Animals

Animal Rights Group PETA Has Finally Launched Its XXX Site

Today, animal rights advocacy group PETA, known for its at times provocative ad campaigns, finally launched the long-awaited peta.xxx adult website. The NSFW domain is only the latest approach PETA has taken in collaboration with the adult entertainment world; for years XXX stars have appears in print ads, showing their support by wearing nothing, because…

Biology Molly Oswaks Jun 6

Scenes from the Cyborg Forest, where animals make up for their shortcomings with technology

What do you do if you’re a soft-voiced wolf, a raccoon who can’t see in the dark, or a duck who has trouble flying? In this photo series, the answer is simple: strap a machine to your body and let it do the work. David Emmite created this photo series, where technology stands in for…

io9 Lauren Davis Jun 2

10 Real-Life Creatures and the Horror Movies They Should Star In

We all love movies about scary monsters, and many of the scariest are based on real-life creatures. For example, Alien’s Facehugger is based on parasitic wasps that lay their eggs inside their prey. But all too often, horror movies resort to the same old sharks and tentacle monsters. Isn’t it time to branch out? Nature…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jun 1

Did someone call for a Cambulance? Part Camel, Part Ambulance, All Awesome

Behold the mighty Cambulance. Answer to all of our patient transport problems in the desert. While it might not be 100% practical, it looks sick as hell. Plus, we desperately want a comic book made about the elite camel ambulance squad. Designed by student Frederic Schwab, the Cambulance (officially titled the Baja) solves the problem…

io9 Meredith Woerner May 29

Where Do All the Pigeons in Cities Disappear To?

John Metcalfe at The Atlantic Cities answered the question every city slicker wonders at least once: how come there aren’t dead pigeons littering the city? Where do they go? How can they just disappear? The answer, though not too surprising, is rooted in nature. Pigeons are tasty! And dumb! And low on nature’s totem pole…

Biology Casey Chan May 21

The end of Harry Potter leaves hundreds of pet owls homeless

When Harry Potter first appeared in books and on screen alongside his loyal owl Hedwig, many folks were so charmed that they ran out and bought pet owls of their very own. But know that the books and movies have run their course, the magic of owning a nocturnal bird has worn off, and hundreds…

io9 Lauren Davis May 20

Ancient Car-Sized Turtles Hung Out with Titanoboas

Scientists recently discovered a fossilized turtle so big, its shell could be mistaken for a boat. If you were to stand it up, is 5 foot 7 inches, just shorter than the average American male. That’s just the shell. Its skull is about the size of a football and was equipped with massive jaws that…

Biology Kif Leswing May 17

Three-Story Tall Crocodiles Once Swallowed Human Beings

I have an irrational fear, wait scratch that, I have a completely rational fear of alligators and crocodiles. They’re scaly dinosaurs that chomp with the power of two thousand warlords and were put on this Earth to kill us. And they were even worse two to four million years ago because they were three stories…

Biology Casey Chan May 17

Were Prehistoric War Dogs Key To Humanity’s Survival?

Tens of thousands of years ago, humans prevailed over a Neanderthals. A new study suggests that man’s best friend might have helped us win the battle. According to anthropologist Pat Shipman, the reason for humanity’s evolutionary success may have have been our kinship with domesticated dogs. The Atlantic reports on research first published in American…

Biology Mario Aguilar May 15

How long ago did we finish domesticating horses?

From Black Beauty to My Little Pony: Frienship is Magic, humans have an ongoing love affair with horses (and their smaller pony cousins). But not too long ago, the wild creatures that became horses looked considerably different. Where did modern horses originate, and how did they become the domesticated species we know today? A new…

io9 Sophie Bushwick May 9

Dwarf Mammoths Used to Inhabit the Island of Crete

The smallest mammoth ever known to have existed has been confirmed to have lived on the island of Crete—and scientists believe that it was an adult which had evolved into a dwarf species of the giant beasts. A team of palaeontologists from London’s Natural History Museum suggest that the adults of this dwarf mammoth species…

Biology Jamie Condliffe May 9

Brain Scans Show What Dogs Are Actually Thinking About

It’s human nature (and human folly) to pretend like we know what our dogs are actually thinking about. Oh, he’s happy! Oh, he’s tired! Oh, he loves this! That’s not exactly a scientific way to look at things. Brain scans, however, are super scientific. So scanning the brains of dogs means its possible to know…

