Weird Animals

A researcher holds a banded vampire bat.

Vampire Bats Call Out to Friends to Share Blood Meals

After they prep bite sites to lap the blood out of live cows, females invite their roostmates to join them

Heavy metal-fortified mandibles help leafcutter ants save energy and muscle mass.

Heavy Metals Give Ants a Powerful Bite

A combination of metal atoms and natural proteins is the secret behind the super-strong jaws, claws and stingers of some tiny animals

Musk ducks join an elite group of non-human animals that can mimic speech.

Listen to Ripper the Duck Say 'You Bloody Fool!'

New research highlights the rare trait of vocal learning among animals with examples of musk ducks imitating human speech and other noises

The researchers retrieved frog foam from the forests of Trinidad and brought it back to their lab after removing the eggs, hatching them and returning the tadpoles to the wild.

Frog Foam May Help Deliver Drugs to Human Skin

A new study suggests the concoction created by mating amphibians may help dispense medicine slowly over time

Tardigrades use their claws like grappling hooks and pull their bodies forward to move.

Scientists Discover Tiny Tardigrades Trot Around Like Insects

The microscopic organism's gait may have evolved to adapt to unpredictable terrains

Around 20 percent of female white-necked jacobins have evolved to share the vibrant plumage characteristic of males.

Female Hummingbirds Masquerade as Males to Avoid Harassment

One-fifth of female white-necked jacobins sport flashy male-like plumage, which may help them access more food

A spotted skunk does a handstand.

Scientists Identify Seven Species of Spotted Skunks, and They All Do Handstands Before They Spray

Researchers analyzed hundreds of spotted skunk specimens to classify the animals

Female octopuses were far more likely than males to 'throw' objects at others.

Female Octopuses Throw Things at Male Harassers

Scientists observed common Sydney octopuses launching shells and silt at particularly annoying individuals

Asian paper wasp nests take on a new verdant glow under ultraviolet light.

Wasp Nest Glows Green Under UV Light

Silk fibers give the nest its radiant a neon hue

The giant tortoise clumsily stalked and ate a lesser noddy tern chick, raising questions about their herbivorous diet.

Giant Tortoise Stuns Scientists by Eating a Baby Bird

In a first, researchers in the Seychelles document the large reptile stalking and devouring a chick

A new study of western diamondback rattlesnakes reveals that they abruptly shift to a high-frequency rattle as danger approaches.

Rattlesnakes Fool Humans Into Thinking They're Nearby With This Sound-Warping Trick

A new study reveals the snakes change the speed of their rattles to appear closer than they are

Only two of 18 eggs have hatched so far. Congrats to the gator parents, Snowflake and Blizzard!

Rare Albino Alligators Hatch at Florida Zoo

The pair of white and pink hatchlings lack their species' usual dark coloration

Olive sea snakes are among the largest marine snake species and sometimes make contact with divers.

Venomous Sea Snakes That Charge Divers May Just Be Looking for Love

A new study suggests apparent attacks are actually fleeting cases of mistaken identity

An adult male woolly mammoth navigates a mountain pass 17,100 years ago.

Woolly Mammoths Roamed Far and Wide Just Like Living Elephants

A new analysis of a mammoth tusk tracks the movements of an Ice Age icon

The specimen (pictured) was so well-preserved in permafrost that it's whiskers are still intact.

Near-Perfect Cave Lion Cub Corpse Found in Siberian Permafrost

Scientists discover two mummified cubs estimated to be approximately 28,000 and 43,000 years old

The coastal critter was dubbed the sheepshead fish for the way its mouth resembles the muzzle of a sheep.

Sheepshead Fish With Human-Like Teeth Plucked From North Carolina Coast

The Atlantic coast swimmer uses its molars to crush the shells of various mollusks and crustaceans

A juvenile scarlet snake stuck in the web of a brown widow spider in Georgia.

In a Spider vs. Snake Battle, These 40 Arachnids Would Defeat and Devour Their Serpentine Foes

At least 40 arachnid species kill and eat certain slithering predators, which can be up to 30 times the eight-legged critters' size

Two researchers observe a bird carcass found at a wind energy facility.

Dogs Sniff Out Answers to Bat and Bird Fatalities Near Wind Turbines

Aided by canines, researchers found larger models do not necessarily pose a greater threat to wildlife

A 3D image of the spiral-shaped intestine of a Pacific spiny dogfish shark. In life, food would move through this intestine left to right.

Sharks' Intestines Spiral Like a Valve Invented by Nikola Tesla

Tesla's ingenious valve promoted a one-way flow of fluid without the need for moving parts, but, it turns out, evolution got there first

The butterflies have experienced major losses in populations on both the East and West coasts.

Climate Change Is Decimating Monarch Populations, Research Shows

Western monarchs have lost 99.9 percent of their numbers since the 1980s

Page 7 of 37