GLOBIO Featured Articles

Seals

Have you ever heard of a double agent? It's someone who leads a double life as a secret agent, or spy for two different sides. Seals aren't spies, but they do live double lives. They're mammals that live important parts of their lives on land and other parts entirely in the water. They breed and care for their babies on land, but spend most of their lives in the ocean.

Stars

For thousands of years, human beings have looked into the night sky and wondered about what they saw. What were the sparkling objects above? How did they move? How far away were they? Were they all the same? Over time, stories were told about the night sky. The stories turned into myths and legends. Observations were also made about the night sky. These observations were the beginnings of astronomy.

Skates and Rays

What do you see in your mind when you hear the word "fish"? Maybe you imagine a long sleek shape with short fins leaping out of a lake or ocean. Many fish look like that, but certain ones look very different. They're flat and shaped like a kite. They have eyes on top of their heads. Their fins stretch from the sides of their heads to the end of their bodies, giving them their diamond shape. And, you won't usually find them on the surface. They live way below, on or near the ocean floor. These fish are called skates and rays.

Caribou

Have you ever seen a deer in the woods? Was it a male or a female? If it had antlers, it was male. But with caribou, you can't tell by the antlers. Both males and females have them. Caribou live in North America, Europe, and Asia. They are the only species of deer that have been domesticated, or tamed, by humans.

Lemurs

Frisky, bright-eyed lemurs rule the treetops of the tropical rainforest. Wild lemurs live only on Madagascar, a large island off the east coast of Africa, and on the nearby Comoros Islands. Lemurs vary greatly in size and appearance. The pygmy mouse lemur, for example, looks like a mouse and weighs about as much as a slice of bread, 30 g. It is the smallest species of lemur. The largest lemur, the indri, is about the size and weight of a large house cat, 7 kg. It looks like a skinny black-and-white giant panda bear.

Giant Panda

The giant panda is a medium-sized black-and-white bear that lives only in the mountainous temperate forests of southwest China. Giant pandas eat a diet of bamboo. The giant panda is one of the most endangered animals on Earth. Only about 1,600 of these rare bears are left. This number includes more than 160 pandas living in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.