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The Pandion haliaetus osprey is one of 6 species of birds with a cosmopolitan distribution. A characteristic feature of this bird is that it feeds almost exclusively on fish.
An adult bird reaches 55-58 cm in length, while having an absolutely incredible wingspan - in human height, up to 170 cm! The flight feathers of the first order in the planning flight look like splayed fingers.
The osprey has a typical hooked predator's beak, and on the back of its head is a short tuft that it can lift. Osprey paws are fishing gear. They are surprisingly long and armed with sickle-shaped claws, the fingers on the inside are covered with spikes, and the outer one is clearly protruding backwards. The valves protect the nasal openings from water ingress.
During hunting , the osprey slowly flies over the water at an altitude of 10 to 40 m . Having found the target, the bird hovers for a moment, then rushes forward, holding its claws outstretched in front of its beak. It can dive to a depth of up to 1 m
Unique videos of spotted deer feeding freshwater vegetation with immersion under water were received by researchers of the Land of the Leopard National Park in the Far East. For this type of ungulates, such a method of obtaining food and the use of such feeds in general have not been previously described by modern science.
The video of the deer divers was obtained using an automatic forest camera installed near the lake. The footage shows how ungulates are almost completely submerged under water for a long time, and then float up with prey.
From the bottom of the reservoir, animals get so–called hydrophytes - aquatic plants rich in useful substances and minerals. The record holder among hoofed "divers" was a deer that lasted 18 seconds under water at once.
The spotted deer, or flower deer, is a hoofed animal found on the Korean Peninsula, in China, Japan and in the south of the Primorsky Territory of Russia.
Guidac Panopea generosa is the largest mollusk in the world. It's pronounced "sticky duck". And he looks like... Mmm... Well, you have eyes yourself.
This marine mollusk is unique to the Pacific Northwest and difficult to get. But the Taylor Shellfish Farms team in Bow, Washington, has its own methods. Most Geoduck are shipped to East Asia, where they are a delicacy. How do they taste? Imagine the sweetness of scallops combined with the salinity of squid...
These large (up to 1.5 kg in weight) organisms have very long fused siphons (up to 1 m in length) and a relatively small (up to 20 cm) fragile shell. Guidac is considered the largest burrowing mollusk. The name "geoduck" ("gweduck") is borrowed from the Indians and means "deep digging".
This mollusk is famous as one of the longest-lived animals: the average life expectancy of guidaks is 146 years, and the age of the oldest individual found was 168 years. If it weren't for greedy, insatiable people...
Here you can see the unsuccessful hunting of polar wolves Canis lupus tundrarum for musk oxen.
Only every tenth hunt of the pack is successful - especially since only two took part in this one. Sometimes polar wolves go without food for many days, but then they eat up to 10 kg of meat at a time.
The polar wolf lives in the vast expanses of the polar regions, in winter in the conditions of the polar night. To survive, the wolf has adapted to eat any food that comes across.
He is well adapted to life in the Arctic: he can live for years at subzero temperatures, not see sunlight for months and stay without food for weeks.
The Polar wolf still inhabits the entire territory historically accessible to its kind. The reason for this is weak competition with humans.
This is a large predator: length without tail 130-150 cm, height at the withers: 80-90 cm. Weight up to 85 kg, females are smaller. Life expectancy is about 7 years
Achrioptera fallax is a species of colorful stick insects native to Madagascar. These insects do not attack or bite people. Their diet consists mainly of leaves - especially blackberries, raspberries, eucalyptus and oak.
The length of females is 20-26 cm; males are 14-17 cm. The imagos of the females are light brown in color and resemble a dry branch in their appearance (in this video, of course, it is the female).
Chest and legs with lots of spikes. A pair of spikes is also found on the head. The wings are very short, red in color. Both sexes are not capable of flight. Life expectancy is about 9 months.
To scare off a predator or a potential enemy, Achrioptera fallax clamp it with their hind prickly legs, spread their brightly colored wings and with their help make a loud enough, creaking sound. Males also often fall to the ground at the same time
Tamandua (four-toed anteater) Tamandua tetradactyla lives in South America, from southern Colombia and Venezuela to northern Argentina. The wild Tamandua population is steadily declining due to deforestation and poaching.
They inhabit humid tropical forests, as well as open spaces of savannas near streams and rivers. They equip their homes in empty burrows, they can dig themselves a hole in the ground.
Four-toed anteaters often inhabit tree hollows. Because of their long claws, they walk slowly and clumsily on the ground, so Tamandua prefer to climb trees, balancing with the tail.
Compared with their counterparts, giant anteaters, whose length reaches one and a half meters, and weight 40 kg, tamandua have much more modest data. The length of the tamandua's body is from 55 to 85 cm, the tail is 40-50 cm, the weight is 4-5 kg.
The crowned pigeon Goura cristata lives in New Guinea and on the adjacent islands.
