Animals

Meet the telescope behind the Pac-Man photos

According to the memes circling around this weekend, Mecha Pac-Man has a fondness for lunar cheese and starlight, gaping wide to gobble them both. In reality, the telescope behind the Pac-Man photograph is Auxiliary Telescope 2, an essential component of the most productive ground-based telescope on the planet. Auxiliary Telescope 2 has been making the…

New Law Could End Killer Whale Shows in California

New legislation being proposed in California would begin to phase out the keeping of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in captive environments in the state. Democratic Assemblymember Richard Bloom of the state’s fiftieth district announced the bill this morning at a press conference on the Santa Monica Pier. The bill, AB 2140, is informally called the…

ALMA Observatory’s new fawn

ALMA Observatory staff interceded to protect this abandoned vicuña fawn when it was being chased by foxes. After failing to reintroduce the fawn to its herd, they stuck it in their truck and brought it back to the observatory. A very lucky young vicuña fawn rescued by observatory staff. Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), R. Durán…

Can you find the leopard hiding in this picture? (You got 10 seconds)

You got 10 seconds to find it. It’s there, I promise you. But if you were just walking around or if you were this leopard’s prey, by the time you see it, it would be too late. The photo was taken by excellent photographer Art Wolfe. See more of Art Wolfe’s awesome workhere. You can…

It’s A Bad Week To Be a Crocodilian

Sea otters, the adorable urchin-eating mustelids of the ocean, may be cute, but their relatives the river otters are another story. If this alligator’s experience is anything to go by, I wouldn’t want to be on the business end of their chompers. River otters, despite their fairly diminutive stature, are actually considered to be apex…

Otter kills and eats a young alligator after violent struggle

Thought crocodiles and alligators were the kings of the river? Otters and pythons don’t agree at all. This image sequence from the Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Reserve—spotted by PourMeCoffee—shows an otter killing a juvenile gator. Hell yeah. Otters are not that cute when they are pissed off, right? Otter preying on alligator at Lake Woodruff…

All the World’s Land Mammals Compared By Weight

Ever wondered how humans stack up to cows, pigs or elephants if you were to gather ’em all up and weigh them? Wonder no longer, because this chart shows exactly that. Created by XKCD’s Randall Munroe, this visualization shows how the total weight of various land mammals stack up against each other. Each square represents…

The World’s Most Amazing Structures Not Built by Humans

Humans are far from the only creatures with the ability to shape the environment in their favor. From insects and arachnids to marine invertebrates and mammals, the animal kingdom is rife with members who all construct their own habitats. Here are the most prolific builders in Animalia. The Sprawling Structures of Hornets, Bees, and Wasps…

Animals in Unbelievable Detail Drawn Entirely in Pancake Batter

We’ve probably all made a few pancakes in amusingly shaped blobs, but Nathan Shields takes pancake to a whole new level of art. The illustrator, former math teacher, and stay-at-home dad makes pancakes with his kids that range from Star Wars tributes to portraits of Isaac Newton to animals painted in stunning species-level detail. There’s…

These glowing sea sapphire animals are like the fireflies of the ocean

Beautiful. You see them glow blue one second and then they turn invisible the next. You’re never sure if these Sapphirina copepods are real until you see them light up like a stunning firefly but for the ocean. And then they disappear just quick enough to make you question what you just saw. The Sapphirina…

I want to be as happy as this dog getting his head massaged

What are you doing to me? Let me sniff it. What is this giant metal spider? Let me sniff it again. Is that a squirrel over there? Wait… I trust you because I love you but I’m not sure what this… ohhh myyy goddd that feels so good. Keep it there. Keep it going. Everything…

As animal food will have been wholly abandoned before the end of this century, the debris of the kitchen will be much more manageable than at present. — January 11, 1914 Anaconda Standard newspaper in Montana

Herding reindeers sure looks a lot like controlling alien locust swarms

When you get hundreds of reindeers together and try to move them around, they turn into one gigantic sentient-seeming swarm that spins around together. This footage, taken from above with a drone by photographer Jan Helmer Olsen, shows the stunning spirals that are created when herding reindeers. It’s got to be dizzying for them. SPLOID…

Watch a great white shark fly into the air to kill a seal

Don’t worry, the seal was just a decoy. But the breaching great white shark attack was real. The Great White comes at the seal at such a high speed (up to 25mph) that it launches itself and the seal decoy it caught out of the ocean and into the air. It’s beautifully fierce, isn’t it?…

The World’s First Beekeeping Donkey Is Sort of Adorable

Meet Boneco, the world’s first beekeeping donkey. He lives in Brazil and helps his owner, Manuel Juraci, make honey. Boneco also does not appear to like his beekeeping suit. But boy does he look adorable while wearing it. This isn’t just a funny hobby for Juraci and Boneco, though. Beekeeping is their livelihood. In their…

Hilarious monkey steals a GoPro camera and takes a selfie

Hey Mister Man, what are you doing filming us with that camera over there. Hey Mister Man, I don’t appreciate you tempting me with food to trick me into dancing like a monkey. Hey Mister Man, that’s it, I’m stealing your camera. That’s—I’m assuming—what went through the head of this funny little monkey in Bali…

Dancing baby stingrays are super cute but they freak the hell out of me

Awwwww, look at these little alien angels dancing and moving their tiny feet. They are so cute! Too bad they’re really trying to destroy that aquarium glass to rip your throat and suck all your blood through the aorta. OK, so they won’t really do that but they’re totally thinking about it. See what I…

A Landfill Park Is Leaking Toxic Waste Thanks to Burrowing Gophers

Let this be your cautionary tale against building a pretty waterfront park on a landfill. At Cesar Chavez Park on the Berkeley Marina, squirrels and gophers are burrowing through old trash, turning the ground into toxin-leaching swiss cheese. Poison from the estimated 1.9 million tons of residential, commercial, and industrial waste is now leaching into…

Landmines Warmed By Chickens and Other Tales of Animal Warfare

During the Cold War, the British military proposed placing nuclear land mines throughout the North German Plain to ensnare Soviet troops if they invaded. But how could they keep the bombs at the right temperature underground? Enter the idea of live chickens, which, if supplied with feed, could warm mines for about a week at…

What it looks like when an octopus decides to steal your camera.

When an octopus decided that deep sea diver David Malvestuto’s camera would be better off in his own eight arms, the resulting tug-of-war was pretty epic. Things really got good, though, when Malvestuto started taking pictures during the struggle. Here are a couple of the shots he snagged during the scuffle, before the octopus swam…