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Defector


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


Sabrina Imbler

This photomicrograph of a fresh stool sample, which had been prepared using a 10% formalin solution, and stained with modified acid-fast stain, revealed the presence of four Cyclospora cayetanensis oocysts in the field of view.

Science

Why The Explosive Diarrhea Parasite Is Way Worse Than Regular Diarrhea Parasites

Patty, an Asian elephant kept in captivity at the Bronx Zoo stands in her enclosure alone after being separated from the zoo's other remaining elephant

Creaturefector

The Other Elephant

a photo of a swimming crab trapped inside a plastic bottle

Plato’s Allegory Of The Crab

This 17th-Century Flemish Painting Held A Gnarly Bat Secret

KENYA - 2018/08/19: A Reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata) at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Gracie The Giraffe Is Back Home. Now Rich Guys Can Buy Her.

a photo of a brown edible robot shaped like a rectangle with arms and two black eyespots

Would You Eat This Guy? What If He Were God, Or A Baby?

Mona Khalil, a Lebanese ecologist activist looks at a turtle at a coast in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre 12 August 2002

Mona Khalil, Who Devoted Her Life To Protecting Turtles, Killed By Israeli Airstrike

You Are The Dancing Fly, Young And Spry, Just A Little Guy

A statue representing an iceman named Oetzi, discovered on 1991 in the Italian Schnal Valley glacier, is displayed at the Archaeological Museu of Bolzano on February 28, 2011 during an official presentation of the reconstruction.

They’re Making Ötzi The Iceman Show Feet

A view inside the Texas Division of Emergency Management State Operations Center as they respond to the New World Screwworm threat on June 5, 2026 in Austin, Texas.

Welcome, Screwworms! Make Yourself At Home

a still from an AI video showing four killer whales moving under the ice

AI Animal Videos Are Ruining One Of The Internet’s Last Good Things

Interviews

Cat Fitzpatrick On Writing Transsexuals Into Iambic Pentameter

Green Pakistani Parrot on White Background

Birdfector

Let Birds Masturbate

The dead whale lies bloated off the Danish island of Anholt. It is the humpback whale known as Timmy, which first beached off Timmendorfer Strand at the end of March and was transported to the North Sea around a month later

The Long, Sad, And Totally Fucked-Up Tale Of Timmy The Whale’s Trip To Germany

And They Were Tomb Mates!

a wall-e ass looking robot called the looming eyes buoy

Foolish Humans! Gulls Are Not So Gullible After All

What The Fuck Is Happening With This Fish

People take part in a No Stage For Genocide protest to demonstrate against Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria. Picture date: Saturday May 16, 2026. (Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)

Politics

Eurovision Is Running Out Of Time

A picture taken on September 6, 2021 shows the reconstruction of the face of the oldest Neanderthal found in the Netherlands, nicknamed Krijn, on display at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. - - Netherlands OUT (Photo by Bart Maat / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT (Photo by BART MAAT/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

Would You Want This Guy As Your Dentist?

two computer-animated sheep peering through a window

Defector At The Movies

‘The Sheep Detectives’ Made Me Baaaawl My Eyes Out

a photo of a remora fish with its head buried inside the cloaca of a manta ray

What Are You Doing In There, Fish?

A still from the trailer for Hoppers showing a beaver standing on a pile of machine rubble and proselytizing to a crowd of animals

Arts And Culture

Dam It All To Hell

the water scavenger beetle Regimbartia attenuata

Even After Being Eaten, This Beetle Has Two Ways Out Alive

Logo for the AI text editing company Grammarly at the Grammarly AI Hub in Austin, Texas, March 11, 2023. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

The Machines

Vindicated At Last In My Years-Long Loathing Of Grammarly

a bright pink insect called a katydid against a dark background