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They hang from the cold, stone ceiling of an ancient Maya temple like a bunch of fizzy gray fruits, staring down at us with eyes that shine golden in the [...]

Content not available due to copyright restrictions. Please Note: Illustration(s) are not available due to copyright [...]

There are no orcas to speak of in Western literature. Although they look like mythic creatures, with their sleek bodies, panda-like colors, and pointy-toothed grins, killer whales don't figure as [...]

IT WAS LIKE A SCENE conjured by a Hollywood special effects shop. In September 2005 Afar herders in northern Ethiopia watched in amazement as the Earth yawned open and swallowed [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It isn't as grand as the other Donald's Trump Tower, but it is impressive never the less, built with the one tool at his disposal: his [...]

Bumblebees force plants to flower by biting their leaves-a discovery that may help improve agriculture. When common European bumblebees and their larvae emerge in spring, pollen is all they eat. [...]

On West Africa's stunningly diverse Bioko Island, rare primates are being slaughtered to feed a growing bush-meat trade. When a team of photographers and conservationists documented the island's biodiversity in [...]

In 1977 Irene Pepperberg, a recent graduate of Harvard University, did something very bold. At a time when animals still were considered automatons, she set out to find what was [...]

Mornings on the high Sanetti Plateau of Ethiopia's Bale Mountains break cold and spare, the sun's first rays stirring not warmth, but an icy, cutting wind. I pull my neck [...]

Guy Wagner knows the value of a good fence. In the gated communities of Rancho Mirage--where palm trees sway against the blue sky and lawns surround the white-stuccoed houses like [...]

It snowed furiously the night before I stepped over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was mid-May, so the snow was wet and slushy, not dry enough to [...]

A mouth bristling with fangs made Nothosaurus giganteus an efficient killer. This 13-foot hunter, one of the most ancient marine reptiles, plied waters that covered much of Eurasia about 230 [...]

"I have news," Edris Hassan announced gravely. Seating himself on a boulder above Ethiopia's Saba River in the northern Danakil Desert, he propped his Kalashnikov assault rifle beside him. Edris [...]

The avian world's pink-feathered icons form long-lasting, loyal friendships, scientists recently discovered. The flamingo bonds vary, from mated couples that build nests and raise chicks each year to same-sex friends [...]

"One. Two. Three. Lift!" barks Cathy Whitlock, a fossil pollen expert and paleoclimatologist at the University of Oregon. She and the three of us--two of her students and I--tighten our [...]

'OK, THERE IT IS--OUR MYSTERY MOLLUSK.' Bruce Robison leans in toward his color monitor. A ghostly creature resembling a cross between a megaphone and Thing, the Addams Family pet hand, [...]

"It's always like this," says Adriano Chiarello. "You know they're here, but you can't see them." The Brazilian conservation biologist bends his neck backward like a yoga master to peer [...]

It's a blustery spring day in the Australian outback, the kind that makes you think rain must be on the way, although there hasn't been a drop in months, and [...]

PETE WAS HAVING A ROTTEN DAY. His left hand was swollen and oozing pus, forcing him to limp on his three good limbs. He had trouble feeding himself, and he [...]

The looters had broken into the royal tomb in the ancient Andean capital of Wari, Peru, with picks and shovels, then dropped a rope into the stone-lined shaft. They had [...]

"ALL THE TREES AND PLANTS HERE MAKE AN UMBRELLA FOR THE BUDDHA, all the animals are his gatekeepers, and like the lakes in heaven, the waters of this holy spring [...]

On a sand-covered hill outside Cairo near the three great pyramids at Giza, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass picks a path among small tombs built of mud and stone. Some of the [...]

Legendary female aviator Amelia Earhart has provided the inspiration to many women, from her time to the present, on how women should lead their lives and in following their aspirations. Earhart's legacy to women is her courage to stand for her convictions, that of her love for flying.

The German shepherd trots off, nose down in the grass of Kenya's Laikipia Plateau. "OK, Oakley," the dog's handler commands. "Find it!" Oakley sniffs until he comes to a bush, [...]

Life and strife begin together as a tiny froglet hatches fully formed, bypassing the tadpole stage. Miraculously diverse--and in serious decline--frogs signal that something's amiss in the natural world. IT [...]

