In the comments to one of my previous lists someone suggested that I should submit a list of videos about animals. Fortunately, as the avid animal lover I am, I had saved the links to several interesting videos and it was only a matter of putting the best all together. I hope you enjoy them! WARNING- Some of these videos may be disturbing for very sensitive people, although I doubt it; also, for some reason, You Tube users often edit videos and put music tracks instead of the original audio; often, the result is abysmal. I apologize about that.
1. Orcas hunt seal as “training”, then let it go.
Adult orcas in Antarctica causes a crab-eating seal to fall off the ice by throwing giant waves at it, then return the seal to the ice instead of killing it. They were seemingly teaching their young how to hunt seals, but saw no need to kill the seal at the moment.
2. Warthog fights lioness off.
A young warthog defends itself against a much bigger lioness. Warthogs are known to kill hyenas and even lions in self defense; their tusks sharpen against each other every time the animal closes its mouth.
3. “Birth” of a stalk eyed fly
Amazing footage of a stalk eyed fly hatching from its cocoon and “shaping” into its adult appearance.
This incredible insect is found in south eastern Asia.
4. Sumatran rhino caught on camera for the first time in the wild
One of the rarest mammals in the world is filmed in the wild for the first time.
5. Young horn shark survives angel shark attack
Check out the amazingly fast attack of the angel shark.
6. Coconut carrying octopus
A clever octopus carries an empty coconut shell around.
7. Mimic octopus in action
The amazing mimic octopus changing its appearance to resemble other marine animals.
8. Octopus camouflage
A common octopus changes its skin’s color and texture to match its surroundings.
9. Crocodile bites man’s arm
A man teases a crocodile and obviously gets bitten; the croc then does the infamous “death roll” trying to tear the arm off. More than admiring the “bravery” of the guy, I admire the crocodile’s patience…
10. Christian the lion’s story
A very touching story of a lion raised by humans and then succesfully reintroduced into the wild. Rather famous story by now…
11. Gibbon taunts tiger cubs
An irreverent gibbon has fun by messing with two young tigers.
12. African crowned eagle in action
A majestic African crowned eagle hunts a vervet monkey to feed its family.
13. Megamouth shark caught on video
Extremely rare footage of a live megamouth shark, a species usually found in deep waters.
14. Superb bird of paradise
The spectacular and bizarre mating dance of the superb bird of paradise.
15. Battle at Kruger
A tourist captures a lengthy but fascinating scene involving a herd of buffalo, a pride of lions and a crocodile.
16. Transforming owl
The incredible defense mechanism of the African white faced owl when presented with enemies of different sizes.
17. Blanket octopus
A little known and seldom seen sea creature displays its defense mechanism.
18. Leopard catches impala in mid air
Amazing footage of a female leopard catching a fleeing impala.
19. Tiger attacks tourists on elephant
A tiger attacks an elephant carrying several men.
20. Leopard cuddles baby baboon
A leopardess kills a female baboon, and then realizes there is a baby baboon clinging to the body. Amazingly, instead of killing the baby, the leopardess seems to adopt a maternal attitude towards it.
21. Great white shark hunting sea lions
Footage from an excellent BBC documentary; great white shark in South Africa breaches to catch sea lions
22. Chito & Pocho
After curing and feeding a wounded American crocodile he found, a Costa Rican man nicknamed Chito develops a close bond with the enormous reptile, which according to him, is still aggressive and dangerous to everyone but him.
23. Female cougar protects cub from grizzly bear
A cougar risks her life to protect her cub against a much bigger and stronger grizzly bear.
24. Galloping crocodile
An Australian freshwater crocodile runs for the safety of water at full speed.
25. Giant squid caught on video for the first time
Not a particularly big specimen, but this is an important video; no wild giant squid had ever been filmed before.
A funny video of a house cat stalking its owner.
Just occurred to me:
TyB, to demonstrate +intelligence+ in the raw at work, you might have included the clip of the kitchen hunt from +Jurrassic Park+. Allosauri in search of prey (food) vs human children trying to avoid them (survival). Life or death chess based on deduction, brain-power and outwitting, the light of perception and thoughtful intelligence gleaming in the eyes of both. Allosaurus was almost certainly not that bright, and especially theoretically in an utterly alien new environment (for it). But who knows? And if it was, then human intellligence should be labelled dinosauromorphic, since they came first!
@Casualreader [121]:
The dinos in Jurassic Park were actually based on Deinonychus, a larger relative to Velociraptor. Nothing to do with Allosaurus.
I wasn´t trying to prove anything, tho; this list was supossed to be interesting, and not especially about intelligence. I am sad to see that it was misinterpreted.
@bluesman87 [116]: That is exactly the infomation i seek , thanks .
