Awesome Nature

Here’s one of those amazing phenomena that you can’t believe actually occurs on our planet. melkiy582 captured this awe-inspiring footage of these solar parhelia and an accompanying halo while riding the train in Moscow.

Ian Matheson and his son Oliver were in Africa’s Mjejane Reserve when they stumbled onto a buffalo rescuing another from a lion attack by flipping the predator into the air. Apparently, all of the animals walked away unscathed.

“Imagine trying to move by vomiting out of giant straw and flapping your skirt around very fast – that is how a cuttlefish do.” That’s just one of the many weird facts you’ll learn from Zefrank’s flick about this odd little cephalopod.

If you thought that crocodiles were pretty much at the top of the jungle food chain, think again. Wait until you see this jaguar as it methodically sneaks up on a caiman and makes it his dinner. Guess we know where this cat got his instincts.

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you can skip reading this. But if you live where giant redwoods aren’t plentiful, check out this kit. It gives you everything you need to grow your own giant tree, except soil, a shovel and 200 years.

While bees are some of nature’s most helpful stinging insects, wasps are just nasty buggers. Here, one does in a poor bee with the ultimate finishing move – the full body slice. We have a saying around here: “Nature… it’s disgusting.”

This tiny little puffer fish has quite a talent – constructing immaculate underwater crop circles by swimming in the sand. The spirographs measure seven feet in diameter. (Thanks Orion!)

Alligators and crocodiles have a special move they do to help rip the flesh from their prey. Now, watch this awesome and brutal feat of strength as captured by the high-speed camera of Earth Unplugged.

Daniel Csobot captured various plants growing and blossoming. They look like beautiful alien creatures. Csobot used a Canon 7D to shoot the time-lapse; check out his setup here. The track is Digital Hearbeat by Daniel Gautreau.

Bask in the majesty of the Niagara Falls from a bird’s eye view. YouTuber questpact used a DJI Phantom quadcopter equipped with a GoPro HD Hero3 camera. The song is The In-Between by A New Normal.

BBC Earth shows us the ridiculously massive Pliosaurus funkei – also known as “Predator X” using computer simulation. The killer, sea-dwelling creature was said to have had a bite four times more powerful than mighty T. Rex.

Undersea pilots Graham Hawkes and Lee Behel deep dive in their DeepFlight Super Falcon submersible in the waters of Hawaii on a quest to hear the song of the whale. Some of the most beautiful GoPro footage we’ve ever seen.

(NSFW: Language) ZeFrank educates us on yet another one of Mother Nature’s wonderful creations, the sea pig. Guess we won’t be eating any sea pig bacon any time soon. And sea cucumbers… let’s just say they’ve got issues.

While most of us do everything we can to avoid getting near a wasp’s nest, Ultraslo put their Phantom Miro 4 high-speed camera right in the middle of one. Everything you see here took place in less than 8/100ths of a second.

Camouflage isn’t the only skill the mighty octopus possesses. Watch as this cephalopod squeezes its massive body out of a tiny hole in the side of this boat. (Thanks Daniel!)

You might want to wait to eat your lunch until later after watching ZeFrank’s latest educational clip about these nasty critters that roll around giant balls of poo. Naked. With their mouths.

Over a decade ago, marine biologist Roger Hanlon stumbled onto an octopus as it transformed to match its surroundings, leading him to study how cephalopods morph in color, shape and texture.

Wildlife photographer John Downer was kind enough to share this cute and hilarious footage from the BBC/Discover program Penguins – Spy in the Huddle. The snowball cam is pretty classic too.

After his encounter with squirrely squid, Steve Backshall meets up with a gnarly looking eel. We love how he says “please don’t take my fingers off” as he puts them right in front of its mouth.

Apparently, bullfrogs don’t discriminate much about what they eat, chomping down everything from tarantulas to scorpions to little birds – even other smaller bullfrogs – in a single gulp.

BBC TV host Steve Backshall handles one of the most ornery underwater creatures, the Humboldt squid. Clearly, it’s none too happy with him, as it squirts massive amounts of ink at his captor.

YouTuber Erick Reis came upon thousands of spiders suspended in very thin webs across power lines. A local biologist claimed that it was a normal phenomenon. Doesn’t make it less creepy.

Photographer and VFX artist Mark Gee took this absolutely stunning footage of people viewing the moon rising over Mount Victoria Lookout in New Zealand. The video is in real time and unedited.

Neighbirds are modular birdhouses designed by Andreu Carulla Studio. They are easy to install and can be hung not just on trees but on a wall or ceiling as well. Contact Utoopic to order.

On his trip to the Amazon, Smarter Every Day encountered a tailless whip scorpion, a harmless arachnid. Sure, it’s not venomous, but its fearsome appearance could still cause a heart attack.

BBC cameraman Gordon Buchanan hangs out inside of a clear safety box to capture face-to-face footage of a deadly polar bear. You’ll have to move to the UK and watch The Polar Bear Family & Me for more.