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Whether a large and fuzzy social media sensation or deep-sea slug slunking around the ocean’s Midnight Zone, there are still so many exciting animals on Earth just waiting for their close-up. In that spirit, here are the 11 of the most exciting animal stories that Popular Science covered this year.
First photo of a newborn great white shark
A wildlife filmmaker and biology doctoral student took what could be the first picture of a newborn great white shark. Filmmaker Carlos Gauna and University of California, Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes were looking for sharks near Santa Barbara on California’s central coast. Most great whites are gray on top with white bellies, but Gauana’s drone camera showed a roughly 5-foot-long shark pup that had more white on its body than normal. When they enlarged the photos they saw that a layer of white skin appeared to be shedding as it swam. The team believes that they observed a newborn great white shedding its embryonic sac.
The images and findings are described in a study published in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes in January.
Tardigrades: Built darn tough
It was quite a year for tardigrades. These microscopic creatures commonly called “water bears” can survive in environments with extreme temperatures–without water or oxygen–and withstand radiation.
In January, we learned that these microscopic creatures have a molecular sensor that detects uninhabitable elements of their environment. It then tells them when to go dormant and when it is safe to resume their normal activities. These findings were detailed in the journal PLOS ONE.
Scientists also uncovered some new clues to their ultra resilience in April. A surprising mechanism in the DNA goes into overtime to repair DNA that has been exposed to the deadly radiation. When they are exposed to radiation, tardigrade cells harness the power of hundreds of genes to create new proteins used to repair DNA. These proteins then ramp up the level of DNA repair to levels study co-author and biologist Courtney Clark-Hachtel called “ridiculous.”
The year of the cicada
While 2024 was technically the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese zodiac, it was the year of the cicada in some parts of the United States. Trillions of chirpy, red-eyed periodical cicadas emerged from underground in a rare double emergence event. These specific types of cicadas crawl out from below the ground every 13 or 17 years and can make as much noise as a jet engine.
During the “Cicadapocalypse,” Brood XIII and Brood XIX cicadas emerged at the same time from roughly April to July. The Northern Illinois Brood is a 17 year group and stretches across parts of Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and northern Illinois. The Great Southern Brood emerges every 13 years and is primarily located in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, George, North Carolina, South Carolina, and importantly, southern Illinois.
Parts of Illinois turned out to be the center of the Cicadapocalypse, a four-year-old child finding a ‘one-in-a-million’ blue-eyed cicada.
“I would put the periodical cicadas as a natural phenomenon in the same category as April’s total solar eclipse,” Penn State University entomologist Michael Skvarla told Popular Science.
[Related: Anglerfish are so much more than just their dangly bioluminescent lures.]
Mantis shrimp punches caught on camera
These ocean oddities are known for their impressive eyesight, Herculean strength, and punches with the force of a 22-caliber bullet.
With cameras that are about 1,000 times faster than a regular camera, University of California, Santa Barbara ecologist Patrick Green captured footage of their fights. He found that their shields can absorb an additional 20 percent of the shock coming from a rival mantis shrimp. Using their tough tail plates in a coiled way appears to help the mantis shrimp to dissipate more energy than their armor can absorb alone. The findings were detailed in a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology in May.
Call me by your elephant name
Elephants use various vocal cues and to convey meaning and could also be using something akin to individual names. Wild African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) appear to address one another with name-like calls, a very rare ability among non-human animals. The findings were described in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution in June.
In this study, a team used machine-learning methods to analyze recordings of 469 calls or ‘rumbles’ made by wild African elephant female–offspring groups in the Amboseli National Park and Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves in Kenya.
“The fact that we were able to get such clear cut results with the playback experiment was pretty surprising,” Cornell University behavioral ecologist Michael “Mickey” Pardo told Popular Science. “It was incredibly difficult to get the recordings for the playback experiment, because we needed very clear recordings of rumbles made in a long-distance contact calling context where we knew who the caller was and who the receiver was. Honestly, I was a little shocked that the results were statistically significant.”
[Related: Great apes may have cognitive foundations for language.]
A one in 100 million lobster
In July, a lobsterman fishing off the coast of New Castle, New Hampshire found a candy-colored lobster. The crustacean was donated to the Seacoast Science Center, a marine science education organization in Odiorne Point State Park. Now, its crazy color does not mean that it actually tastes sweet or like candy. Its hue is the result of a very rare genetic mutation.
“Lobsters commonly have multiple layers of a carotenoid pigment known as astaxanthin that show as layers of red, yellow, and blue,” Sam Rutka, an Aquarist II at Seacoast Science Center, told Popular Science. “When all these layers are stacked they give the lobster a mottled blotchy pattern of oranges, reds, blues, pinks, purples, yellows, and browns that form the lobster’s camouflage.”
