Do crows instigate cat fights?

In lieu of Readers’ Wildlife Photos today (I have a comfortable backlog), please watch these three short videos and tell me what’s going on. In all of them, hooded crows (Corvus cornix) are associated with vicious cat fights.  And while the third video purports to show a crow “breaking up” a cat fight, that’s simply […]

Surrounded by 13 polar bears!

This clip, from BBC Earth, shows 13 specimens of Ursus maritimus, the world’s largest land carnivores. I presume these scientists had a rifle with them, just in case. (As the YouTube notes say, “Gordon Buchanan and his crew find themselves surrounded by thirteen cute but incredibly dangerous polar bears: cubs and their deadly mothers.”) Some […]

Beavers go shopping

Well, it is getting close to Christmas. Here we see, as the YouTube notes give sketchy details: A pair of beavers walked into a Cumberland Farms location in Fitchburg in late November. Surveillance footage shared by the company shows two walk into the store. Shortly after, one leaves while the other walks around for more than […]

Lion attacked by hyenas but saved by pal

This segment from Attenborough’s BBC Earth was put up November 26 and already has over two million views. A young male lion is attacked by over twenty hyenas, and has a tough go of it, but in the end is saved by the appearance of his pal Tatu. Listen to those hyenas laugh! Nasty creatures, […]

Bufflehead courtship

Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola) are cute diving sea ducks that have a pronounced sexual dimorphism, especially in the breeding season. Here are the males vs. females from the Cornell bird site. This will help you pick out the sexes in the video below.  The video shows a group of bufflehead males trying to impress a few […]

Reader’s wildlife video

I am up at 3:30 Paris time for an early departure home, so as I’m winging my way back to the land ruled by a crazy man, please enjoy this wildlife respite: a flamingo video from Tara Tanaka. Her notes: On an unseasonably warm and foggy Florida morning I was very fortunate to have the […]

Nevertheless, he persisted: Sammy the seal begs for fish

In a small seaside town in Ireland, Sammy the seal makes a daily appearance to beg fish from the fishmonger. I don’t know how this behavior started, but I suspect someone from the store gave him a fish. The rest is history. The YouTube notes: Sammy the Seal begs for fish outside a restaurant in […]

A spotting of the spectacular and rarely seen “dumbo octopus”

“Dumbo octopuses” are in the genus Grimpoteuthis (there are 31 species) and, for cephalopods, are pretty damn cute. They’re named after the fins on the mantle that make them look like Walt Disney’s flying elephant Dumbo They propel themselves by flapping these fins, as you’ll see below. The species are cosmopolitan but aren’t often seen […]

Harriet the Singing Donkey

Most donkeys make noises that would rouse the demons of Hell, but this Irish specimen, Harriet the Singing Donkey, has a sonorous and mellifluous voice. As BoingBoing reports: She became an internet sensation when Martin Stanton, who lives not far away and has visited Harriet the donkey regularly for more than a year, posted a […]

The remarkable pelican eel

This video, embedded in a report posted by Science, shows the remarkable behavior of the pelican eel (Eurypharynx pelecanoides), also called the “gulper eel” for reasons that will become obvious.  This rarely-seen creature, the only species in the family Eurypharyngidae, has now been put on video for the first time. While Wikipedia says this, The stomach […]