According to a new study, elephant seals may be dying off because of a dangerous obsession with snacking. The obsession with food comes from an evolutionary drive to gain as much weight as physically possible. Basically, the bigger a male seal is, the more likely it is to beat all the other male seals for [...]
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is looking for two seasonal seabird assistants to live in a lighthouse and hang out with puffins this summer. The gig? You’ll work with a small team to manage and monitor the seabird populations of Coquet Island, a picturesque nubbin of land off the coast of England. [...]
If you’ve been a regular on Instagram over the past few years, you might be aware of the “Superbloom” phenomenon—an explosion of wildflowers that blankets the California’s hillsides when conditions are right. But that’s not the only explosive botanical event the state has experienced of late. This year, thanks to record rainfall, Californians are recording [...]
According to a sweeping new study on the effects of exercise on longevity, just 11 minutes of walking per day could be enough to dramatically lower your likelihood of dying young. The study, which was conducted by an international team of scientists and recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, looked at the [...]
Flamingos might all the look the same to us, but apparently the birds differ widely in personality—and have very strong preferences as to who they’ll hang out with. According to new research published in early March, flamingos form lasting friendships with both same-sex bird friends and romantic partners. And they’re very picky. In fact, scientists [...]
It’s no secret that bees “dance” to give each other directions to nearby food sources. But a new study has just proven that, contrary to popular belief, bees aren’t born knowing how to bust a groove. Instead, they have to be taught—usually by older bees that act as dance instructors. In the study, an international [...]
Joe Redfern has spent the last few weeks caring for about 100,000 tiny lobsters. Each crustacean is about the size of a thumbnail and has its own little plastic corral. That’s not to give them their privacy, though; it’s to keep all the toddling youngsters from eating each other. Preventing a little innocent cannibalism is [...]
An 8-year-old boy was hunting for bugs in his yard in Arkansas City, Kansas, last week when he found something he didn’t expect: a hot pink grasshopper. The bug, he later discovered, has a genetic mutation that makes it a light magenta instead of green. According to Fox News, the boy christened the rare insect [...]
Thanks to a father-and-son team—and some really strong adhesives—scientists may soon be able to study polar bears in a whole new way. For years, biologists weren’t able to effectively track adult male polar bears in the wild. That means a huge chunk of our understanding of how the bears move—and what we need to do [...]
Planting trees is great and all, but a recent study suggests it’s time to try some wild new tech if we really want to stop global warming. Some of the solutions will blow your mind. The study in question is a new, first-of-its-kind report led by the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and [...]