The first specimens were brought to Europe in 1900 to the Rotterdam Zoo. The body length of these huge pigeons is up to 80 cm, weight up to 2.5 kg. Life expectancy is approximately 20 years.
It is endemic to New Guinea and adjacent islands. They choose dense forests, swamps, and flooded areas as places to settle.
The crowned pigeon feeds mainly on berries, fruits and seeds. Birds are looking for their food, first of all, in the litter of the forest - at the same time they never stir it up, which is not typical for pigeons
The Cape fox Vulpes chama or silver fox is the only "true fox" found in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also called the South African version of the fennec fox because of its equally large ears.
This is a small animal, its length is from 45 to 60 cm, not counting the tail (30-40 cm). The height at the withers is 30-35 cm, and the weight is 2.5-4.5 kg.
The Cape Fox is nocturnal and is most active shortly before dawn or after sunset; it can be spotted in the early morning and early evening. During the day, it usually hides in underground burrows, hollows or dense thickets.
It can dig its own burrow, although it usually modifies an abandoned burrow of another species, such as the white hare, according to its specific requirements.
This Cape fox was filmed in the Kalahari Desert, Botswana
It's a zombie snail! The parasitic worm Leucochloridium paradoxum took over her motor functions and eye stalks, turning them into caterpillar imitators so that birds could eat them.
The length of adult leukochloridium is up to 2 cm, width up to 1 mm. The adult form lives in the intestines of some passerine birds, attaching to the host's body with oral and abdominal suckers. Eggs with bird droppings fall on the grass, where they must be swallowed by the intermediate host of the parasite - the Succinea amber snail. In the body of a snail, a larva develops from eggs - a miracidium.
Thanks to the coloring and movement of the snail horns, they become attractive to birds pecking and swallowing the "caterpillar". This is how the parasite gets into the main host.
This is how Intelligent Design Theory works through Evolution. By the way, maybe God just created it out of boredom...
The great kudu Tragelaphus strepsiceros lives in Eastern and Southern Africa and is found primarily in savannas, which are a transitional form between forests and bare steppe.
Kudu wool usually has from six to ten vertical stripes. Kudu has large rounded ears and sometimes a rather long tail. Males have large screwed-up horns growing on their heads, reaching up to 1 meter in size.The larger they are, the higher the social status of the male.
Males form separate groups of bachelors, or live alone and join females only during mating periods. As a rule, one cub weighing about 16 kg is born during the rainy season.
Depending on the habitat, kudus are active during the day or at night. Their food consists mainly of foliage and young branches, while they are not very picky. Large kudus also feed on plants, which are avoided by other animals because of their venom
Antelope-jumper (klippspringer) Oreotragus oreotragus is a small cute creature about 50 cm tall and weighing only 9-18 kg.
Males have widely spaced wedge - shaped horns about 10 cm long . This antelope lives in Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, as well as along the western coast of Namibia and in southwestern Angola.
Antelope jumpers are very demanding of food. They feed on evergreen shrubs and grasses, fruits, bean seeds, flowers and lichens. They can migrate to places with better vegetation.
Antelope jumpers are able to go without water for a long time, since they get most of it from food.
Couples maintain intimacy throughout their lives. While the female feeds the cubs, the male always stands guard and protects her. During the dry season, jumping antelopes gather in groups of 6-8 individuals. With the beginning of the rainy season, such groups disappear
The dwarf (two-toed) anteater Cyclopes didactylus lives in Central and South America - from southern Mexico in the north to Brazil in the south.
Its length together with the tail is 35-45 cm (body 15-25 cm and tail 15-20 cm), and its weight is up to 400 g (average 266 g).
Like other anteaters, it has no teeth, but it has a long and sticky tongue, equipped with powerful muscles. The dwarf anteater has a prehensile, naked tail at the end, which helps him to move along the branches of trees.
This animal leads a predominantly nocturnal lifestyle. Prefers tropical multi-level forests, where he can move from place to place without leaving the branches of trees and where he feels as safe as possible.
This is a rather slow anteater, its main food is (yes, you knew!) ants (this baby consumes from 100 to 8000 ants per day). Additional food is other insects - for example, small bugs
The haragua lizard Sphaerodactylus ariasae, only 16 mm from nose to tail, is the smallest in the world. In fact, it is the smallest vertebrate animal that can reproduce on land.
The newly discovered lizard lives on Isla Beata, a small wooded island in the Caribbean Sea near the Dominican Republic. Researchers believe that this lizard lives only here.
"Our discovery shows that we still don't know everything about species on Earth, even in areas very close to the United States," says one of the scientists who discovered this lizard, Blair Hedges.
"The island of this tiny lizard is closer to Miami than Miami is to Puerto Rico, and we didn't even know about the existence of this species, although biologists have been studying this area for several hundred years."
Hedges says the habitat this species needs to survive is rapidly disappearing. "People are cutting down trees even in national parks, and if they remove the forest, these lizards and other species will disappear."..