Mammals

Alan Turing’s Prediction About Patterns in Nature Proven True

With nothing but numbers, logic and some basic know-how, the inventor of the Turing Test explained how to make a stripe

Orcinus orca

What the Inuit Taught Scientists About Killer Whales

The native people knew what orcas ate, how they hunted prey, how the prey responded to the whales and when and where predation occurred

A reconstruction of Gigantopithecus

Did Bigfoot Really Exist? How Gigantopithecus Became Extinct

Dental, dietary and environmental clues help explain why the world's largest ape vanished

An elephant running in the Masai Mara, Kenya

14 Fun Facts About Elephants

#5: Cartoons lie—elephants don't like peanuts

Cats and earthquakes were popular subjects this year.

Top Ten Science Blog Posts of 2011

Cats, zombies, earthquakes, chickens--our readers have an eclectic taste

A young echidna in Coles Bay, Australia

What In The World Is An Echidna?

This spiky monotreme can be found in Australia and New Guinea

Reindeer have a few strategies for keeping cool (courtesy of flickr user much ado about nothing

How Rudolph Keeps A Cool Head

Reindeer have several strategies for releasing heat when they get too hot

A great white shark off the coast of South Africa

The Secrets of a Shark Attack

In an attack against a Cape fur seal, a great white shark's advantage comes down to physics

Bottlenose dolphins are good swimmers

For Dolphins, Pregnancy Comes With a Price

A bigger body means increased drag, slower speeds and greater vulnerability to predators

Luke, the National Zoo's male lion

Secrets of a Lion’s Roar

Not all cats roar, but those that do fascinate us with their mysterious and frightening sounds

A kinkajou in Costa Rica

What In The World Is A Kinkajou?

It's a carnivore, though it mostly eats fruit. It has a prehensile tail, but it's not a primate

Infamously fierce, rhinoceroses, pictured is a black rhino in Kenya, are victims of rumors that have driven the price of their horn to hundreds of dollars an ounce.

Defending the Rhino

As demand for rhino horn soars, police and conservationists in South Africa pit technology against increasingly sophisticated poachers

A little brown bat with symptoms of white-nose syndrome

Bat Killer Confirmed

The Geomyces destructans fungus causes deadly white-nose syndrome in bats

Pandas munch on bamboo for most of the day.

How A Carnivore Survives On Bamboo

New research finds that the giant panda may get some bacterial help to digest its bamboo diet

It only took five tries, but his version of Hamlet is much better.

Chimps Shouldn’t Be Entertainers

A new study provides evidence that seeing chimps in commercials makes us care less about them as a species

Rock hyraxes in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

What in the World is a Rock Hyrax?

It's the elephant's closest living, land-based relative

Toxoplasma gondii requires the cat digestive system for reproduction, so it hitches a ride in a rat

The Parasite That Makes a Rat Love a Cat

Toxoplasma gondii alters activity in a rat's brain

The moose likely got drunk eating apples fermenting on the ground.

The Alcoholics of the Animal World

A drunken moose got stuck in a tree. But they aren't the only ones who like the product of fermentation

A glowing kitty may help in the fight against AIDS

The Glow-In-The-Dark Kitty

A fluorescent green cat could help in the fight against AIDS

A male elephant at Etosha National Park in Namibia

Male Elephants Queue in Dry Times

Researchers believe the hierarchy helps elephants avoid injuries that could result from competing for water

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