Environment
This Fuzzy, Golden nautilus hasn't been seen in over 30 years
And it's only ever been seen three times ever.
Stories by Bec Crew
Environment
Rare Ili Pika Photographed for the First Time in 20 Years
If ever there was a face that read, "Goddamn it, they found me," this is it. That small, downturned mouth, ever-so-slightly ajar in a moment of panicked contemplation, it really just says it all...
Environment
‘Extinct’ Myanmar Jerdon’s babbler spotted for the first time in 70 years
Hey there, pretty bird. Welcome back. We've missed your jersey caramel colours and big, brown eyes since pretty much forever. What's new with us?
Environment
Shelter dogs are helping scientists sniff out world's rarest gorillas
I think we can all agree that dogs are great at everything. Except being bad friends, they're terrible at that. They're especially great at having jobs, and increasingly, researchers are realising their potential as wildlife scouts to help them track down the struggling species that (understandably) are doing their best to stay hidden...
When lemmings attack: Why carrying on like a deranged squeaky toy totally works
It's the future. No one really knows when, but it's not so distant – everything looks pretty much the same as it did when we last saw it.
Environment
Why 76 Beavers Were Forced to Skydive into the Idaho Wilderness in 1948
Some time in the late 1940s, a very patient, elderly beaver called Geronimo was put in a box, flown to an altitude of between 150 and 200 metres, and tossed out the side of an aeroplane...
Evolution
First Footage Captured of Rare "Type D" Orcas
As they were tracking a Nigerian poaching vessel through the South Indian Ocean on Boxing Day last year, Australian conservationists aboard the SSS Bob Barker saw something pretty incredible – a pod of 13 Type D orcas...
The Sciences
Bullied One-Eyed Fish Gets Prosthetic to Stop Harrassment
“Hey! One-Eyed Pete! Stop, where are you going? Wait up!" "Yes?" "Hey what are you bringing to Martin's corner on Friday? I'm thinking just Doritos?
Here’s why mass-poisoning pikas is a terrible idea (and not just because look at their fat little faces)
You know, when I look at a pika, poisoning it isn't the first thing I think about. I think about giving it cuddles, I think about giving it scritches, and yes, I might also consider building it a tiny home with a tiny bed in a tiny city where all of its friends can live [...]..
Running Ponies’ Top Ten Most Popular Posts for 2014
With 2014 almost at an end, I've compiled the year’s top 10 most popular Running Ponies posts. Read on for coordinated projectile vomit, headless tragedy in a Phoenix motel room, inflatable birds, monstrous swimming insects, and so much more animal insanity...
Evolution
How Pearlfish Use Oysters as Underwater Amplifiers for Communication
A new study has revealed how marine pearlfish communicate with each other from the confines of their very safe and comfy homes inside oysters – they use the internal structure of the shell to amplify their strange, pulsing noises to the ocean outside...
The Great Kentucky Meat Shower mystery unwound by projectile vulture vomit
On 3 March 1876, large hunks of flesh fell from the sky over Olympia Springs in Bath County, Kentucky. According to a New York Times article published the following week, the phenomenon occurred right nearby the house of one Allen Crouch, whose wife was outside making soap when it happened...
Long live the morbidly obese Termite Queen, and her terrifying army of sweat-licking babies
There's an anime-style visual novel/role-playing video game called Long Live the Queen, in which you play a 14-year-old princess named Elodie whose mother, the Queen, only recently passed away under suspicious circumstances...
Evolution
"Blackwater" Diving Produces Amazing Photos of Rare Marine Life
Joshua Lambus is an award winning photographer and videographer based on the Big Island of Hawaii. He specialises in ‘blackwater’ diving, which involves travelling up to 8 kilometres off the shore of Hawaii, and diving into the ocean in the black of night, when thousands upon thousands of deep-sea species head to the surface to [...]..
The Sciences
Meet Miracle Mike, the Chicken Who Lived for 18 Months Without His Head
Mike meet everyone, everyone meet Mike. No, no, don't wave. He can't see, you're just making this awkward. Also known as Miracle Mike, Mike the Headless Chicken was a plump, five-year-old cockerel when he was unceremoniously beheaded on 10 September 1945...
Health
Giant African Rats Detect Land Mines and TB for a Living
So yesterday, I adopted an unborn land-mine-detecting African giant pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus) from Tanzania. Did I spend 20 minutes figuring out what I was going to call it, as one of my many privileges as an adoptive parent?...
Environment
The Plan to Save the Rarest Fish in the World
The Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) is the rarest fish in the world. Found only in a single, tiny limestone cavern in the Devils Hole geothermal pool about 100 km east of Nevada’s Death Valley National Park, these fish have the smallest known geographic range of any vertebrate in the wild...
The Sciences
How Book Scorpions Tend to Your Dusty Tomes
Book scorpions are the best/worst thing to happen to books, because book scorpions! But also book scorpions... Properly known as pseudoscorpions, these tiny, tiny creatures have a fondness for old books, because old books also happen to contain delicious booklice and dust mites...
The Sciences
Shy Snake Packs a Deadly Bite
Hey so snakes that inject venom into the bloodstream are pretty bad, how about a snake that injects venom into your bloodstream AND makes you bleed out from every orifice?
The Great Emu War: In which some large, flightless birds unwittingly foiled the Australian Army
I have to admit it – that's some real Australian behaviour going on up there. Why are the emus so attracted to his upside-down bicycling?
