How animals find their way during migration is one of the most impressive questions in animal behavior. A bird may cross a continent at night, a sea turtle may return to a nesting region after years at sea, a salmon may move from ocean feeding grounds back toward its natal river, and a monarch butterfly … Read more
Animals that use electricity are not science fiction. Some fish generate electric fields with specialized organs, while other animals detect tiny electric fields produced by muscles, nerves, and movement in water. For electric eels, electric rays, and electric catfish, electricity can help with hunting or defense. For sharks, rays, platypuses, and many weakly electric fish, … Read more
Light pollution affects animals by changing the natural darkness they use to navigate, feed, rest, avoid predators, reproduce, and time seasonal behavior. Artificial light at night can pull migrating birds toward cities, draw insects into dangerous places, disrupt sea turtle hatchlings on beaches, change how bats and mammals use habitat, and alter the balance between … Read more
Animals that live in cities are not just strays, pests, or occasional visitors. Many are wild species that have learned to use streets, parks, rooftops, storm drains, gardens, bridges, and building ledges as part of their habitat. Some eat a wide range of foods. Some hide in small spaces. Some are active at night when … Read more
Urban wildlife is made up of wild animals that live in, move through, or regularly use cities and suburbs. Some of these animals are easy to notice, such as pigeons on sidewalks, squirrels in parks, raccoons near trash bins, or hawks perched on tall buildings. Others stay mostly hidden, including bats, foxes, coyotes, opossums, frogs, … Read more
How animals see the world depends on the kind of eyes they have, the light in their habitat, the predators or prey they must notice, and the behaviors that matter most for survival. A hawk scanning open ground, a cat hunting at dusk, a bee visiting flowers, and a horse watching for danger are not … Read more
Animals that use echolocation send out sounds and listen for the returning echoes to locate objects, prey, obstacles, or habitat features. It is one of nature’s most impressive sensing systems, but it is not magic and it is not the same as ordinary animal calls. Echolocation is active listening: the animal makes a signal, the … Read more
Animals use smell to communicate by leaving chemical signals in the environment or releasing odors that other animals can detect. These signals can say a lot without a sound: who has been in an area, whether an animal is ready to mate, where food may be found, whether danger is nearby, and sometimes which group … Read more
Animal sounds can mean many different things, but they are not simple word-for-word translations. A bird song may help defend a nesting territory. A frog call may advertise a male during breeding season. A wolf howl may keep a pack connected across distance. A whale song, click, whistle, or pulse may carry social, feeding, mating, … Read more
Animals communicate by sending signals that other animals can detect and use. A signal may be a sound, smell, color, posture, movement, touch, vibration, electrical discharge, or a combination of several cues at once. The meaning is not always as simple as a human word. A bark, flash, scent mark, or courtship dance usually makes … Read more
