Birds Singing - Creatures Animal - Amazing Youtube Video

Harvesting Honey from Giant Honeybees 2017

2017-06-14T22:47:00.001+07:00

Harvesting Honey from Giant Honeybees 2017. Honey Harvest from a Giant Honeybee (Apis dorsata).

Bees Unlimited, at it again!!... Out in the Rafter Beekeeping Community taking in a Sustainable Honey Harvest from a Giant Honeybee (Apis dorsata) colony in NW Cambodia, not too far from Angkor Wat... How sweet it is!!

Pied bushchat singing the best song ever

2015-05-02T07:52:00.000+07:00

The pied bushchat (Saxicola caprata) is a small passerine bird found ranging from West Asia and Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. About sixteen subspecies are recognized through its wide range with many island forms. It is a familiar bird of countryside and open scrub or grassland where it is found perched at the top of short thorn trees or other shrubs, looking out for insect prey.
This male Pied BushChat was very tame and visited the plot regularly. It looked really smart in its full breeding plumage with jet black body contrasting to the white rump and under tail coverts. It also regularly performed its short sweet song.

Many male passerines show a marked peak of singing activity before sunrise. It is generally believed that the main functions of the dawn song are mate attraction and territory defence.

We examined whether seasonal patterns of dawn song characteristics (i.e. song rate and level of song complexity) of male Pied Bush Chat were related with different breeding stages (unpaired, laying, nestling and fledgling). It was predicted that if the main function of dawn singing in Pied Bush Chat is to attract the female, then males should change their dawn singing behaviour after pairing.

Funny clip A conversation with parrot: Kaboki

2015-04-11T21:00:00.001+07:00

Funny clip A conversation with parrot: Kaboki. The man talking to his pet and the parot talking to him too.
Parrots, also known as psittacines are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes found in most tropical and subtropical regions.

Parrots have a generally pantropical distribution with several species inhabiting temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere as well. The greatest diversity of parrots is in South America and Australasia.
Studies with captive birds have given insight into which birds are the most intelligent. While parrots are able to mimic human speech, studies with the African grey parrot have shown that some are able to associate words with their meanings and form simple sentences .

The most important components of most parrots' diets are seeds, nuts, fruit, buds and other plant material. A few species sometimes eat animals and carrion, while the lories and lorikeets are specialised for feeding on floral nectar and soft fruits. Almost all parrots nest in tree hollows (or nest boxes in captivity), and lay white eggs from which hatch altricial (helpless) young.
The diet of parrots consists of seeds, fruit, nectar, pollen, buds, and sometimes arthropods and other animal prey. The most important of these for most true parrots and cockatoos are seeds; the evolution of the large and powerful bill can be explained primarily as an adaptation to opening and consuming seeds.
There are numerous challenges in studying wild parrots, as they are difficult to catch and once caught they are difficult to mark. Most wild bird studies rely on banding or wing tagging, but parrots chew off such attachments. Parrots also tend to range widely and consequently there are many gaps in knowledge of their behaviour. Some parrots have a strong, direct flight. Most species spend much of their time perched or climbing in tree canopies. They often use their bills for climbing by gripping or hooking on branches and other supports. On the ground parrots often walk with a rolling gait.

Sparrow feeding her babies on nest

2015-04-11T20:43:00.001+07:00

Sparrow feeding her babies on nest.Sparrow Mother bringing food back to her nest. Here them growing up each day. Mother Bird take of theme and cleaning nest.

Sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, names also used for a particular genus of the family, Passer. They are distinct from both the American sparrows, in the family Emberizidae, and from a few other birds sharing their name, such as the Java sparrow of the family Estrildidae.

Many species nest on buildings, and the house and Eurasian tree sparrows in particular inhabit cities in large numbers, so sparrows may be the most familiar of all wild birds. They are primarily seed-eaters, though they also consume small insects. Some species scavenge for food around cities and, like gulls or rock doves, will happily eat virtually anything in small quantities.
The sparrows are indigenous to Europe, Africa and Asia. In the Americas, Australia, and other parts of the world, settlers imported some species which quickly naturalised, particularly in urban and degraded areas. House sparrows, for example, are now found throughout North America, in every state of Australia except Western Australia, parts of southern and eastern Africa, and over much of the heavily populated parts of South America.
Generally, sparrows are small, plump, brown-grey birds with short tails and stubby, powerful beaks. The differences between sparrow species can be subtle. Members of this family range in size from the chestnut sparrow (Passer eminibey), at 11.4 centimetres (4.5 in) and 13.4 grams.

