Greenland sharks are the longest living vertebrates in the world — with lifespans possibly exceeding 300 years. Amazingly, females likely don’t start breeding until 150 years of age, research suggests. The sharks are native to Arctic and North Atlantic waters, cruising at a typical depth of about 3,900 feet in waters that are just above […] More
Humans typically aren’t a favorite menu item for lions, but occasionally, these big cats do prey on people. Perhaps the most infamous incident was in 1898, when a pair of lions went on a rampage, killing and eating dozens of people in Tsavo, Kenya before they were shot to death. For centuries, scientists have remained […] More
Florida’s battle against invasive species may have just gotten a lot tougher, as a new type hybrid snake was recently found lurking in the Everglades. A recent US Geological Survey (USGS) study on the genetics of invasive pythons has revealed that a number of the snakes in the Everglades are actually a hybrid between two species […] More
The opossum may not seem like much, but it has some tricks up its sleeve. More
Polar bears are rather unique among bears. Not only do they inhabit the hostile, frigid ice floes in the North Pole, but they are also adept swimmers. In the cold, arctic seas, they can swim 6 mph (10 km/hr), and in one case, a female polar bear swam continuously for 9 days in the Bering Sea, […] More
Most of us know that hippos are not the cuddly creatures they’re made out to be in movies and TV shows. Credited as the deadliest large land animal, they’re known to be extremely aggressive and unpredictable. Weighing in at more than 6000 pounds, at least 500 deaths are attributed to hippos each year in Africa […] More
Illegal wire snares contribute to wild animal extinctions on a large scale and serve as one of Africa’s most persistent conservation problems. Kariba, Zimbabwe is a small town situated on the edge of the Zambian border nearby the Kariba Dam. Its local community is fed by tourism provided by surrounding wildlife and animal preserves. Bushmeat poaching […] More
We shouldn’t have to tell you not to mock a gorilla. This video shows why… More
An amazing video reveals the showdown between a mother fox protecting her den and cubs from a hungry badger in Yellowstone National Park. More
When you think about social animals, spiders are not exactly the first critters that come to mind. Normally, spiders are solitary creatures, and if they encounter other spiders, even members of their own species, they will resort to aggression. However, this is not true for all spiders. There are a few families of spiders that […] More
Imagine a giant column of ice that freezes everything it comes in contact with. Well, this isn’t the stuff of nightmares or doomsday films; this strange phenomenon is very real. Brinicles — also known as “ice stalactites,” or fittingly, “icy fingers of death” — are hollow tubes of ice that surround a plume of salt […] More
This cute little bird has a dark and deadly secret. Commonly referred to as “butcher birds,” shrikes are passerine (perching) birds found throughout portions of Eurasia and Africa. While hunting insects and small vertebrates, they often impale their prey on thorns, barbed-wire fences, and any other available sharp objects — hence, the name. While this […] More
