Animals

A queen Oecophylla smaragdina ant

How Can Ant and Termite Queens Live So Long?

Scientists are working to understand the matriarchs, who can survive decades while investing huge amounts of energy into reproduction

Staff members from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department in Hong Kong investigate a pet shop that was closed after hamsters tested positive for the coronavirus.

Hong Kong Will Cull Thousands of Hamsters and Small Animals After Delta Variant Was Detected in a Pet Shop

Though there is no evidence of domestic animals passing the disease to humans, officials say they are acting out of caution

A murder of crows flies around an apartment building in downtown Sunnyvale, California.

A California City Overrun With Crows Turns to Lasers and a Boombox to Scare Them Away

City employees will spend an hour every night shining green lasers and playing corvid distress calls to humanely harass the birds into leaving

The newly recognized species, Taksinus bambus, is the first known tarantula to nest exclusively inside bamboo stalks.

A Wildlife YouTuber Discovered This New Species of Tarantula in Thailand

The bamboo-dwelling spider is so distinct from others that it's been declared a new genus and species

Betty White poses with a parrot at the Los Angeles Zoo in 2014.

Animal Shelters See an Influx of Donations in Honor of Betty White

Fans donated thousands of dollars to local animal shelters on what would have been her 100th birthday

Five cats pile onto a Starlink satellite dish in a snowy yard.

Outdoor Cats Are Using $500 Starlink Satellite Dishes as Self-Heating Beds

The devices—developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX—have a warming feature to prevent snow buildup from disrupting the signal

A tiger shark swims in the Bahamas. Over the past several decades, the predators ventured farther north in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean.

Some Tiger Sharks Are Migrating Farther North Due to Climate Change

The predator’s movements in the Atlantic Ocean could scramble ecosystems and endanger the sharks by sending them outside marine protected areas

A female dolphin cald swims about her mother at the Madrid Zoo and Aquarium in 2018.

Female Dolphins Have a Fully Functional Clitoris

A new study finds surprising similarities between human and cetacean sexual anatomy

Dogs may even be able to suss out which sounds are words and which are just nonsense.

Dogs Can Tell the Difference Between Human Languages

Canines in the study could differentiate between Spanish, Hungarian and nonsense words

Researchers say the badger that found the coins was possibly digging for food or to make a nest.

Hungry Badger Digs Up a Trove of Roman Coins in Spain

Discovered near the animal’s den, the cache contains more than 200 coins from at least 1,600 years ago

Little is known about most magnapinnid, or bigfin squid, species. The individual pictured here was spotted by the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer in the Gulf of Mexico. Recently, a magnapinnid was filmed in the Philippine Trench—the deepest ever sighting of a squid.

Scientists Find the World's Deepest-Dwelling Squid

Researchers went looking for a war wreck roughly 19,000 feet under the sea—and spotted the animal instead

Danish scientist Kristine Bohmann collects air samples in the Copenhagen Zoo’s tropical rainforest house.

Scientists Pull Animal DNA Out of Thin Air

The new method, tested at two zoos, could revolutionize the study of biodiversity in the wild

One reader wonders what graffiti was like before spray paint.

What Did Graffiti Look Like Before Spray Paint and More Questions From Our Readers

You've got questions. We've got experts.

“You become a little bit of a fixture in the community,” says Stewart, seen here in San Diego.

The Veterinarian Brings His Healing Presence to Pets of the Unhoused

Kwane Stewart discovers the little-known world of generosity and love

Panda cub Xiao Qi Ji somersaults through the fresh powder.

See Pandas, Elephants, Cheetahs and More Enjoy a Snow Day at the National Zoo

At least six inches of snowfall covered Washington, D.C. this week causing closures and delays for residents, but the zoo animals were out to play

A restoration of the extinct whale Phiomicetus, named by paleontologists earlier this year, preying upon a sawfish.

Whales Once Walked Along the Coasts of North America

Increasing fossil finds are helping researchers understand how such early whales made their way to the continent

Harvard University professor E.O. Wilson in his office in Cambridge, MA. He is considered to be the world's leading authority on the study of ants.

Remembering E.O. Wilson's Wish for a More Sustainable Existence

From a lifelong passion for ants, E.O. Wilson guided humanity to think of conservation

The tyrannosaur Nanuqsaurus, which lived in the Arctic, with its young. New evidence suggests dinosaurs nested in the cold, dark region.

The Top Ten Dinosaur Discoveries of 2021

The key finds and moments in a year packed with amazing stories about the terrible lizards

Approximately 315 different glaciers between British Columbia and Alaska have the potential to create new salmon habitat.

Melting Glaciers May Create 3,800 Miles of New Salmon Habitat by 2100

As the ice retreats, water could carve new streams in the thawed out land

A Louis Wain illustration of cats singing carols

See Louis Wain's Exuberant Cat Art at the Hospital Where He Spent His Later Years

The Victorian artist's famous feline portraits are on view at England's Bethlem Museum of the Mind

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