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Animals

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Superstorms Can Benefit Bird-Watchers

The strong winds and wide areal extent of hurricane Sandy brought birds from all over to the northeast US

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State Department Takes On Illegal Wildlife Trade

Hillary Clinton aims to create an international coalition to stop illegal wildlife trafficking

Mother Birds Teach Their Eggs a Secret ‘Feed Me!’ Password

Australian female fairy-wrens don’t even wait until their young are hatched before starting to teach them life skills

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Crocodile And Alligator Jaws Are More Sensitive Than Human Fingertips

Human fingertips are exquisitely sensitive to texture and touch, but they’ve got nothing on crocodilian jaws

How Gigantic, Ancient Cats And Dogs Got Along

Dogs and cats have never been the best of friends, but 9 million years ago they at least lived in harmony together

Crocodylians are the last living representatives of the crocodylomorpha, an even bigger group that originated over 205 million years ago.

The Top 10 Greatest Survivors of Evolution

Travel back millions of years in your time machine and you’d find some of these species thriving and looking much as they do today

Blind Mole Rats’ Cells Self-Destruct Before They Can Turn Cancerous

Researchers tease out the secret behind blind mole rats’ resistance to cancer

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The Hunt for Bigfoot Goes High Tech

If anyone can find Bigfoot, it’s probably the drones

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Bee Hive Democracy Isn’t So Different From Human Democracy

Can we take a hint from the animal kingdom in order to smooth out our process of selecting a leader and reaching consensus?

Beetles Invasion: One Artist’s Take on the Insect

A swarm of giant beetles, lovingly sculpted by Washington D.C.-based artist Joan Danziger, descends on the American University Museum

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The Best Wildlife Photographs of the Year

Over 48,000 photos were entered in the Veolia Environnement contest; these 10 were among the most stunning

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Dolphins Go Hunting In Fishers’ Nets

Dolphins deliberately enter trawlers’ nets to look for food—sometimes they get caught

Is Dancing Uniquely Human?

According to oral tradition, the Mayflower Pilgrims landed near Plymouth Rock in 1620—but first-person accounts of their arrival make no mention of it.

Did the Pilgrims Really Land on Plymouth Rock and More Questisons From our Readers

Where do hurricanes start, the Big Bang, sea gulls and other answers from the Smithsonian’s experts

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Monkeys Totally Not Into PDA

Monkeys engage in “sneaky sex” to escape the burning gaze of voyeuristic bystanders

Black-headed Spider Monkey (Ateles fusciceps)

Alan Dudley’s Wondrous Array of Animal Skulls

A new book delivers fascinating photographs of over 300 skulls from the British taxidermist’s personal collection—the largest in the world

Invasive nutria in the Southern U.S.

Guilt-Free Meat-Eating Strategy: Hunt Invasive Species

A new book describes how invasive species may provide vegetarians a welcome meat-eating freebie

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How To Film a Cheetah Sprinting at 61 Miles Per Hour

National Geographic shows how a team filmed Sarah, the fastest cheetah in the world, sprinting at top speed

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Scientific Illustrations: Your Go-To Guides for Halloween Costumes

The details are what separate a good outfit from an amazing one. The images in the Biodiversity Heritage Library can help you make the leap

A beluga whale

Beluga Whale Learns to Speak Like a Human

Beluga whales can vocalize in a way remarkably close to human speech, according to new observations

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