The Animal Kingdom

Fresh off the Press

The Toad That Grows Babies On Her Back

This frog turns her skin into a nursery: eggs are pressed into her back, she grows pockets, and fully formed toadlets crawl out when they are ready.Read More

Thorny Devil Drinks With Its Skin

Darling, this prickly Aussie lizard channels dew and rain across its body like a built-in straw and engineers have been taking notes.Read More

Those Dolphins That Wear Sponges - Properly Clever

In Shark Bay some bottlenose dolphins jam a marine sponge on their rostrum, go rooting for dinner and teach their kids the trick like it's family gossip.Read More

The Shark That Time Forgot

Picture a fish that treats a 400th birthday like a Tuesday - Greenland sharks can live nearly four centuries and only reach proper adulthood at about 150.Read More

Spotted Hyenas: The Ladies Who Mean Business

Meet the hyena females who pee, mate and give birth through a showy faux-penis and run the joint-ruthless, regal, and oddly elegant.Read More

Mima Mounds: The Gopher Conspiracy

A neat army of circular earth hummocks baffled geologists for centuries; the leading suspect now happens to be an overambitious burrowing rodent.Read More

Kea The Alpine Car Vandals

These clever New Zealand parrots treat rubber seals and windscreen wipers like a late-night snack and absolutely mean it.Read More

Leafcutter Ants Run A Tiny Pharmacy

They cut leaves, grow a fungal crop for dinner, and carry antibiotic-making bacteria like a workman keeps a can of WD-40 - proper organised, innit.Read More

This Jellyfish Hits Undo On Aging

Meet the tiny sea thing that, when life is messy, literally rewinds into baby mode and starts over - and yes, it feels petty and brilliant.Read More

That Hoatzin? Its Chicks Have Claws and a Stomach Like a Cow

Out in the Amazon there's a bird whose babies are born with little wing claws and whose adults ferment leaves like a walking cow - nature's own divas.Read More
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