A researcher studying whales and dolphins was treated to an extremely rare sight in January: a baby humpback whale swimming with its mum, less than 20 minutes after being born. It’s the closest Lars Bejder had been to a live birth in around 25 years – and lucky for us, he captured the extraordinary experience

Bigger dogs, with larger brains, perform better than smaller pups on certain measures of intelligence, new research shows. Larger-brained dogs outperform smaller dogs on measures of executive functions – a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for controlling and coordinating other cognitive abilities and behaviors. In particular, bigger dogs have better short-term memory and

The photo above is not depicting some ten-legged mutant bird as some of our Instagram commenters have suggested. It’s also not one of those hilarious birds with arms memes. He’s just one brave daddy bird hauling his four chicklings to safety. Comb-crested Jacanas (Irediparra gallinacea) are also known as lillytrotters or Jesus-birds for their ability to

It’s unclear whether the initial incursion happened stealthily at night or brazenly during the day – though authorities are almost certain the invasion occurred by sea. And federal employees who returned from the month-long partial government shutdown decided that it was probably not worth the effort to relocate the roughly 90 individuals involved. That’s because

Since the 1980s scientists have spotted a link between naval sonar systems and beaked whales seemingly killing themselves – by deliberately getting stranded on beaches. Now, researchers might have revealed the horrifying reason why. In short, the sound pulses appear to scare the whales to death, acting like a shot of adrenaline might in a

Normally, after running a five-year experiment, scientists might pat each other on the back in earnest recognition of having finally made it to the end of an epic, demanding research effort. But if, after five long years, you’re still less than 1 percent of the way through your actual experiment, the back-patting and champagne will have

Quite a bit of news dropped on Friday, so you may have missed a hedgehog-related alert that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued early that afternoon. Those tiny, prickly, adorable mammals — which have jumped in popularity as household pets in recent years — may be carrying salmonella germs and spreading them to nearby humans, according to the

Birds see a very different world to the one we’re familiar with, and now we can get a hint of what that looks like thanks to a specially designed camera that simulates birdo-vision. Apart from being fascinating, the resulting images also explain why birds can navigate so accurately through dense foliage. Behavioural biologist Cynthia Tedore

Is devolution possible? Two verified experts answered this question on independent fact-checking platform Metafact.io. Both answered ‘yes’. You can read one answer below. The short answer is “yes,” but that needs to be explained, because the concept of “devolution” is very misleading and makes assumptions about evolution that simply aren’t true (it’s not a term that

The name is not appetising: it’s called the groundcherry. It’s possible you haven’t heard of this fruit, but with some genetic tweaks, it could become a supermarket staple sooner than you think. That’s because scientists have used the groundcherry as an experimental test case to illustrate just how quickly CRISPR genome editing can speed up

The first time he saw them, on a freezing morning last January, George Howard thought the odd-shaped humps protruding from his iced-over swamp were tree stumps. But somehow that didn’t seem right. He strained his eyes. They were tree stumps with teeth? Howard panicked. He is, after all, the manager of the Swamp Park, which features an

The markets of Southeast Asia are common places to find the fossils of insects, embedded in amber millions of years old. But last year, gemologist Brian Berger found something much more rare and astonishing. The piece he bought features an insect inclusion, except it’s not preserved in amber – the lithified resin of ancient trees

In the water, it’s getting harder to breathe. Suffocating dead zones with little or no oxygen are pervading the world’s oceans, rivers, and streams. This phenomenon – which has exploded in recent decades – poses an extinction-level nightmare for marine populations already beset by a complex interaction of human-made menace. When it comes to these

There really isn’t a whole lot you can do to avoid being eaten when you’re trapped inside an egg and your parents are nowhere to be found. Still, the embryo of the pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis) gives it everything it’s got. Researchers have found that when faced with a common predator, the unborn cephalopod does

Lake Mercer, a subglacial lake deep below the Antarctic Ice, sat untouched by humans for millennia – until now. Scientists accidentally discovered the lake in 2007, when they were examining satellite imagery of Antarctica’s ice sheet. Then on December 26, 2018, they finally reached it. To explore the 50-foot-deep subglacial lake, researchers from a project called SALSA

The flowers are listening, according to new research – well, in a sense, at least. Scientists have found evidence that plants can actually hear the buzz of passing bees and produce sweeter nectar in response to entice the flying insects in. And flowers are technically their ‘ears’. Based on observations of evening primroses (Oenothera drummondii), the

Sometimes we don’t know what’s weirder: nature’s strange creations or the ridiculous names we humans give them. That is certainly the case with the Sarcastic Fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi). If you happen to spy one skulking away in whatever shell, rocky crevice or piece of rubbish they can find, they’re typically seen as a dull brown

Unless you live in the tropical rainforests of South or Central America, most of the sloths you’ll encounter will be two-toed sloths (Choloepus sp.). This is because they are able to eat quite a varied diet and are therefore relatively easy to keep in captivity. Their relatives, the three-toed sloths (Bradypus sp.), on the other

A frog by the name of Romeo, thought to be the last of his species, is no longer fortune’s fool. Defying the stars, this lonely amphibious bachelor has at last found his Juliet. Known as the world’s loneliest frog, for ten years Romeo has burned, he has pined, but he has not perished. His story

Like a brain, an ant colony operates without central control. Each is a set of interacting individuals, either neurons or ants, using simple chemical interactions that in the aggregate generate their behaviour. People use their brains to remember. Can ant colonies do that? This question leads to another question: what is memory? For people, memory