How Wood Storks Hunt by Touch in Murky Wetlands
A wood stork walking through a shallow marsh may look as though it is simply probing the water. In reality, it is using one of the most specialized feeding techniques …
Animal Adaptations
Thorny Devil Water Transport: How Its Skin Channels Water
Rain has darkened a patch of red Australian desert sand. A thorny devil moves across the wet surface, and liquid touching its body disappears into microscopic spaces associated with its …
Grasshopper Mouse vs. Scorpion Venom: How It Survives the Sting
Night has settled over the desert of the American Southwest. Between scattered rocks and dry vegetation, a southern grasshopper mouse moves toward a bark scorpion—dangerous prey armed with a venomous …
How Pallas’s Cats Survive Extreme Cold With Dense Fur and a Remarkable Tail
Among the wind-scoured rocks of Central Asia, a Pallas’s cat can appear almost motionless against the winter landscape. Snow collects between boulders, temperatures fall far below freezing, and vegetation offers …
This Tiny Animal Escapes by Releasing a Spring-Like Fork Under Its Body
On a damp forest floor, a springtail moves through a landscape that, at its scale, is enormous. Moss stems rise around it. Fungal threads cross fragments of decomposing leaves, and …
This Icefish Lives Without Functional Hemoglobin in Its Blood
Beneath Antarctic sea ice, seawater hovers close to its freezing point. Light filters through cracks in the ice, illuminating a world of sponges, crustaceans, and fishes whose bodies have been …
This Primate Taps Wood to Find Prey Hidden Inside
In a Madagascar forest after dark, an aye-aye moves deliberately along a branch. Its large ears stand forward while its hands explore the wood. Then one remarkably thin finger begins …
How Pygmy Marmosets Cling to Vertical Trees With Claw-Like Nails
Introduction The hands of a monkey are usually imagined as grasping tools: flexible fingers tipped with flat nails, wrapping around branches much as a human hand might. Pygmy marmosets complicate …
How a Giant Centipede Hunts From a Cave Ceiling
Inside a humid tropical cave, the ceiling can be as biologically active as the floor. Bats cluster against limestone surfaces, arthropods move through cracks and crevices, and predators exploit opportunities …
How an Echidna’s Snout Detects Tiny Electrical Signals
An echidna moving across an Australian forest floor can look almost methodical. Its head stays low as it noses through leaf litter, investigates rotting wood and presses its long, narrow …