Animals - Getty Images

Animals

Pets, pests & portents: birds through time

A United Arab Emirates postage stamp issued in 1971 commemorating Laika, the Soviet dog who in 1957 became the first animal in orbit

Animals in space: the creatures who paved the way for human travel beyond Earth

Louis Wain, c1900, with one of his pet cats. Photo by Ernest H. Mills/Getty Images)

Louis Wain: the cat-loving artist who forever changed the way that we see our feline friends

Extinct animals of medieval Britain

Portrait of Maria Sibylla Merian, by Jacob Marrel, 1679 (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images)

Maria Sibylla Merian: the artist who challenged the natural world

Animals in space: from Laika to jellyfish & tortoises

How dogs shaped city life

Supernatural stories: 9 unusual British folktales

Cat got your tongue? It certainly seems to be the case with this surprised tabby

Why do we say 'cat got your tongue'?

Q&AWhy do we say ‘white elephant’?

Basilisks, manticores and more: medieval fantastic beasts (and where to find them)

Alexander the Great on his horse, Bucephalus

Bucephalus: why is Alexander the Great's horse famous?

Dark side of fashion: a 1910 portrait of a woman wearing a hat adorned with ostrich plumes and a stuffed bird. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, owning hats like this was a sign of status for many women. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

A hatful of horror: the Victorian headwear craze that led to mass slaughter

Victorian pet cemeteries: animals in the afterlife

Smokey the bear is presented with a firefighter's helmet

The paratrooper, the poet's pet and the real Winnie: 10 famous bears in history

Charles Darwin and the Beagle: how the voyage transformed our understanding of the world

A miller and a donkey

9 things you could do with a medieval ass

Ten things to do with a medieval donkey

This 15th-century painting from a manuscript shows men fishing in a river. In medieval England, eels were both meals and de facto currency. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Fishing for gold: how eels powered the medieval economy

A brief history of turkeys, plus why we eat a turkey dinner at Christmas

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin vs God: did the 'Origin of Species' cause a clash between church and science?

David Olusoga"Half a million cats and dogs were put to death in 1939 – for no good reason"

A watermill, with fish nets and eel traps visible beneath the waters of the mill leat Luttrell Psalter. England, c 1325-1335. (Photo by Alamy)

Medieval eels and Englishness

A sign of the devil or a miracle cure? How people felt about spiders in the Middle Ages

A scene from the Smithfield Decretals depicting a rabbit beheading a man. Rabbits seem to have a strange place in medieval imagery – and are depicted as having strangely violent tendencies. "It’s the sort of thing to give you nightmares," says David Musgrove. (Photo by Album/British Library/Alamy Stock Photo)

BlogMedieval(ish) matters #5: chivalry, medieval killer rabbits and prisoners of war in the 15th century

Medieval prisoners

What was it like to be a Prisoner of War during the Hundred Years’ War?

An illumination depicts medieval women embroidering

Medieval misconceptions: 12 myths about life in the Middle Ages – busted

Frances Griffiths poses with the fairies

Fairies, rabbit births and an 'ancient' tiara: what are the greatest historical hoaxes?

The 18th-century rabbit breeding hoax (Photo by Getty Images)

The woman who gave birth to rabbits

Simon the cat

10 top cats in history