More astounding spiders

Here’s another unbelievable—in terms of both evolution and videography—segment from Attenborough’s BBC Earth. Jumping spiders in the genus Portia are said by Wikipedia to be “remarkable for their intelligent hunting behaviour”, and you won’t deny that after watching this 4-minute video. According to Attenborough, this beast has “three superpowers”. Her speed and intelligence are remarkable! Here’s what […]

Collecting a cold moggie, and a squirrel with a green mustache

This short video of how a Russian tabby comes home from the snow was tweeted by Dick King-Smith and sent to me by Matthew. How clever! That cat could make a good jailbreak, too! Here’s a squirrel named Seymour who’s enjoying a treat of avocado. In the process, he gives himself a green mustache!  

A python swallows a deer

The title alone is your trigger warning.  This is another wonderful segment of Attenborough’s BBC Earth series, a show I’m sorry I missed. The deer capturing-and swallowing segment begins at 4:00. I know snakes can swallow prey wider than themselves, but this is unbelievable. Note how the snake pushes its windpipe out of its mouth, […]

Two grizzly cubs hitch a ride on swimming mother’s back

This video of two grizzly bear cubs (Ursus arctos) piggybacking on a swimming mother was taken 12 days ago on the Agulowak River in southwest Alaska. I wonder what mom would have done had a cub fallen off. . .

The incredible Darwin’s bark spider

This is hands down one of the finest Attenborough segments I’ve seen. The four-minute video from BBC Earth has incredible photography of Darwin’s bark spider (Caerostris darwini) building its web over a river on a 25-meter-long “bridging line”. Rivers are of course good places to catch insects, as they’re clear conduits through the forest. Here’s some […]

Cat learns how to knead from video

When cats massage an object or a human by pushing their paws alternately, I call it “making biscuits”. Others call it kneading.  Why do they do it? Nobody knows for sure, but LiveScience has a number of explanations (I favor the first two, as the behavior, seen in nursing kittens, appears very early and seems […]

Eagle gets a filet o’ fish

The CBC shows a cool video and a backstory: A family out fishing last week caught more than salmon. Ashton Phillips was on a fishing trip last Friday with his cousin and uncle in Kyuquot, B.C. on the northwest side of Vancouver Island when he captured a video of an eagle swooping down to grab a piece of […]

Giant “paleoburrows” dug by extinct mammals

In the last few years, geologists have been finding—mostly in Brazil—large “paleoburrows” that were almost certainly dug by large, extinct mammals such as giant ground sloths. These burrows can be up to 3000 feet long (!) and 5 feet wide, though the very long ones were surely dug by many individuals over many generations. The […]

A daft woodpecker

What the hell is it doing? He had too much coffee pic.twitter.com/6hfQJfl0SY — HUMOROUS ANIMALS (@CUTEFUNNYANIMAL) June 22, 2017

Pair of elephants save calf from drowning

This incident, which must have happened yesterday, is going viral. The video shows two Indian elephants saving a drowning baby who fell into a pool in a Seoul zoo; they do it by working together to push the baby into the shallow end. There’s simply no doubt about their intentions. Sure, nature can be cruel, […]