Awesome Animals

Most animals need a certain amount of salt and calcium in their diets to survive. Because their need for these minerals is so strong, these wild goats known as ibexes are willing to risk it all and climb the sheer face of a dam so they can get in some licks of its salt-covered rocks. From the BBC series Forces of Nature.

Autotuning vocals in music is pretty much played out. While humans have had their fill of the effect, animals haven’t used it quite as much. Cpt. Autotune has taken care of that for us, with a silly series of videos in which cats, dogs, cows, chickens, and other animals get their vocals digitally smoothed out.

Researchers in London, England used a fascinating method to view the aerodynamic properties of flight. Using helium-filled soap bubbles, they were able to visualize the vortices created by birds’ wings, and made interesting observations about the role their tail feathers play in flight. Details here.

Fish represent one of the largest and most diverse collections of species on the planet. But are you better off as a goldfish or a catfish? A flying fish or a flounder? TierZoo looks at handful of these popular underwater vertebrates, and how they’ve had to adapt to survive in the marine meta.

Fat Bear Week is an annual celebration of the thriving wildlife in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Their website features images and stories about these roly-poly, hirsute salmon fishermen so you can learn about the candidates. From September 30 to October 6, 2020, you can vote for your favorite bulbous bear.

Artist Yoni Alter creates these awesome abstract pointillist portraits of dogs by printing colorful circles onto a wooden silhouette in the shape of a dog. They come in a variety of breeds, and limited-edition art prints are available for each dog as well. We also love his 3D-printed bearded collie miniatures.

Despite the massive number of rodents alive today, none of them have horns. But millions of years ago, some did. The so-called “horned gopher” had a pair of bony protrusions on its head, making it look pretty silly if you ask us. PBS Eons explains their purpose, and how they might still be useful if rodents had them today.

You could hang a hunter’s trophy on your wall, or perhaps choose something a little more friendly to animals with this colorful, abstract image of a powerful stag. Created by artist Koby Feldmos, this original 67″x 34″ painting has an almost sculptural feel to it thanks to its thick layers of oil paint.

We’re both baffled and intrigued by this video footage of a seal as it emerges from a pool in Hokkaido, Japan into a see-through ring that rises above the surface. It looks like the adorable marine animal has entered an anti-gravity chamber, but we think that it’s just filled with water. More floating seal goodness here.

Crocodiles and alligators have been around in some form for nearly 100 million years, proving that their survival strategies work. Between its crushing bite, muscular body, and stealthy approach, these reptiles are among the most impressive predators in the meta. TierZoo dives into murky waters for a look at these grapplers’ key stats.

Today we learned that ducks like peas. Watch as Pepé and Arnold, a friendly duo of water birds, attack a bowl of the green veggies like it was their last meal ever before being served up a l’Orange. Also, ducks have some really foul fowl mouths.

Quentin Tarantino’s movies have a certain flair for the dramatic, but we can only imagine the chaos that would have ensued in Pulp Fiction if Vincent and Jules had to supervise a mischievous cat with everything else going on. OwlKitty gives us a glimpse into what that movie might have looked like.

The nature film experts at John Downer Productions show off another one of their animatronic camera spies. As an eagle drone flies overhead, a robot turtle on the ground infiltrates a bale of 20,000 olive ridley sea turtles coming ashore on a Costa Rican beach to lay their eggs. From “The Tropics” episode of Spy in the Wild 2.

Let’s face it, there’s no good way to pronounce the name of the animals featured in ZeFrank’s latest nature video. But the Japanese macaque is a unique and interesting primate nonetheless. Learn about the so-called “snow monkey,” its love for cold weather, hot springs, and why it has hair everywhere but its butt.

“Follow me, while we go inside behind the tiger.” While your average house cat might not be an expert predator, felines do have some pretty impressive skills when left in the wild. ZeFrank’s nature video explains how cats have evolved to be so good at hunting down their prey.

Cats and birds aren’t supposed to get along, but in the world of Aaron’s Animals, resident kitty Prince Michael has been raising a bunch of ducklings. But when one of the fuzzy little guys struggles to be accepted by his brothers, he makes a break for it, and falls in with a bad crowd. Best watched with Closed Captions on.

The nature photographers at John Downer Productions are known for building all kinds of creative rigs to get up close and personal with wild animals. But this clip from BBC’s Spy in the Wild proves that their robotic camera pig is no match for a gang of hostile komodo dragons.

YouTuber OwlKitty likes to imagine the world with more cats. In this clip, they envision a reboot of NBC’s comedy classic The Office, but with 100% more kitties working at Dunder-Mifflin. We bet that cat would use all of the paper in the warehouse as a scratching post.

In the grand scheme of the meta, birds seem like they wouldn’t rank very highly, and parrots’ flamboyant looks are anything but stealthy. TierZoo explains how the colorful birds are quite capable of holding their own, thanks to their sharp claws and beaks, agility, and superior smarts.

“He lives on the floor of the sea, not on the roof like a duck do.” If there’s one thing you can count on at the bottom of the ocean, its weird looking stuff. ZeFrank introduces us to a funky fish that scurries about with fins that resemble stubby little legs, munching on shellfish, and grumping about other fish that have the same name.

These days, we’ll take laughs any way we can get them. Take, for example, Real Big Boys‘ video of Seal’s 1994 hit Kiss from a Rose being sung by a choir of barking seals. We feel like the track could have used some penguin background singers, so here’s something to get you started.

Dee Bradley Baker has brought characters to life on everything from American Dad! to Samurai Jack. He also has the ability to imitate the sounds of all kinds of creatures, from birds to pigs to angry squirrels. Great Big Story sat down with Dee and asked him to improvise some animal noises. Those alien sounds were insane.

We’ve featured of skateboarding, snowboarding, and even a few cat videos over the years. But this is the first time we can recall seeing a video that combines all three. Smagical’s kitty Taddy loves to take a ride in the snow, and he’s got just the music video to go with his extreme winter sports.