Wild Animals
Whether they crawl, fly, swim, slither, walk, run or pounce, wild animals rely on their instincts. Read about all kinds of wild animals, mammals, birds, fish, insects, reptiles and amphibians.
Golden Poison Dart Frog Eats Toxic Insects for Its Own Poison
Toad vs. Frog: Differences in Anatomy, Habitat and More
What's the Difference Between a Newt and Salamander?
The Most Dangerous Insect (and 13 Others to Avoid)
The Most Dangerous Wasp and 9 Other Stingers to Avoid
The Tsetse Fly, Blood Meals and African Sleeping Sickness
The World's Most Dangerous Bird and 9 Runners-up
The 3 Types of Ducks Every Birdwatcher Should Know
10 Types of Owls: From Tiny Screech-owls to Great Horned Owls
13 Most Dangerous Fish, Eels and Sharks
The Stonefish Hides in Plain Sight and Packs a Painful Sting
The Pufferfish Really Isn't Happy to See You
Why Grolar Bear Numbers Increase With Climate Change
The Most Dangerous Bear and 9 Others to Give a Wide Berth
The World's Most Dangerous Cat and 14 Other Fierce Felines
20 of the Most Dangerous Sea Creatures in the Deep Blue
8 Most Dangerous Jellyfish and 1 Stinging Imposter
Freshwater Snails: Helpful Carriers of Harmful Parasites
So, the American Alligator Can Climb Trees ... How Terrifying
Saw-scaled Viper: Opportunistic, Fast and Highly Venomous
Inland Taipan: Most Venomous Snake in the World
Learn More / Page 30
Amphibians are a diverse and unique group of animals. In this collection of amphibian pictures, you'll find Amazon horned frogs is african tree frogs, caecilians, newts and more.
By Marie Bobel
World-famous 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin, died on Sept. 4, 2006, in a shocking accident with a stingray. But stingray-related fatalities are almost unheard of, so what happened? Find out.
By Julia Layton
People are so fascinated with this fierce, fast ocean predator that they've lowered themselves into steel cages to observe it up close. If you read this article though, you won't have to do that.
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She's a vicious social climber, willing to do anything to get to the top. In her quest to be queen, she's snubbed girls and stolen their men. Oh, yes -- and she's a meerkat.
By Josh Clark
When it comes to lending a helping paw, meerkats are quite altruistic. Strangely, they evolved from the mongoose -- a real loner. What gives?
By Josh Clark
Mealtime in the Kalahari Desert isn't exactly an all-you-can-eat buffet. Meerkats eat what they can get -- even poisonous scorpions. Why doesn't the venom hurt them?
By Josh Clark
From sonnets to Skype, humans have been perfecting communication for centuries. Meerkats have their own ways of pointing out danger, food and even happiness.
By Josh Clark
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You're probably familiar with celebrity meerkats like the Whiskers clan and Timon. But do you know anything else about this creature from the Kalahari?
You think you and your siblings don't get along? Try being a shark. You might not even make it out of the womb without your brother or sister eating you.
Mellow probably isn't the first word that you think of when it comes to sharks, but these slackers of the sea could change your mind. What's their life of leisure like?
Great whites are the flashy man-eaters of the silver screen. But bull sharks may be the most dangerous, with a dinner menu that sometimes consists of sloths, dogs and cows. What can you say? They're opportunists.
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Sharks can have up to 15 rows of teeth growing behind their front row of chompers, so it's no surprise how many shark teeth litter beaches. But why do people collect them?
Despite the fact you'll never find anything called "wasp honey," wasps perform a vital service by helping to pollinate the world's plant life -- and eliminate various six- and eight-legged pests.
By Robert Lamb
Have you ever seen a water bag hanging in a restaurant? It's not a design trend - some people say the bags repel flies. Does this method hold water?
By Robert Lamb
If you're snacking on fig bars, make sure to check the nutritional content for wasps. Wasps risk their lives to provide enough figs to satisfy every fruit- and cake-related craving.
By Robert Lamb
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You don't reign supreme over the marine food chain without acute senses that can smell blood or hear injured prey from great distances. And sometimes a "sixth sense" doesn't hurt either.
Swat it, smash it, spray it. It's tough to get rid of the world's most annoying roommate: the housefly. But at least the housefly won't steal your food -- whoops, never mind.
By Robert Lamb
A caterpillar spends its life eating -- foliage, some animals like ants and snails, and even its own skin it previously shed. What do caterpillars do with all of this stored up food? And why do they use their waste as projectiles?
The difference between butterflies and moths is a lot like the difference between frogs and toads. There are some rules of thumb you can follow to tell them apart, but there are also exceptions to those rules. So how do you tell the difference?
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Have you ever been so hungry that you could eat anything? How about a hubcap? Or maybe a suit of armor? If you said "yes," you might have something in common with the second deadliest shark.
Sharks are an intelligent and sometimes dangerous species of saltwater fish. Learn more about these often feared, often misunderstood creatures of the deep in this gallery.
I've heard that the black and white stripes on a zebra provide camouflage. How can this be if they're not in a black-and-white environment?
If you have ever been out in the woods or an open field in spring, summer or fall, you may have gotten chiggers around your waistband or on your ankles. They leave red, itchy bumps on your skin. Learn more about these arachnids.
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The brilliantly colored orange wings of a monarch butterfly are as recognizable as the plumes of a peacock. Why are butterfly colors some of the best and brightest in nature?
How do coral polyps mere millimeters in length form the world's largest living structures? Will these giants of the sea last much longer if the present rate of destruction continues?