Sometimes, these pigments are either not expressed or are overexpressed. The results are more colorful lobsters. They appear in shades of blue (about 1 in 2 million), red (1 in 10 million), split-colored (1 in 50 million), albino (1 in 100 million), and cotton candy (1 in 100 million).
Live long and prosper…with frogs
There are seven new species of tree frogs to add to the family tree. Scientists found these seven species in the lush rainforests of Madagascar. They were all named after captains from the sci-fi series Star Trek, due to the strange, high-pitched whistling sounds that sound a bit like the sounds that they make. The new species were described in a study published in October in the journal Vertebrate Zoology.
The newly discovered species are from the genus Boophis. They are found across the island of Madagascar and communicate with other frogs with their signature whistling sounds. When the research team heard the calls, they immediately reminded them of the sound effects used across the various Star Trek series.
The names Boophis kirki, Boophis picardi, Boophis siskoi, Boophis janewayae, Boophis archeri, Boophis pikei, and Boophis burnhamae were also fitting due to the amount of trekking through the rainforest that the team needed to do in order to find the frogs.
Pygmy hippos seize the spotlight
Shortly after Thailand’s Moo Deng became a social media sensation, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) Edinburgh Zoo welcomed their own pygmy hippo named Haggis. The bouncing baby girl was born on October 30 to Otto and Gloria.
Pygmy hippos are native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia. Adult pygmy hippos generally weigh between 350 and 600 pounds, or about the same as some domestic pigs. By comparison, they are about 10 times smaller than a standard-size hippo, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Despite their stocky size, these large mammals can really move. They can run roughly 18 miles per hour on average, comparable to lizards and humans.
Pygmy hippos are listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN). Only an estimated 2,500 remain in the wild due to habitat loss from logging, minding, and other human activities.
A coral as big as a blue whale
Scientists found the world’s largest known coral bobbing around in the southwest Pacific Ocean. It is 111 feet wide, 104 feet long, 18 feet high, and 600 feet around. It is a conglomerate of individual creatures called coral polyps that have grown over 300 years. Instead of a coral reef like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia that is a network of several colonies, this is a standalone coral that has grown uninterrupted for centuries.
The mega coral is mostly brown, but has some splashes of bright reds, yellows, and blues. The rippling waves mirror the ocean’s surface. It is a Pavona clavus and provides crustaceans and fish with shelter and a place to breed and live.
It was also uncovered by accident. The team of explorers from National Geographic initially thought that it was a shipwreck due to its large size. A closer look revealed that it was, in fact, a giant living organism.
[Related: Mountain lions in Los Angeles become night owls to avoid humans.]
How squirrels can go for months without a drop to drink
Just as many across the United States were sitting down around the Thanksgiving table for a feast, a study was published in the journal Science that details how hibernating ground squirrels can go for six to nine months without any water. Specific brain regions that are involved in triggering thirst are strongly suppressed. Combined with previous findings, the new research lends clarity on an extreme mammalian strategy for staying underground for so long.
However, this physiological mechanism alone isn’t enough to fully explain the lack of thirst. Other signals that trigger thirst, like hormones related to kidney stress and low blood volume still circulate throughout the mammals’ bodies, which should, by all standard measures, be crying out for fluids. However, even when active during hibernation and offered water, the squirrels still avoid it, per this new study.
Orca whales attack some pretty big fish
One of the planet’s apex predators, it’s no big secret that orca whales are incredible hunters. This year, scientists discovered two more examples of just how adept they are at going after prey.
In South Africa, a solitary orca nicknamed Starboard was observed eating a great white shark for the first time and the predation event was detailed in a study published in March in the African Journal of Marine Science. Starboard the orca was working alone to “incapacitate and consume” an eight foot-long juvenile white shark in only two-minutes. Later, the orca was observed carrying the shark’s liver in its mouth. The event is challenging conventional beliefs about the whales’ cooperative hunting behaviors in the region.
The world’s biggest fish may also be on the menu for a unique pod of orcas off the coast of Mexico. They may be going after whale sharks. At almost 60 feet long, whale sharks are the largest fish on the planet and can certainly feed a big and hungry orca whale. The orcas appear to be targeting the whale sharks’ ventral side–the area near their bellies. This part of their bodies is the least protected, so is particularly vulnerable. There is less muscle and cartilage on their ventral side, which would allow the orcas easier access to important blood vessels like the aorta. The findings were detailed in a study published in November in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
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