Catching a bee in midair is impressive. Swallowing one without being stung requires another level of specialization. The famous bee-eater sting removal behavior solves that problem through a carefully coordinated …
Cut many animals in half and the result is catastrophic injury. Cut certain planarian flatworms into appropriately sized fragments, however, and something extraordinary can happen: separate pieces can rebuild the …
Few courtship displays are as instantly recognizable as a blue-footed booby lifting one brilliant turquoise foot after another in an exaggerated high-stepping dance. The performance looks comical to human observers, …
A kangaroo rat emerges from its burrow after sunset. The desert surface that was dangerously hot only hours earlier is beginning to cool. The small rodent pauses, listens, and then …
A spotted hyena approaches the remains of an ungulate carcass. Much of the obvious meat may already be gone, but the carcass is far from nutritionally irrelevant. Skin, connective tissue, …
As daylight fades over a Southeast Asian rainforest, an orangutan moving through the canopy begins looking for somewhere to spend the night. There is no permanent bedroom waiting. Instead, the …
A Bird Eats a Berry — and a Plant May Appear Somewhere Else High in an Australian woodland, a male mistletoebird moves among branches carrying clusters of ripe mistletoe fruit. …
A newly hatched loggerhead sea turtle reaches the edge of the beach and enters an ocean that, from its perspective, contains no road signs, trail markers, or familiar landmarks. Soon, …
A tall, red-coated canid moves through a South American grassland on impossibly long-looking black legs. At one moment it may be listening for a rodent hidden in the vegetation. Later, …
A polar bear moving across Arctic sea ice can appear to be searching an empty landscape. The surface may stretch for miles with little more than snow, pressure ridges, cracks, …