Author Magda Patynska

Magda Patynska

Magda is the content writer for discoverwildlife.com, and spends her days researching weird (and often deadly) animals. Outside of work, she enjoys engaging with and writing about fan culture in all its forms.

Recent articles by Magda Patynska
Atacama Desert Canyon

It’s one of the driest places on Earth. Now images from space show “rarely seen” snowfall in the Chilean desert

Scientists attribute the unusually wet winter in Chile to the strengthening El Niño.
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“Once they descend into the cave, they trudge 150m in the pitch black, feeling around with their trunks.” 9 weird animals found in caves

What lurks in the dark depths of caves might send shivers down your spine…
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Yellow-banded poison frog on a branch. Credit: Leo Fernandez Molinary/Getty Images

“It will die unless its father can find a better place for it.” Tiny poison dart frogs race against time to save their offspring

Navigating a huge rainforest isn’t easy – especially if you’re as tiny as these frogs.
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Alexander Gruhl, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

It looks like spaghetti, doesn’t have a gut or mouth – and has been feeding on bioplastics for millions of years

Long before we invented biodegradable plastic, nature had its own version.
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Gerald Corsi/Getty Images

No one lives on this remote Russian island – but it does have a mysterious graveyard of gigantic, 600-year-old whale bones

Located off the coast of the Russian Far East, Yttygran Island is home to a mysterious graveyard.
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Narwhals with tusks swimming in North West Greenland. Credit: Carsten Egevang

“That puzzled us quite a bit.” Scientists found another astonishing thing about narwhals after X-raying their tusks

The narwhal tusk is one of the more unique structures in the animal kingdom.
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Lake Kaindy

A great earthquake struck this mountain range – and created an underwater, eerie forest

This lake, deep in the Kazakhstani mountains, might be one of the most bizarre in the world
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Credit: Kanat Batyrkhanuly, ACBK

“Something I will remember for the rest of my life.” Rare wild Przewalski’s horse born in central Kazakhstan for first time in 200 years

The birth of a Przewalski’s horse foal in Kazakhstan marks another step in the restoration of this rare species.
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European Hamster

This grave-robbing hamster finds its next meal in a cemetery – but it’s not what you think

This hamster is in search of its next meal. The biggest obstacle? Clumsiness.
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Credit: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

Conservationists carry the eggs of the world’s rarest duck for 44km on foot. Here’s why

The Madagascar pochard was once thought to be extinct, until it was rediscovered in the wild in 2006.
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Striking image of an orange-tailed damselfly peering through leaf wins photography competition

A photo of an orange-tailed marsh dart damselfly is the winner of the 2026 BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology image competition.
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Tanto Yensen/Getty Images

It can force down up to 100 termites in one sitting – but must dodge deadly predators first

Tiny but mighty, this frog is the size of a ping pong ball – but it can eat a lot more than you think.
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JOY PAN/Getty Images

It’s hidden between dunes as high as the Chrysler Building, is filled with dead trees – and sits in the oldest desert in the world 

This surreal and otherworldly plain is located in the middle of the Namib desert.
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Limestone pinnacles formation at Gunung Mulu National Park, Borneo, Malaysia. Credit:  Juhku/Getty Images

It could easily fit 8 jumbo jets inside – and you’d need to swim through a 1.5km underwater river to reach it 

Gunung Mulu National Park in Borneo is home to some of the planet’s most remarkable and vast underground landscapes.
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King penguins fill the beach on Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island. Credit: Catherine Harold/Getty Images

Scientists X-rayed ancient penguin bones from remote Antarctic island. Here’s why

Antarctica wasn’t always the freezing and ice-capped remote land we know today…
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Credit: Gonzalo Pardo / Conservation Leadership Programme

“You’re looking at one of the wildest landscapes on Earth and watching a species that almost nobody has ever studied.“

Scientists set off into the remote Patagonian Andes to study this rare, ‘forgotten’ rodent.
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An atoll near the island of Ternate in Indonesia. Credit: Velvetfish/Getty Images

They can start out as underwater volcanoes, take up to 30 million years to form – and are home to about 1 million people

From volcanic peaks to coral rings, atolls are among the strangest and most fragile landforms on Earth.
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Dario Endara/Getty Images

“The drongo can now begin his tricks – but he must first earn the confidence of his victims.”

In this clip from the BBC’s Africa, narrated by David Attenborough, a family of meerkats gets fooled not once, but twice.
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It spans hundreds of kilometres underground, was completely unexplored until the 1960s and is home to a deadly fungal disease

Even the most extensively mapped caves still hold secrets, spanning massive areas underground in mazes of passageways
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Sean Steininger/Getty Images

When experts tagged diving whales, they discovered something astonishing about their song

For the first time, researchers have matched an entire whale song to an entire dive – and found the song changes in step with what the whale’s body is doing underwater
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DaBearMedia/Getty Images

Think it's just elephants that have trunks? Think again! Here are 7 animals that have trunks – including surprisingly a primate…

The animal kingdom is full of unique shapes and appendages – here's a closer look at trunks (and really long noses)
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gyro/Getty Images

It’s about the size of Spain, stretches 800km – and protects the planet from a whopping 5 metres of rising sea levels 

The Ross Ice Shelf is in one of the most remote places on Earth, yet it holds enormous sway over coastlines thousands of miles away.
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Credit: Panthera, Sabah Forestry Department, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research Panthera, Sabah Forestry Department, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Panthera, Sabah Forestry Department, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research

Scientists tracked these elusive ‘ghost of the forest’ wild cats for over 15 years – here is what they found out

Roaming the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo, this wild cat is extremely elusive – but scientists have finally managed a glimpse into its life.
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Emily Tubbesing/Getty Images

"With what seems like suicidal recklessness, she approaches..." Watch this huge spider get its meal stolen

In this clip from the BBC’s The Trials of Life, narrated by David Attenborough, two spiders compete for food – one much smaller than the other, but not less daring.
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