Wildlife

"Panama's Animal Highway" premiers on the Smithsonian Channel, December 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

New Documentary Delights With Spectacular Visuals of the Panama Isthmus, A Migratory Superhighway

Scientists from all over the world come to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center to study this unique region

Scientists Go on a Mission to Save Sea Turtles

Over the past half century, Leatherback turtle numbers have suffered a disastrous decline of almost 70%

Why Panama's Urban Development Is a Threat to Animals

The Isthmus of Panama has witnessed some of the greatest movement of animal species in history. Today, rapid urbanization has accelerated deforestation

An apiarist tends to beehives at Hastings Urban Farm in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Can Honeybees Monitor Pollution?

The tiny pollinators are useful sentinels of what’s going on in an ecosystem, and might just be environmentalists’ best asset

Capturing a Photo of a Swimming Polar Bear is Risky Work

A wildlife photographer spots a swimming polar bear, completing the last lap of its summer migration. It's the perfect photo op

Transient killer whales, hunters extraordinaire, cruise by a sea lion haulout in the northeast Pacific.

A Tale of Two Killer Whales

Orca whales actually comprise two distinct types—and one may soon be destined to rise above the other

Simply by pooping, the once-endangered cape zebra helps researchers measure its health and well-being.

New Research

How Stressed Out Are Zebras? Just Ask Their Poop

Scientists are scooping up the pungent piles of data to measure the health of once-endangered ungulates

Polar Bear Goes After a Young Beluga Calf

A male polar bear stands on the edge of the ice waiting for potential prey. But he's set his sights on something bigger than a seal today

Plants are keeping time.

The Next Pandemic

To Make Precision Medicine, Scientists Study the Circadian Rhythms in Plants

Biologists are taking a close look at how precisely calibrated timekeepers in organisms influence plant-pathogen interactions

Stanford scientists are building up an archive of mosquito sounds.

The Next Pandemic

Before You Swat That Mosquito, Record It on Your Cell Phone

That's the strategy behind Abuzz, a crowdsourcing project designed to track mosquito activity around the world

Alpha Male Tiger Forces This Cub to Submit

A young tiger comes face-to-face with an encroaching male tiger, threatening to take over his father's territory

Using seal bombs to deter marine mammals is legal, though using them to round up target species is not.

Why California Fishermen Are Throwing Deafening “Seal Bombs” at Sea Lions

...and why no one is stopping them

The way a fruit fly fires neurons could inform machine learning.

How Fruit Fly Brains Could Improve Our Search Engines

Fruit flies have a unique way of matching data, which could teach scientists to create better, faster search algorithms

Tigers Use Urine to Figure Out If They Have Chemistry

Young tiger Kumal is spellbound by a female tiger he encounters in a local stretch of forest. If she's interested, she'll signal her intent

There are good reasons why you won't see a Siamese fighting fish swimming this way in the wild.

The Evolutionary Reason Why Fish Don't Swim Upside Down

It’s a natural question for animals that float, but few scientists have delved into the details

This Lion Couple Mates Over 100 Times a Day

A newly coupled lion and lioness head to the relative solitude of the higher grounds in their new kingdom of Rwanda

Crested pigeons make an awful racket when they take off—but where's it coming from?

New Research

Australian Pigeons Have a Specially Evolved Feather to Better Annoy the Heck Out of You With

Pinpointing the birds’ noisemakers could help researchers better understand why urban avians make so much dang noise

Why Male Lions Need Lionesses to Help Them Survive

They might be earmarked as future kings of the jungle, but young male lions are lazy and lack survival skills. Their only hope is to attract a female

None

Armenia

Spot the Ultra-Rare Caucasian Leopard in Armenia's Caucasus Wildlife Refuge

Impressive local fauna is thriving again in Southern Armenia's new Caucasus Wildlife Refuge

Since commercial harvesting of sea cucumbers began in British Columbia, indigenous people have grown more worried about the long-term sustainability of catching them.

Is the Mysterious Sea Cucumber Slipping Out of Our Grasp?

The slimy, tasty enigmas have long been over-harvested. An indigenous community in Canada could be close to finding a sustainable solution

Page 46 of 134