ATLANTA — Swimming with manta rays, giant groupers, and even a whale shark brought joy and excitement to a group of injured U.S. military veterans who got to experience the healing power of water and wildlife at the Georgia Aquarium. The swim Wednesday at the aquarium in Atlanta also gave the U.S. service people who…
BRUSSELS — Driven in part by fears that the frozen landscapes of Antarctica may be irreversibly melting away because of climate change, tourism to the bottom of the world is soaring. And experts warn that with more visitors comes an increased risk of contamination, illness and other damage to the continent. While visitor numbers are…
An artist’s impression of the Western Australian koala WA Museum Australia was once home to a second species of koala that lived only in the west of the continent, where it became extinct around 30,000 years ago. Today, there is only one koala species: Phascolarctos cinereus. It is found almost exclusively in eucalyptus forests in…
Scorpions fluoresce under ultraviolet light Erwin Niemand/Shutterstock Scorpions strengthen their claws and stingers with metal, effectively turning these weapons into the equivalent of a steel-capped boot. The use of metals to strengthen vulnerable body parts – such as teeth in vertebrates like Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) – is already known, and the areas of a…
NEWPORT, R.I. — On Newport’s south side, historic and opulent mansions sit on an avenue with mature trees that help cool the neighborhoods, clean the air and foster wildlife. On the city’s poorer North End, where some streets are dotted with subsidized housing, big trees are a lot fewer and far between. “People in this…
BERLIN — Christel Krueger peered through thick glass and murky water at the Berlin Zoo, staring in awe at a mother hippopotamus and her child sleeping on a sandbar. Krueger, 86, and her daughter were on a specialized zoo tour last month for people who live with dementia that was organized by Malteser Deutschland, part…
MAISONS-ALFORT, France — A wildlife hospital in a southeastern Paris suburb is a place of no cuddles but lots of care. It helps injured, sick and orphaned animals — often victims of human activity and increasing urbanization — heal so they can return to their natural habitat. Last week, a female fox cub was found…
A violent encounter between the two factions of Ngogo chimpanzees Aaron Sandel A once harmonious group of wild chimpanzees has split into two, leading to intractable conflict and escalating violence. Researchers say the rift suggests that human wars are a deeply rooted part of our nature, rather than something that emerged recently as our culture…
Emperor penguins could go extinct by 2100 Stefan Christmann/naturepl.com Two of Antarctica’s most iconic species, the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) and the Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella), have declined so dramatically and rapidly that they have been classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. A third Antarctic species, the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina),…
Artist’s reconstruction of the ancient ocean ecosystem preserved in the Jiangchuan biota Xiaodong Wang A huge and beautifully preserved suite of fossils discovered in China has cast doubt on the idea that complex life flourished dramatically during a rapid burst of evolution known as the Cambrian explosion. This event, spanning roughly 541 million to 513…
