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Meet Shanti, a 36-year-old Asian elephant at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. She turned out to be quite the musical pachyderm: she loves to play the harmonica!
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via The Kid Should See This
The Lord of the Rings may quickly discuss how orcs were created, but somehow this makes much more sense. Take one pudgy-faced cat, squish it’s head good and bam! You’ve got an orc.
Photo: Hopefoote/Flickr
Which is the flower and which is the caterpillar? The camouflaged looper inchworm is a genius at camouflage (hence the name, I suppose) - it glues bits of flowers to its back in order to blend in.
See more photos at Twisted Sifter: Link
Miniature horse fans rejoice! Thanks to a Senate vote, miniature horses have now been approved for use as service animals in the state of Illinois.
Here’s why mini horses make awesome guides:
According to the Guide Horse Foundation, miniature horses can be useful for people with severe allergies or phobias to dogs, or people who want an animal likely to live longer than a dog. The horses are strong enough to provide support when handlers need to lean on them, and they are not easily distracted by crowds.
So, the next time you see a mini horse on a leash, sporting a fashionable vest and some oh-so-cute little shoes, don’t panic!
They’re here to help, and they’re not just in it for the free carrots.
"It's
a lion*, run!" strategy doesn't seem to work out very well for white-tailed
deer fawns.
What works, it turns out, is an escape plan:
Fawns often bypass the nearest "escape cover" to seek out better habitats for shaking off predators, new research has found.
Baby deer are more likely to survive if they use this selective technique rather than simply fleeing to the closest refuge.
The study in the journal Animal Behaviour, followed white-tailed deer fawns in the Great Plains of the US.
The fawns' behaviour was a surprise to the research team, they said.
"We expected them to look for cover as soon as possible and try to take that cover… (but) they actually went to a better cover rather than the first available," says Jonathan Jenks, distinguished professor of wildlife and fisheries sciences at South Dakota State University.
Link (Photo: ForestWander/Wikipedia)
*Okay, there's no lion in their native habitat, but gimme a literary license here. If you're a stickler for technicalities, read that sentence as "It's a coyote, run!"
To
many people, pigeons are rats with wings, but to some, they're the "Ferraris
of the bird world." And they've got the price tags to prove it:
To the average observer, they look like ordinary pigeons, caged into a balcony in a high-rise Beijing apartment. But make no mistake. These cooing birds, according to breeder Yang Shibo, are like top-of-the-line sports cars.
"These are the Ferraris of the bird world," he says. "They're the most expensive, and the fastest."
The price of racing pigeons is soaring sky-high, pushed up by wealthy Chinese buyers.
It's the latest market to be inflated by the China Effect — or massive demand from China — which has pushed up commodity prices on everything from Australian iron ore to Brazilian soybeans.
And in China, pigeons can be lucrative. Yang Shibo's best bird, a German pigeon, cost more than $1,000 back in 2001. Its descendants have earned him around $150,000 in prize money.
The highest price ever paid for a racing pigeon in China? $328,000. Now that's definitely something to cluck about.
NPR's Louisa Lim has the story: Link (Photo: Louisa Lim/NPR)
While the creator of this video says the lamb is making that face because it’s shocked, the whole thing just seems way too much like Dramatic Chipmunk minus the audio. If someone was so inclined to remix this one, it would work great with the music as well.
Now that is a pooch that understands how dangerous high stress levels can be. Seriously, I only wish I could fall asleep so easily, but I guess that talent is for the dogs…or at least these 13 adorable sleeping dogs.
In Russia, even the dogs stop and and gather to sing when they hear the national anthem! However, as a commenter said elsewhere, their accents are so thick I can’t make out the lyrics. -via I Am Bored
This cat has a serious love-hate relationship with his owners. One minute they’re petting his belly and feeding him cans of Fancy Feast and the next they’re shaving his fur to make him look like a mock Stegosaurus.
Clearly he had someone take this photo for him as a cry for help, so it should be turned over to the ASPCA immediately!
Kiddies-this is what catnip addiction can lead to, so keep your fur clean and just say no!
Last
year, he was warned that Chinese agents had trained women to kill him
using poison-laced scarves. So it would be understandable if his greatest
fear would be being assassinated. But no, that's not the Dalai Lama's
greatest fear.
Here's the Dalai Lama's greatest fear:
His great fear, though, is of flying and of sharks. “Long flights, those I really feared, but now I’m used to them,” he says. “The fear now is that I never learnt to swim so if the plane crashes on water, I would immediately go deep under the sea and be enjoyed by a shark. That I really fear.”
Photo: Steve
Hoge/Flickr
A camel may be a horse designed by committee, but it doesn't mean that the even-toed ungulate can't be an artform, especially when in the hands of Indian hairstylists!
Oddity Central explores the annual beauty contest for camels in India:
Every year, the desert city of Bikaner, in India’s state of Rajasthan, hosts one of the most colorful events in the world – the Bikaner Camel Festival. Home to the only camel breeding farm in India, and one of the largest such farms in all of Asia, it’s only natural this city should have a festival dedicated to the useful humped animal. The popular event takes place over two days, in January, and draws in camel breeders from all over Rajasthan, as well as tourists from all around the world. This homage to camels includes various events, from camel races and rides, to camel haircut competitions and even a camel beauty pageant.
The elephant keepers at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, ordered a supply of alcohol each of the past twenty years -for the elephants. They said the alcohol was necessary to calm the elephants down during mating season. The orders were filled each year, and listed under the elephant’s food expense budget. But the elephants never drank the liquor.