Adorable pets: Little Ferrets

2015-04-11T17:57:00.001+07:00

Adorable pets: Little Ferrets. The little Feerets joking mutal on the glass box.
The ferret (Mustela putorius furo) is the domesticated form of the European polecat, a mammal belonging to the same genus as the weasel, Mustela of the family Mustelidae.
Several other Mustelids also have the word ferret in their common names, including an endangered species, the black-footed ferret.

Being so closely related to polecats, ferrets easily hybridize with them, and this has occasionally resulted in feral colonies of polecat-ferret hybrids that have caused damage to native fauna, especially in New Zealand. As a result, some parts of the world have imposed restrictions on the keeping of ferrets.

They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur. They have an average length of 51 cm (20 inches) including a 13 cm (5 inch) tail, weigh about 1.5–4 pounds (0.7–2 kg), and have a natural lifespan of 7 to 10 years. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females.
Ferrets spend 14–18 hours a day asleep and are most active around the hours of dawn and dusk, meaning they are crepuscular. Unlike their polecat ancestors, which are solitary animals, most ferrets will live happily in social groups.
Ferrets are obligate carnivores. The natural diet of their wild ancestors consisted of whole small prey, meat, organs, bones, skin, feathers, and fur... Ferrets have short digestive systems and quick metabolism, so they need to eat frequently. Prepared dry foods consisting almost entirely of meat (including high-grade cat food, although specialized ferret food is increasingly available and preferable) provide the most nutritional value and are the most convenient, though some ferret owners feed pre-killed or live prey (such as mice and rabbits) to their ferrets to more closely mimic their natural diet.[

Calandra Lark singing a beautiful song

2015-04-10T23:05:00.000+07:00

Calandra Lark singing a beautiful song. The calandra lark (Melanocorypha calandra) breeds in warm temperate countries around the Mediterranean and eastwards through Turkey into northern Iran and southern Russia. It is replaced further east by its relative, the bimaculated lark.

The Calandra lark is the bulkiest species of this family. Adult male in breeding plumage has greyish-brown upperparts with blackish streaks. In spite of the pale-edged feathers of the back, this bird appears very dark, almost black when flying, as well seen from above as for below. Chin and throat are white, like lower breast and belly. Upper breast is pale buff streaked brown. When in flight, we can see the white spots on primary and secondary feathers, contrasting with the dark plumage. On the neck side, at the base, there is an elongated black spot. The short tail is blackish-brown, with the two outer rectrices mainly white. The bill is strong, conical, and down-curved on culmen, with darker upper mandible. The lower mandible is yellow. Legs and feet are yellowish-brown. Eyes are brown.

It is mainly resident in the west of its range, but Russian populations of this passerine bird are more migratory, moving further south in winter, as far as the Arabian peninsula and Egypt. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.

This is a bird of open cultivation and steppe. Its nest is on the ground, with 4–5 eggs being laid. Food is seeds supplemented with insects in the breeding season. It is gregarious outside the breeding season.

This is a large, robust lark, 17.5–20 cm long. It is an undistinguished-looking species on the ground, mainly streaked greyish-brown above and white below, and with large black patches on the breast sides. It has a white supercilium.

In flight it shows short broad wings, which are dark below, and a short white-edged tail. The wing and tail patterns are distinctions from its more easterly relatives.

As soon as March, the males sing very loudly. The Calandra Lark’s song is very loud, with melodious notes, often interspersed with harsh tones which make the melody less strong and pleasant than expected. This bird is able to mimicry the song of other birds’ species. The flocks utter their nasal chatters in the harvested corn or barley fields “klitrr”. The song flight includes high-pitched trills.

The onager or Asiatic wild ass Equus (hemionus)

2015-04-10T22:50:00.001+07:00

The onager or Asiatic wild ass Equus (hemionus) is a large member of the genus Equus of the family Equidae (horse family) native to the deserts and other arid regions of Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia, including in cold regions of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It formerly had a wider range from southwest to central Asian countries, such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Russia.

Onagers are a little larger than donkeys at about 290 kilograms (640 lb) and 2.1 metres (6.9 ft) (head-body length), and are a little more horse-like. They are short-legged compared to horses, and their coloring varies depending on the season. They are generally reddish-brown in color during the summer, becoming yellowish-brown in the winter months. They have a black stripe bordered in white that extends down the middle of the back.

