The world's longest-running whale hunt still feeds the Faroes
The Faroese defend the grind as food, shared free and taken from a large population. Critics point to mercury, missing foetuses and a hunt with no quota.
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Ecuador widened the Galápagos reserve to guard a shark highway
Ecuador added 60,000 sq km to the Galápagos Marine Reserve to protect a migration route to Costa Rica's Cocos Island, and to push back fishing at the edge.
Two tricks bats use to leave a packed cave without crashing
Thousands of bats leave a cave at once and almost never collide. Tracking studies show they spread out and switch to short, quiet, high-pitched calls.
A chameleon rearranges skin crystals to shift colour
A chameleon shifts colour by rearranging crystals in its skin, not by mixing pigment, and the switch is mostly about signalling, not hiding.
Coral polyps build reefs from the skeletons they leave behind
A coral reef is limestone laid down by tiny animals. Each polyp builds a skeleton from calcium carbonate, and the skeleton stays in the reef after it dies.
An owl's feathers break up sound at three points
A comb along the leading edge, a velvet nap on top and a soft fringe at the back break up the noise an owl's wing would otherwise make.
A dead whale feeds the seafloor for a century
Sharks, hagfish and bone-eating worms work through a sunken whale for 30 years or more. A stranded one can explode before anyone moves it.
Cold feet on ice: why a duck lets its toes chill
A duck's feet run close to the temperature of the ice. Blood vessels in its legs swap heat, so the body stays warm and the feet never freeze solid.
America's 17-year cicadas wait for warm soil to surface
Some periodical cicadas spend 17 years feeding on tree roots, then surface together once the soil warms. Why they keep such long cycles is still unclear.
Bindi Irwin marks 20 years since Steve Irwin's death
Twenty years after the Crocodile Hunter died, his daughter Bindi said his legacy was love, not only conservation. His show reached more than 100 countries.