How a Crisis for Vultures Led to a Human Disaster: Half a Million Deaths
The birds were accidentally poisoned in India. New research on what happened next shows how wildlife collapse can be deadly for people.
animals
Why a 3-Legged Lion and His Brother Swam Across a Crocodile-Filled River
Researchers say the nearly mile-long swim was the longest by big cats ever recorded.
How Magic Tricks Help Us Understand Animal Minds
By performing tricks for birds, monkeys and other creatures, researchers hope to learn how they perceive and think about their world
Wild elephants may have names that other elephants use to call them
Research on the rumbles of wild elephants suggest that these animals address each other with unique, name-like vocalizations. (Story aired on All Things Considered on June 10, 2024.)
7 Stories of the World’s Rarest Animals
And the people trying to save these endangered species.
The Chernobyl Disaster May Have Also Built a Paradise
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Some scientists think the radioactive, human-free landscape might now be a haven for plants and animals.
The Rise Of The Bee Bandits
Where once there was cattle and horse rustling, the American West is now confronting the theft of its bees.
The unique songbird that's gone forever
Bachman’s warbler is one of 21 species declared extinct last year – but scientists are still discovering its secrets
How First Contact With Whale Civilization Could Unfold
If we can learn to speak their language, what should we say?
The bumblebee battle against invasive hornets
Experts warn it's "boom time" for invasive species like the Asian hornet. But some native bee species are learning to fight back.
In Defense of the Rat
Rats are less pestilent and more lovable than we think. Can we learn to live with them?
Why Insects Are Attracted to Light at Night
Contrary to popular lore, insects do not confuse artificial light for the moon
Why Are So Many Monsters Hybrids?
The captivating horror of category violation.
For the first time, research reveals crows use statistical logic
The birds can associate images with distinct reward probabilities.
Earth League International Hunts the Hunters | The New Yorker
A conservation N.G.O. infiltrates wildlife-trafficking rings to bring them down.
In the Dead of Night, a Deafening War
The first piece in our new series on species interconnectedness traverses through the 60-million-year-old evolution of bats and moths.
The Trillion-Dollar Auction to Save the World
Ocean creatures soak up huge amounts of humanity’s carbon mess. Should we value them like financial assets?
Creatures That Don’t Conform – Lucy Jones
In the woods near her home, Lucy Jones discovers the magic of slime molds and becomes entangled in their fluid, nonbinary way of being.
Nathan
Language lessons with an extraordinary ape.
Sleeping beauties: the evolutionary innovations that wait millions of years
Some organisms truck along slowly for aeons before suddenly surging into dominance – and something similar often happens with human inventions, too. But why?
The puzzle of play
The purpose of play — for children, monkeys, rats or meerkats — has proved surprisingly hard to pin down. Scientists continue to toss around ideas.
My Rancher Parents Hate Wolves. I Took Them on a Yellowstone Wolf-Watching Tour to Change Their Minds.
Wolves are my favorite animal, but my parents see them as the enemy that kills their livestock
David Sulzer’s Wild World of Music
What can elephants, birds, and flamenco players teach a neuroscientist-composer about music?
With Ships, Birds Find an Easier Way to Travel | Hakai Magazine
Why fly all the way across the ocean when you can chill out by the pool?
A Cognitive Revolution in Animal Research
Animal ‘personalities’ are forcing scientists to rethink basic research.
How Octopus Arms Bypass the Brain
A secret pattern links far-flung octopus limbs
There’s Something Odd About the Dogs Living at Chernobyl
Pets left behind when people fled the disaster in 1986 seem to have seeded a unique population.
Sanctuary
A woman, an elephant, andan uncommon love story spanningnearly half a century.
A ‘Distinctly Human’ Trait That Might Actually Be Universal
Disgust is surprisingly common across nature.
I Never Understood Why Veterinarians Are at Such High Risk of Suicide. Until I Became One.
The story of Lacey, and why I had to kill her.
Hello world!
Catapult publishes literary fiction and artful narrative nonfiction that engages with our Perception Box, the powerful metaphor we use to define the structure and boundaries of how we see others in th
Branding With Bonobos? A Conservation Fee Might Help Save Them.
Data suggests brands can blunt public awareness of species loss when they use at-risk animals in ads. Should they pay?
What Is a Dog Anyway?
Defining what a dog is is really tough, but the domestication of wolves might be the feat that set modern humans on the path to dominance
What Humans Can Learn From The Language Of Honeybees
Advanced technologies like A.I. are enabling scientists to learn that the world is full of intelligent creatures with sophisticated languages, like honeybees. What might they tell us?
The Vineyard Falcon Does Not Suffer Fools
Master falconer Alina Blankenship and her mélange of raptors have become the protectors of some of Oregon's top vineyards.
It Takes a Lot of Elephant Brains to Solve This Mystery
By counting the facial neurons in African savanna and Asian elephants, researchers made a discovery about the animals’ trunks.
Cats Give the Laws of Physics a Biiiiig Stretch
They can fall from potentially infinite heights and survive. They can pivot off of nothing to land on their feet. Scientists still can’t fully explain why.
Something Strange Happens When You Tear These Creatures Apart
Behold choanoflagellates, tiny creatures that can be one body and many bodies all at once.
My Chances of Being a Mom Were Fading. Then Two Beautiful Lambs Came into My Life.
People say farmers aren’t supposed to get emotionally attached to livestock. Uh-huh. When fate sent our writer two newborn sheep with life-threatening birth defects, that kind of thinking was banished from the barn.
The Fatal Error of an Ancient, HIV-Like Virus
It got too cozy with its host.
The Mysterious, Vexing, and Utterly Engrossing Search for the Origin of Eel
To save endangered eels, researchers have been working for decades to figure out where they reproduce.
Purring Is a Love Language No Human Can Speak
Some cats do it, but others can’t—and researchers still don’t fully understand why.
Killing Invasive Species Is Now a Competitive Sport
In the Panhandle, where swarms of lionfish gobble up native species, a tournament offers cash prizes to divers skilled at spearing one predator after another.
The Animal Translators
Scientists are using machine learning to eavesdrop on naked mole rats, fruit bats, crows and whales — and to communicate back.
Animal Magic: Why Intelligence Isn’t Just for Humans
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Meet the footballing bees, optimistic pigs and alien-like octopuses that are shaking up how we think about minds.
The Humpback and the Killer
Oceans also have their vigilantes.
Into the Forbidden Forest
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Famed American biologist Patricia Wright explores an astonishing breadth of biodiversity in the wilderness of Madagascar
Romance, Politics, and Ecological Damage: The Saga of Sable Island’s Wild Horses | Hakai Magazine
They’ve roamed free for hundreds of years, but is that freedom harming the ecosystem they call home?
The mysterious inner lives of octopuses
Octopuses are problem-solvers, mischief-makers and notorious escape artists. They also appear to have a rich inner life – so what is it like to be an octopus?
A Mystery That Took 13,200 Years to Crack
Hidden in the tusk of a 34-year-old mastodon was a record of time and space that helped explain his violent death.