Identifying spider webs by their overall shape is one of the easiest ways to learn more about the spiders living around your home. Web architecture can often point you toward …
An elephant standing quietly on an African savanna may be participating in a conversation that people nearby cannot even hear. Through elephant infrasound communication, these highly social animals produce deep, …
Imagine reaching adulthood and then, instead of continuing toward old age, reorganizing your body and returning to an earlier stage of life. A tiny marine animal called Turritopsis dohrnii can …
In the cold, dark waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic lives an animal whose lifetime may span several human centuries. The extraordinary Greenland shark lifespan has made Somniosus microcephalus …
A dragonfly hovering over a pond can suddenly accelerate, bank into a tight turn, reverse direction, or intercept a flying insect with extraordinary precision. Behind those maneuvers is an unusual …
An owl gliding over a dark field may be hunting an animal it can barely see. In some highly specialized species, owl asymmetrical ears provide additional information about where faint …
Floating on its back in a patch of coastal water, a sea otter may look relaxed. But when it places a clam or marine snail against a stone and strikes …
A beaver dam can look surprisingly simple: branches, mud, stones, leaves, and pieces of vegetation arranged across moving water. Yet that structure can alter the physical behavior of an entire …
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 …
Every February, the groundhog becomes famous for supposedly predicting how much winter remains. Its real winter ability is far more remarkable. Groundhog true hibernation involves a profound, controlled reduction in …