National Geographic
National Geographic
Articles from National Geographic
nationalgeographic.comRevealing the hidden kingdom of seahorses
On a Bahamian island, in a landlocked lagoon, the planet’s densest collection of seahorses is offering scientists new insights into the secret lives of one of the world’s most mysterious fish.
These unearthly whale songs helped save humpbacks from extinction
Once at risk of being wiped out, humpback whales charted a remarkable comeback thanks to their songs. In 1979, National Geographic issued a record-breaking album of those tunes alongside a story about Roger Payne's groundbreaking research.
How scientists learn from the masters of invisibility: octopuses
Octopus and other cephalopods are good at hiding themselves—and are inspiring cutting-edge technologies that may help us do the same. Cephalopods like the giant Pacific octopus ( Enteroctopus dofleini ) are masters of camouflage.
Inside the sacred wolf hunts of western Mongolia
High in the mountains, Kazakh herders have lived in careful balance with wolves for centuries. Now a celebrated tradition has become a matter of survival.
Incredibly rare mountain gorilla twins born in Virunga: 'It’s kind of miraculous'
The twins were born to a 22-year-old female named Mafuko, who lost her own mother to armed individuals. The extremely endangered species currently numbers at just over 1,000. Mafuko, a 22-year-old mountain gorilla, was spotted holding twins, which the park says are both male.
The mission to keep the borderlands wild
In the rugged terrain where Mexico and the United States meet, a border wall is just the latest obstacle fragmenting habitats and disrupting migration paths. Here’s how a cadre of conservationists is trying to get animals moving.
Is this really the world’s most dangerous bird?
Towering at five and a half feet tall, sprinting up to 31 miles per hour, and leaping up to seven feet off the ground, cassowaries are the stuff of legends. They are the third largest bird in the world , weighing up to 175 pounds with sharp talons that grow up to five inches long.
Coyotes mate for life—and grieve when their partner dies
Scientists hope understanding coyote widowhood will someday help humans in their own grief. A pair of coyotes ( Canis latrans ) in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. Unlike most other animals, coyotes have only one partner in their lifetimes.
In ‘Cheetahs Up Close,’ a startling portrait of survival in the Serengeti
Filmmaker Bertie Gregory's new documentary special captures the extreme challenges facing the world's fastest land animal. In his new documentary special, Bertie Gregory follows cheetahs during the Great Migration in the Serengeti.
The evolutionary case for a little roughhousing
Wolf pups at play at Zoo Académie, a zoo and training facility in Nicolet, Quebec, in 2017. Scientists are finding that rough play is important for animals and humans alike.
Watch the most thrilling—and the weirdest—wildlife videos of 2025
Spying on animals is getting easier thanks to technology like drones, remotely operated vehicles, lightweight underwater cameras, and smart phones.
This grumpy-faced lizard is under threat. Can its adorableness help save it?
Out-of-state visitors may not know what they’re looking at, but fans of Texas Christian University (TCU) get fired up when SuperFrog runs onto the football field.
Here are the best wildlife photos of 2025
From an elusive jaguar to an industrious beaver, photographers captured iconic animal moments around the world. While monitoring the burrow of a rare giant armadillo in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, photographer Fernando Faciole came face-to-lens with a different vulnerable animal: the jaguar.
Pumas came back to Patagonia—and met penguins. What happened next surprised scientists.
A natural experiment in a national park in Patagonia shows how the return of a large predator can reshape an ecosystem.
Amy Tan shares her best birding tips
The celebrated author wrote a bestseller on birding. This is how she got started. Writer Amy Tan scours her yard in Sausalito, California for birds. Her recently published book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles , documents her evolution as a birder.
Newly discovered mantis species dances like a snake to avoid death after sex
The snake-tail mantis shows there’s more to these insects than just cannibalism. This male snake-tail mantis, Ameles serpentiscauda , has three simple eyes (ocelli) visible between its antennae, which mantises usually use during night flights to navigate using starlight.
Why alpha females reign supreme in meerkat world
As a corner of Africa heats up, new research shows how the future of the species rests with powerful matriarchs making tough choices for survival.
Watch orcas and dolphins team up to hunt—a possible scientific first
Researchers in Canada mounted cameras on orcas to spy on their behaviors and were amazed by what they saw. A pod of northern resident killer whales travels together. The same population of orcas was recently seen hunting with Pacific white-sided dolphins.
The man who helped change the fate of Africa's elephants
In 2008, National Geographic profiled the late Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the zoologist who dedicated his life to saving Africa’s elephants from systematic slaughter—despite being nearly tusked through the gut. African elephants in Samburu National Reserve.
Wild horses return to the Golden Steppe
Photojournalist Ami Vitale followed Przewalski’s horses—once declared extinct in the wild—on a 2,000-mile journey back to their ancestral home. (And only one tried to escape.) Przewalski's horses once roamed widely across Central Asia.
What scientists are learning from the strangest spider webs on Earth
Webs can be decorated with decoys, fine-tuned like guitars—and hold secrets about evolution.
Rare video captures orca pod hunting a pygmy sperm whale
Whale watchers in Madeira captured the astonishing moment orcas took down the deep-diving marine mammal. The predatory behavior had never been documented in the region.
When did cats become domesticated? New DNA evidence changes the story.
A new study overturns previous findings that domestic cats originated thousands of years earlier.
Orangutan adopts little sister after their mother's death
For the first time, scientists have published a detailed report of adoption in these great apes.
Scientists put sharks in a tank full of toys. What they saw surprised them.
New video shows sharks swimming through hoops, and picking them up with their noses. It sure looks like they are having fun. But researchers are divided.
