Category: Animals
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Woman taken by shark off Tathra Beach, 10 years later her story returns
It was a perfect April morning off the coast of Tathra, New South Wales. Christine Armstrong, a 63-year-old ocean swimmer and pillar of the local surf lifesaving club, set off with her husband and a group of friends to swim their familiar 1,970-foot route from Tathra Wharf to the beach. It was a ritual they…
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New study links guppy color to brainpower, sex drive, and survival
Male guppies are tiny, tropical fish, but their looks could rival any fashion week runway. The flashier the color, the greater the odds of finding a mate. Now a new study from the University of British Columbia reveals just how deep that preference runs. Turns out, a male’s vibrant orange isn’t just for show,it’s a…
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Florida cat “Pepper” uncovers new virus in backyard shrew
When a black cat showed up with a dead shrew in its mouth, it seemed like any other day in the Gainesville backyard of virologist John Lednicky. But Pepper isn’t just any cat, and that wasn’t just any shrew. The animal turned out to be infected with a virus scientists had never seen before. Lednicky,…
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Bush dogs are smaller than a beagle, but they hunt like wolves
You’d be forgiven for thinking the bush dog is a hoax. Rarely seen and once known only from fossils, it spent decades slipping through the cracks of modern science. For much of the 20th century, many biologists believed it had vanished from the planet altogether. But the bush dog, Speothos venaticus, is very much alive.…
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How bizarre feet made the Eurasian coot a survival machine
They look like something out of science fiction. Long, finger-like toes with rubbery flaps that pulse outward when they hit water, then fold inward like origami when they step on land. These are the feet of the Eurasian coot,a medium-sized waterbird found across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. And while its black body and white…
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This tiny frog glows in the dark—and it’s rewriting biology
In the highland rainforests of Borneo, where clouds cling to the canopy and the air thickens with night, scientists have stumbled upon something that seems pulled from myth: a frog that glows. This newly discovered species is the first amphibian ever documented to exhibit true bioluminescence. While some frogs are known to fluoresce under ultraviolet…
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What science still can’t explain about the bee hummingbird (Zunzuncito)
It’s lighter than a dime. Smaller than your thumb. And when it flies, it doesn’t flap—it vibrates. Meet the bee hummingbird, or as it’s known in Cuba, the zunzuncito. At just two inches long and weighing less than two grams, it holds the title of the smallest bird on Earth. In the time it takes…
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Unicorn cows are real, but they’re not what you think
It starts with a photograph. A tan cow stands in profile, gazing toward the camera, with one impossible detail: a single, clean horn rising from the center of its forehead. It looks like something out of a fairytale, or maybe Photoshop. But it’s not. These animals exist. They’ve been born in Canada and Uzbekistan, spotted…
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The bronze mouse knitting DNA isn’t just cute. It’s a reckoning.
In the Siberian research city of Akademgorodok, a bronze statue stands in quiet defiance of its size. It is just a mouse—but not an ordinary one. Wearing tiny pince-nez glasses and holding a pair of knitting needles, this mouse sits poised in thought, weaving a strand of DNA. The sculpture, titled “Monument to the Laboratory…