Wild Animals

While luna moths aren't exactly rare, they're hard to find so every encounter seems extra special.

By Jesslyn Shields

Generations of cereal eaters grew up sharing the breakfast table with Toucan Sam, famous for following his long, colorful nose — but what's that bill for besides hawking cereal?

By Jesslyn Shields

That's right – daddy longlegs isn't an actual kind of spider, but a colloquial name that's been applied to a wide range of spiders and non-spiders, insects and non-insects.

By Mark Mancini

The stoat and the weasel might look alike, but they're not the same animal. The stoat is a serious predator that kills its prey like a vampire!

By Wendy Bowman

The energy efficiency of the Andean condor is the avian embodiment of the phrase "work smarter, not harder."

By Jesslyn Shields

Lemmings don't commit mass suicide as is popularly believed, but they are aggressive and have even been known to charge larger predators.

By Jesslyn Shields

Technically they're called tanuki, but these furry critters might as well be called raccoon dogs because that's what they look like. So are they just as domesticated and loving as the canines we know?

By Patty Rasmussen

These two sea creatures can be easy to confuse. But they're actually quite different. We talked to experts to find out how to tell them apart.

By Wendy Bowman

There are more than 50 species of snakes that live in the seas. Some are super venomous and they can zip through the water with ease.

By Mark Mancini

The swordfish's nose might look crazy weird, but these gladiators of the sea are perfectly outfitted for ocean battle.

By Jesslyn Shields

A remarkable partnership has formed over centuries between honeyguide birds and humans — and both species benefit when the honey is found and the comb is cracked.

By Jesslyn Shields

The prehistoric-looking alligator snapping turtle is the largest freshwater turtle in North America and has a bite that, it's said, can snap a wooden broom handle in half.

By Mark Mancini

Roly-poly bugs are natural soil conditioners because they process decomposing matter, helping keep your garden soil clean and healthy. And — fun fact — they're crustaceans, not insects.

By Jeremy Glass

The snakehead fish can breathe air, double its population in 15 months and has a huge appetite, which is not a good thing for native species.

By Jesslyn Shields

Spider monkeys, an endangered species, are the largest monkeys in the Americas and live in the forest canopy, where they swing through the trees with the greatest of ease.

By Jesslyn Shields

These four-legged salamanders look like they've been rolled flat and can weigh up to 5 pounds, but polluted streams put these amphibians in danger of extinction.

By Mark Mancini

It's an age-old question. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck? Turns out, none at all. So what would a woodchuck chuck if it couldn't chuck wood?

By Katie Carman

The okapi may look like a zebra-horse combo, but its closest relative is the giraffe. Here are nine fascinating facts about this curious creature.

By Wendy Bowman

Bees get a lot of credit for pollinating important food crops, but they get a lot of secret help from their nocturnal friends, the moths.

By Jesslyn Shields

The elephant hawk moth is breathtakingly beautiful as an adult, but as a baby ... not so much.

By Jesslyn Shields

This exotic bird could seriously injure or kill a person or a dog in an instant with its deadly claws.

By Wendy Bowman

Born pregnant? You bet. It's a survival instinct but could also explain how these garden pests spread like wildfire.

By Mark Mancini

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, the colorful little fish with the craaaaazy long name, is Hawaii's state fish, but it wasn't always.

By Jesslyn Shields

The basking shark, an endangered species, may look like a fearsome predator, but is actually a filter-feeder, gathering zooplankton and other tiny animals, such as shrimp, in bulk as it roams the seas with a wide open mouth.

By Mark Mancini

Piranhas are some of the most feared fish in the world, but is their reputation for ferocity a bit overblown?

By Jesslyn Shields