Wild Things

The weird and wonderful in the natural world

  1. Animals

    Lionfish invasion comes to the Mediterranean

    Scientists had thought that the Mediterranean was too cold for lionfish to permanently settle there. But now they’ve found a population of the fish off Cyprus.

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  2. Animals

    Sneaky male fiddler crabs entrap their mates

    Some male banana fiddler crabs get a female to mate with them by trapping her in their burrow, a new study finds.

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  3. Animals

    Bacteria make male lacewings disappear

    Scientists have tracked down why some green lacewings in Japan produce only female offspring: Bacteria kill off all the males early in life.

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  4. Animals

    Three-toed sloths are even more slothful than two-toed sloths

    The three-toed sloth Bradypus variegatus has the lowest field metabolic rate ever recorded, a new study finds.

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  5. Animals

    That ‘Dory’ for sale may have been poisoned with cyanide

    Preliminary results from a new study show that over half of aquarium fish sold in the United States may have been caught with cyanide.

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  6. For harbor porpoises, the ocean is a 24-hour buffet

    Scientists tagged harbor porpoises with monitoring equipment and found that the small cetaceans eat thousands of fish throughout the day.

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  7. Animals

    Electric eels play defense with a mighty leap

    A biologist finds evidence that a 200-year-old report of electric eels attacking horses may be true.

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  8. Animals

    Maximum size of giant squid remains a mystery

    A scientist has come up with a new estimate of the maximum size of giant squid. He says the animals could be as long as two public buses.

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  9. Animals

    Animals get safe spots to cross the road — and car collisions drop

    Over- and underpasses built for wildlife in Wyoming proved a success for both the animals and the humans traveling the roads.

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  10. Animals

    Counting cats is hard, but we know the numbers aren’t good

    Recent studies highlight the difficulty of counting big cats, but even imperfect counts show that these species are in trouble.

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  11. Animals

    For baby sea turtles, it helps to have a lot of siblings

    After hatching, baby sea turtles must dig themselves out of their nest. This requires less energy if there are lots of siblings, a new study finds.

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  12. Animals

    These mystery mounds are actually giant piles of earthworm poop

    The grassy mounds that dot a watery landscape in South America are created by giant earthworms, a new study finds.

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