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Animals

The Namib desert beetle gathers water from fog that condenses on its bumpy back—which inspired one company to design a self-filling water bottle.

Five Wild Ways to Get a Drink in the Desert

The moisture farmers of Tatooine could take a few tips from these projects for harvesting water out of thin air

Buck moth caterpillars are the bane of the New Orleans spring.

New Research

Caterpillars Beware: Venom Won’t Protect You From Clueless Baby Birds

Young birds will dumbly peck at anything that crawls their way—even if it winds up teaching them a painful lesson

A shop sells nostalgic souvenirs, including a UK coat of arms, at the Portobello Road market in London.

Ten Unusual National Animals That Rival the Unicorn

Scotland doesn’t have the market cornered on exotic national symbols—check out the mouflon, the takin and the xoloitzcuintli

A genet riding a rhino.

Cool Finds

A Fuzzy Little Genet Is Hitching Rides on Rhinos and Buffalo, And No One Can Figure Out Why

Camera traps exposed the secret world of a rhino-riding genet

New Research

Human Activities Aren’t the Cause of Chimpanzees’ Murderous Tendencies

A new study shows that humans are not responsible for murder amongst Chimpanzees

Cool Finds

At MIT, a Robot Cheetah Is Sprinting—And Leaping—Across Campus

MIT’s robot cheetah may not be the only one in Boston—but it can leap

The "skylight" appears as a light pink splotch atop this leatherback sea turtle's head.

New Research

Leatherback Sea Turtles Can Measure Sunlight Through Their Skulls

The anatomical skylight allows the turtles to synch up with the seasons

Sugar gliders, marsupials native to Australia.

Adorable Portraits Put Nocturnal Animals in the Spotlight

A new photo book showcases animals we humans rarely see—while a new study says we may have more in common with night-dwellers than thought

The cover of the 2014 State of the Birds 2014, the most extensive study of birds in the U.S. ever published.

The Most Extensive Report Ever on American Birds Says There’s Cause for Concern

Researchers from 23 groups just released the fifth State of the Birds report, which contains good and bad news

An inlaid alabaster unguent jar in the form of an ibex, with one natural horn, was found in the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Anthropocene

Egypt’s Mammal Extinctions Tracked Through 6,000 Years of Art

Tomb goods and historical texts show how a drying climate and an expanding human population took their toll on the region’s wildlife

New Research

Cockatoos Learn to Use Tools by Watching Each Other

With a teacher, Goffin cockatoo learn to use new tools more quickly

The oaten pipes hydroid (Tubularia indivisa) is a small colonial predator native to the North Atlantic.

Art Meets Science

College Students Studied These Mail-Order Sea Creatures in the Late 1800s

Restored glass models of marine invertebrates, made by artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, are on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

A wild boar mama in Germany.

Cool Finds

Radioactive Boars Are Roaming Around Germany

The boar’s meat is too contaminated from Chernobyl’s radiation to be fit for human consumption

Trending Today

RIP Sexy Space Geckos

The five geckos sent to space have all died

Cool Finds

Whale-Watching Can Actually Be Harmful To Whales

Ecotourism can give people a closer look at wildlife, but in the case of whales, it could also harm the wildlife they’re looking at

A wolf yawning in the snow near Hesse, Germany.

New Research

Yawning Spreads Like a Plague in Wolves

Evidence of contagious yawning in chimps, dogs and now wolves suggests that the behavior is linked to a mammalian sense of empathy

For the first time in more than a decade, bison will roam at the National Zoo.

The Historic Return of the American Bison

A National Zoo exhibition featuring the animal, long tied to Smithsonian history, opens Saturday

Shrek the sheep (seen here in 2004) held the record for wooliest sheep

Tasmanian Sheep May Be Wooliest In World

Shaun the sheep might beat out the previous champ, Shrek, as the world’s wooliest sheep

How Does Bao Bao Celebrate Her Birthday? With Cake, Bamboo and Hundreds of Fans

The National Zoo hosted a traditional Chinese ceremony for the giant panda’s first birthday

Cool Finds

Oregon Animals Now Have Some Basic Rights Formerly Reserved for Humans

Crimes against animals can’t be lumped all together—each animal victim has to be recognized individually

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