Want to meet an alien? Diving with an octopus is the closest you're likely to come.

Increasing numbers of exotic snakes, many poisonous, are slipping unseen into Australia by plane, ship and the mail, prompting a new plan to stop more coming before they threaten native flora and fauna. 

A fanged coral reef fish that disables it rivals by delivering a dose of heroin-like venom could one day cure your pain, researchers say.

Spiders are quite literally all around us. A recent entomological survey of North Carolina homes turned up spiders in 100 per cent of them, including 68 per cent of bathrooms and more than three-quarters of bedrooms.

A juvenile shark has been rescued and returned to the sea after it was found in ocean baths in Sydney's northern beaches.

A study has shown that three-quarters of antiques dealers admit being aware of illegal trading, knowing colleagues or auctioneers who sell modern ivory by passing it off under the guise of still-legal pre-1947 artefacts.

She now tops 45 kilograms, meaning her days of napping on her human caretakers' laps are dwindling.

A 25-year-old Thai sea turtle died from blood poisoning on Tuesday, never recovering from an operation to remove 915 coins from her stomach, thrown into her pool for good luck, veterinarians said.

Port Stephens' blue water wonderland isn't just popular with the tens of thousands of tourists who visit each summer.

Taronga Zoo is celebrating the arrival of an endangered pygmy hippo calf, the first born at the zoo in nearly seven years.

Authorities say they had no choice but to shoot the airport service dog that delayed more than a dozen flights on Friday morning.

Thai customs have confiscated 21 rhino horns with an estimated value of nearly $US5 million ($6.6 million) in the biggest such seizure in Thailand for years, officials said on Tuesday.

A moose on the loose caught several skiers and snowboarders by surprise as it galloped headlong down a run at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado.

Tasmanian devils with tumours the size of golf balls have had their cancerous growths disappear, after scientists successfully trialled a new way to kick-start the animals' immune system.

Cheetahs are on the precipice of extinction, yet small homeless mutts - found on the street - may be one of the keys to their survival.

Poachers have broken into a French zoo and shot dead a rare white rhinoceros sawing off its horn in what is believed to be the first time in Europe that a rhino in captivity has been attacked and killed.

Thai veterinarians removed 915 coins from a 25-year-old sea turtle which had been swallowing items thrown into her pool for good luck, eventually limiting her ability to swim.

She is probably the only internet sensation in Harpursville, New York, a hamlet of about 3500 people in the Southern Tier region: April, a very pregnant giraffe, whose livestream video has attracted millions of viewers.

A rescue mission to help one of the world's rarest parrots is nearing its climax, and a group of Canberra bird enthusiasts is helping out.

Wildlife prices are tumbling in South Africa as game breeders are squeezed by restrictions imposed on trophy hunting after Cecil the lion was killed, and the worst drought on record has forced farmers to sell animals.

There's an old saying that elephants never forget. You also can say they almost never sleep.

The release of a new calicivirus strain is imminent but ACT vets are running low on the vaccine used to protect pet bunnies.

Giant spider crabs are gathering in their thousands at Blairgowrie for an annual event so impressive it's drawn David Attenborough and a Japanese film crew to document it. But few Victorians know about it.

Violence in El Salvador has reached crisis levels in recent years.

While it might sound like a cool idea to bring animals like the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction, new research shows this would come at the cost of other already threatened species.

The owner of a dog that was killed by a shark at a popular off-leash beach in Sydney's south said he was traumatised after watching his pet being pulled under the water just metres from the shore.

ACT Parks and Conversation will introduce a new strain of the calicivirus and expect it will wipe out up to 40 per cent of pest rabbits.

Restricting the amount of greenery growing beside the state's waterways will have a detrimental effect on the environment while failing to meet its goal of reducing bushfire threats, top waterway ecosystem scientists have warned.

Drone vision of great white shark lurking near unsuspecting surfers emerges

A former dog breeder from Sydney's north-west has been found guilty of animal cruelty after officers found five dead dogs in freezers on his property and others living in "grotesque" conditions.