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Weird Animals

Baby bats are born tipping the scales at a third of their adult weight, and since mama bats have to carry them until they can fly, at which point they are nearly full-grown, it’s no wonder they start to get a bit physical.

Mama Bats Literally Nudge Their Babies Out of the Roost

Researchers observed mother bats repeatedly prodding their young to motivate them to fledge

Cool Finds

Never-Before-Seen Colony of 1,000 Brooding Octopuses Found Off California Coast

The deep sea creatures are raising their eggs on the Davidson Seamount in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Urban rats appeared to enjoy a steady diet of high-quality food, including protein-rich meat, while rural rats struggled to get by on limited, often meat-free meals

Urban Rats Enjoy Richer, More Reliable Diet Than Their Rural Counterparts

Researchers analyzed the remains of 86 brown rats that roamed Toronto between 1790 and 1890

Feast your eyes on the blind Somalian cavefish, which has—like mammals—mysteriously lost the ability to use light to fix damaged DNA.

Blind Cavefish Shed Light on the Dark Days of Mammalian Evolution

Like mammals, these cave-dwelling creatures have discarded a solar-powered system that repairs UV-damaged DNA

Polar bears are shown scavenging on the carcass of a dead bowhead whale that washed ashore on Wrangel Island, Russia.

Weird Animals

Polar Bears May Soon Feast on Whale Carcasses. Global Warming is to Blame.

This scavenging strategy saved sleuths of bears in the past, but it’s not sustainable as temperatures climb at unprecedented rates

The intricate network of crevices seen on the African elephant's skin helps it retain moisture and stay cool

New Research

How African Elephants Get Their Wrinkles

The animal’s crevice-filled skin helps keep it cool and shares a surprising set of similarities with the human skin disease ichthyosis vulgaris

Sloths' slow-paced lifestyle is a survival strategy, not a sign of laziness

Sloths Don’t Just Live in Slow-Mo, They Can Put Their Metabolism On Pause

Unlike most mammals, sloths don’t use vast amounts of energy when it’s hot, instead opting to slow down and conserve power, more like birds or reptiles

Cool Finds

Moths Love Sipping the Salty Tears of Sleeping Birds

A researcher in the Amazon happened up on the rare sight in the dead of night while looking for reptiles and amphibians

Smith spotted the elusive creature while searching for rare flowers in the Wondiwoi mountain range

Cool Finds

Elusive Tree Kangaroo Spotted for First Time in 90 Years

An amateur botanist spotted the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo in the remote mountains of West Papua, New Guinea

The dazzling pink and yellow fish is the only member of its genus known to reside in the Atlantic rather than the Pacific

Cool Finds

Newly Discovered Neon Fish Species Is Named After Greek Goddess of Love

Researchers were so entranced by the pink and yellow fish that they failed to spot a sixgill shark swimming just above their heads

Giant pandas put it all out there when calling out for love.

Pandamonium

Giant Panda Mating Calls Say a Lot About Them

Panda love grunts are packed with information, like size of the potential mate and more, but long distance calls are less reliable

Researchers first discovered Dickinsonia fossils back in 1946.

New Research

The World’s Earliest Known Animal May Have Been a Blob-Like Undersea Creature

Traces of fat found on a 558-million-year-old fossil suggest Dickinsonia was an animal rather than fungus, plant or single-celled protozoa

Trending Today

Five Baby Squirrels Saved From Truly Knotty Predicament

Five gray tree squirrels in Wisconsin were found with their tails hopelessly knotted together, requiring some help from a wildlife rehab

Cool Finds

The Catch of the Day Is a 10,000-Year-Old Gigantic Deer Skull

Last week, Irish fishermen pulled up the skull and horns of an extinct great elk, which could have 12-foot-wide antlers

The moa, a species of giant flightless birds, went extinct soon after humans arrived in New Zealand during the 13th century

Oral History Suggests Māori Proverbs on Bird Extinction Mirrored Fears of Indigenous Group’s Own Decline

The moa, a giant flightless bird, served as symbol of extinction and reflection of Māori fears over encroaching European presence

Until now, it’s been unclear whether the bonnethead's seagrass consumption was intentional or the result of indiscriminate feeding

Fish Are Friends, Not (Always) Food: Meet the World’s First Omnivorous Shark Species

Bonnethead sharks enjoy a diet of up to 60 percent seagrass, as well as crab, shrimp, snails and bonyfish

Is it just instinct?

New Research

New Zealand Penguins Make an Epic, Pointless, Swim to the Southern Ocean

A new satellite study shows the penguins travel over 4,000 miles to feed, even though their home shores are teeming with food

Bigfoot is still a big deal to many conspiracy theorists.

Why Do So Many People Still Want to Believe in Bigfoot?

The appeal of the mythical, wild man holds strong

In August 2016, a lightning strike killed more than 300 reindeers. Now, their decaying carcasses are spurring the landscape's revitalization

What the Deaths of More Than 300 Reindeer Teach Us About the Circle of Life

In an isolated corner of Norwegian plateau, carcasses of reindeer felled by lightning are spawning new plant life

Stormy weather may have rained on these sea urchins' parade—and sealed their fate

See Shells of Sea Spuds on the Seashore

Hundreds of “sea potatoes”—actually the empty shells of a species of sea urchin—mysteriously washed up on Cornish beach last weekend

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