis Pasteur

The dachshund leaps down with his prize.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

In 1913, One Gluttonous Pupper Changed the Course of Animation History

Years before “Steamboat Willie,” this animated dog hammed it up onscreen

Male deer grow these impressive face ornaments every year, in a cycle of life, death and itchiness.

New Research

Antlers Are Miraculous Face Organs That Could Benefit Human Health

There’s so much more to deer antlers than fighting and impressing the ladies

I can haz a sense of inequity?

New Research

Wolves and Dogs Both Have a Sense of Fairness

But wolves seem to take inequity much more seriously than dogs

The new rule also bans breeds like the Tibetan Mastiff, pictured here.

Trending Today

Chinese City Institutes One-Dog Policy

Officials in Qingdao say they are trying to limit the amount of disturbance caused by an ever-growing pooch population

Screenshots from the iNaturalist app, which uses "deep learning" to automatically identify what bug—or fish, bird, or mammal—you might be looking at.

AI Plant and Animal Identification Helps Us All Be Citizen Scientists

Apps that use artificial intelligence to allow users to ID unknown specimens are making science more accessible to everyone.

Trending Today

Abused Animals in Connecticut Get Their Own Legal Advocates

Last week, for the first time, a lawyer testified in court on behalf of abused pit bulls

Puntung wallowing in mud as a calf.

One of Malaysia’s Last Sumatran Rhinos Has Died

After performing emergency surgery on Puntung, experts realized that the abscess was caused by cancer

“These males were still alive and living around the females, they just apparently weren’t getting any of the matings, or the matings weren’t working,” says Robert C. Fleischer.

Future of Conservation

Safer Digs for Tortoises Put a Damper on Their Love Lives

A new genetic study surprised scientists who learned the males were not breeding

Meet the Ozark hellbender, an elusive creature that has become only more so as of late.

Future of Conservation

What the Heck Is a Hellbender—And How Can We Make More of Them?

Why the Saint Louis Zoo decided to invest in this slimy, surprisingly adorable amphibian

Recent research found that fully one third of humanity can't see the Milky Way because of light pollution

Is Light Pollution Really Pollution?

As countries grow richer, light pollution gets worse–but some are fighting to change that

This celestial chart from 1687 is one of many illustrations from books, charts, and maps showing artists’ imaginings of polar bears.

How Polar Bears Became the Dragons of the North

Renaissance maps depicting the “white bears” say more about our own fears and fantasies than about the predators themselves

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