Wild Animals

These adorable little rodents are popular as pets, but they require some special care.

By Jesslyn Shields

Is the "banana spider" you're looking at the one that sits around harmlessly catching flies, or could its bite kill a small child? If we rely solely on common names, this question is complicated.

By Jesslyn Shields

It may seem like just the cutest thing in the world to you, but owning a pet monkey is a really bad idea. Here's why.

By Tara Yarlagadda

These little critters are super cute, so why do they have a reputation for being one of the worst of the mammal world?

By Mark Mancini

Llamas and alpacas are very similar animals, but the differences in personality are striking.

By Jesslyn Shields

Is that a dolphin pancreas? Some extremely firm manatee vomit? Nope, it's sea pork!

By Jesslyn Shields

Because most of what we know about honey badgers comes from a three-minute comedy video, there are a lot of misconceptions about these wily weasels.

By Jesslyn Shields

The biggest land-dwelling arthropod can crack into everything from coconuts to carcasses, but they're also really vulnerable.

By Jesslyn Shields

These nasty little bugs have been reported in 28 U.S. states and can cause an illness called Chagas disease.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

These arachnids are aggressive, unbelievably fast and love to murder ants for no reason, but don't worry — they're harmless.

By Jesslyn Shields

If you think the answer is 1,000, you're way way off.

By Danielle Douez

Wolf spiders might find their way into your house and can look threatening, but they're really harmless.

By Jesslyn Shields

Sure, hedgehogs are cute as heck, but do you think one really wants to live in your house?

By Jesslyn Shields

The blobfish is actually pretty average looking in its normal habitat, but becomes a blob when it transitions from the pressure at depth to the water's surface.

By Jesslyn Shields

There doesn't seem to be much of a gray area. Most people are a hard yes or yard no.

By Meg Sparwath

Sure, opossums eat out of your trashcan, but they're also strange little superheroes.

By Jesslyn Shields

There's a lot of conversation around what we should be feeding our backyard hummingbird visitors, so we threw the question, along with others, to an expert.

By Jamie Allen

Snakes and lizards share a common ancestor, and snakes still have the genetic coding for legs and feet. So where did those appendages go?

By Nathan Chandler

Your favorite cashmere sweater is super-soft and luxurious. It probably cost you an arm and leg, too. Here's why.

By Jamie Allen

The world's largest bee, lost to science for 38 years, has been rediscovered on a remote island in Indonesia.

By Jesslyn Shields

A group of researchers in Shennongjia National Nature Reserve discovered that these female monkeys are essentially happy to feed each other's offspring.

By Jamie Allen

Perhaps it's a mating signal. Or meant to confuse owls and other predators. Or maybe it's just for looks.

By Jamie Allen

There's an old saying that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Scientists have now found out why sour tastes are so repellent to flies.

By Alia Hoyt

The smallest owls in the world have mad survival skills, like killing poisonous scorpions and playing dead.

By Loraine Fick

If salamanders can regrow or repair limbs, eyes and spinal cords, could humans do it too? After all, we share a lot of the same genes. That's what some researchers set out to find.

By Nathan Chandler