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Defector

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


Sabrina Imbler

a grainy still image of jimothy the raccoon with an abnormally short spine running across a lawn

Creaturefector

Is Jimothy OK? A Creature Investigation

The images show two adult orcas feeding on the ocean sunfish,

Orcas Are Kerploding Sunfish Into A Thousand Pieces

an orange and black burying beetle on a blade of grass

Homosexually Humping Corpse-Eating Beetles Here For A Good Time, Not A Long Time

Colobus congensis, known locally as “likweli,” has a dramatic black face with pinkish-orange lips.

New Monkey! New Monkey! There’s A New Monkey!

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

The Other Elephant

a photo of a swimming crab trapped inside a plastic bottle

Plato’s Allegory Of The Crab

<p>A. Frog is a freelance writer living in Japan.</p>


A. Frog

a frog taking a weevil into its mouth that looks like shit

The Passion According To A. Frog

Animals

Science

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.

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 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

Green Pakistani Parrot on White Background

Birdfector

Let Birds Masturbate

Kathryn Xu

Clementine the tuxedo cat looking like a snake.

Life's Rich Pageant

How I Became An Itinerant Cat Tutor

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

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

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

a bright pink insect called a katydid against a dark background

This Pink Bug Is Not A “Rare Freak Mutant” After All

White-faced Plover Charadrius dealbatus, Great Kinmen Island, Taiwan.

Newly Poly Plover Dad Still Figuring Out His Time Management

Chimp Toti attentively observes the quartz crystal during Experiment 1.

Which Chimp Should Wield The Crystal?

Baby monkey named 'Punch' is seen with a stuffed animal at a zoo on February 20, 2026, in north of Tokyo, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Abandoned by his mother at birth, the monkey found comfort with a stuffed animal.

The Mournful Ballad Of Punch The Monkey

the ancient fish Haikouichthys, which resembles a blue noodle with four eyes

Finally! An Ancient Fish That Understood Life’s Terrors

The President of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, is welcoming the mascots Tina and Milo of the XXV Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 in Piazza Citta di Lombardia, in Milan, Italy, on February 27, 2024.

Olympics

Which Other Olympic Mascots Could Italian Stoats Tina And Milo Slaughter In Cold Blood?

fake berries called bulbils of the black-bulb yam

This Week In Delicious Scams; Or, I Yam Not What You Think I Yam

Artist impression of what Prototaxites would have look like in life

Who The Hell Was This?

Veronika the cow resting while using a stick.

Veronika The Cow’s Record Scratch

jon allen holds a worm up in front of a class

This Worm Is A Millennial

a laboratory mouse pokes out of a brown paper cup in a field of grass