Shrews are some of the smallest mammals on Earth. None of them are bigger than a mouse, and although they resemble mice, they are not rodents. Shrews are insectivores. They spend their lives hunting down insects in underbrush or burrowing for them through the soil. Shrews stay…
Virendar Bhardwaj uploaded this photo of a snake in his backyard in India. It was later found to be an undescribed species. Screenshot from Instagram Photo by Virendar Bhardwaj. Many people use social media hoping to get discovered as singers, actors, and comedians. Now a new…
Butterflies do all kinds of cool things. They fly, pollinate plants, and slurp nectar out of flowers with tongues as long as their bodies. They also help rediscover plants that have been missing since 1888! Himesh Dilruwan Jayasinghe was chasing a small leopard butterfly (named…
Did you know that the lizards in the Western Ghats mountain region of India do their own stunts? The Western Ghats are called a biodiversity hotspot for species of lizards and amphibians because there are so many endemic species there, meaning species found there and…
A spotted skunk performing its signature handstand. Image by Jerry W. Dragoo courtesy of the Field Museum. Have you ever seen a skunk do a handstand? If you do, then run away! Otherwise, you are about to get sprayed. Spotted skunks are the handstand champions…
An amazing and unusual fish! The Gollum snakehead was first discovered in 2019 in Kerala in South India. This fish has a long, scaly body and veil-like fins. It may be a “living fossil” – this family of fish may have evolved around 109 million years…
Biologist Nilanthi Rajapakse (pictured below) of the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Sri Lanka discovered a new plant species with years of careful observation and field work. Nilanthi Rajapakse. Image courtesy of the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Mongabay writer Malaka Rodrigo explains how Nilanthi Rajapakse discovered…
Scientists in Ecuador have discovered not one, not two, but THREE new species of orchids in the montane rainforests of Ecuador. A team of researchers from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador discovered one of the new species along a roadside. This orchid has a…
A team of scientists went looking for a tiny species of chameleon that is only the size of a golf tee (5.5 cm/2.2 inches long). They were afraid that this chameleon species – Chapman’s pygmy chameleon – might have gone extinct in its home country…
Imagine that you are walking through the forest as night falls. It is getting darker now and you can hear the sounds of insects. You also hear some strange noises, which you can’t identify. “What was that?”, you whisper under your breath. You decide to…
Guess what? New scorpion species have been described in the Western Ghats region of India.
Researchers describe a new deadly snake species.