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Defector

Animals

Creaturefector

Science

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


Sabrina Imbler

a female ant-mimicking spider Myrmarachne formicaria

Everybody Wants To Be An Ant

A horrible AI-generated image of a rat with an enormous cock and balls

The Brief And Wondrous Life Of The AI Giant-Penised Rat, Explained

A round stingray (Urolophus halleri) I photographed in shallow water at Bolsa Chica wetlands (Southern California). The clouds of sand around the eyes and and body were formed as the stingray flapped and positioned deeper in the sand, expelling water. You can see the spiracles behind the eyes.

Charlotte The Ray Did NOT Have Sex With A Shark, So Stop Asking!

Barry Petchesky

opossum, Red-Tailed Hawk, Raccoon (Photo by Dick Loek/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

This Is So Stupid

Critter Or Varmint?

A little yellow frog with a tiny white mushroom sprouting out of its side

Mushroom Growing On A Frog? Now That’s A Toadstool

The Little Fish With A Mouth That Defies All Logic

a photo of a lobster named Currant, a split blue lobster

Meet The Eight Celebrity Lobsters Of Biddeford, Maine

a sea otter eating a crab in Monterey Bay

Hungry Sea Otters Can Change The World

Shark Is Maybe Baby

An African grey parrot looking at the camera

Birdfector

Let The British Parrots Say “Fuck”

An illustration of two dung beetles rolling a ball of dung

Dung Beetle Study Suggests That Sisyphus Would Have Appreciated A Buddy

a stuffed specimen of a swamp antechinus, which is a small brown marsupial, against a green background

The Sex Fest Keeps Getting Worse and Worse

A beautiful Streaked Shearwater in flight seen in the sea of Toshima.

Get Ready With Me (A Streaked Shearwater)

Wolf Spiders, Actually, Are All Around

A blue-green iridescent wasp with a pointy pointy rear

The Year In Parasitic Wasps

Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise, believed to be the oldest reptile living on earth with and alleged age of 185 years, opens his mouth in a kind of yawn as he stands on grass

This Week In Turtles

A female Tasmanian Devil yawns in an enclosure at the Night Safari Singapore nocturnal zoo in Singapore o

What If You Kept Your Baby Teeth Your Entire Life?

This photo illustration created on December 11, 2023 shows emojis on a smartphone screen in Washington, DC. Too many cats, not enough crustaceans: The current emoji catalog doesn't accurately represent the breadth of biodiversity seen in nature -- and that hurts conservation efforts, according to scientists. An analysis published on December 11, 2023 in the journal iScience found that while animals are well represented by the current emoji catalog, plants, fungi, and microorganisms get short shrift. (Photo by)

⚖️🌏➖🐻‍❄️🐻🐼🔀🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲⁉️

at the Extinction: Not the End of the World exhibition at The Natural History Museum on February 5, 2013 in London, England. More than 99 percent of species that once roamed the planet are now extinct. Organisers of the exhibition hope to show that a diverse range of plants and animals survived. 80 Museum specimens are on display from February 8-8, September 2013.

What Kind Of Future Does De-Extinction Promise?

A brown male golden rocket frog carrying an enormous tadpole on his back

As A Father Of Tadpoles

LAKE FOREST, CA - JULY 16: Dr. Scott Weldy of the Orange County Bird of Prey Center holds a Cooper"u2019s hawk just prior to releasing it near Lake Forest on Thursday, July 16, 2020. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

North American Birds Will No Longer Be Named After People

A close-up of three leg-like appendages of a green caterpillar with orange and black spots

The Great Defector Leg Quiz

An orange caterpillar with five distinctive eyeposts and a some tinier legs by the head

When The Legs Are A Lie

A Timema douglasi stick insect on a Douglas fir

Asexual Insect Accused Of Having Sex!

A still of a swimming colony of worms that resembles a jellyfish moving around a glass beaker