Q. I notice you sometimes include scientific names of animals in your columns. One time you identified a timber rattlesnake; another time, two turtles (an Alabama redbelly turtle and a stinkpot).

Meet Ms. Mongoose, an 87-pound mastiff. Say hello to Boots with the Fur, a pet lizard. How about Baby Shark, a domestic shorthair kitten. Then of course there’s Craig, the guinea pig. This is just a ...

The animal kingdom is a huge, interconnected web of life, and many of the most interesting things to learn about start with ...

Stephen Hampton has been watching birds for more than 50 years, and for almost all of that time, he thought nothing of names like Townsend’s warbler or Anna’s hummingbird: “They were just the names in ...

Naming an animal is supposed to be simple like calling a frog a frog and a panda a panda but somewhere along the way, ...

From a grumble of pugs to a kindle of kittens, these funny names for groups of animals offer the right word for every animal pack under the sun. From a parade of elephants (even when they’re nowhere ...

Snail holds the overall record, lasting up to 3 years in dormancy. Australian Pygmy Possum is the longest continuous mammal sleeper (367 days). True hibernation involves extreme body temperature and ...

Amphibians are biological marvels, starting life in water before moving to land. The list highlights dual-habitat masters: Frogs, Salamanders, Crocodiles, Sea Turtles, and Beavers. One in five ...

With lemon and black plumage, the Scott’s oriole flashes in the desert like a flame. But the bird’s name holds a violent history that Stephen Hampton can’t forget. He used to see the orioles often, ...