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Defector

Animals

Creaturefector

Science

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


Sabrina Imbler

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

What A Week Of Freedom Can Do For A Lab Mouse

American crocodile basking on jet ski, Broward County, Florida, USA December 2023. This crocodile was being tracked with a satellite transmitter as a component of ongoing research.

If You Give A Crocodile A Kawasaki Ultra 310LX

flat-headed cat, small wild cat, camera trap, southeast Asia, Thailand

What Would You Name This Cat?

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


A. Frog

A screencap of a video showing the backside of a green frog and a hornet inside a plastic box

I Shall Never Mess Up Again

a mother leopard seal opens her mouth above the body of her dead pup

Why Won’t Nora The Leopard Seal Abandon Her Dead Pups?

Split image. The lefthand side is Olivia Nuzzi attends the 2023 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at Washington Hilton on April 29, 2023 in Washington, DC. She's wearing a leopard longsleeve top and has long blonde hair and is smiling tightly at the camera. On the right side is an image of a purple blob of some sort.

Politics

Olivia Nuzzi Addresses The Worm

a female spider next to a funnel-shaped hole in a web

Drop Whatever You’re Doing Right This Instant, There’s Big Spider Web News

A pack of Nanotyrannus attacking a juvenile T. rex.

Let Us Now Celebrate Our Extinct Short King, Nanotyrannus

a photo of the microscopic flatworm Stenostomum simplex, which looks like a worm with green balls inside its body.

Exclusive! A Revealing And Not Made-Up Interview With A Two-Headed Worm

a spider with yellow stripes perched on a web decorated with stabilimenta

Why Do Some Spiders Make Web Art?

a photo of a brown basilisk lizard missing a forelimb sitting on a reed

Fat AND Sassy? A Three-Legged Lizard Really Can Have It All

a wild octopus americanus, arms unspooled and curling

Unlike Our Stupid Human Arms, Octopus Arms Are All Equally Beautiful And Talented

a spotted ratfish, which is a brownish fish with white spots and a white spot between its eyes

Why Not Have A Rod Of Teeth On Your Forehead For Sex Reasons?

two winged male ants: Messor ibericus (left) and Messor structor (right) against a black background

Everything You Need To Know About The Girlboss Ants That Give Birth To Another Species In Order To Exploit Their Offspring (Slay Ant Queen!)

a swarm of bumblebee catfish climbing the vertical rock of a waterfall

Where Are You Going, Fish?

an illustration of two bats together, one with a rat. the next panel shows the two bats biting the rat together

Brother May I Have Some Rat

A photo of a green fla-necked chameleon posing against a swirly yellow and green background

Chameleons Endure Tiny Knock To Colorful Reputation

Mods Asleep

How Climate Change Is Transforming The Soundtrack Of The Natural World

a 3D-printed crab named Wavy Dave is waving his claw at a fiddler crab in the distance

The Brief Adventures Of Wavy Dave

Behold: A Surprisingly Beautiful Depiction Of Being Swallowed By A Toothy Penis Worm

the behind of a chimp named Juma, who is displaying a behavior called grass-in-rear, in which a strand of grass dangles from his rectum

Innovation Strikes In The Field Of Chimpanzee Rectum Adornment

a trio of chilean flamingos, with the Bills Week logo

Bills Week

Why Do Flamingos Eat So Weird?

CT scan of the front of a skate, showing the hard, tooth-like denticles on its skin (shown in orange)

The “Tooth Hurty” Joke Has Its Origins In Ancient, Armored Fish

Picture of Colossal’s Dire Wolves; Romulus and Remus at age three months. Born 10/1/2024