The onagers eats grasses when available, but will browse on shrubs and trees at other times or in drier habitats. It has also been seen feeding on seed pods and breaking up woody vegetation with its hooves to get at more succulent herbs growing at the base of woody plants. During spring and summer in Mongolia, the succulent plants of the Zygophyllaceae family form an important component of the diet of the Mongolian wild ass. This subspecies is also known to eat snow in winter as a substitute for water. At other times when natural water points are unavailable, the Mongolian wild ass will dig holes in dry riverbeds to access sub-surface water. The water holes dug by the wild asses are often subsequently visited by domestic livestock, as well as other wild animals.
Breeding is seasonal, the gestation period in this species is 11 months, and most births occur from April to September. Females with young tend to form groups of up to five females. Males have been observed holding harems of females, but in other studies they defend territories that attract females. It is likely that differences in behaviour and social structure are the result of changes in climate, vegetation cover, predation and hunting. In Mongolia alone, the onager seems to adopt harem type social groups in the southwest and territorial based social groups in the south and southeast.

Giant Pandas eating bamboo

2015-04-09T21:03:00.002+07:00

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, lit. "black and white cat-foot". ) also known as panda bear or simply panda, is a bear native to south central China.
The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, but also in neighbouring provinces, namely Shaanxi and Gansu. As a result of farming, deforestation, and other development, the giant panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived.

The giant panda, a black-and-white bear, has a body typical of bears. It has black fur on ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, and shoulders. The rest of the animal's coat is white. Although scientists do not know why these unusual bears are black and white, some speculate that the bold coloring provides effective camouflage into their shade-dappled snowy and rocky surroundings. The panda's thick, wooly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat. Giant pandas have large molar teeth and strong jaw muscles for crushing tough bamboo. Many people find these chunky, lumbering animals to be cute, but giant pandas can be as dangerous as any other bear.

The giant panda has a black-and-white coat. Adults measure around 1.2 to 1.9 m (4 to 6 ft) long, including a tail of about 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in), and 60 to 90 cm (2.0 to 3.0 ft) tall at the shoulder. Males can weigh up to 160 kg (350 lb).] Females (generally 10–20% smaller than males) can weigh as little as 70 kg (150 lb), but can also weigh up to 125 kg (276 lb). Average adult weight is 100 to 115 kg (220 to 254 lb).
A wild giant panda’s diet is almost exclusively (99 percent) bamboo. The balance consists of other grasses and occasional small rodents or musk deer fawns. In zoos, giant pandas eat bamboo, sugar cane, rice gruel, a special high-fiber biscuit, carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes.
Scientists aren't sure how long giant pandas live in the wild, but they are sure it's shorter than lifespans in zoos. Chinese scientists have reported zoo pandas as old as 35. The National Zoo's Hsing-Hsing died at age 28 in 1999.

Axolotls On aquarium

2015-04-09T20:15:00.002+07:00

Axolotls On aquarium. The axolotl also known as a Mexican salamander (Ambystoma mexicanum) or a Mexican walking fish, is a neotenic salamander, closely related to the tiger salamander. Although the axolotl is colloquially known as a "walking fish", it is not a fish, but an amphibian. The species originates from numerous lakes, such as Lake Xochimilco underlying Mexico City. Axolotls are unusual among amphibians in that they reach adulthood without undergoing metamorphosis. Instead of developing lungs and taking to land, the adults remain aquatic and gilled.

Axolotls of various colours occur in captivity, including grey, shades of brown, leucistic (white with black eyes), golden albino, white albino, as well as other varieties, such as the melanoid (a near-black animal). The normally coloured axolotl, the "wild type", can be near-black like the one in the group photo to the left, chocolate brown like the one in the site's logo, or even creamy in colour, and anywhere in between. There are even "piebald" axolotls in various colours, and a variety that is piebald in more than one colour, known as the "harlequin".
A sexually mature adult axolotl, at age 18–24 months, ranges in length from 15–45 cm (6–18 in), although a size close to 23 cm (9 in) is most common and greater than 30 cm (12 in) is rare. Axolotls possess features typical of salamander larvae, including external gills and a caudal fin extending from behind the head to the vent.

