Carnivores, in the context of the biological order Carnivora, comprise a diverse clade of mostly mammalian predators characterized by specialized dentition, particularly enlarged canines and carnassial teeth adapted for shearing flesh. Members of Carnivora include families such as Felidae, Canidae, Ursidae, Mustelidae, and others, exhibiting a wide range of dietary strategies from obligate carnivory to omnivory. They share morphological and physiological traits such as a generally well-developed sense of smell, often acute vision and hearing, and cranial and limb adaptations for hunting, scavenging, or opportunistic feeding, making the order ecologically pivotal as apex and mesopredators in many terrestrial and some aquatic ecosystems.
Red foxes and birds regularly cross between human-dominated and natural ecosystems. For this reason, they may be heralds of spreading antibiotic resistance into ecosystems unexposed to antibiotic pressures, a study done in ...
Ecology
Apr 16, 2026
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If you live with a pet, you might feel like you can almost read each other's minds.
Veterinary medicine
Apr 15, 2026
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In 1902, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott spotted a large group of large black and white birds at Ross Island, Antarctica. This was among the many milestones of Scott's famous Discovery expedition: the first breeding ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 15, 2026
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When she was a kid in the 1970s, Karen Terio wasn't allowed to watch much television, but wildlife specials were permitted. That was how she learned about the work of Jane Goodall, who was studying the behavior of wild chimpanzees ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 14, 2026
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Among dog breeds, Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers (tollers) have an unusually high rate of Addison's disease, a condition in which the adrenal glands do not produce enough hormones, notably cortisol and aldosterone. In ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 14, 2026
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Weasels are small carnivores with a long body and short legs. They also have a stout skull and sharp teeth. These creatures, along with ferrets and minks, make up the Mustelinae subfamily. Until now, researchers believed ...
Evolution
Apr 14, 2026
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Mutations in a key protein make a yeast found in dogs with common outer ear infections more resistant to the topical antifungals used to treat it, veterinarians and pathobiologists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 12, 2026
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The discovery of the oldest ever dog DNA suggests they have been our best friends for nearly 16,000 years—5,000 years earlier than had previously been thought, new research said Wednesday.
Evolution
Apr 11, 2026
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45
Hedgehogs, elephants, pangolins, bears or fennec foxes: many wild species are sold as pets, hunting trophies, for traditional medicine, biomedical research, or for their meat or fur. These practices, whether legal or illegal, ...
Ecology
Apr 9, 2026
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The emperor penguin has been declared an endangered species as climate change pushes the icon of Antarctica a step closer to extinction, the global authority on threatened wildlife announced on Thursday.
Plants & Animals
Apr 9, 2026
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