When ticks come into contact with clothing sprayed with permethrin, research shows, they quickly become incapacitated and are unable to bite. Pearl Mak/NPR hide caption

Spiders can fly long distances by releasing long strands of silk, which get picked up by the wind. Michael Hutchinson/Cell Press hide caption

Keeper Zachariah Mutai attends in March to Fatu, one of only two female northern white rhinos left in the world, in the pen where she is kept for observation, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia county in Kenya. Scientists have successfully grown hybrid white rhino embryos in the lab, stoking hopes that a purebred northern white rhino could be implanted in a surrogate. Sunday Alamba/AP hide caption

Researchers at the University of California, Davis are testing whether adding seaweed to cows' feed reduces methane emissions. Merrit Kennedy/NPR hide caption

A bear entered a backyard in Altadena, Calif., and spent some time in the hot tub. Mark Hough/AP hide caption

Killdeer with two eggs, photographed in Arizona under controlled conditions. A nest discovered by organizers of the RBC Bluesfest in Ottawa, Canada has prevented them from constructing its main stage. Wild Horizon/UIG via Getty Images hide caption

If you are bitten by a Lone Star tick, you could develop an unusual allergy to red meat. And as this tick's territory spreads beyond the Southeast, the allergy seems to be spreading with it. Robert Noonan/Science Source hide caption

Beavers are known as "ecosystem engineers," species that make precise and transformative changes to their lived environment. Larry Smith/Flickr hide caption

A bald eagle flies over its nest in Middle River, Md., in 2009. Rob Carr/AP hide caption

A Miami-Dade County mosquito control worker sprays around a home in August 2016 in the Wynwood area of Miami. A University of Florida study recently identified the first known human case of the mosquito-borne Keystone virus. Alan Diaz/AP hide caption

The northern white-cheeked gibbon is a critically endangered ape native to China, Vietnam and Laos. Scientists have discovered a new species of gibbon, now extinct, that lived in China as recently as 2,200 years ago. Joachim S. Müller/Flickr hide caption

Koko, the gorilla who became an ambassador to the human world through her ability to communicate, has died. She's seen here at age 4, telling psychologist Francine "Penny" Patterson (left) that she is hungry. In the center is June Monroe, an interpreter for the deaf at St. Luke's Church, who helped teach Koko. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images hide caption