Stories by Douglas Main

“Resident” and “transient” killer whales, or orcas, have unique hunting habits and genetics, proving they are in fact separate species

The COVID lockdowns and the subsequent reemergence of humans had some surprising effects on wildlife beyond “nature is healing” tropes

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown environmental source of nitrogen

Orangutans were observed to use plant extracts to treat their own pain.

Humans aren’t the only animals that have discovered medicinal products in nature

The bump-head sunfish, and not the ocean sunfish, is the world’s largest bony fish

The fish’s reproduction erodes riverbeds over millennia, research suggests

Wildfires can contaminate grapes and ruin the beverage's flavor

Chemicals from these blazes can give the libation an ashy flavor​

Documentation of rare tumors further disproves the misconception that sharks cannot get cancer

The oncillas found in northeastern Brazil belong to a different species from those elsewhere in South America, though they look virtually identical

Mushrooms rely on evaporation to induce a bit of air flow

In order to attract mates, a newly discovered species of pufferfish makes geometric patterns that involve radially aligned ridges and valleys decorated with fragments of shells

For a creature so tiny — most are around an eighth of an inch long — the display is surprisingly complex and visual

The ancient animals, which spit an immobilizing material onto prey, hadn't been spotted before because they spend most of their lives hidden in soil to keep their permeable skin moist

Monarch butterflies may take as many as five generations to make it from Mexico to southern Canada and back again

The eggs' alleged aphrodisiac properties have made it popular amongst Panamanian poachers, who have contributed to a 30 percent rise in turtle egg poaching since 1996

Brine-rich compartments within sea ice have properties that could have helped life originate

When salt-rich water leaks out of sea ice, it sinks into the sea and can occasionally create an eerie finger of ice called a brinicle. New research explains how these strange fingers of ice form and how the salty water within sea ice could have been a prime environment in which life may have evolved

Camera traps worked about as well as physical traps at detecting the presence of Komodo dragons―and, in certain areas, did even better, an analysis reveals. The finding is significant because Komodo populations are threatened by human activities

It was already known that animals consume seeds in one location and excrete them in another where they can germinate, but now this process is confirmed to occur in eelgrass beds

Waterfall-loving Kihansi spray toads had been declared extinct in the wild. Some of the frogs conserved at New York's Bronx Zoo were later bred in Tanzania and are now living in the wild near an artificial system of sprinklers

Isaac encountered and ingested a system of dry air that prevented the storm's eye wall from forming, a key step in a storm's intensification

"Pumice rafting" colonizes large swaths of the damaged reef instantaneously with organisms hitching a ride on trillions of pieces of floating rock