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Animals

A fishing spider enjoying a tasty platyfish that it snatched from a garden pond in Australia.

New Research

Spiders All Over the World Have a Taste for Fish

Eight-legged predators probably prey on vertebrates much more often than arachnologists previously assumed

Cool Finds

There Are Only So Many Ways Animals Can Poison You (Not That That’s Reassuring)

They say that knowledge is power, but we’re certainly not feeling any safer

Cool Finds

“WildLeaks” Is Like WikiLeaks for Poaching—And It’s Working to Stop Wildlife Crime

The site has received more than twenty tips so far, including about elephant and tiger poachings

New Research

When Fire Ants Build Rafts, There Are No Free Loaders

When fire ants form floating balls, not a single leg or antennae goes to waste

Cool Finds

Goats Evicted In Detroit

An attempt at urban farming runs afoul of city ordinances in Detroit

"Get away from me, get away from me!" - an anxious crawfish freaking out.

New Research

Crawfish, Like Humans, Are Anxious Worrywarts

As the first invertebrates ever found to demonstrate anxiety, crawfish might help reveal the evolutionary origins of that stressful state of mind

New Research

Rats Can Feel Regret

Rats’ brain patterns and behaviors support the hypothesis that they can reflect on certain wrong choices

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New Research

These Researchers Put a Camera on a Polar Bear

In case you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a polar bear

Moo-ve over mosquitos, your next bug spray may be cow cologne

Cool Finds

This Cologne Makes Cows Smell Like Humans, So Mosquitos Bite Them Instead of Us

California company receives Gates Foundation grant to explore a unique kind of pest control

New Research

Spiders Get Information From the Vibrations of Their Webs

Depending on the frequency, a vibrating thread of silk can tell a spider if it needs to repair its home or go collect a snared snack

A Japanese sea catfish, enjoying the light.

New Research

This Catfish’s Whiskers Are Like Ultra-Sensitive pH Strips

Japanese sea catfish seek out worms in the pitch dark by detecting minute changes in water chemistry caused by their prey’s breathing

Cool Finds

Americans Are Serving Alpaca for Dinner

The llama-like animal is growing in popularity for meat eaters in the U.S.

Rabbits around old military facilities on Okunoshima.

Cool Finds

This Once-Secret Island Now Hosts Hordes of Adorable Bunnies

Now home to hundreds of semi-tame bunnies, the island once housed poison gas facilities

A scanning electron microscope image of a fruit fly.

New Research

I Think, Therefore I Am a Fruit Fly

Researchers found that even fruit flies seem deliberate over decisions

New Research

Zebras Make the Longest Migratory Journey of Any of Africa’s Land Animals

Zebras travel twice as far as North America’s migratory champion, the mule deer

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You Otter Believe These Zoo Animals Can Play the Piano, the Harmonica and the Xylophone

D.C.’s hottest summer concert is brought to us by an unlikely source: a bevy of animal musicians

New Research

Female Pigs Respond Differently to Batches of Sperm Carrying Mostly X Or Mostly Y Chromosomes

In an experiment, mother pigs’ gene expression changed depending on the sperm type they were fertilized wtih

The American paddlefish, which makes spawning migrations up the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers.

Trending Today

This Weekend, Celebrate the World’s Weird and Wonderful Migratory Fishes

The first annual World Migratory Fish Day is making a splash with hundreds of outdoor, fish-centric events

Cool Finds

Europe Has Its Own Bison Species That Came Back From the Brink of Extinction

Bison were just reintroduced into a stretch of Romania where they haven’t been found for two centuries

Noc (in 1995) strongly “wanted to make a connection,” says former naval trainer Michelle Jeffries. “I think that was part of the thing behind him mimicking speech.”

The Story of One Whale Who Tried to Bridge the Linguistic Divide Between Animals and Humans

While captive in a Navy program, a beluga whale named Noc began to mimic human speech. What was behind his attempt to talk to us?

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