The name "Axolotl" comes from the Aztec language, "Nahuatl". One of the most popular translations of the name connects the Axolotl to the god of deformations and death, Xolotl, while the most commonly accepted translation is "water-dog" (from "atl" for water, and "xolotl", which can also mean dog).
Axolotls have barely visible vestigial teeth, which would have developed during metamorphosis. The primary method of feeding is by suction, during which their rakers interlock to close the gill slits. External gills are used for respiration, although buccal pumping (gulping air from the surface) may also be used to provide oxygen to their lungs. Axolotls have four pigmentation genes which when mutated create different colour variants. The normal wild type animal is brown/tan with gold speckles and an olive undertone. The four mutant colors are leucistic (pale pink with black eyes), albino (golden with gold eyes), axanthic (grey with black eyes) and melanoid (all black with no gold speckling or olive tone). In addition there is wide individual variability in the size, frequency, and intensity of the gold speckling and at least one variant that develops a black and white piebald appearance on reaching maturity. Because pet breeders frequently cross the variant colours, animals that are double recessive mutants are common in the pet trade, especially white/pink animals with pink eyes that are double homozygous mutants for both the albino and leucistic trait.

Axolotls should not be confused with waterdogs, the larval stage of the closely related tiger salamanders (A. tigrinum and A. mavortium), which are widespread in much of North America and occasionally become neotenic. Neither should they be confused with mudpuppies (Necturus spp.), fully aquatic salamanders which are not closely related to the axolotl but bear a superficial resemblance.

The black Axolotl Swimming on aquarium

2015-04-09T20:00:00.004+07:00

The black Axolotl Swimming on aquarium. The Axolotl (pronounced Ax-oh-lot-ul), scientific name Ambystoma mexicanum.

Although the axolotl is colloquially known as a "walking fish", it is not a fish, but an amphibian. The species originates from numerous lakes, such as Lake Xochimilco underlying Mexico City.[5] Axolotls are unusual among amphibians in that they reach adulthood without undergoing metamorphosis. Instead of developing lungs and taking to land, the adults remain aquatic and gilled.

Axolotls should not be confused with waterdogs, the larval stage of the closely related tiger salamanders (A. tigrinum and A. mavortium), which are widespread in much of North America and occasionally become neotenic. Neither should they be confused with mudpuppies (Necturus spp.), fully aquatic salamanders which are not closely related to the axolotl but bear a superficial resemblance.

Red Squirrel On Island

2015-04-09T04:11:00.001+07:00

Red Squirrel On Island. Almost extinct in Southern England, the red squirrel is the most important pine feeding creature on Brownsea Island, where there are no competing grey squirrels.

The squirrels are most active in spring and autumn around sunrise and sunset. They can be found in all the wooded areas of the island. Look for stripped pine cones and hazel shells split neatly in half.

Red squirrel is very shy. Look up into the trees where squirrels spend most of their time. They usually construct several dreys in their home range.

However, they are very shy and can be difficult to spot, especially in the hot summer months. Partly-eaten cones may be the only clues. They feed on seeds in the cones all year round.

Red squirrel facts:
Red squirrels can tell by the weight of a hazelnut whether or not it contains a juicy kernel. They do not waste valuable time and energy opening dud nuts.
Red squirrels cannot live on acorns alone. It is believed that the tannins they contain cause digestive problems. They have to be eaten as part of a varied diet.
They need to eat daily and, if food intake is low because of poor weather or food shortage, they can quickly succumb to disease or starvation. Red squirrels need to gain at least 10 per cent of their body weight in fat if they are to survive the winter.
A red squirrel will usually have constructed several dreys in its home range.
Switching dreys helps to prevent a build-up of lice and fleas. Dreys are built in both deciduous trees and conifers.
Body fur is moulted in spring and autumn, but the tail and ear tufts are moulted only once a year in the summer.
Sexual maturity in the red squirrel is reached at approximately 11 months. Males are ready to mate at any time of the year, although some become sexually inactive between September and November. Females can produce two litters a year with an average of three youngsters in each litter. Gestation takes approximately 38 days.
Breeding is dependent on the availability of a good food supply. It will not take place if the red squirrels are hungry or in poor physical condition.
Red squirrels prefer a closed canopy, which provides cover and facilitates travel amongst the branches without touching the ground.

There are at present approximately 200 red squirrels on Brownsea Island, but numbers fluctuate from year to year.

Hummingbird Singing a Beautiful song

2015-04-08T17:00:00.002+07:00

Hummingbird Singing a Beautiful song.

Hummingbird Singing a Beautiful song. Birdsong and Sounds.

