For our bumblebees, it seems being smart comes at a cost.

Recordings of Gray's and strap-toothed beaked whales have been captured in NZ waters.

Is laughter contagious? It is among our cheeky kea.

Giving vitamin D to pregnant mice prevents their offspring developing autism traits, study finds.

Our planet's spiders wolf down between 400 and 800 million tonnes of food each year.

A chimpanzee has been filmed using tools to apparently clean the corpse of another chimp.

Our alpine parrot may be much smarter than we think, scientists say.

Scientists have created a brain-based music machine that can exploit your emotions to the point that you'll cry.

It has horned spikes, bulging eyeballs and it crawls... This is fish is a fright.

Woolly mammoths - or, at least, animals with very similar DNA - could be brought back from extinction within two years, say scientists.

Endurance athletes looking to improve their times might consider swishing with a mouth rinse that contains a little sugar during their next performance.

New research co-authored by a New Zealand scientist has linked deforestation to the deadly Ebola virus.

It might sound like something straight out of the 2006 horror comedy Black Sheep, but woolly mutants are leading our scientists toward intriguing discoveries - and innovative new products.

While many of us may find the sounds of chewing or breathing off-putting, for some they're unbearable - and new research has shown their brains are going into overdrive.

This crafty lizard has developed a tricky way to slip away from predators.

A reader has come upon a colourful find - and it took an evolutionary ecologist to tell us what the funky parasite is.

A new report warns a parasite commonly found in cat faeces alters the chemistry of the human brain, making it fertile ground for Alzheimer's to take hold.

Scientists just back from an annual white-capped albatross census in the remote and windswept subantarctic islands are hopeful for the welfare of the iconic endemic seabirds.

A successful blend of human and pig cells may improve chances for for human organ transplants.

Kiwi scientists have taken another step toward a potential future of genetically-altered, hypo-allergenic, high-protein milk.

Scientists have inflicted upon a new species of moth a name Democrats would argue is decidedly cruel: Neopalpa donaldtrumpi.

Scientists are this week heading to the subantarctic Auckland Islands for an annual survey of white-capped albatross and New Zealand sea lion numbers in the remote and windswept region.

Staff at Auckland Zoo have been tickled pink by their latest addition: a flamingo chick.

Immigrants to New Zealand are often quick to pick up our signature twang - but it seems one ex-pat hasn't lost its British accent more than a century after moving here.

Do baboons pass gas? What about salamanders? Millipedes? Real-life scientists are now taking to Twitter to provide answers.

In only the second ever recorded instance of interspecies mating, a snow monkey has been filmed trying to mate with a deer.

Science reporter Jamie Morton looks at some of the hardy little creatures that live in our rock pools.

In Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, you can find one quarter of the world's seabird species - and around 20 per cent of its whale and dolphin species.

Fog harvesting, floating dairy farm and smog towers... Andrew Stone outlines some clever and inspiring innovations that we might hear a bit about in 2017.

As if Australians didn't have enough pesky species to worry about, a new study finds their country is effectively crawling with feral cats.