All Stories by Sarah Zielinski
- Plants
Pollinators are usually safe from a Venus flytrap
A first-ever look at what pollinates the carnivorous Venus flytrap finds little overlap between pollinators and prey.
- Animals
Tiny trackers reveal the secret lives of young sea turtles
Young loggerhead turtles can end up in very different places in the Atlantic depending on when they hatch.
- Animals
Coconut crabs are a bird’s worst nightmare
A biologist witnesses a coconut crab taking out a blue-footed booby and documents the balance of the animals in an Indian Ocean archipelago.
- Animals
Alligators eat sharks — and a whole lot more
Alligators aren’t just freshwater creatures. They swim to salty waters and back, munching on plenty of foods along the way.
- Animals
Invasive earthworms may be taking a toll on sugar maples
Sugar maple trees in the Upper Great Lakes region are more likely to have dying branches when there are signs of an earthworm invasion, a new study finds.
- Animals
These spiders crossed an ocean to get to Australia
The nearest relatives of an Australian trapdoor spider live in Africa. They crossed the Indian Ocean to get to Australia, a new study suggests.
- Animals
One creature’s meal is another’s pain in the butt
Kelp and dolphin gulls in Patagonia have found a new food source. But they accidentally injure fur seal pups to get it.
- Animals
Fire ants build towers with three simple rules
Fire ants use the same set of simple rules to produce static rafts and perpetually moving towers.
- Animals
Drowned wildebeests can feed a river ecosystem for years
Only a small percentage of wildebeests drown as they cross the Mara River, but they provide resources for the river ecosystem for years after their deaths.
- Animals
Sooty terns’ migration takes the birds into the path of hurricanes
Sooty terns migrate south from southern Florida and back again. The track sometimes takes the birds into the path of hurricanes, a new study finds.
- Animals
Why create a model of mammal defecation? Because everyone poops
Mammals that defecate in the same fashion as humans all excrete waste within the same time frame, no matter their size, a new study finds.
- Animals
How a dolphin eats an octopus without dying
An octopus’s tentacles can kill a dolphin — or a human — when eaten alive. But wily dolphins in Australia have figured out how to do this safely.