What is a hummingbird?
Hummingbirds belong to the avian family Trochilidae and their closest relatives are the equally fascinating swifts. Hummingbirds are small (2-20 grams), with long narrow bills, and small saber-like wings.

Males (and occasionally females) often have a colorful gorget (see sidebar): small, stiff, highly reflective, colored feathers on the throat and upper chest. These shiny feathers and others around the head may look sooty black until a hummer turns its head to catch the sun and display the intense metallic spectral color.

Hummingbird Superlatives
The Smallest Birds: The bee hummingbird of Cuba is only 1.95 grams, which means that theoretically 16 could be mailed first class for 39 cents. The calliope hummingbird, the fourth smallest bird, weighs in at a whopping 2.5 grams (less than an ounce) and can be found in the mountains of western North America.

The Tiniest Egg: The smallest birds come from the smallest eggs. Makes sense. But how small? The one to two eggs in a ruby-throated hummingbird clutch are about as tiny as peas and are placed in a walnut-shell sized cup woven from spider webs and plant material.

The Avian Helicopter: Hummingbirds and swifts are able to stroke with power both on the down- and up-beat of a wing flap. Their power and small size allow tremendous agility in flight. In fact, hummingbirds are the only vertebrates capable of sustained hovering—staying in one place during flight—and they can fly backwards and upside down as well.

To their maneuverability, hummingbirds add speed and stamina. Hummingbirds have been clocked at close to 30 mph indirect flight and more than 45 mph during courtship dives. Migratory ruby-throated hummingbirds have no problem flying 18 to 20 straight hours to cross the Gulf of Mexico, powered by their fat stores and given a bit of help from winds.

Life in the Fastlane: A ruby-throated hummingbirds heart beats from 225 times a minute when the bird is at rest to more than 1,200 times per minute when its flying around. Its wings beat about 70 times per second in direct flight and over 200 times per second while diving.

Asleep on the Job: Hummingbirds are one of the few groups of birds that are known to go into torpor. Torpor is a very deep sleep-like state in which metabolic functions are slowed to a minimum and a very low body temperature is maintained. If torpor lasted for long periods, we would call it hibernation, but hummingbirds can go into torpor any night of the year when temperature and food conditions demand it.

Hummingbirds are the masters of torpor because the have to be. Their feathers offer poor insulation and they have incredibly high metabolic demands. Torpor allows them to check-out physiologically when they cant maintain their normal 105° body temperature.

Calliope Hummingbird
Where Do Hummingbirds Live?
The almost 340 species of hummingbirds are entirely restricted to the New World, where they can be found from Tierra Del Fuego to southern Alaska and from below sea level deserts to steamy tropical forests up to 16,000 feet in the Andes of South America.

Most species live in the tropics, and while 17 species regularly nest in the United States, many of these are found close to the Mexican border. Most areas in the U.S. have one or two breeding species, and only the ruby-throated hummingbird nests east of the Mississippi.

Green Basilisk Lizard – The Jesus Christ Lizard

2015-04-06T22:44:00.000+07:00

World's Deadliest: Green Basilisk Lizard – The Jesus Christ Lizard. The Green Basilisk Lizard – also known as the plumed or double-crested basilisk – has evolved to be able to run across the surface of water without sinking.

Trapping Prairie chickens

2015-04-05T18:34:00.001+07:00

Trapping Red junglefowl - Gallus gallus (wild chickens). Two roosters crow very loud then run into a fight.The rooster gets trapped without knowing it.

Junglefowl are the four living species of bird from the genus Gallus in the Gallinaceous bird order, which occur in India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and Indonesia.

These are large birds, with colourful male plumage, but are nevertheless difficult to see in the dense vegetation they inhabit. As with many birds in the pheasant family, the male takes no part in the incubation of the egg or rearing of the precocial young. These duties are performed by the drab and well-camouflaged female. The junglefowl are seed-eaters, but insects are also taken, particularly by the young birds. One of the species in this genus, the red junglefowl, is of historical importance as the likely ancestor of the domesticated chicken, although it has been suggested the grey junglefowl was also involved.

Cuttlefish changing colors

2015-04-03T23:03:00.002+07:00

Cuttlefish changing colors: How quickly this beautiful cuttlefish could change colors! This amazing creature. Cuttlefish survive by being able to blend into their surroundings through camouflage.

White rumped Shama feeding their babies

2015-04-03T22:23:00.001+07:00

White rumped Shama feeding their babies. Mother of them bringing a worm back to her nest. Here them growing up each day. Mother Bird take of theme and cleaning nest.

