A brave dog was captured on video holding its ground against a pack of wolves. The footage, documented by Abruzzo local Paolo Forconi in southern Italy, shows three tenacious wolves nipping at the pup’s heels as it looks for an escape along a barbed wire fence. The canine — likely a livestock guardian or working […] More
Two colossal brown bears were documented battling it out over a whale carcass in Katmai National Park, Alaska. The video was captured by photo tour operators at Expeditions Alaska, who were lucky enough to witness the event. The team shared details of the interaction on their YouTube channel, which highlights some of their greatest encounters. […] More
The coldest time of year can be a bitter inconvenience for humans, but for many species, surviving winter temperatures means wielding evolved biological tricks that appear to cheat Death itself — all of which make grumbling about donning a hat and extra layers a little trivial, in retrospect. From frozen frogs to butt-breathing turtles, here […] More
A water buffalo moves slowly through a shaded woodland on Rinca Island. It’s the dry season, so the grass rustles with each footfall, and it’s oppressively hot. Without warning, a massive reptile—the size of a full-grown man—bursts through the shrubbery. It’s a Komodo dragon, and before the buffalo can react, it lands a deep, gouging […] More
It was an apex predator showdown on the banks of the Pantanal, as a jaguar fights to take down the region’s most formidable snake. The prey is an anaconda: a heavy-duty, muscular constrictor built to take down animals by squeezing them to death. This particular anaconda may look small, but these tenacious snakes — even […] More
In the popular Alien sci-fi film franchise, the titular species—known as the “xenomorph”—targets hapless humans, often horrifically implanting their bodies with its own eggs. When the eggs hatch, the young emerge explosively from their unwilling incubator, with invariably fatal results for the human host. The jarring life cycle seems like something cooked up entirely in […] More
Unbelievable footage of a polar bear chasing a reindeer into the water, dragging it ashore and eating it was captured on video in the arctic. The young female bear drowned the sizable male reindeer in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, which lies about halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Rare events like these are […] More
Meet the olinguito, a tiny elusive mammal described by scientists as a cross between a teddy bear and a house cat. Olinguitos were misidentified for over a century, despite the fact that there are many specimens in museum collections and some have even resided at zoos. It wasn’t until 2013 that a team researching its […] More
When it comes to snakes, most of the attention goes to highly venomous varieties (like cobras and vipers) and constrictors (like boas and pythons.) This makes sense since many of these species are either quite dangerous to humans or, at least, perceived to be. But there’s a remarkable diversity of snakes and their lifestyles—and some […] More
The bearded vulture appears to be one of the most terrifying birds of prey, known for dyeing its feathers blood red and feasting on the bones of animals. The vulture, Gypaetus barbatus, is native to crags in high mountainous regions, including Southern Europe, Africa, Tibet, and the Caucasus. It is the only known animal whose diet is […] More
Believe it or not, Americans once considered importing hippos from Africa so we could raise them for meat. The idea was proposed back in 1910, while the United States was in the middle of a serious meat shortage. A massive population explosion combined with overgrazed farmland resulted in skyrocketing beef prices as farmers scrambled to […] More
Frogs have the incredible ability to entirely freeze their bodies during cold conditions and when it gets warm, thaw back to life and go on their way — without missing a hop. While all wild animals have means of managing the winter season, few perform a feat quite like the frog. Instead of migrating to […] More
