Science, Animal | featured news

Every animal with bones has blood with hemoglobin, which binds with oxygen and makes the blood appear red. Every animal, that is, except one. The ocellated icefish (Chionodraco rastrospinosus) has gin-clear blood. And it has no scales. And it lives nowhere but the inky depths down to 3,200 feet (1 kilometer) in the icy waters off Antarctica.

At the Everland Zoo in South Korea, there is a young male elephant that can speak Korean. His vocabulary includes “annyong” (hello), “anja” (sit down), “aniya” (no), “nuo” (lie down) and “choah” (good). Researchers say the elephant, whose name is Koshik, vocalizes in a novel way: he puts his trunk in his mouth.