Nature & Wildlife Stories

16 Fun—and Fascinating—Facts about Botswana’s Wildlife & Wonders

Imagine watching a herd of elephants—all different ages and sizes—wade across the Chobe River at sunset. It’s one of the things that surprised me most during...

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Candice Gaukel Andrews

Polar Bear History, Hazards and Hair

Symbols of courage, resilience and strength, polar bears have been featured in decorative arts for centuries. Today, they may be best known as emblems of...

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Candice Gaukel Andrews

Bird Eyes and Dark Skies

When we misuse or overuse artificial light at night, we create nighttime light pollution, which makes it harder to see the night sky and causes negative...

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Laura Kiniry

What’s the Difference Between Hyenas and African Wild Dogs?

On a recent morning game drive in Botswana’s Chobe National Park, our group happened upon a pack of wild dogs. “Are those hyenas?” someone in our vehicle...

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Michelle Peters

Why Beluga Whales Migrate to Churchill, Canada, Each Summer

If you're a wildlife lover and you hear "Churchill, Canada," you likely think of polar bears. And you'd be right—after all, Churchill is considered the Polar...

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About Galapagos

Love Is in the Air: The Amazing Courtship Dance of the Waved Albatross (Video)

Visit the Galapagos Island of Española in April and you may experience firsthand one of the most interesting and elaborate courtship rituals in the entire...

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The Magical Serendipity of an African Safari

“I’ve got something special to show you,” said our guide Issac. I couldn’t imagine what it could be. We had already spent the last few hours exploring the...

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Matt Kareus

6 Surprising Facts About Hippos in Africa

There's nothing common about the common hippo. Yet, compared to elephants, rhinos and the big cats of Africa, they are generally underappreciated. This is a...

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Rebecca Self

10 Top Spots for Viewing Orcas in their Natural Habitats

Orcas (Orcinus orca) are among the ocean’s most intelligent and enigmatic predators. As the largest members of the dolphin family, they are a blend of power,...

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Rebecca Self

Spot Migratory Marvels & Resident Rarities: Year-Round Birding in Iceland

Where does the Arctic tern, known for its extraordinary annual migration from the Antarctic to the Arctic, spend its summers? Like many of us, it visits...

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Laura Kiniry

Six of Africa’s Most Elusive Animals

If you’ve ever been on safari in Africa for any length of time, there’s a good chance you’ve seen some of the continent’s most iconic wildlife, including...

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Rebecca Self

Bearded Vultures and Beyond: Where to See Nature’s Clean Up Crew

For many people, our first encounters with vultures are as dark, shadowy, even menacing figures in fairy tales. That’s a shame, because vultures play helpful,...

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Megan Brief

Discover the Desert Secrets of the Southwestern United States

Have you ever seen a greater short-horned lizard scrape its crown of spines along a canyon rim? Smelled the fresh spray of a cascading spring? Heard the love...

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Candice Gaukel Andrews

The Influence of Gophers and the Impacts of Wolves

On the surface, gophers and wolves don’t seem to have much in common. Gophers are small (just a few inches long), burrowing rodents that primarily consume...

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Rebecca Self

What’s the Difference between Manatees and Dugongs?

Growing up on the Gulf Coast of Florida, manatees were part of our lives. We’d see them in marinas and on school field trips. I remember one day near the end...

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Rebecca Self

Ancient Legends, Modern Challenges: Protecting the Amazon’s Precious Pink Dolphins

The Amazon river dolphin is known as the botoin in Brazil and as bufeo or bufeo colorado in Spanish-speaking parts of the Amazon Basin, including Peru,...

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Michelle Peters

What’s the Difference Between Echidnas, Hedgehogs and Porcupines?

No one likes to be labeled, especially when it’s the wrong label. And the echidnas of southern Australia are no different. Don’t call them porcupines, please!...

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Candice Gaukel Andrews

Nature in 2025: Aid to Attention, Happiness and Well-Being

In 2024, I started the year by writing about nature: CO2 emissions, temperatures and the optimism a lot of us felt about clean energy technologies with...

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