Animals
Tiger sharks feast on migratory birds that fall out of the sky
Terrestrial birds that fall from the sky during their migration across the Gulf of Mexico can end up in the bellies of tiger sharks.
Wild Things
The weird and wonderful in the natural world
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
More Stories in Wild Things
- Animals
A gentoo penguin’s dinner knows how to fight back
Cameras attached to gentoo penguins off the Falkland Islands revealed that, despite the birds’ small size, their lobster krill prey can sometimes win in a fight.
- Ecosystems
Madagascar’s predators are probably vulnerable to toxic toads
The Asian common toad, an invasive species in Madagascar, produces a toxin in its skin that’s probably toxic to most of the island’s predators.
- Animals
How a deep-sea geology trip led researchers to a doomed octopus nursery
A healthy population of cephalopods could be hiding nearby, though, a new study contends.
- Animals
How a social lifestyle helped drive a river otter species to near extinction
A reconstruction of 20th-century hunting practices reveals why one species of Amazon river otters nearly went extinct while another persisted.
- 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.