The bills amounted Rs80,000 at maximum and minimum at Rs40,000.
Locally-manufactured liquor would be supplied to the zoo and the cost would be added to the food expense.
Veterinary doctors while speaking to Express News said that alcohol cannot be consumed by elephants.
Once that fact came to light, an investigation was opened. Two of the zookeepers have been suspended. Link (related video) -via Arbroath
This thing moves and makes all kind of crazy noise. What the heck is going on here?
Well, there are worse vibrating things he could be barking at, so at least there’s that.
This cat acts like he’s discovered heaven. It’s a good thing they didn’t let him near a whole watermelon! -via reddit
We see stories about the animal kingdom and the selflessness of animal moms, accompanied by adorable pictures that only make human moms feel more inadequate -if that’s possible. But not all animal species are great nurturers. Take harp seals:
Mothers of these precious little ones are highly dedicated for the first twelve days. In fact, they do not eat at all during that period. Unfortunately, once the feeding is over, that’s it for mother-child bonding—she’s out of there, ready to mate again.
Unlike many other species with such abrupt weaning periods, the harp seal pup can’t go on to survive on its own yet. Instead it is left stranded on the ice for the next month and a half, leaving it incredibly vulnerable to predators.
Read the rest about harp seals and other not-so-great animal moms at mental_floss. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Luke Bryant)
Biochemist Jessica Polka knows her stuff when it comes to animal and plant samples. She also is quite the knitter. Between the two she has the skills to make some seriously impressive specimens with nothing but yarn. You can check out more of her work at the link or you can always buy some of her great works at Etsy.
I’m not sure this is what Chubby Checker had in mind when he recorded his smash hit, but I’d rather watch Frenchies dancing than a bunch of teens with bouffant hairdos. Just look at them go!
Via I has A Hot Dog
For many of us, moving to our own private tropical island of paradise is a fantasy, but not for Brendon Grimshaw. In 1962, bought an island in the Indian Ocean for £8,000 and replanted it with 16,000 trees, grasses and then he invited a few friends ...
BBC's Simon Reeven paid him a visit: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Boing Boing
A tender mother-child moment, brought to you by the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest. This picture was taken at Camp Leakey, Tanjung Puting National Park in Indonesia. The contest is open for entries until June 28, or even later with an additional fee, but oy, look at the competition! Link -Thanks, Marilyn!
(Image credit: miranda rachellina)
These sea creature shaped pancakes put the mmm in nom nom nom, and they’re so cool looking it’s a shame somebody gobbled them all up!
They are featured by N. Shields on the art of breakfast foods site Saipancakes, where you can drool over many more works of pancake art, including a fun series based on mythological beasts.
Link –via Obvious Winner
Oscars are big aquarium fish. They’ve got a lot of meat on them. But as this cat discovers, they’ve also got a lot of gumption.
-via VA Viper
These guys went on a hunt for a real-world Pikachu, the most adorable animal in the world! See a making-of video that explains how they did it. -via The Daily What Geek
See also: This.
The classic battle between humanity and geese has escalated. Now, thanks to a touch of editing, the two sides are armed and ready to fight to the death.
Prediction: within two days, the good people of the Internet will add appropriate sound effects to this video.
Feed 'im before he launches himself with a catapult! Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via I Have Seen The Whole of The Internet
The
carnivorous pitcher plant Nepenthes bicalcarata isn't that terrifying
of a deathtrap: its pitcher leaf isn't slippery and it doesn't have
the corrosive slime that kill its victims quickly.
But it does have something that makes up for all those weaknesses: vicious bodyguard ants!
The carnivorous plant has swollen tendrils at the base of each pitcher that serve as homes for the insects, and a food source in the form of nectar secreted on the pitcher rims.
In return, the ants apparently provide a host of services for the pitcher plants. They clean the pitcher mouth to keep it slippery enough to help catch prey. They attack weevils that would otherwise munch on the plant. They cart off the remains of large prey from the pitchers that would otherwise rot. They lie in ambush under pitcher rims and systematically attack any of the plant's prey that attempt to escape the traps. And their droppings fertilize the plants.
Link (Photo: Vincent Bazile)
And
so the ape uprising has begun.
Researchers discovered that a male chimp at Furuvik Zoo in Sweden named Santino has been devising increasingly complex attacks against zoo visitors:
At first Santino was famous for throwing rocks and other projectiles at visitors who annoyed him. Now he has improved his technique, which requires spontaneous innovation for future deception. Researcher Mathias Osvath, lead author of a paper about Santino in PLoS ONE, explained what the clever chimp did:
"After a visitor group had left the compound area, Santino went inside the enclosure and brought a good-sized heap of hay that he placed near the visitor's section, and immediately after that he put stones under it," Osvath said."He also appeared to have placed projectiles behind, just before he went in after the hay. After this, he sat down beside the hay and waited. When the visitors came back, he waited until they were close by and, without any preceding display, he threw stones at the crowd." [...]
The calculated surprise attacks on visitors demonstrate very advanced thinking usually only associated with humans.
One good head-licking deserves another, until before you know it, you’ve got a conga line of bears! There’s no word on where this video was taken, or how many bears are there altogether. -via Buzzfeed
It looks like a sheet of plastic or fabric that was tossed into the ocean, but this is an animal. A jellyfish, actually, called Deepstaria enigmatica. Link -via the Presurfer
Hummingbirds are beautiful, but they move way too fast to actually get to see up close for the most part.With the Wearable Hummingbird Feeder though, you can now see the stunning birds closer than ever.
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