Good job, VO. I feel so un-needed now.
@ TyB, 122,
Yes of course, thanks for the correction. Probably I’ve got Allosauri on the brain, as I made a joke using the name in a letter the other day! In fact again, the species isn’t actually important for the point I was making, any fairly advanced dino-raptor would do.
Please don’t be disheartened. Keep up the good work. Remember that LV is often a deliberately vague tool which opens up avenues for all kinds of comments, often off topic, often wildly off topic. That doesn’t destroy the value of the original list unless it was so boring the readers are side-tracking! That’s obviously not the case here from the many approving and supportive comments for you.
In fact, why not take positive heart and use this particular line of obvious interest and debate in animal (and comparative human) behaviourism as a theme for a future list? It might even take the form of a comparison between cleverness and intelligence in animals (and humans). The clip of chimps hunting colobus monkeys immediately comes to mind, where they work together as a team by thought, communication and anticipation, just as we do. Dolphins do the same when driving shoals of fish to the surface. This behaviour is obviously intelligent to any but the blind and not specifically anthropomorphic. Big brains though? Yes, of course. Intelligence and brain size are inseparable.
I suspect that what is clever in our eyes, on the other hand, may often be no more than a facile behaviour pattern selected by generations of success, failure and competition (evolution), as much a part of an organism’s unconscious actions as breathing. It isn’t necessarily dependent on brain size at all. For example, both hover flies and hummingbirds have the identical clever knack of hanging in the air. It has evolved independently in both groups over time without conscious effort. But hummingbirds have larger brains, so other aspects of their behavious are far more flexible and adaptable than the overall behaviour pattern of a hoverfly. Evolution +recgnises+ this, and compensates the hoverfly for being more individually vulnerable as a result by its production in very large numbers so that enough survive by that strategy allied to painfully slow Darwinian evolution. That, rather than using their wits individually ad hoc a bit, as do the far fewer hummingbirds (ca two per brood)!
@Casualreader [124]:
Thanks, Casualreader!
)
I’ll keep uploading lists, until I no longer have the time or until Jamie gets sick of me. (Hope its not soon!
However, as fascinating as the field of animal intelligence is, after much arguing with people over the years I’ve became somewhat wary of the subject, since there are still plenty of close minded people out there. For some reason (ignorance? plain arrogance?), to these people the idea of non-human animals being intelligent is some kind of insult, and I have yet to see one of these people accept that they are wrong.
So, nowadays I prefer to simply show everyone how amazing and awe-inspiring wild animals are, so that they become interested in them and care about their survival.
That’s what I care about. To me, arguing about how intelligent dolphins or apes really are, is irrelevant when said dolphins and apes are being driven to extinction.
@ TyB, 125,
I see your point, of course. On the other hand, I think trying to gain the sympathy and support of open-minded folks is greatly helped if they appreciate that animals being driven to extinction by ourselves have abilities and sensibilities very close to ourselves, even if not identical.
As far as i’m concerned the closed-minded (in any matter that matters … to me) can take a running jump up their own backsides. The only way to crush the closed-minded is by stronger and more powerful open-minded opinion and backing.
Curious by contrast how there’s no difficulty in convincing almost any human that other humans (never them, of course), can be totally ignorant and stupid. Randall does it all the time! He would claim he doesn’t need to, since the ignorance and stupidity of his victims is exposed by themselves for all to see. With typical anthroporphic arrogance we often label this quality with animal connotations: +pig-ignorant+ (pigs are far from ignorant, as Winston Churchill, who greatly appreciated the animal, pointed out). Or making monkey noises and gestures at those we consider inferior. I’d love to see such a bunch of eco-fascists try that one on chimps or gorillas in the wild. I don’t dount the result would be the simian equivalent of your croc death-roll! Or a few of them in front of and close to Mike Tyson, or Ali in his prime.
No less an authority on human behaviour than Desmond Morris, author of +The Naked Ape+ is an avid football fan. He has pointed out that we make a grave error in judging intelligence by narrow standards. He cited the well-known inability of many sportsmen to express themselves verbally, and said their intelligence lay in their far superior ability and perception in their specialised field, which is finely-tuned co-ordination between brain and body. Chess is also co-ordination between brain and body, but we don’t condemn a Grand Master as stupid simply because he would fall over his own feet on a soccer pitch.
Actually, what distresses me in the Grand Extinction Event we are living through is the inability of almost all humans to relate to something that isn’t emblematically cuddly, colourful or cute … and ideally more or less as big as or bigger than ourselves. Who knows or cares when the last butterfly of some species goes extinct in Costa Rica, let alone a rare, dingy-looking fly? Poooffff – Good riddance – would be the near-universal reaction on hearing the latter. Most would be happy with the survival of the traditional contents of Noah’s Ark plus a few personal favourites. Biodiversity? Wasssat then?
