City-dwelling birds have found an innovative way to ward off parasites: they line their nests with the discarded cigarette butts they find on the streets. It’s not unusual for birds to build their nests with plants that repel pests like ticks and mites, but cigarettes are a clever modern adaptation. The nicotine in the cigarettes […] More
Army ants are known for their colossal foraging groups, which can exceed 15 million individuals. These insanely productive ants are constantly on the move in search of prey, covering wide swaths of ground, with an entire colony capable of carrying and consuming thousands of prey items in a single day. But from time to time, […] More
Human activities have threatened jaguars for decades, drastically reducing their original habitat across every continent where the animals appear. But in one region of South America, human intervention may actually be helping to save the largest jaguar on the planet. Stretching through Brazil and parts of Paraguay and Bolivia, the Pantanal region is considered the […] More
Scientists have gained new insight into the evolutionary development of brain and nervous system tissue, after examining fossilized brain tissue from a Cambrian sea creature that lived in modern-day Greenland half a billion years ago. The extinct species, Kerygmachela kierkegaardi, was a predator with a long, spiny tail and front appendages used to grab prey. At […] More
Researchers in Myanmar have discovered specimens of Chimerarachne yingi, an ancient arachnid and cousin of the modern spider, perfectly preserved in amber. The little critters look a lot like spiders we’re familiar with today, with one big difference. The Chimerarachne yingi has a long tail, like an early version of the tail on modern scorpions. According to the research […] More
Paper money does exist on Makira, a small island in the eastern Solomon Islands. But the people there don’t always count their fortunes in bills and change; on Makira, bat teeth are more valuable than money, and people hunt the creatures – mostly for food, but often, for their teeth. There are two species of […] More
An African Bush Camp guide and his guests witnessed quite a spectacular event on a game drive in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe: a wild dog playing dead to escape the jaws of a lioness. A pack of wild dogs were relaxing after a recent kudu feast when they were spotted by a hungry lioness, recalled […] More
Talk about a bizarre finding: Genetics have confirmed that an animal killed by a Greenland hunter in the 1980’s was a narwhal-beluga whale hybrid, and they’ve dubbed it a “narluga.” The animal’s skull had been sitting in a museum collection at the Natural History Museum of Denmark for nearly 3 decades before a DNA analysis […] More
If you know anything about honey badgers, you’ll know that they are absolutely fearless. These daring little creatures regularly go up against some of the most fearsome predators, including lions, wild dogs, hyenas and now, a leopard. In this video, a mother honey badger doesn’t hesitate to take on a hungry leopard when it goes […] More
If you’ve watched enough wildlife encounters, you probably know that, despite their reputation in popular culture, hippos are NOT gentle giants. When bothered, these massive creatures are extremely aggressive and highly dangerous. But apparently, they can be deadly even when they’re not angry. In fact, any animal who inadvertently enters their territory risks not making […] More
Being caught between a pride of lions and a crocodile almost certainly means impending doom. But thanks to help from some friends, this lucky buffalo managed to escape the jaws of death, proving that Cape buffalo may be the toughest animals on the African continent. The encounter started out normally enough. The lions had been […] More
After an excruciatingly long wait, justice has been served for conservationists and animal lovers. A gang of poachers in South Africa recently received a series of hefty sentences, wrapping up a court case that stretched nearly three years. Three men from the so-called “Ndlovu Gang” were sentenced to a total of 500 years in prison […] More
