Fun Animals Wiki,Videos,Picture,Stories

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Watch a rattlesnake plan attack by clearing path for its strike


The snakes checked out the area for signs of prey and then, once they had identified a burrow, forcibly jerked their heads and necks to move surrounding grass (see video, below). The hunters proceeded to wait for their prey in an ambush spot for up to 3 hours.
Perhaps the snakes are modifying their habitat to try and increase their hunting success

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Friday, June 23, 2017

World’s smallest deer: Philippine Mouse Deer


This is the smallest hooved mammal – the Philippine mouse deer, locally known as Pilandok, it’s only about 40 centimeters tall, which makes it also the cutest deer in the history of ever. That said, it’s not technically a member of the deer family, but it’s freaking close enough for me.
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Thursday, June 22, 2017

Seagull Falls Into Tikka Masala Curry, Comes Out Looking Orange


A hungry seagull was left bright orange after falling into a vat of waste curry outside a food factory on Monday.
The bird was apparently trying to nab a piece of chicken from the container of tikka masala when it ended up falling in.

The animal was taken from the site in Wales to Vale Wildlife Hospital near Tewkesbury where vets cleaned it up and made sure it wasn’t injured.
“The strong curry aroma actually hit us before we opened the box,” veterinary nurse Lucy Kells told Solent News. “It was absolutely overwhelming and I thought ‘that smells fantastic’.”

“We had to give him a shower and clean him with washing up liquid. Surprisingly, he was actually very well behaved. The gull is doing great now - he still smells a little of curry, but he is now much whiter.”
It’s thought the bird became trapped because the curry was too thick for him to fly away.

The distinctive colouration caused by the turmeric led to people of Facebook dubbing him “Gullfrazie”.

He’ll now be kept in a cage to regain his strength, then transferred to an outdoor aviary to redevelop the waterpoof coating on his feathers.
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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Kitten Sees Itself In The Mirror For The First Time


The world is a strange place for a newborn kitten - everything is huge and confusing, and you learn new things everyday.

This little cutie named Wiske had an absolutely adorable reaction to her first time seeing a mirror, when she clearly couldn’t tell what was going on.

YouTube Simon Newport shared the footage of the feline newborn last week, and later uploaded an ‘Inception’-style follow up of Wiske watching herself watching herself in the mirror. Confusing, but very cute.

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Saturday, June 17, 2017

Island fox of California


The island fox is a small fox that is native to six of the eight Channel Islands off the coast of California
California. These include Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands.

Its diet in the remote areas consists of mice, crickets, beetles, earwigs and fruits from plants such as cactus. Campers are warned not to feed the cute critters.

The island fox is one-third smaller than its mainland ancestor, the grey fox, at 12 to 13 inches in height and four to five pounds in weight.

It is the only carnivore unique to California. Thanks to conservation efforts, the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species now lists the island fox as near threatened from endangered.
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Friday, June 16, 2017

Tuatara: New Zealand reptiles


It has survived ice ages, volcanic eruptions and the intrusion of humans on its South Pacific island home, but New Zealand's last survivor of the dinosaur age may become extinct due to global warming.
Mounted with spiny scales from head to tail and covered by rough, grey skin that disguises them among the trees, the tuatara is one of the world's oldest living creatures.

But the lizard-like reptile is facing increasing risk of extinction from global warming because of its dependency on the surrounding temperature, which determines the sexes of unborn young while still in their eggs.

So named by New Zealand's indigenous Maori people because of the spines on its back, the tuatara is the only survivor of its species of reptile that flourished during the age of the dinosaurs, some 200 million years ago.

It can grow up to 20 inches and weigh up to 2.2 pounds and like its reptile relative, the turtle, the slow-moving tuatara can live for more than 100 years, feeding mainly on insects.

But scientists say its long life span as well as its four-year breeding cycle - relatively slow for a reptile - will make the adaptation process more difficult.
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Thursday, June 15, 2017

Galapagos Penguin - Endangered Species


Galapagos penguins are the rarest and most endangered penguin species in the world and the only one that can be found at the equator.
Galapagos Penguin
Unlike most cold water penguins, they have several adaptations that allow them to tolerate the warmer climate of Galapagos, with their ability to pant like a dog being one them.

They also have less body fat and fewer feathers than cold-weather penguins allowing them to lose body heat more efficiently. Their smaller size also means they don't need to eat as much to survive

One of the reasons for their endangered status is that limited options for nest sites exist in the Islands.

Many nests used 40 years ago either no longer exist, are used by marine iguanas, or now get flooded.

The WWF lists the Galapagos penguin as endangered with only 2,000 thought to exist in the wild.
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Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Amazing footage shows frenzied piranhas devouring a bull's head as it is held in the water


This is the gruesome moment a bull's head was ripped to the bone by a shoal of bloodthirsty piranhas.
 The fish tore into the animal's flesh after it was dipped into the murky waters of the Amazon river by a local man standing on a gondola.

The daredevil raised the head out of the water to reveal the fish gorging on the meat just inches away from his unprotected hands.

Piranhas can attack humans too but thankfully did not decide to take a bite out of him.

The footage of the extraordinary feeding frenzy was posted on YouTube, where it has been viewed more than seven thousand times. 

Every year hundreds of piranha attacks are reported throughout South America.

The most notable piranha incident in recent times came in Argentina in December 2013, when an attack by a school of hungry piranhas saw 70 people injured and several children lose fingers and toes.

