Between 11 million and 16 million years ago, during the high sea levels of the middle Miocene period, the ancestors of the Indus River dolphin entered the muddy waters of what is the Indus Basin today. Over millennia, they adapted to their new environment through extraordinary evolutionary shifts, developing sophisticated echolocation while gradually losing their […]
“To survive it consumes a large portion of its internal organs, including its kidneys, liver, gizzard and intestine”
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. […]
Outfoxed: How well do you know your native animals? Australians’ questionable quoll knowledge exposed
Most people identify wombats and kangaroos as Australian animals, but one in six people surveyed in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria think red foxes are native wildlife. The polling commissioned by the Invasive Species Council also revealed that one in three Australians on the east coast did not know that quolls were native. More […]
Sharks have a deadly secret sixth – and possibly – seventh sense to locate prey — and it’s more terrifying than you think
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 […]