As global temperatures rise, ecosystems and the species they harbor are adjusting in response. Many habitats are either shifting their boundaries polewards—or disappearing altogether—sending wildlife into new regions, where they interact with resident creatures in surprising and often unprecedented ways. When this geographic collision is between two closely related species, they sometimes cross-breed, leading to […] 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
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
Every feathered thing — from the hummingbirds flitting near your feeder to the falcons that haunt lonely cliffs — has something in common, and it’s not just that they’ve got wings. Today’s modern birds descended from a single, surviving line of carnivorous, theropod dinosaurs that became small, delicate, covered in feathers, and were gifted with […] More
Sharks, in turns out, are the kings of coexistence. Scientists have just discovered that the animals conserve resources and avoid one another by voluntarily hunting in shifts. The research out of Murdoch University’s Harry Butler Institute is the first example of marine predators dividing up resources in a shared foraging area. Drs. Karissa Lear and […] More
Thanks to tens of thousands of years of increasingly complex tools and technology at our disposal, humans have become the most apex of apex predators on this planet, doing what our hominid ancestors could not: keep ourselves from becoming food. Well, mostly. As clever as we are, humans are still very much considered morsels by […] More
A marine biologist in Australia recently captured incredible cephalopod video footage — an octopus rolling a plastic pipe containing its eggs back into the ocean after it had washed ashore. Sheree Marris was walking along a beach in Melbourne when she happened upon a discarded plastic pipe. Picking it up to examine it, she noticed […] More
An estimated 70 orcas recently worked together to take down and devour a 50-foot juvenile blue whale off the coast of western Australia — a feat that has only been recorded a handful of times. The attack took place in Bremer Canyon, a thriving ecosystem where orcas are frequently spotted in the summer months. Multiple […] More
When most of us think of venomous animals, we probably picture cold-blooded creatures — reptiles like vipers or cobras, deadly spiders, or maybe a tropical fish festooned with stinging spines. But there are a select few venomous mammals that also deserve recognition for their chemical weaponry. Some more famous examples include the male platypus — […] More
Sea turtles are specially designed for swimming: their flippers are incredibly good at dispersing water, propelling them through the water for miles at a time. However, those fingerless limbs typically don’t help much when it comes to handling their food … or so scientists thought until now. While they typically rely on just their mouths, […] More
Instantly recognizable by the horrified, woeful expression on their upturned faces, stargazers are among the most fascinating (and frightening) fish in the ocean — capable of vacuuming up, electrocuting and delivering deadly venom to their enemies. The fish, named for the upward-facing eyes and gaping mouths located strategically at the top of their heads, are […] More