ETHIOPIA'S SACRED WATERS From Mount Gishe's 10,433-foot summit, Marigeta Birhane Tsige, an elderly clergyman in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, looked down at what many Ethiopians consider the source of one [...]

Biologists and botanists are racing to understand the world's biodiversity because species are disappearing too rapidly to record. Among the most diversified living things inhabiting the world's rain forests are insects and plants and only a tiny fraction of them has been fully understood.

The unique geographical profile of Peru's remote Villacamba region allows it to house various living species. The Rapid Assessment Program was organized by Conservation International in hopes of estimating the number of species inhabiting the region and encouraging government to preserving its habitats.

Western and Magalasy conservationists are racing to protect the wildlife populations in Madagascar. The island's plants and animals are being threatened to extinction by human activities such as hunting, farming and mining.

Scientists are racing to find solutions for saving the Earth's biodiversity that is being threatened by human activities such as excessive logging and destructive farming techniques. Massive deforestation, particularly in developing countries, is driving many local plants and animals to extinction.

Scientists warn that the sixth mass extinction of animals could occur within 100 years, wiping out 50% of the worlds animal population. Unlike the past five mass extinctions, the sixth is due to human activities. Among those that will be greatly hit are beetles, birds, amphibians and large mammals.

The article presents a profile of the Macgregor's bowerbird, a Papua New Guinea native species whose male constructs a large natural nest-towers out of tree saplings to attract a female. Details are given describing both the characteristics of the nests as well as their role in the mating rituals of the bowerbird. Additional mention is given to the role of the nests in territory disputes between other males.

The article reports on the biodiversity and animal life of Equatorial Guinea's Bioko Island. Details are included about endangered monkeys found on the island, including the Bioko Preuss's monkey, the Bioko drill, and the Martin's putty-nosed monkey. The Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program (BBPP) which was founded by biologist Gail Hearn, is discussed. The various dangers to the monkeys on Bioko Island, including over-hunting and offshore oil drilling, are also investigated.

The article discusses the wolf population of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian wolf is the only species of wolf found in Africa, and is highly endangered. Most of the remaining wolves live in the Bale Mountains National Park. Though they hunt alone, Ethiopian wolves live in packs to ensure they maintain an area large enough to maintain good hunting.

The article reports on the Grand Canyon and notes that it was home to various peoples for 10,000 years. The Anasazi were responsible for the trails that snake through the canyon, as well as some of the discarded bits of pottery, ruins and pictographs. Other Native American tribes lived in the canyon until it was transformed into an uninhabited national park at the beginning of the 20th century. Native people still farm in the canyon beyond the boundaries of the park.

Offers a look at social conditions facing the Afar people of the Danakil Desert in Africa. Experience of the author traveling with the Afar salt caravans; Report that Afar rebels called the Ugugumo are fighting to regain territory lost in the Eritrean-Ethiopian war; Importance of the salt trade to the Afar; Classification of the Afar language as Cushitic; Importance of Islam to the Afar.

The animal does not in the least resemble an earthly mollusk— an organism like a snail, oyster, or mussel with a firm shell protecting its soft body and that travels, if it must, on a single, podlike foot. This one is swimming free in the deep, dark waters of Monterey Canyon off California, more than a mile down, although the word "swimming" doesn't quite capture the creature's ethereal, yoga-like moves. For a long moment it is quiet in the control room of Western Flyer, the state-of-the-art research vessel of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. INSETS: Grand Canyon of the Sea;Bringing Bait to the Bottom.

From fruit flies to elephants, females pick the male with which they want to mate. The males, in turn, compete with each other to get a female's attention, each vying to show her that he will be the best sperm donor for her babies. That is why, evolutionary biologists say, males are most often the ornamented sex. Charles Darwin was the first scientist to devise a theory of sexual selection and to recognize that females frequently select mates. He began to develop the notion while writing 'On the Origin of Species,' in which he argued that the related theory of natural selection is the primary force in the evolution of all organisms. Natural selection goes far in explaining why one individual animal survives to pass on its genes to the next generation, while another dies leaving no descendants.

Focuses on wildlife conservation efforts in the Hengduan Mountains of China. Abundance of plant and animal species which are threatened by clear-cutting, hunting and other human activities; Efforts of anthropologists and others to respect Buddhist beliefs regarding the sacred spaces of these mountains; Transition of this area from a logging to a tourism economy; Details of a search for a rare conifer.