I fought a giant squid once… I didn’t make it
@Casualreader [126]:
Completely agree with you and with the great Desmond Morris. I read one of this books when I was about 8 for the first time, and still read it once in a while simply because I enjoy it.
It is indeed sad that people cares only about the charismatic animals (panda, elephant and what not). But I am a great supporter of using them as poster boys to get people hooked and interested on the so called “lesser species” that complete the big net.
In the zoo, I would always use the “showman” strategy to get to the public; tell them the most amazing facts ONLY, minus the technical details. Let them be amazed, not overwhelmed. It works; people forgets statistics easily but they always remember amazing stuff, and that makes them care about the creature no matter how small or poorly known.
The Lions with the Cape Buffalo are the best. King of the jungle my ass.
@Sluiq [59]: I’m sorry, you have an excellent point, but you caught me at “…even though I hold no credentials and English isn’t my first language…”! Are you serious?! I figured you out to be some kind of English major of some sort!
@TyB [71]: I wish your list couldv’e been longer…
*hint* Maybe a second list? This was great.
I too am an animal lover. I have successfully hunted 2 animals on the list and a close cousins of another 2. Cougar and feral cats I have hunted. Along with Black bear (cousin of the Grizzly) and feral hogs (cousin of the warthog I think).
I find all these nature shows to be hilarious.
There are way more hunting shows sold on video than any nature show has ever accomplished.
I do have a caveat to my prior statemnet.
Hunting feral cats can hardly be considered hunting. More of a population control measure on local farms and suburban neighborhoods.
@ smbrickner, 133,
“More of a population control measure …”
Of course, you’ll be turning your much-needed talent to the human race, although I’d suggest selling condoms is a little less messy and violent than your traditional method, if less satisfying to the blood-lust.
Still it’s great to know we havn’t lost touch with the primaeval instincts that began the Great Extinction Event, and that they are more popular than David Attenborough.
I’m actually with you though. I hunt house-flies ruthlessly every time one of the bastards settles near my dinner.
Its hardly a bloodlust it’s simple economics when it comes to wild cats. Spaying or neutering is expensive. I can shoot them with a .22lr and spend $.25 a bullet.
I want to watch the videos, but I don’t want to see any animals getting hurt. =\
Fantastic list, though. Very original and very well done.
From the shows I have seen about crocs, they only bite when something touches the inside of their mouths. You can smack him on the nose all day. The FOOL in #9, when he sticks his arm in the mouth hits it’s lower jaw halfway in – he was supposed to do that when his arm was almost out.
Video #1 appears to be out of context. Unless the seal jumped on a different ice float. Looks like the end, where the seal is on a larger float, was maybe filmed before the whales knocked it off.
@nicoleredz3 [130]:
Sorry for the late reply. Yeah, it’s true.
It’s probably the length of my post. I fail at being clear though. That’s why I have a tendency to write long posts.
@Chunkified [129]: buffalos rhinos elephants and hippos are much more dangerous then lions , hippos especially they’ll bite you in half before you have time to ***** yourself , girrafes are sissys kindve like cows , just dont stand behind them tho.
What a clever list!! I like it TyB..looking forward to more.
Darth vs Phat Foe aka Chickens vs Cat
http://www.youtube.com/user/ZEBKRON#p/a/u/2/FEiXDCiCyf0
I firmly believe that animals were put here for our entertainment and sustenance. Whether that be fun videos or for hunting and fishing purposes.
haha love animal videos, great list
I like this one
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This is one of my favorite lists (:
Don't ever do this man!! Christian's story is so damn touching when he recognizes his friends!!
Damn him for fluffiness
i loved the list by the way… Funny stuff and errie
don't trust monkeys (of any type)
Cool list!
What about the video of the dog that pulls another dog to safety after it gets struck by cars on the highway? A really sad video to watch, but at the same time it's a very miraculous event to see. Or maybe this list was just meant to highlight wild animals?
TT_TT That one about the leopard and the baby baboon almost made me cry.
I have an amazing animal video, I don’t know if you are interested?
This is a really cool list. But I must admit, the first video I watched was that of the stalker cats. Hehe
Christian the Lion makes me tear up everytime I watch it! The unconditional love of an animal…
Christian the lion just made me cry. I want a LION!!!!
please send me funniest video for my presentation. Help me. I need it
Enter your comment here.
check out this amazing video of an Adelie penguin chasing a camera case
Amazing mouse fights off cat
Go on to YOU TUBE and watch “Bella and Donna”, the bonding between an elephant and a dog. They are inseperable and best of friends