Animals

Photo: USFWS/Flickr

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

Photo: Chuck Rogers/Flickr

UPDATE: Choose the winner!

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

A peregrine falcon chick, born in a nest box atop NYC's Throgs Neck, being banded by a wildlife specialist with NYC Department of Environmental Protection. Photo: MTA/Patrick Cashin/CC BY 2.0

UPDATE: Choose the winner!

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

 A vervet monkey considering corn. (Photo by tullis / CC BY 2.0)

What do monkeys and whales have in common? Not much—besides a tendency to latch onto certain fads. Last week, two separate studies of monkeys and whales fueled the argument that animals’ adoption of some lasting behavioral 'fads' amounts to something we could call ‘culture’. What the researchers found is touted as the most powerful evidence we have that animals are indeed cultured—at least to a degree.

A lion cub goes slack in its mother's grip (Photo by BrianScott / CC BY-ND-ND 2.0)

Some of us might vaguely recall the sense of being carried, or lulled to sleep in a parent’s arms. Even if we don’t, we know the motion is synonymous with comfort and security. Recently, researchers published a study in Current Biology that tapped into the physiological effects of carrying on babies, and have linked it to the protective maternal instincts that mothers in the wild display when they scoop up their offspring by the scruff of the neck.  

A California condor in flight. Photo by USFWS Pacific Southwest Region/ CC BY 2.0

Since December, seven California condors, the largest and most endangered land bird in North America, have died around the Grand Canyon, the Center for Biological Diversity reports. The culprit in three of the cases—and suspected in the other four deaths—is poisoning from ingesting lead ammunition. Condors are scavengers that feed on carcasses and gut piles of elk, deer, and other animals; when those creatures have been shot by hunters who use lead ammunition, the birds ingest metal fragments with their meal.

Photo: Raja Sambasivan/CC BY-NC 2.0

UPDATE: We've narrowed down the entries to these three. Which do you think is funniest?

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

A hermit crab in an eelgrass bed in the Salt Creek Recreation Area, Washington. Photo by: Luke McGuff/ CC BY-ND 2.0

Tiny crustaceans have a big impact on marine ecosystem health, new research shows. 

The shrimp-like herbivores, called mesograzers, are smaller than a thumbtack, but gobble up substantial amounts of algae. Keeping the plants in check makes for clearer waters, which gives seagrass beds access to light and oxygen, researchers report in Ecology. The wee arthropods, in turn, serve as a meal for small fish, which are eaten by larger fish and birds, and on up the food chain.

A Chinese fishing vessel is escorted into an Australian harbor. Photo by Mateus/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

China has the world’s largest human population, coming in at 1.2 billion, and boasts some of the globe’s most progressive technologies and industries. It’s no surprise then that the country created one of the grandest fisheries fleets at the turn of the 21st century, one that included specialized bottom trawlers, squid jiggers, and mother ships that delivered catches to advanced ports.

Belugas are born gray and turn white as they mature. Photo: myprins/CC BY-ND 2.0

UPDATE: We've selected the finalists, now it's up to you to choose the winner!

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption, like this shot of a young beluga and a gull. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.