Get to know the western spotted skunk – High Country News

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‘The stench kind of permeates everything’: What it takes to study a stinky, secretive skunk

The Wild Within the Walls

From antiquity to modern times, Rome has been entangled with the wild animals who creep, slither, scurry, and nest among its pillars and palaces.

What Do Animals Understand About Death?

The New Yorker

The question isn’t whether other creatures share our concept of mortality; it’s whether any living being truly grasps what it means to die.

The Animals Are Talking. What Does It Mean?

Can a mouse learn a new song? Such a question might seem whimsical. Though humans have lived alongside mice for at least 15,000 years, few of us have ever heard mice sing, because they do so in frequencies beyond the range detectable by human hearing.

What Happens to Animals in The Ocean During a Hurricane?

ScienceAlert

When strong hurricanes hit land, the uprooted trees, destroyed homes, and other devastation are highly visible. What happens in the marine environments where they churn water and disrupt sediment isn't always as obvious.

How life for animals changed when humans stayed home during the pandemic

Washington Post

A massive study of GPS tracking data on land animals during covid lockdowns showed they roamed farther and acted more relaxed without humans around to bother them.

Why Are Killer Whales Ripping Livers Out of Their Shark Prey?

Scientific American

Life as a carnivore is often tough. You have to catch your meals on the run, and depending on the predator, more than 80 percent of attempts to grab a bite can end in failure.

The Aftermath of a Mass Slaughter at the Zoo

The Atlantic

Last year, a fox broke into a bird enclosure in D.C. and killed 25 flamingos. The zoo refused to let him strike again. Rock Creek Park was still dark when the killer emerged from his den, a flame-colored phantom on black-stocking legs.

Snarl, You’re on Candid Camera

In ecology, as in comedy, timing is everything. Hours, minutes or even seconds can make the difference for an animal between stumbling upon a predator and avoiding one, between finding a bush loaded with berries and discovering branches that have already been gnawed bare.

The Cheetahs Made a Kill. Then the Safari Trucks Swarmed In.

The video surfaced online around October. Filmed from a distance, it shows an antelope grazing on the African plain. Suddenly, two cheetahs race toward it and the antelope takes off, running toward the camera. But the cats are too fast. They converge on it and bring it down. They begin to feed.

Los Angeles Review of Books

Los Angeles Review of Books

This article is a preview of The LARB Quarterly, no. 36: “Are you content?” Coming soon to the LARB shop. IN THE EARLY months of the pandemic, my housemates and I adopted the world’s least photogenic cat. Someone in our local mutual aid group had found her wandering the streets.

Farm-bred octopus: A benefit to the species or an act of cruelty?

Los Angeles Times

Sandwiched here between the Pacific Ocean and Kona Airport — atop a dusty volcanic desert — dozens of 50-gallon water tanks gurgle and bubble away; each home to a solitary, wild-caught octopus and a couple of floating, plastic bath toys.

Do Chimps Share Cool Stuff Just for Fun? Uganda Forest Study Provides a Hint That They Might

Scientific American

Whether it’s a college student playing a roommate their favorite song or a child showing their parent a dirty rock they found on the ground (“Not again!”), humans love sharing things we find fascinating just for the sake of it.

The Strange and Secret Ways That Animals Perceive the World

The New Yorker

One evening almost sixty years ago, a Tufts University researcher named Roger Payne was working in his lab when he heard a radio report about a whale that had washed up on a beach nearby. Although it was a cold, wet March night, he decided to drive to the shore.

Japan’s Monkey Queen Made It Through Mating Season With Her Reign Intact

Yakei, the 9-year-old macaque who seized power at a preserve, played the field and mated with at least one male, all while managing to maintain her status as her troop’s alpha. The reign of Japan’s monkey queen has just begun.

Wildlife Personalities Play a Role in Nature

Studies help explore the ways that animals — whether bold or shy, aggressive or meek, interact with their environment. In August, a mountain lion was sighted several times prowling the suburbs of New Canaan, Conn., and not for the first time.

Love Triangle Challenges Reign of Japan’s Monkey Queen

Yakei became a rare alpha female of a macaque troop in a nature reserve, but a kind of simian love triangle may endanger her grip on power. Smashing the patriarchy in the human world has been easier said than done.