For decades, wolves have been portrayed as locked in a constant struggle for status. According to the familiar story, every pack has a powerful “alpha male” who fights his way …
An octopus can rest against a pale patch of sand, move toward a reef, and suddenly appear mottled with browns, creams, and dark patches. This extraordinary octopus camouflage is not …
For nearly two centuries, a pangolin specimen collected in Nepal sat in a natural-history collection carrying evidence that scientists could not fully read when it was collected. Modern analysis of …
Bats present biologists with a remarkable puzzle. Many species are tiny, maintain demanding metabolisms, encounter numerous pathogens, and yet can live far longer than similarly sized mammals. New research on …
For decades, wildlife books have introduced the sailfish as the fastest swimmer in the sea, often attaching an astonishing figure of about 68 miles per hour to the claim. Modern …
Across the open landscapes of western North America, the pronghorn can accelerate into a run that seems excessive for the predators pursuing it today. That mismatch has inspired one of …
Few mammals look as immediately adapted to their environment as the fennec fox. Its compact body, pale coat, furry feet, and especially its enormous ears all reflect life in the …
High in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia lives a mammal that appears to turn almost its entire body into a wing. The remarkable colugo gliding membrane stretches from the …
Spiders have colonized forests, deserts, caves, gardens, and even the edges of freshwater ponds, but one species has taken aquatic life much further. The diving bell spider (Argyroneta aquatica) spends …
A tiny crater in dry, loose soil can look like nothing more than the mark left by a falling raindrop. But beneath some of these perfectly shaped funnels waits one …