Animals
Emperor penguins are on the march — toward extinction
Along with Antarctic fur seals, these iconic birds, the largest of all penguins, are now endangered by their continent’s warming.
Animals
More Stories in Animals
- Animals
This tool-using cow stunned scientists with her smarts
Veronika the cow scratches hard-to-reach body parts using a brush. This feat is forcing scientists to rethink which animals can use tools.
- Animals
Flat-faced dogs often struggle to breathe easy
Pugs and bulldogs aren’t the only dogs with breathing problems. Pekingese, Japanese chins and other squish-faced breeds have this issue, too.
- Tech
Backyard leafhoppers inspire next-generation cloaking tech
Engineers are borrowing this insect’s trick, an "invisibility cloak" of anti-reflective spheres. It could lead to new clean energy tech or military gear.
- Environment
Human-built ‘beaver’ dams help save struggling streams
To help restore streams, ecologists and other scientists are taking tips from the rodents — and hoping some beavers also join in.
- Animals
Let’s learn about the platypus
Every new discovery about platypuses reveals them to be even odder than we thought.
- Animals
Wind won’t keep hungry yellow jackets away from your picnic
Hungry yellow jackets are really good at tracking attractive odors. Even in windy and difficult conditions, they can find your barbecue.
- Fossils
Fossil vomit shows what one 290-million-year-old predator dined on
Bones in the barfed-up material, which dates to a time before the dinosaurs, offer a rare peek into the diet of a prehistoric hunter.
- Animals
Intricate silk helps net-casting spiders trap prey in webs
Rufous net-casting spiders can adjust the stiffness and stretchiness of their webs thanks to looping strands of silk.
- Animals
A bonobo’s imaginary tea party hints that apes can pretend
Kanzi would sometimes play with imaginary juice and grapes, just as humans might. The bonobo's ability challenges old ideas about how animals think.