Revealing the hidden kingdom of seahorses
On a Bahamian island, in a landlocked lagoon, the planet’s densest collection of seahorses is offering scientists new insights into the secret lives of one of the world’s most mysterious fish.
These unearthly whale songs helped save humpbacks from extinction
Once at risk of being wiped out, humpback whales charted a remarkable comeback thanks to their songs. In 1979, National Geographic issued a record-breaking album of those tunes alongside a story about Roger Payne's groundbreaking research.
How scientists learn from the masters of invisibility: octopuses
Octopus and other cephalopods are good at hiding themselves—and are inspiring cutting-edge technologies that may help us do the same. Cephalopods like the giant Pacific octopus ( Enteroctopus dofleini ) are masters of camouflage.
Inside the sacred wolf hunts of western Mongolia
High in the mountains, Kazakh herders have lived in careful balance with wolves for centuries. Now a celebrated tradition has become a matter of survival.
Incredibly rare mountain gorilla twins born in Virunga: 'It’s kind of miraculous'
The twins were born to a 22-year-old female named Mafuko, who lost her own mother to armed individuals. The extremely endangered species currently numbers at just over 1,000. Mafuko, a 22-year-old mountain gorilla, was spotted holding twins, which the park says are both male.
The mission to keep the borderlands wild
In the rugged terrain where Mexico and the United States meet, a border wall is just the latest obstacle fragmenting habitats and disrupting migration paths. Here’s how a cadre of conservationists is trying to get animals moving.
Is this really the world’s most dangerous bird?
Towering at five and a half feet tall, sprinting up to 31 miles per hour, and leaping up to seven feet off the ground, cassowaries are the stuff of legends. They are the third largest bird in the world , weighing up to 175 pounds with sharp talons that grow up to five inches long.
Coyotes mate for life—and grieve when their partner dies
Scientists hope understanding coyote widowhood will someday help humans in their own grief. A pair of coyotes ( Canis latrans ) in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. Unlike most other animals, coyotes have only one partner in their lifetimes.
In ‘Cheetahs Up Close,’ a startling portrait of survival in the Serengeti
Filmmaker Bertie Gregory's new documentary special captures the extreme challenges facing the world's fastest land animal. In his new documentary special, Bertie Gregory follows cheetahs during the Great Migration in the Serengeti.
The evolutionary case for a little roughhousing
Wolf pups at play at Zoo Académie, a zoo and training facility in Nicolet, Quebec, in 2017. Scientists are finding that rough play is important for animals and humans alike.
Watch the most thrilling—and the weirdest—wildlife videos of 2025
Spying on animals is getting easier thanks to technology like drones, remotely operated vehicles, lightweight underwater cameras, and smart phones.
This grumpy-faced lizard is under threat. Can its adorableness help save it?
Out-of-state visitors may not know what they’re looking at, but fans of Texas Christian University (TCU) get fired up when SuperFrog runs onto the football field.
Here are the best wildlife photos of 2025
From an elusive jaguar to an industrious beaver, photographers captured iconic animal moments around the world. While monitoring the burrow of a rare giant armadillo in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, photographer Fernando Faciole came face-to-lens with a different vulnerable animal: the jaguar.
Pumas came back to Patagonia—and met penguins. What happened next surprised scientists.
A natural experiment in a national park in Patagonia shows how the return of a large predator can reshape an ecosystem.
Amy Tan shares her best birding tips
The celebrated author wrote a bestseller on birding. This is how she got started. Writer Amy Tan scours her yard in Sausalito, California for birds. Her recently published book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles , documents her evolution as a birder.
Newly discovered mantis species dances like a snake to avoid death after sex
The snake-tail mantis shows there’s more to these insects than just cannibalism. This male snake-tail mantis, Ameles serpentiscauda , has three simple eyes (ocelli) visible between its antennae, which mantises usually use during night flights to navigate using starlight.
Why alpha females reign supreme in meerkat world
As a corner of Africa heats up, new research shows how the future of the species rests with powerful matriarchs making tough choices for survival.
Watch orcas and dolphins team up to hunt—a possible scientific first
Researchers in Canada mounted cameras on orcas to spy on their behaviors and were amazed by what they saw. A pod of northern resident killer whales travels together. The same population of orcas was recently seen hunting with Pacific white-sided dolphins.
The man who helped change the fate of Africa's elephants
In 2008, National Geographic profiled the late Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the zoologist who dedicated his life to saving Africa’s elephants from systematic slaughter—despite being nearly tusked through the gut. African elephants in Samburu National Reserve.
Wild horses return to the Golden Steppe
Photojournalist Ami Vitale followed Przewalski’s horses—once declared extinct in the wild—on a 2,000-mile journey back to their ancestral home. (And only one tried to escape.) Przewalski's horses once roamed widely across Central Asia.
What scientists are learning from the strangest spider webs on Earth
Webs can be decorated with decoys, fine-tuned like guitars—and hold secrets about evolution.
Rare video captures orca pod hunting a pygmy sperm whale
Whale watchers in Madeira captured the astonishing moment orcas took down the deep-diving marine mammal. The predatory behavior had never been documented in the region.
When did cats become domesticated? New DNA evidence changes the story.
A new study overturns previous findings that domestic cats originated thousands of years earlier.
Orangutan adopts little sister after their mother's death
For the first time, scientists have published a detailed report of adoption in these great apes.
Scientists put sharks in a tank full of toys. What they saw surprised them.
New video shows sharks swimming through hoops, and picking them up with their noses. It sure looks like they are having fun. But researchers are divided.
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