Wild Animals

A first-of-its-kind study reaffirms why wolves are vital to the health of our ecosystem.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

Justin O. Schmidt studies insect venom and has a rating system for the relative agony inflicted by the world's most painful stings. Which is the worst?

By Jesslyn Shields

The Dumbo octopus is just one of the amazing creatures filmed by the most recent voyage of the E/V Nautilus.

By Jesslyn Shields

The annual bison roundup in South Dakota's Custer State Park is a spectacle full of cowboys, horses and of course wild buffalo, all set against the backdrop of the rolling Black Hills. It's also about as Americana as you can get.

By John Donovan

Structures in some butterflies' wings are actually part of their ears.

By Jesslyn Shields

The kindest thing you can say about a sea cucumber's physique is that it looks very much like a large hoagie bun dressed in a lumpy old sweater.

By Jesslyn Shields

Thanks to a citizen science project in the path of totality, researchers studied bee activity and were surprised by the results.

By John Perritano

Berries are a great food source for birds, but this diet can backfire when the fruit starts to ferment.

By Jesslyn Shields

Scientists have known for a long time that elephants have no sweat glands and keep cool through slinging mud on their skin. But they didn't know what made the skin so wrinkled - until now.

By Nathan Chandler

The old saw about cats being good catchers of rats was finally put to scientific study - and the results were pretty sad.

By Nathan Chandler

For five nights in a row, a praying mantis came to the same garden spot to hunt for fish, completely confounding scientists.

By Jesslyn Shields

A new study found that those spot patterns are not only inherited from mom, they help camouflage baby giraffes in the wild.

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

A new study paints a grave future for the killer whale, all because of the now-banned chemicals polychlopinated biphenyls - PCBs.

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

With the fall migration season for birds just around the corner, we took another look at how to prevent birds from colliding with windows.

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

It's a natural phenomenon known as a 'squirrel king.' But what's the deal and why do squirrels get tangled up?

By Jamie Allen

Beekeeping, when you get down to it, is the art and science of removing honey from hardworking bees without them missing it. But beekeeping is about so much more than just the honey.

By Dave Roos

A dolphin named Billie learned a dolphin-show trick from some captive dolphins, taught her wild friends how to do it and started a fad.

By Jesslyn Shields

The Indian giant squirrel is covered in flamboyant colors like orange, black and bright purple. But why?

By Jamie Allen

A French theme park has trained a crew of six rooks to pick up after its messy guests.

By Jesslyn Shields

It used to be assumed that African bush elephants avoided the sound of an angry bee hive. Now researchers believe they have receptors to detect a bee's alarm pheromones.

By Jesslyn Shields

Being eaten from the inside out by wasps sounds like something out of a nightmare, but for some caterpillars, sadly, it's just life.

By Jesslyn Shields

The Humboldt marten was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 1996. Now it is threatened again.

By Jesslyn Shields

Sea lice aren't actually lice - they're jellyfish - but they're no fun when they get in your bathing suit.

By Jesslyn Shields

Breaking news: Dolphins and porpoises don't actually look very much alike.

By Jesslyn Shields

Once a week or so, sloths climb down from their trees and poop on the ground. It feels so good, they do a little dance. But this time of pleasure is also a time of peril.

By Alia Hoyt