White-rumped Shama: Native to Southeast Asia, this bird has a glossy blue-black head, nape, back and upperbreast. It has black wings and tail, white rump and outer tail feathers, rufous belly and lower breast, a black bill and pink legs and feet. Long tail enables it to change directions quickly in the dense underbrush it prefers. Feeds on insects, earthworms and fruit.

he white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus) is a small passerine bird of the family Muscicapidae. Native to densely vegetated habitats in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, its popularity as a cage-bird and songster has led to it being introduced elsewhere.

Archerfish Shoting – Green Arrow of the Sea

2015-04-03T18:59:00.002+07:00

Archerfish are appropriately named due to their ridiculous accuracy when hunting for prey. This type of fish is a sniper capable of nailing targets several feet above the surface with deadly jets of water.

Researchers discovered that Archerfish evolved highly-controlled mouths that are able to create enough power to squirt jets forceful enough to kill its prey. Their aiming system somehow tracks their target through even choppy water that refracts light.

The spitting cannon of the Archerfish is so accurate that it’s able to modify the waterjet to optimize the force delivered according to the distance of its target.

Hummingbird feeding their babies

2015-04-03T10:57:00.000+07:00

Hummingbird feeding their babies. Mother of them bringing food back to her nest. Here them growing up each day. Mother Bird take of theme and cleaning nest. Here are the baby hummingbirds in our backyard during feeding time.

With a metabolism unmatched in the animal world, the Hummingbird is capable of flapping their wings up to 80 times per second, flying at a moment’s notice in any direction, even while upside down. The Hummingbird heart operates at 1,260 beats per second and they even consume their food at an incredible pace of up to 13 licks a second.

They’re the only animal capable of hovering in place, which they achieve by flapping their superspeed wings in a figure-eight pattern. Hummingbirds can reach velocities of up to 40 mph while in a courtship dive and have a maximum speed of about 25 mph during regular flight. At rest, hummingbirds breathe up to 250 times per minute.

Lyrebird – The Mimic

2015-04-02T22:12:00.005+07:00

Lyrebird – The Mimic: A complex larynx enables the Lyrebird to create an incredible array of different sounds, ranging from its own songs to songs based on human sounds, such as a chainsaw, laser beams or camera shutters.

Lyrebird

The lyrebird’s superpower is the ability to mimic an incredible array of sonic information, which it uses as a self-defense mechanism to intimidate and hide from its predators.

This remarkable bird is able to mimic as many as 20 different species at a time and constantly sings its own songs and other tunes in an effort to keep safe. Lyrebirds are indigenous to Australia, found in the Great Dividing Range and the rainforest close to the border of Queensland and New South Wales.

Tardigrades – Captain Indestructible

2015-04-02T22:07:00.002+07:00

Tardigrades – Captain Indestructible: Nicknamed “Water Bears” because of their cuddly, non-threatening appearance, Tardigrades are the hardiest survivors of the animal kingdom, able to deal with deadly extremes that would kill the vast majority of life on Earth.

Tardigrades

Tardigrades can be exposed to temperatures close to absolute zero, extreme heat and pressure greater than what’s found at the bottom of the ocean. They survive by utilizing cryptobiosis, in which the animal ceases metabolic life processes and dehydrates to about 3 percent of its usual water content.

Through this process, Tardigrades have survived in the vacuum of space for 10 days before being revived. Researchers believe Tardigrades can endure dehydration for ten years and still survive.

Mantis Shrimp – Bullet Fist

2015-04-02T21:54:00.002+07:00

Mantis Shrimp - Bullet Fist: The Peacock Mantis Shrimp is a stomatopod crustacean that appears to be an adorable little sea creature with a whimsical rainbow color scheme and goofy little eyes. At first glance, its main superpower seems to be the ability to be delicious with melted butter and a wedge of lemon.

Mantis Shrimp

However, over generations, the Mantis Shrimp has evolved to become the deadliest hunter in its weight class. Their eyes have 16 photoreceptors, enabling them to see UV light, polarised light and colors that humans cannot imagine, in addition to perceiving depth with one peeper while being able to move both eyes independently.

The Mantis Shrimp punches with the same acceleration of a .22 bullet, using claws that are so hard that researchers study them for combat purposes. This punching speed boils the water surrounding the Mantis Shrimp claw, which helps to easily break through crab shells and aquariums made of glass.