Articles tagged as Animals | Smithsonian Magazine

It’s Hard to Protect Arctic Mammals When We Don’t Know How Many Live There

Only a handful of animal populations are well counted — leaving researchers in the dark about how threatened the others are

March 19, 2015

A large colony of Mexican free-tailed bats can consume an estimated 250 tons of insects in a single night.

These Bats Use Sonar to Jam the Signals of Their Rivals

How hungry Mexican free-tails sabotage the competition

April 2015

Who Determined That the Sun Was a Star and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

April 2015

The natural habitats of many bumblebees are nearly gone and restoring floral diversity is vital to promote their survival.

Can Returning Farmland to the Wild Help Bumblebees in Crisis?

Even if only a small percentage of current farmland became wild meadows, it could bring populations back to previous levels

April 2015

American South

Best Places to See Nature After Dark

The sun may power most of our world—but some things come alive only at night

March 19, 2015

Terrifying. An ancestor of the modern-day croc stood nine feet tall and walked on its hind legs. It's been lovingly christened the "Carolina Butcher."

Before There Were Crocodiles, There Was the “Carolina Butcher”

A newly discovered crocodilian ancestor was a nine-foot-tall predator that stood on its hind legs

March 19, 2015

35-year old male chimp Frodo enjoying Mbula fruit he collected in Gombe National Park, Tanzania

New Research

Chimps Will Work Harder to Get Their Favorite Foods

An experimental setup shows that chimps will travel farther to get a more preferred reward

March 18, 2015

Over 2,000 birds have been felled by fast-moving avian cholera

March 17, 2015

Trending Today

Who’s Beheading Animals in Sacramento?

Officials can’t figure out who’s behind a bizarre rash of animal mutilations in California’s capital

March 11, 2015

New Research

Water Drops Leap Off Gecko Skin Thanks to Tiny Spines

Specialized hydrophobic structures on gecko skin encourage dewdrops to be swept away by the wind or to collide and shoot off one another like pool balls

March 10, 2015

Scanning electron micrograph of a greenfly eye. Greenflies (aphid) have a pair of compound eyes. The small protrusion coming from the side of the eye is called an ocular tubercle, and it is made up of three lenses.

Art Meets Science

A Goat’s Stomach Never Looked So Good

Eleven venues worldwide will exhibit these 20 striking micrographs, MRI scans and illustrations—all winners of this year’s Wellcome Image Awards

March 9, 2015

After years of fielding controversy and claims of abuse, “The Greatest Show on Earth” will soon be retiring its trained elephants for good

March 5, 2015

New Research

How Praying Mantises Can Jump Faster Than the Blink of an Eye

Stunning slow-mo videos capture juvenile mantises as they corkscrew through the air and precisely land their target

March 5, 2015

New Research

After Menopause, Killer Whale Moms Become Pod Leaders

When their reproductive years are done, females take on new roles as wise survival guides

March 5, 2015

A herd of domesticated beefalo in Montana. After interbreeding, free-ranging beefalos currently causing problems in the Grand Canyon appear both physically and genetically close to native bison.

Hundreds of the hybrid animals are drying up water resources and messing with the ecosystem, eliciting calls for culling

March 4, 2015

Dog sled racing is a classic bit of fun in Alaska. But as that state warms, organizers are having to move or cancel races.

Anthropocene

While the U.S. East Shivers, Unusual Heat Stirs Trouble Across the Globe

Cancelled dog-sled races and restless grizzly bears serve as reminders that global warming is still at work

March 4, 2015

Wildlife photographer Christophe Courteau, 46, was taking snaps of a group of silverback gorillas in the forest of Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda when the alpha male of the family began to charge at him.

Can a Gorilla Really Get Drunk From Bamboo?

A photographer was punched by an allegedly drunk gorilla—but wildlife biologists are crying foul

March 3, 2015

Smokey the bear being given a fire helmet by Washington Fire Departments’ deputy fire chief, M.H. Sutton in 1950

It’s officially licensed by the Forest Service and written from Smokey’s point of view

March 3, 2015

Trending Today

How Armadillos Can Spread Leprosy

These tank-like creatures are the only animals besides us known to carry leprosy

March 2, 2015

The blue whale is the biggest animal on the planet - and would have massively outsized the ocean's largest species 500 million years ago.

New Research

The World’s Sea Creatures Have Gotten Bigger

A new study reveals evolution in the ocean appears to favor larger animals

February 23, 2015