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Animals and humans

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

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Silhouette of a bird on a branch against a golden sunset sky.

essayAnimals and humans

Life thrums with music

Listen to the boundless sounds of nature, the great animal orchestra, whose songs imbue the world with fresh meaning

Jay Griffiths

Painting of a black bird with a red tail on a white tree branch set against a blue sky and yellow landscape.

videoNature and landscape

Scenes from Aboriginal Australian pottery chart the turn of the seasons

7 minutes

Illustration of a blue dragonfly, a green leaf insect and a brown butterfly wing on a light background.

videoHistory of science

Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful

8 minutes

A stork and chicks in a nest on a metal pylon above a grassy landscape with a river in the background.

essayAnimals and humans

To build a nest

Throughout the animal kingdom, the parents of newborns must strive to create snug sanctuaries in a hazardous world

Helen Jukes

Photo of a woman sleeping, resting her head and hand on a large dog, creating a cosy atmosphere.

videoLove and friendship

What does it mean to say goodbye to a creature that doesn’t know you’re leaving?

13 minutes

Photo of two polar bears exploring a decaying wooden building, one looks out a window, the other stands on the porch steps.

essayAnimals and humans

Humanlike?

Interpreting the emotional lives of animals requires a subtler and more nuanced understanding of anthropomorphism

Mike Dacey

Satellite image of South Dakota with glowing yellow lines representing data or energy pathways overlaid.

videoEcology and environmental sciences

Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America

6 minutes

Black birds flying over snowy mountains with dramatic cloudy skies in the background.

essayEvolution

Empire of flight

They have big brains, long childhoods and sociable, curious minds. So why haven’t birds developed complex culture?

Antone Martinho-Truswell

A beaver dam on a calm lake surrounded by dense evergreen forest with mountains faintly visible in the background.

essayAnimals and humans

Animals taught us culture

Prehistoric humans didn’t create art and architecture out of nothing. They took inspiration from the nonhuman world

Sarah Newman

Photo of a black dog lying on a blue background with a purple button on its left and a yellow button on its right.

videoLanguage and linguistics

Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?

9 minutes

Photo of a wicker basket with two kittens and a squirrel inside against a decorative blue and white tiled wall.

videoAnimals and humans

One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough

14 minutes

A cheetah cub playfully interacts with a brown dog on grass, with a toy in the background.

essayBioethics

Why the cat wags her tail

Here’s a puzzle: how could evolution favour such a costly, frivolous and fun activity as animal play?

Mathilde Tahar-Malaussena

Photo of three children in winter jackets sitting on grassland near a stream with a plastic container between them.

videoAnimals and humans

Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way

13 minutes

Photo of fishermen in a circle on a lake using large nets at sunrise with a distant island and hills in the background.

essayHuman evolution

The commitment to collaborate

Though natural selection favours self-interest, humans are extraordinarily good at cooperating with one another. Why?

Saira Khan

Photo of a gibbon mother holding her baby in a lush green forest setting.

videoAnimals and humans

Villagers struggle to keep their beloved, endangered ape population afloat

19 minutes

A brown wren standing on a rock with a blurred background.

essayBiology

In praise of subspecies

To lump or to split? Deciding whether an animal is a species or subspecies profoundly influences our conservation priorities

Richard Smyth

Photo of a giraffe seen through an arched doorway with brick and blue tiled walls in a zoo environment.

videoAnimals and humans

Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?

57 minutes

Line drawing of a frog from a below perspective, with circles of various sizes indicating ripples.

videoEcology and environmental sciences

The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth

15 minutes

A man with a long beard wearing glasses holding a net against a backdrop of a grassy field and cloudy sky.

videoAnimals and humans

The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net

10 minutes

Aerial view of a coastal area at dusk with multiple streaks of red light travelling over water and land, illuminating the landscape.

videoEcology and environmental sciences

GPS tracking reveals stunning insights into the patterns of migratory birds

6 minutes

A chimpanzee in a space suit inside a capsule with human hands assisting, suggesting space exploration preparation.

videoSpace exploration

The rarely told story of the fruit flies, primates and canines that preceded us in space

12 minutes

Close-up photo of butterfly wing scales in shades of orange, pink, white and black arranged in a mosaic-like pattern.

videoBiology

Brilliant dots of colour form exquisite patterns in this close-up of butterfly wings

3 minutes

Illustration of four adult giraffes, and a young one lying down, with Mount Kilimanjaro and acacia trees in the background.

videoAgeing and death

We’re not the only animals that appear to grieve. What are the implications?

6 minutes

Split image showing two types of coral, a hard coral on the left and a soft coral with tentacles on the right, both in deep blue light.

videoBiotechnology

It’s our responsibility to engineer corals that can weather the world we’ve created

11 minutes