The strange world of praying mantis cannibalistic mating has produced one of the most persistent myths in nature: that a female praying mantis always kills and eats the male after …
A mountain goat standing on a tiny ledge can look as though someone placed it in the wrong part of a photograph. Beneath its hooves may be a steep wall …
The Tasmanian devil may be roughly the size of a small dog, but its jaws are built for remarkably demanding work. Research comparing mammalian carnivores found that Tasmanian devil bite …
Flying squirrels have one of the most misleading names in the animal kingdom. They can cross impressive gaps between trees, turn in midair, and make controlled landings, but they never …
Watch a raccoon investigate a stream bank and its front paws rarely stay still. The long, mobile digits probe beneath stones, rotate objects, feel along surfaces, and gather information even …
A column of army ants races across the forest floor when suddenly the trail reaches a gap between branches. There is no engineer directing traffic and no leader ordering workers …
Across a tropical forest floor, thousands of ants march in organized trails, each carrying a freshly cut piece of leaf overhead. It looks as though the insects are hauling dinner …
A shark closes its jaws around what looks like an easy meal: a soft-bodied, eel-shaped hagfish. Then, almost instantly, the predator’s mouth fills with a strange fibrous slime. The material …
A red-eyed tree frog sleeping beneath a rainforest leaf hardly looks like one of nature’s most spectacularly colored amphibians. Its green body disappears against the foliage, its orange feet are …
A pack of African wild dogs has been resting in the shade. Suddenly, the animals rise, crowd together, wag their tails, touch noses, and burst into an energetic social ceremony. …