Emma Snow

To gaze into their eyes is to touch tranquility. Perhaps it is because they spend so much of their lives removed from our terrestrial sphere that these creatures can inspire such serenity in just one glance.

While lumbering herds of elephants and stalking Bengal tigers capture the imagination of most animal lovers, we often neglect the nature closest to us.

What has the beak of a bird, the spines of a hedgehog, the gait of a reptile, the pouch of a marsupial, and the lifespan of an elephant? If you answered an echidna, you are correct!

It is August on the coast of Iceland, and the air is filled with the deep garbled growls of hundreds of puffins. The social birds have come to shore for the short breeding season, and the rocky banks are dotted with their squat, football-shaped...

The sun hangs leaden in the sky over the frozen tundra of the high arctic. Flat expanses of land are dotted with low-growing shrubs dusted with frost.

One look at herd of Musk Oxen, and you wonder if you’ve traveled back in time to the Pleistocene, the age of Saber-toothed Tigers and Woolly Mammoths. Reportedly, these venerable beasts have existed since the last ice age, 600,000 years ago.

Early May on Kodiak Island. Fog drowns the lush forest in mystery. Spattered across a black earthen floor, slushy snow melts in shadowy rings. From a wooded den, a shaggy brown head appears. Unbelievable in size, the creature emerges slowly.

We all know what wolves and coyotes look like, and nearly everyone is familiar with bears, deer and turtles; what about some less familiar animals such as capybara, kiwi, or tapirs?

Obesity is on the rise for canines. The reasons for this influx are similar to those that humans experience, too much food and too little exercise. The results of obesity are similar for your canine friends too.

For anyone who may balk at the price of good pups nowadays, or who may think to himself, “At those prices I should become a breeder!” let me assure you that breeding does not make millionaires.