Nature’s spiky deterrents–thorns, spines and prickles–may be quick to catch us out, but they can also prove to be a useful ally, discovers Laura Parker

i had come to big bend National Park, Texas, for the solitude, the sweeping desert views and the hope of spotting a black bear. It was a six-hour drive from El Paso airport, a journey through vast swa

Neither arachnid nor bird, the tarantula hawk is a large wasp (there are over 130 known species) that gets its confusing name from a fearsome habit of preying on tarantulas and other large spiders to

From Shakespeare to treasured stalking trophies and scientific study, antlers in all their aspects never fail to impress and inspire, says Charles Harris

A round-up of the strangest science stories from around the world.

Britain is a country mercifully bereft of threatening fauna–or so you might believe. John Lewis-Stempel provides a miscellany of our otherwise benign land’s more fearsome critters