In two different locations in the coast of Hawaii, scientists have observed unusual interactions between bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales as dolphins “rode” the heads of whales: the whales lifted the dolphins up and out of the water, and then the dolphins slid back down. In the video published by the American Museum of Natural History, the two species seemed to cooperate in the activity, and neither displayed signs of aggression or distress. Whales and dolphins in Hawaiian waters often interact, but playful social activity such as this is extremely rare between species.
Category Archives: Animals
Why Are Chimpanzees Stronger Than Humans?
Chimpanzees are our closest cousins, they share 99 percent of their genes with us. Sometimes, like us, they can show aggressiveness, and attacks on humans are recorded. The worst part of these attacks is, the chimpanzees are strong. Really strong.
One of the most well-known attacks came from Travis, an animal actor, who appeared in several television commercials, including spots for Coca-Cola. On February 16, 2009, he suddenly attacked his owner Sandra Herold’s 55-year-old friend Charla Nash and grievously mauled her, blinding her while severing her nose, ears, and both hands, and severely lacerating her face. He was subsequently shot dead on the arrival of the police, after trying to attack an officer. The photos of the incident were horrible, I won’t publish them here but you can search google for them (beware: the photos are really, really bad).
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Killer Whale uses a bait fish to hunt a bird (video)
The orcas are amazing! They are known for their high intelligence, curiosity, playfulness, and ability to solve problems. But this female killer whale named Kasatka who lives at SeaWorld San Diego takes it one step further: she uses a bait fish to hunt a bird!
Watch the amazing video below:
Continue reading Killer Whale uses a bait fish to hunt a bird (video)
World’s top 6 biggest prehistoric crocodiles ever lived
Previously, I published a post about the largest crocodiles ever recorded. All sizes in that post were recorded in the recent times. The crocs listed were large, yes, but not as big as most people think. But in the prehistoric ages, some animals were much bigger than today’s counterparts – including crocodiles. So, what was the World’s biggest crocodile ever lived? Here are the top six candidates – top 6 biggest prehistoric crocodiles (actually, crocodilians) ever lived.
Before reading the post, keep in mind that the list given below can change at any time with any newly found fossil. Due to the absence of a complete enough skeleton in most cases, the numbers given are estimates. A common method to estimate the size of crocodiles and crocodile-like reptiles is the use of the length of the skull measured in the midline from the tip of the snout to the back of the skull table, since in living crocodilians there is a strong correlation between skull length and total body length in subadult and adult individuals irrespective of their sex.
The Largest Alligator Ever Measured
Alligators can often reach at least 14 or 15 feet in length, which is even larger than some crocodile species, but not all of them, especially not the Saltwater Crocodile (I am talking about the American alligator – A. mississippiensis here, the Chinese alligator – A. sinensis is much smaller). But what is the largest alligator ever measured?
There are two candidates:
World’s Largest Crocodile? (7+ meters/23+ feet)
A widely circulated photo over the internet which shows a giant crocodile with a bunch of villagers sitting behind. A story next to the photo saying “the people in a village on the Niger River in Africa were losing fellow villagers at a rapid rate, and called in the army, which shot
Crocodiles often suffer from a prevalence of “big fish” stories and over-exaggeration. The photo below was first got shared on Reddit, and it started circulating rapidly since then. When I first saw the photo, I tried to guess the length of the crocodile, because it didn’t seem to me 7+ meters. I thought it was not more than 5 meters.
World’s Largest Living Cat: Hercules, the liger (video)
Ligers are the largest cats on Earth. A liger can be more than 900 pounds (~408 kg) in
The liger, the largest of all known extant felines, is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a female tiger.
The man who swims with a crocodile: the story of Chito and Pocho
A unique friendship between a man and a crocodile: nicknamed “Chito”, Gilberto Shedden, a Costa Rican fisherman and naturalist has had an unusual friend: “Pocho”, the crocodile longer than 5 meters, with a weight up to half a ton.
Two kangaroos get into boxing match (video)
Somewhere in the Central Coast of Australia, two kangaroos are caught on camera in an intense boxing match on a suburban street. The marsupials can be seen punching and kicking each other close to houses in Central Coast, New South Wales. It is not clear where the action was filmed.
In this incredible video below, the funny fight goes on for more than five minutes. Luckily, both kangaroos were OK and not seriously harmed after the match.
Great white shark fight caught on camera (video)
The Great White Sharks, kings of the seas. They are fearless hunters. And they are big: a mature individual can grow up to 6.4 m (21 ft) in length (there are even reports of great white sharks measuring over 8 m (26 ft), and 3,324 kg (7,328 lb) in weight). According to Wikipedia, “The great white shark has no natural predators other than the Orca.” But this is not always true. Sometimes, great whites attacks and even hunt each other.
Even though the great whites are known to generally avoid conflicts with each other, the phenomenon of cannibalism is not alien to this species. This rare phenomenon, has been caught on camera recently: London-born diver Adam Malski (33) filmed a fight between two great white sharks 50 kilometers off the coast of South Australia’s Neptune Islands.