Biology Casey Chan May 7

Primate portraits invite you to see apes as individuals

Much like us, our hairier cousins have their own distinct facial features, unique combinations of jawlines, eye shapes, and nasal widths that make them recognizable on sight. But have you ever studied the differences between other primates’ faces? Photographer James Mollison was struck by how similar great ape facial features are to human features, and…

io9 Lauren Davis May 6

And now, enjoy an elephant playing the harmonica

When inspiration strikes, Shanthi, an elephant living at Washington, DC’s National Zoo, moseys over to a harmonica and plays a jaunty tune. See if you could dance to elephant-composed music in the video above. It’s particularly interesting that Shanthi reportedly prefers music that ends with a crescendo. I wonder if she connects it to the…

io9 Lauren Davis May 6

Internet-Famous Falling Bear Meets Banal Normal-Bear Death on Colorado Highway

You’ve seen this bear. It wandered onto the University of Colorado campus where it was tranquilized, and its falling-sideways bear-body was captured by photographer Andy Duann mid-air. With a little help from Reddit, the bear became a meme. The Internet’s most famous bear was relocated some 50 miles away, presumably where there is no Internet.…

Biology Mat Honan May 4

Doggie Treat Maze Ball Is the Perfect Way To Make Your Pet Resent You

As much as you’d like to, you can’t spend every waking minute playing with your dog. So this Mazee ball will fill in as the perfect petsitter, challenging your dog to free a delicious treat by solving the simple maze inside. In fact the $17 Mazee is exactly like those spherical Perplexus puzzles designed for…

Biology Andrew Liszewski May 3

Lost Pet Parakeet Found Its Way Home By Telling the Police Its Home Address

Squawk! Birdie’s lost! Squawk! Take me home! In an amazing story of animal ingenuity, a lost pet parakeet found its way back to its owner by telling the police its full home address. The owner had trained the parakeet to squawk her address just in case the parakeet ever got lost. The bird, called Piko-chan,…

Biology Casey Chan May 3

Real Lasers on Actual Sharks

Last week, a company called Wicked Lasers promised to attach lasers to sharks if enough people Liked the idea on Facebook. They did. It happened. It is awesome. What you see before you is a 50-milliwatt green laser on a lemon shark. It was rather bravely put there by marine biologist Luke Tipple off the…

Biology Jamie Condliffe May 2

Sweat-Eating Bees Are Invading Our Cities

While most bees get by just fine supping on nectar from flowers, there’s a different kind of bee out in the wild that feeds on sweat—and now, they’re moving into cities to make the most of all that humans can offer. The Wall Street Journal reports that researchers at Cornell University have spotted a huge…

Biology Jamie Condliffe May 2

Watch this resourceful octopus make a mobile home out of a tin can

What a clever little cephalopod. Diver Robert Suntay recently captured this underwater footage of a pint-sized octopus schlepping a rusty can across the sea floor. The whole scene is pretty adorable. This little bugger has clearly grown very attached to its can, and it’s not about to let some nosy cameraman scoop up its brand…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez May 1

Animal Rights Group PETA Has Finally Launched Its XXX Site

Scenes from the Cyborg Forest, where animals make up for their shortcomings with technology

10 Real-Life Creatures and the Horror Movies They Should Star In

Did someone call for a Cambulance? Part Camel, Part Ambulance, All Awesome

Where Do All the Pigeons in Cities Disappear To?

The end of Harry Potter leaves hundreds of pet owls homeless

Ancient Car-Sized Turtles Hung Out with Titanoboas

Three-Story Tall Crocodiles Once Swallowed Human Beings

Were Prehistoric War Dogs Key To Humanity’s Survival?

How long ago did we finish domesticating horses?

Dwarf Mammoths Used to Inhabit the Island of Crete

Brain Scans Show What Dogs Are Actually Thinking About

Primate portraits invite you to see apes as individuals

And now, enjoy an elephant playing the harmonica

Internet-Famous Falling Bear Meets Banal Normal-Bear Death on Colorado Highway

Doggie Treat Maze Ball Is the Perfect Way To Make Your Pet Resent You

Lost Pet Parakeet Found Its Way Home By Telling the Police Its Home Address

Real Lasers on Actual Sharks

Sweat-Eating Bees Are Invading Our Cities

Watch this resourceful octopus make a mobile home out of a tin can

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