Matojo, an endangered Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), was one of the first to be born in the wild in Spain's Extremadura region after the species was reintroduced by the Life+Iberlince project. On 1st December 2015, at only nine months old, Matojo died of what seemed to...

During those long, cold and dark winter months it’s nice to get away for a while and chase the sun: Basking sharks certainly agree. In a gut-wrenching blow to Brexiters, scientists have found for the first time that Britain's sharks head off to Portugal, Spain and Nort...

Fur has always been big business in Russia, with one writer describing its colonial expansion as “a massive hunt for bears and minks, sables, ermines, foxes and otter”. The Soviet Union was not exempt from this desire for pelts. It’s this lust that leads us to our next...

Australia’s cane toad (Bufo marinus) is probably the invasive species to rule them all. In 1935, Australia’s Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations (now called Sugar Research Australia), brought 102 toads from Hawaii — these were originally shipped across from South Ameri...

As you may have guessed, the American Skunk Cabbage kind of stinks. If you step on its spiky, yellow leaves you’ll be treated to a scent that’s been likened to rotting flesh. This odorous plant began turning up in the UK during the 20th Century, a long way from its Nor...

Think of something that really pisses you off, like really gets you going. Well, for fish-scale geckos in the genus Geckolepis, that one thing is being eaten. It just really puts a downer on their day. These little critters have developed a unique way of avoiding this...

The race for life can be long and arduous. The dorado catfish (Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii) knows this all too well. Scientists recently revealed that the elegantly moustachioed fish holds the record for the longest, exclusively freshwater, migration. It travels appro...

Let’s be honest, we humans are pretty stupid sometimes. We wander around the Earth, thinking we own the place. We tear up trees, dam rivers and dig, dig, dig for everything under the sun. We also like to take creatures and nice pretty things from one side of the planet...

They may not sound it, but cone snails are deadly. Packing a syringe-like tooth that is laced with venom, they jab and paralyze their prey before gobbling it up. Their venom can even kill a human. But as its home is affected by climate change, this crazed doctor of the...