The incredible video of two kangaroos kickboxing in suburban Australia that made the rounds last week has become a smash hit, with more than four million views on YouTube. Rod Langham, of Wyee Point in New South Wales, filmed the evening fight in his neighborhood, where kangaroos are common sights, according to news reports. “I was…
Black bears have been making headlines lately in the eastern U.S.—but it’s not good news. This week, a young black bear was found dead in New York City’s Central Park. The six-month-old female had been likely killed by a car, though how she got into the heart of the biggest city in the United States is…
When Don Dunbar went fishing on September 8, a young bald eagle probably wasn’t the catch he had in mind. But that’s what he got as he encountered the waterlogged raptor floundering in the waters of Nanoose Bay (map) in British Columbia, Canada. The raw video Dunbar shot while bringing the bird on board using a…
It may look like a billowing piece of garbage, but this odd-looking purple creature is actually a rare discovery that has scientists giddy with excitement. Scientists aboard the E/V Nautilus research vessel, led by Titanic discoverer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard, recently recorded this siphonophore swimming at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico (map). Siphonophores, a…
It’s not the size of the mongoose in the fight … Well, you know how the saying goes. A video making the rounds this week depicts a marsh mongoose tussling with a group of four African lions and, incredibly, coming out unscathed. The amazing footage, captured in 2011 by wildlife photographer Jérôme Guillaumot in Kenya’s…
Nature is full of expert climbers, but perhaps none is more impressive than the gecko. Many of the small reptiles are known for sticky toes that allow them to crawl up sheer walls, hang from ceilings, and grip surfaces as smooth as glass, Spider-Man style. The gecko’s superlative stickiness is so impressive that scientists have been hard…
You could call it a lucky catch: A fisher recently captured an extremely rare “calico” lobster in New Hampshire. Josiah Beringer found the 1.5-pound (0.6 kilogram) animal in one of his traps this week and donated it to the Explore the Ocean World Oceanarium in Hampton, New Hampshire. (See “Odd-Colored Lobsters Decoded.”) The colorful crustacean is already a…
On the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard (map), reindeer are bucking the trend followed by other animals affected by global warming: The population of reindeer is growing—even thriving—according to new research. The findings are the latest in a 30-year population study that’s focused on counting reindeer in the valley of Adventdalen on the island of Spitsbergen….
Nestled in cracks and crevices in coral reefs off the Indonesian coast, so-called disco clams are busy putting on a light show. But unlike many animals in the ocean that produce their own light, a new study finds that these flashy mollusks catch and reflect ambient light for their displays. Found throughout the Indo-Pacific, Ctenoides ales…
Reproduction is the engine of life—and some species go to greater lengths than others to ensure that their genetic material is passed on. For instance, male dwarf spiders take special measures to guarantee their paternity by inserting a “mating plug” into a female to block the sperm of other males. Now scientists have revealed more about…
Controlling pests is a constant challenge for farmers. Months of hard work can disappear in no time as insects munch their way across a planted field. Synthetic insecticides can beat back the swarms, but they also affect other creatures. A new study, just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, offers hope for…
Last December, passengers on a boat trip down Costa Rica‘s Puerto Viejo River were treated to a strange sight: a butterfly and a bee drinking the tears from a crocodile’s eyes. The encounter between the insects, a Julia butterfly (Dryas iulia) and a bee (Centris sp.), and the spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus) lasted more than 15 minutes,…
The alligator snapping turtle, the biggest freshwater turtle in North America, is actually three species, according to a study that appeared April 9 in the journal Zootaxa. The prehistoric reptile is already known for its size—it weighs up to 200 pounds (90 kilograms)—and longevity of nearly a century. Loosely related to common snapping turtles, alligator snappers have a dinosaur-like…
Harvestmen, familiarly known as daddy longlegs, once had an extra set of eyes, according to an analysis of a 305-million-year-old fossil from France. Though they share spiders’ eight-legged appearance and penchant for hanging out on bathroom ceilings, harvestmen are more closely related to scorpions, mites, and ticks. The arachnids are as ancient as they are ubiquitous,…
Humans aren’t the only species bugging out from the polar vortex, the winter weather system that’s still menacing large swaths of the United States with bone-chilling temperatures. Be glad you’re not an Asian stinkbug, which are dying off in large numbers due to the cold, a new experiment shows. The invasive insect, commonly called the brown marmorated…