Sharks have all the senses humans have – along with additional senses that enable them to detect electrical signals and vibrations in the water. Small pores on a shark’s snout, known as ‘ampullae of Lorenzini’, can detect the tiny electrical currents in the water given off by living animals and inanimate objects, such as camera […]
Fat Bear Week has returned – and the salmon are swimming for their lives
The bears have returned to the river and are packing on the pounds as another Fat Bear Week begins at Katmai national park. The 12th annual Fat Bear Week, in which the public will vote for the fattest of Katmai’s brown bears as mothers, cubs and males gather along the salmon-run at Brooks river in […]
“The uninvited guest sinks its syringe-like mouthparts into the meaty organ and begins draining it of blood.” Discover the gruesome tongue-eating parasite
Luckily for us, the parasite, Cymothoa exigua, which is a type of crustacean called an isopod, is not interested in human flesh. It lives in the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Mexico and Central America, and only infests fish. Beginning life as a swimming form called a manca, a young isopod attaches itself to […]
‘Like a Disney movie’: Three wild dog brothers make Africa’s longest journey
It sounds like a Disney movie: three wild dogs, all brothers, on an epic journey to find a home of their own after their family tells them to leave. They dodge cars and hunters in search of a new life, navigating bushmeat snares and the hostility of a human-dominated landscape until they find a new […]
VOTE for the Best Photo of the Month September 2026
Welcome to the “Best Photo of the Month” competition showcasing and celebrating the biodiversity of Planet Earth. Voting is easy and lots of fun. By popular request the number of images to be selected has been increased to six. First click an image and the slideshow will start automatically. Select the SIX images you like best […]
“As temperatures drop below freezing, it freezes solid, with 70% of the water in its body turning to ice. It stops breathing, its heart stops beating and its kidneys stop functioning”
The only amphibian to live north of the Arctic Circle, the wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) has an amazing ability to undergo freezing and thawing to survive cold winters. As you might guess from its common name, it lives mainly in woodland, only taking to shallow pools in springtime to breed, the males uttering a distinctive quacking call to attract mates. What […]
Do whales grieve? Rare footage of humpback alongside stillborn calf suggests they might
One day last July, a newborn humpback whale calf lay motionless on the seafloor, just a kilometre off Australia’s Gold Coast. The encounter was captured through underwater video. For more than an hour, the mother repeatedly returned to the same spot, gently touching the calf with her head and pectoral fin and resting beside it […]
“In a gloriously tragic act of self-sacrifice, she stops eating and dies of starvation before her young hatch”.
Mother octopuses never meet their babies, as they stop eating and die of starvation before the young hatch. However, that’s probably a good thing. While parents sacrifice much for their offspring, few routinely give up their lives. But such is the destiny of a female octopus: tending her eggs is the last thing she’ll do. […]