Discover stories in Weird Wildlife
How Do Birds Stay Warm on a Cold Winter’s Night?
Winter is a tough time for birds, but a warm place to sleep can give them an edge. A scientist’s look at the cozy, and often crazy, hideouts birds choose as their winter bedrooms.
Weird Conservation: The Strange Side of Saving Endangered Species
When scientists need to save an endangered species, sometimes the solution is straightforward. But sometimes, conservation requires that you built a robot, search for poop, or devise a seemingly endless variety of techniques to collect animal semen. Nature is weird, but conservation is weirder.
Move Over Turkey: Meet the World’s Other Bald, Be-wattled Birds
Have you ever actually looked at a turkey? They’re cool, weird, and impressively ugly. But American Wild Turkeys aren’t the only ugly birds out there ⎯ with 10,000 avian species on Earth, the possibilities for ugly are endless.
The Ten Creepiest Spiders of North America
Spider, spider on the wall, who's the creepiest of them all? Scientists share their picks for the best spiders on the continent -- the most aggressive, the rarest, the most venomous, even the prettiest. Yes, the prettiest.
Why Everything You Know About Bluegill Management is Wrong
Every angler knows that if you don’t remove enough bluegills from a pond, they’ll overpopulate and become stunted. But new research says that idea is usually wrong, and the opposite may be true.
Big Battles, Big Gonads: The Crazy World of the Bluegill Spawn
The common bluegill is easy to take for granted. But come spawning season, a bluegill colony is one of the wildest scenes in nature: part barroom brawl, part cheesy ‘80s romantic comedy.
Angry Birds: Why Molting Makes Our Feathered Friends Grumpy
For birds, “bad feather days” – what we call molting – are a part of life. And those days can make birds downright grumpy.
It’s Time to End the Gar Wars
Imagine anglers piling hundreds of dead trout they've killed along stream banks. Not gonna happen, right? But it's still happening with gar, and outdoor magazines celebrate it. Why it's time to end the gar wars.
You Won’t Believe What Porcupines Eat (And No, Not Bigfoot Bones)
Sure, much of the time, the porcupine dines on trees. But it also has a need for salt, and it's coming for your cars, your homes, your guns. And your face.
You Won’t Forget the Mega-Footed Malleefowl
Ever heard of a malleefowl? You’ll never forget it after reading about their big feet, huge nests, and chicks born fully feathered that can fly within 24 hours.
Big Gulp: How Often Do Trout and Grayling Eat Mammals?
Many anglers know that trout eat the occasional mouse or shrew. But how often does this actually occur? New research from Bristol Bay on the dietary habits of rainbow trout and grayling suggests this answer: More often than you think.
Do the Rumble-Rump with Peacock Spiders
Meet the tiny spider with one of the wildest mating displays in the animal kingdom. Jon Fisher takes you into the realm of the peacock spider and its unbelievable "dance moves."
