A growing number of states are taking up bans on the sale of ivory in an effort to curb elephant and rhinoceros poaching and undermine the $20 billion-per-year enterprise of wildlife trafficking. Illinois could be next.

Get a close-up look at 100 live eight-legged critters – aka arachnids – including spiders, scorpions, tarantulas and more at Brookfield Zoo.

The discovery of a fossilized skull in Utah suggests the divide of the ancient supercontinent, Pangea, occurred 15 million years later than previously believed, according to a new study. 

A new zoo resident born in downstate Peoria stands about 9 feet tall. Guests can see the 2-year-old giraffe Finely at the zoo’s Regenstein African Journey exhibit.

“From Swans to Science: 150 Years of Lincoln Park Zoo” takes visitors on a journey through the zoo’s 150-year history, which started with a gift of four swans in 1868.

Following a historic diagnostic procedure last month, Layla, a 2,300-pound eastern black rhinoceros, underwent life-saving surgery last week to relieve an infection.

A mole-like mammal known as the Palawan moss shrew was recently discovered in the Philippines by a team of researchers – including one from Chicago.

A new Magellanic penguin chick hatched Saturday at Shedd Aquarium, just hours before Mother's Day. 

A “chicken in distress” call last month led to an unusual rescue effort in Lincoln Park – and an award for the Chicago Police Department.

A Chicago-based animal care expert is playing a key role in an unprecedented effort to save thousands of critically endangered tortoises that were found in squalid conditions in an abandoned home off the southeast coast of Africa.

One of the world’s most endangered birds finds itself in even greater peril after a hurricane ripped through its habitat last year. But you can help – by drinking beer. 

New residents of the aquarium’s “At Home on the Great Lakes” exhibit are spending their first days bonding with their mother. 

We peek behind the scenes at an exotic butterfly sanctuary in Chicago, and learn how volunteers help scientists track butterfly populations.

Remember Spike the corpse flower? The plant made famous in 2015 for being the first of its kind to (nearly) bloom in Chicago is on the comeback trail – and climbing to new heights.

Hoping to identify the source of an infection, veterinarians performed what is thought to be the first ever CT scan on a rhinoceros.

A team of scientists was exploring a rocky patch of ocean floor when they found something that shouldn’t have been there: octopuses – lots of them.