In some parts of the world they are revered and protected; in other places they are captured and eaten for dinner. One thing is certain: They’re everywhere.

Nature photographer should capture the true essence of wildlife, not forcing the poor animals to hold an umbrella, dance or do kungfu. The nature is beautiful and interesting as it is. We believe in the true beauty of nature, not fabricated, posed photo at the expense of animal rights.

The article that started the band. By "fingerprinting" DNA of the ant species - Mycocepurus smithii - they found them all to be clones of the colony's queen.

The book is an adventure tale whose reward is always bats.

Here, a 42-year-old man from Canada describes his life as a zoophile attracted to female horses.

This piece is incredibly sad. But it is hopeful also. The expansion of pet-based forensic science teams, the increasing intersection of psychological examinations of pet abuse and how it relates to bad home situations, and the use of animals for therapeutic practice are three wonderful things. A must-read.

With photos so you can identify all!

Stunning.

A very focused blog that ruined/made my evening.

"Happily in love you step down the decaying corpse, through the wound, now small like a maggot, over woolen kidney and bowel. "

"Dolphins can swim and sleep at the same time." Refresh until you die. Looking through these, though, I recommend a grain of salt with each serving. These are the Snapple caps of the internet.

They can flip themselves into the air a bunch of centimeters by snapping their jaws. This video is wonderful.

"It's not your job to right a wrong / Just mark it FAIL and move along." With cute illustrations.

The mayor of La Paz, Bolivia, has instituted a program where in teenagers dress up as zebras and act as crossing guards. This helps solve the problem of dangerous traffic in La Paz. This is great. Absolutely great.

Beautiful, deadly.

Excellent and quirky nature paintings.

The text of this article is pretty incredible, but the picture is the best part. She's all, "YEAH I DID IT! AGAIN! HAHAHA!"

Mike Lee calls for developers to donate to the Madagascar Fauna Group in exchange for a free plushy lemur and membership in "Club Thievey." I've got mine! :-)

Another guide to Hawaiian birds. More thorough, but fewer varieties.

They cry when eating, but "what causes the tears remains a bit of a mystery." This article is full of great lines. Note the onion-and-pepper experiment and the last two paragraphs in particular.

Awwww.

The story behind why the O'Reilly books have animal engravings on them.

"The newest creature was dubbed a 'microshark' by Jan War, operations manager at the natural energy lab. Scientists tentatively identified it as a deep-water catshark and said only two other specimens are known to exist."

Bees project a six-degree "flag" manifold (found also in the mathematics of quarks) in two dimensions to describe where and how to find the food, describing landmarks based on electromagnetic fields and the polarization levels of sunlight.

Webcams, information, photos, etc. Don't miss the article on why you should not feed bread to ducks.

"It's surprising and really exciting to know that there is such sophisticated information being passed along in the calls you can hear almost every day."

The ultimate in cuteness, now on a tshirt! Napoleon Dynamite?

The performance form is alive and well.

"Perhaps, she speculates, bees possess some ability to perceive not only light and magnetism but quarks as well."

Click the cutest kitten, submit your own.