A new study has found that reproductive female Antarctic krill actively use deep-sea hydrothermal vents as a habitat, suggesting these environments may play a role in the animals’ reproductive cycle. Researchers observed groups of the animals moving along mineral-rich fissures in the ocean floor, with every krill collected from the site found to be a […]
From a South American caterpillar whose venom can interfere with blood clotting to a North American species capable of delivering an intensely painful sting, discover the world’s most dangerous caterpillars. Most dangerous caterpillars Fire taturana Nicknamed the assassin caterpillar, Lonomia obliqua (also known as a fire taturana or giant silkworm) is among the few caterpillars […]
The caribou of Quebec are at breaking point. The province, home to 15% of Canada’s population of woodland caribou, has seen numbers crash to about half of what they were a decade ago. For years, local First Nations people, researchers and environmental groups have criticised the provincial government’s lack of action on protecting caribou, an […]
It began on 28 July, when fishers near Saldanha Bay on the west coast of South Africa reported seeing dead sardines (also known as pilchards) floating at sea. Then, in early August, more dead sardines began washing up on beaches near Cape Town. In the weeks that followed, similar reports came in from places across […]
It takes guts to migrate long distances – literally, if you’re a bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica baueri. This crow-sized shorebird burns not just flab, but even some innards to fuel its marathon migrations. Each autumn, the godwit flies from its breeding grounds in Alaska and Siberia to Australia or New Zealand to spend the winter. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]