Science has treated same-sex sexual behavior as an “evolutionary conundrum” because it (generally) doesn’t help animals to reproduce, thus ensuring that their genes get passed down and their species ...

Quick Take Scientists have documented same-sex behavior in hundreds of animal species, though it is not considered a required function for specific ecosystem roles. Some researchers suggest that ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Japanese macaques at Joshin-etsu National Park in Japan. (Peter Adams / Getty Images file) (Peter Adams) Humans are far from the ...

Quick Take Most animal tears serve physical purposes such as lubricating the eye and removing debris rather than expressing ...

Humans and animals share a remarkable capacity to sense when others are in distress and respond with comforting behavior. But the motivation for doing so, and why it sometimes breaks down, has been ...

Microbes are everywhere, even inside of our bodies. The gut microbiome has been shown to have a powerful influence on biology, and can even affect the brain. Scientists have been learning more about ...

Less than a week from now, when the sun partially disappears behind Long Island's moon — and entirely in places like upstate New York — many of the Earth's creatures will react to the eclipse. Not all ...

On Aug. 21, 2017, a solar eclipse shrouded The Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, South Carolina, in near-total darkness for 2½ minutes. In the time leading up to the darkness, during it, and ...

Why can't we stop anthropomorphizing our animal friends and foes? Illustration by Emily Lankiewicz / Orca image from Christopher Michel via Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY 2.0 / Bird and dolphin via ...