10+ hour, 50+ min ago   (316+ words) Here's why predators have a seemingly low success rate at hunting and killing their prey Predators tend to be bigger, faster and more powerful than the prey they hunt, yet across much of the animal kingdom, most attacks fail. Even…...

3+ day, 16+ hour ago   (538+ words) Wild pygmy raccoons have been filmed making and playing with pint-sized, papier-mâché footballs. The entrancing behaviour may be a rare example of wild animals making objects simply for fun. Pygmy raccoons (Procyon pygmaeus) are found only on the Mexican island…...

4+ day, 3+ hour ago   (1326+ words) The world’s longest mountain range stretches nearly 9000km along South America’s west coast, through seven countries from Venezuela in the north to southern Argentina. Rising to 6967m above sea level, the Andes’ slopes are swathed in tropical forests, grasslands, semi-deserts and glaciers....

4+ day, 6+ hour ago   (472+ words) Mantis shrimp spend most of their lives in their burrows, only leaving home to hunt and mate Brent Durand/ Getty Images Mantis shrimp may look like a hybrid of a praying mantis (at the front) and a shrimp (at the…...

5+ day, 20+ hour ago   (448+ words) Wildebeest are some of the most important and impressive animals on the African savanna. From mass migrations and group defence tactics to mysterious female horns, here’s what makes these large antelopes truly remarkable Wildebeest – also known as gnu – are best…...

6+ day, 15+ hour ago   (254+ words) "At first he licked the doors and tyres, but then decided to spar with the hood. I didn’t feel safe trying to stop him" BBC Wildlife Magazine "At first he licked the doors and tyres, but then decided to spar…...

6+ day, 20+ hour ago   (559+ words) It also swallows its prey whole and has an unusual mating ritual. The official marine emblem of the state of South Australia is a creature that you might associate with myth, but leafy seadragons really do exist. They are less…...

1+ week, 6+ hour ago   (379+ words) The multi-armed Antarctic sun starfish is an opportunistic predator that dominates one of the harshest climates on the planet. In freezing sea temperatures as low as -2°C, only the toughest creatures can survive in Antarctica’s brutal marine conditions. One particularly…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (778+ words) While most animals that have no predators are what we call ‘apex predators’, meaning they are right at the top of the food chain, this is not always the case. Sometimes, herbivores grow so large that they become invulnerable to…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (412+ words) As far as gruesome, prehistoric deaths go, none are worse than the death experienced by a Homo habilis known as OH 7. Homo habilis is the first species in a genus called Homo - the taxonomic group that includes us, Homo sapiens....