Land Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2015

Micro Porcupines to Snow Leopards: WCS's Favorite Wildlife Photos of 2015

Stephen Sautner is WCS executive director of communications; Max Pulsinelli is director of communications for WCS's zoos and aquarium; Julie Larsen Maher is staff photographer for the WCS and the first woman to hold the position since the society's founding in 1895. In addition to documenting conservation work in some...

Oct 31, 2015

How a Family Dog May Lower a Child's Asthma Risk

Children who are raised in households with dogs or farm animals during their first year of life may have a lower risk of asthma a few years later, a new study suggests. In the study, the researchers looked at early exposure to dogs and farm animals and the rate of...

Aug 31, 2016

Baby Gorillas Show Off Cute Hairstyles

Due to a combination of natural growth differences and parent grooming variations, baby gorillas have unique and sometimes very human-like hairdos. Nyampinga, born April 10, 2016. (Image credit: Keiko Mori/Kwita Izina)Their distinctive looks were showcased at the recent gorilla naming ceremony (or Kwita Izina) held in Rwanda, where 35 percent...

Jun 30, 2016

Addax Facts: Endangered Antelope Faces Extinction

The addax is a species of antelope. Addaxes are also known as white antelopes and the screwhorn antelopes. They are critically endangered; there may be only three remaining in the wild. Extinction may not be imminent, however; about 2,000 are kept in zoos and on ranches around the world. Size...

Jun 30, 2016

Photos: The Many Mammals of the North American Deserts

A living desert (Image credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)The North American deserts are teeming with mammals that are both colorful and uniquely adapted to the harsh environmental conditions. Many such mammals have learned to not only survive but thrive when living close to humans in desert communities. This urban...

May 31, 2016

Facts About Otters

With long, sleek, streamlined bodies and webbed feet, otters are born swimmers. They are found in waterways on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. They are often seen floating on their backs. Their thick fur traps air and makes them buoyant. Unfortunately, the fur is highly coveted, and otters have...

Mar 31, 2016

Why Hope Remains for Saving the World's Largest Gorillas (Op-Ed)

Andrew Plumptre is a senior conservationist in the Uganda Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Stuart Nixon is a conservationist at Chester Zoo in the U.K. who was working with Fauna & Flora International at the time these surveys were made. Radar Nishuli is chief park warden for the...

Jan 31, 2016

Groundhogs on the Menu? The Wild History of Punxsutawney Phil

Punxsutawney Phil may not know it, but groundhogs were part of the menu on Groundhog Day in the late 1800s. Apparently, groundhogs were the other white meat on that day. These days, Punxsutawney Phil doesn't have to worry about ending up on a dish. Revelers gather in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where...

Nov 30, 2017

Bison vs. buffalo: What's the difference?

Burly, shaggy bison (Bison bison), the North American hoofed mammals that, for many people, embody the American West, are often referred to as buffalo. But even though they are in the same family group as Old World buffalo species — the Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and the African cape...

Oct 31, 2017

Gay Lions? Not Quite

A photograph of two male lions seemingly in an amorous embrace has some humans clutching their pearls. After the release of the photograph, taken in August at Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve, Ezekiel Mutua, the chief executive of the Kenya Film Classification Board, blamed humans (or maybe demons) for the...

Oct 31, 2017

Photos: Is ice age cat mummy a lion or a lynx?

Incredible find (Image credit: Courtesy of Anastasia Koryakina)A man hunting for mammoth tusks in Eastern Siberia came across an unexpected find in the permafrost: the mummy of a cat that lived during the last ice age. It's not yet clear whether the ancient kitty is a cave lion or a...

Sep 30, 2017

Why Don't Hippos Get Cholera?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The short answer is that cholera has evolved to infect humans, not hippos. Cholera is a disease caused by a curved rod-shaped bacterium called Vibrio cholerae. The disease is...

Jun 30, 2017

Cecil the Lion's Son Shot Dead, 2 Years After His Father

The 6-year-old son of Cecil the Lion was shot and killed on July 7 just outside Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, meeting the same end his father did in 2015, according to news reports. The young lion, Xanda, was the pride male of a group that included two lionesses and...

Jun 30, 2017

Rare 'Balloon Syndrome' Causes Hedgehog to Puff Up Like a Beach Ball

That's what happened to a wild hedgehog in Scotland — named Zepplin by his rescuers at the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) — who was suffering from a rare condition called balloon syndrome. Zepplin was spotted by the roadside on July 23 and the...

Nov 30, 2018

Here’s Why Scientists Are Poring Over Ancient Alpaca Poo

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Traces of 1,000-year-old poop in Peruvian soil could reveal the history of alpaca domestication in the region. Researchers analyzed sediments from cores extracted from lakes in southeastern Peru. They were looking for chemical fingerprints of compounds called sterols, which appear when cholesterol is broken down during digestion,...