Wild Things

The weird and wonderful in the natural world

  1. Animals

    Microbes may help bears stay healthy when fat for hibernation

    Brown bears fatten up for hibernation without suffering from weight-related problems. A new study shows that their gut microbes may help.

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  2. Animals

    Purpose of zebra stripes remains a mystery

    Zebra stripes don’t help the animals disappear in the vision of predators, a new study finds.

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  3. Animals

    Feral dogs take a bite out of Andean wildlife

    A survey of a remote park in Ecuador finds feral dogs are a problem for many species of native mammals.

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  4. Animals

    Climate change may be deadly for snowshoe hares

    The mismatch between coat color and the landscape can be deadly for a snowshoe hare.

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  5. Plants

    To catch a meal, a Venus flytrap counts to five

    It takes two taps to trigger a Venus flytrap to close. Another three, a new study finds, are needed to turn on genes for producing enzymes.

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  6. Animals

    Meet the bugs that call your house home

    A census of arthropods in human homes finds plenty of diversity — but few pests.

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  7. Animals

    Whales are full of toxic chemicals

    For decades, scientists have been finding troublesome levels of PCBs, mercury and other toxic chemicals in whales and dolphins.

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  8. Animals

    Alien species fly on the wings of ducks and other waterbirds

    Ducks, geese and other waterbirds can transport nonnative species and help alien invaders establish themselves.

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  9. Animals

    The moon drives the migration of Arctic zooplankton

    In the darkness of the Arctic winter, the moon replaces the sun as the driver of zooplankton migration, a new study finds.

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  10. Animals

    Animals get struck by lightning, too

    Scientists found a group of sea lions apparently dead from a lightning strike. But those animals certainly aren’t the first animals to die that way.

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  11. Animals

    Lemurs chat only with their best friends

    Ring-tailed lemurs maintain friendships built with grooming by calling to each other, a new study finds.

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  12. Animals

    Fog ferries mercury from the ocean to land animals

    Scientists have traced mercury in the waters of the Pacific Ocean to animals, including mountain lions, in California.

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