Strange Creatures

In nature, the right stench can mean the difference between life or death. Meet nature's odor-equipped inhabitants, from vomiting grasshoppers to dung-flinging hippos, and even a flower that's adapted to smell like death.

One uses a mustache to attract mates and another has a bill so big, it needs special vertebrae to carry it. Learn how nature's flying iconoclasts have evolved their appearance in order to survive.

Gawk at some of the world’s ugliest animals who owe their survival to the adaptations that made them so strange. A pudgy wolf eel, naked mole rat, and hideous sea lamprey may be superficially grotesque, but they’re evolutionarily amazing.

Witness the tiny creatures that make us squirm while hiding admirable survival skills. From playing dead, removing a tail, or being able to lift objects 30 times their weight, these insects conquer the world with their amazing adaptations.

Are they guinea pigs, beavers, or something else? Capybaras embody the features of several different animals at once, as do warthogs, anteaters, and other fascinating genetic hybrids. Learn why these wannabes display such particular physical traits.

The animal kingdom is filled with mimicry, transformation, and trickery. Discover how stick bugs, lion fish, emperor scorpions, and chameleons use camouflage and confusion to deceive.

T-Rex and chickens seem to be as different as they can be, but they more in common that you might think. Recent research reveals that some of our favourite dinosaurs were very birdlike, and that birds are an extant kind of dinosaurs.

Keep your distance from these natural-born killers. Armed with venom and other poisonous tools that make hunting easier (and escape impossible), nudibranches, cuttlefish, giant centipedes, and assassin bugs are all dressed to kill.

Examine the lives of creatures with really strange skills. From poison-shooting arachnids to ink-bombing octopuses to bifocal-eyed beetles, these animals use their powers to help them defeat predators and ensure their survival.

Dive into the lives of the ocean’s weirdest animals. Looking into a whitemargin stargazer fish’s eyes can be a shocking experience (literally), while predators hoping to take down a peacock mantis shrimp will be stopped by its vice-like claws.

Evolution has granted some animals a distinct advantage over their opponents. Investigate the perfect body-part mutations that have given wunderpus octopuses, axolotls, royal spoonbills, aye-ayes, and other creatures an edge.

Crawl along with some of the world’s fiercest insects. Watch as giant cockroaches build their immune systems to ensure long life.

Hiding in plain sight helps many insect, fish, and amphibian species survive. Learn the ins and outs of an array of animal invisibility techniques, such as warning and disruptive colouration, mimicry, and active camouflage.