Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Animals

One-third of the world’s population can’t see the starry band of light in the night sky that makes up the Milky Way (above). The new show “Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky” at the National Museum of Natural History looks at the devastating impacts of artificial light.

Planet Positive

Why It’s Time for a Worldwide Lights-Out Program

A new Smithsonian exhibition delves into the issue of light pollution, with easy solutions offering an immediate change

Ravens prey on juvenile desert tortoises.

For Young Threatened Desert Tortoises, These Technologies Have Arrived to Help

Biologists are deploying 3D-printed replicas of hatchlings, lasers and drones to curb predation

The fossil of Icaronycteris gunnelli

Paleontologists Discover 52-Million-Year-Old Bat

The fossil represents the earliest-known species of the flying mammal

A wild Asian elephant in Sri Lanka

Watch This Elephant Peel a Banana With Her Trunk

Pang Pha likely learned to de-skin the yellow fruits while observing her human caretaker in her youth

Now extinct, thylacines are carnivorous marsupials that once roamed freely around Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea.

Extinct Tasmanian Tigers May Have Survived Longer Than Previously Thought

Though the last documented thylacine died in 1936, a new study based on alleged sightings suggests the species lived for decades more

Though this particular Arctic ground squirrel died during the Ice Age, these rodents still live in the Yukon Territory and Alaska today.

Cool Finds

This Mummified Ice Age Squirrel Was Found Frozen in Canada

Scientists identified the curled-up creature as an Arctic ground squirrel that likely died while hibernating some 30,000 years ago

A Colorado checkered whiptail

These Lizards Stress-Eat When Loud Military Aircraft Fly Overhead

Colorado checkered whiptails on a U.S. Army base show increased stress levels and altered behavior after noisy jets and helicopters pass by, a study finds

A monk seal in southern Greece. Females tended to give birth on beaches before human hostility drove them into hiding.

Planet Positive

The Mediterranean Monk Seal Is Making a Comeback

The endangered sea creature, known for its reclusive nature, has re-emerged out of the shadows

A view of the more than 2,000 mummified ram skulls found at the temple in Abydos

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover 2,000 Mummified Ram Skulls in Temple of Ramses II

The skulls were likely left as offerings about 1,000 years after the pharaoh’s death

An artist’s reconstruction of Rhinesuchus, a rhinesuchid temnospondyl

Paleontologists Uncover Fossil Impressions of Giant, Alligator-Like Amphibians

The find reveals how the creatures swam and relaxed in prehistoric waterways

David Hockney's Dog Painting 19 (1995)

See How History’s Great Artists Painted Their Dogs

A new exhibition showcases portraits of pets by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and David Hockney

Dairy farms like this one run by the Barstow family in Hadley, Massachusetts, make smart use of a substance cows produce in abundance.

How Dairy Farmers Are Turning Manure Into Money

These New Englanders have found a way to help the planet and convert more than 9,000 tons of cow waste annually into electricity

Dill, Jalapeño and Gherkin, the three newly hatched radiated tortoises at the Houston Zoo.

90-Year-Old Tortoise Fathers His First Offspring at Houston Zoo

Critically endangered radiated tortoises don’t reproduce often, so this is a win for the species

Many of the reptiles that thrived during the Triassic were crocodile relatives that dinosaurs would later mimic through evolutionary happenstance, such as Postosuchus (back) and Desmatosuchus (front).

Dinosaurs Were Evolutionary Copycats of These Long-Lost Look-Alikes

Before T. rex and ankylosaurus ruled the Earth, a host of similar Triassic reptiles reigned

Wandering albatross pair in courtship in South Georgia. Researchers have found some birds have bolder personalities than others.

Animal Personalities Can Trip Up Science

Individual behavior patterns may skew studies, but researchers have a solution to this problem

An analysis of genetic samples taken in 2020 from a market in Wuhan, China, found both the coronavirus and raccoon dog DNA.

Genetic Evidence Ties Covid’s Origin to Raccoon Dogs

New data support the theory that the virus causing Covid-19 first spread to humans from animals

Van Gogh has made more than 150 paintings.

Paintings by Rescue Dog Named van Gogh Raise Thousands for Charity

A bidder has already offered $10,000 for the four-legged artist’s rendition of “The Starry Night”

A puffin in soft light surrounded by faint raindrops.

See 15 Amazing Wildlife Images From the Sony World Photography Awards

The contest showcases the work of some of the planet’s best photographers

A cockatoo uses a sharp stick to poke through a membrane before using a scoop to fish out the cashew inside the box.

Like Humans and Chimps, Cockatoos Can Use a Set of Tools to Get a Meal

In lab experiments, the brainy birds carried a stick and scooped with them to get at cashews kept in a box

A screenshot of an interactive walkthrough of the Hantan River in Korea

See Google Street View Images of Korean Demilitarized Zone

Established in 1953, the off-limits area has become a haven for plants and wildlife

Page 69 of 229