Thousands of species have evolved this amazing capability. Some are genetically programmed to experience a mid-life switch, ...

For the first time, animal researchers have shown that a non-human animal shows some type of mental capacity for ...

Cleaner wrasse use their reflection to build a mental image of their body size, which they use to compare themselves to ...

A FISH species examines itself in the mirror before deciding whether to fight in what scientists call the first instance of animal self-awareness. The bluestreak cleaner wrasse is native to the ...

Cleaner fishes can gain a mental image of their own size compared to other fishes by looking in a mirror, according to a new ...

"Cleaner fish will be the first non-human animals to be shown to possess private self-awareness," the researchers said.

Bluestreak cleaner wrasse are small, territorial fish that aggressively fend off intruders. But when they have access to a ...

Both sides were happy: the finches got food and the booby got rid of parasites, much like the cleaner wrasses and their clientele (see page 92). But trying conditions create tough birds—and the ...

Tanaka is on a team of Maui fishers and marine resource advocates who are working to reshape reef fishing regulations through ...

Facilitative interactions are also a hallmark of coral reef ecosystems. Juvenile wrasses, blennies, gobies, and shrimps live on large corals that are frequented by large fishes that are often ...

At several locations divers saw endangered Napoleon wrasses, one of the world’s largest reef fish. Also known as the humphead wrasse because of a pronounced bump on the forehead of mature adults ...

This story appears in the January 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine. When Andrew Stanton set out to make an animated children's movie set in the ocean and faithful to "the real rules of ...