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Monday, June 12, 2017

Quokka


Most marsupials live in Australia, constraining their range a bit already. But the quokka is only found in the southwest corner of Australia and a few nearby islands, giving it an even smaller area to live than its cousins.
Quokka
Quokkas are fearless and curious of humans, which can lead to some unfortunate interactions with less-than-kind humans who come into contact with these puffy cheeked critters. Even some more altruistic people can mess up a quokkas life by feeding them. The quokka survives on vegetation not just for food, but for water.

Interestingly, the quokka has taken root in Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, a reserve initially set up to protect noisy scrub-birds. Since then, the Gilbert's potoroo has taken root. This species is possibly the most endangered marsupial in the world. Thus, one of the most vulnerable marsupials lives among one of the most endangered.
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Saturday, June 10, 2017

Helium drinks will bring out the Chipmunk in you!

Still drinking them regular (AKA boring) alcohol drinks? You really should try helium infused beer or wine with your friends and guaranteed it will help you kick the blues away a whole lot faster! Just check these videos out for reference!


Don't forget to tag your besties who'd love to enjoy this with you!


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Tuesday, June 6, 2017

9 animals with extremely long migrations


Animals migrate for a lot of different reasons. Some travel long distances on a seasonal basis for food, finding their meal of choice hundreds and thousands of miles away. Others make their journeys to find mates while still others do it to avoid unfavorable weather, staying just ahead of the winter line as it creeps down from the poles every year.

The length of animal migrations vary as much as the reasons for doing it. Most migrations are measured in miles, though some animals like the golden jellyfish might travel just a few hundred meters on their daily migration, following the sun. Some kinds of plankton start their day hundreds of feet down the water column before coming up nearer the surface while the sun is out. At night they migrate back down to lower depths.

We wanted to focus on those species that undertake the really long migrations. Which are the most well-traveled animals in the world? Which organisms are traveling thousands, and even tens of thousands, of miles in pursuit of a better meal, warmer weather, or a chance to find a mate and reproduce?

We scoured the globe far and wide and bring you these nine animals with seriously long migrations.

Monarch butterfly

Monarch butterfly
Of all the animals listed here, the monarch butterfly’s total migration is the shortest, at just a few thousand miles at most. But what they lack in overall distance, they more than make up by how they do it. See, the thing is, monarch butterflies only live for a couple of months. Their migration can take six months. This means that it takes two to three generations of butterflies for each migration! Somehow the knowledge of how to travel thousands of miles is embedded in their DNA and is finely attuned to allow them to pick up the path, no matter where they are born along it.

Monarch butterflies generally head south around August and north in the spring. Their Mexican wintering grounds were only discovered in the '70s and entomologists are still unsure about the biological mechanisms that allow for their multi-generational migration.

Whales

Whales
We decided to lump whales together into one large category because otherwise half the animals listed would be one kind of whale or another. Whales have the benefit of being massive and living in a medium — the wide open ocean — that is conducive to long-distance travel.

Humpback whale


Humpback whale
Humpback whales are one of the largest animals in the world and can grow longer than 50 feet in length. Humpback whales were nearly driven to extinction by whaling, but a 1966 moratorium on hunting the species has helped their numbers recover. They are solitary animals and spend their summers eating in cold polar waters. In the winter, they migrate towards the equator to find a mate and breed. In all, your typical humpback whale can put in more than 6,000 miles of travel in a year.

Gray whale

Gray whale
Gray whales are another huge denizen of the deep and can grow to be nearly as large as the humpback. They too have proven to be attractive targets for whaling harpoons and their estimated population is just north of 20,000. Gray whales are recognized as having one of the longest migration routes for a mammal and can travel 10,000-12,000 miles in a year, spending the summer feeding in the waters between Alaska and Russia and mating and calving down around the Baja peninsula.

Southern right whale

Southern right whale
The range of the Southern right whale extends from the coast of Antarctica to the southern most reaches of South America, Africa and Australia. They feed in the Southern Ocean in the summer and then migrate north, like the humpback and gray, to breed. There is still a lot we don’t know about the migratory grounds of the Southern right whale, but scientists have documented one way journeys of 2,750 miles (double it to get a round trip total of 5,500 miles).

Arctic tern
Arctic tern
Birds are another type of animal well known for long migrations. Like whales, they live in a medium, the open sky, made for migrating. Birds take advantage of this by churning in some big miles. The Arctic tern, one of the longest migrators on the planet, can travel a mind boggling 44,000 miles in a year (Earth is just under 25,000 miles around). They do this by making a trip from their summer breeding grounds in the Arctic all the way to the Antarctic to winter, and back, every year. Multiply that by the roughly 30 years an average tern lives, and you can get more than 1 million miles in a lifetime. Too bad they don’t get frequent flyer miles for that.

Pectoral sandpiper

Pectoral sandpiper
You wouldn’t think that the pectoral sandpiper would be a champion migrator just by looking at it — the small bird’s average wingspan is only around a foot and a half. But the pectoral sandpiper puts in some serious miles on the wing — more than 18,000 in a year. They travel annually from breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere (Alaska, Canada, and northern Asia) to the Southern Hemisphere (South America and Australia).

Sooty shearwater


Sooty shearwater
The sooty shearwater is a large bird, with a wingspan more than three feet wide. They make their mammoth yearly migration of more than 40,000 miles by circling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In 2005, scientists tagged 19 sooty shearwaters and watched in amazement as they flew huge distances in pursuit of warm weather and productive feeding grounds.

Globe skimmer dragonfly

Globe skimmer dragonfly
The globe skimmer dragonfly is well named. One of the most widely distributed dragonfly in the world, they have been observed making journeys more than 2,300 miles and scientists think they could put in more than 11,000 miles of travel in a year. Not bad for an insect just a couple of inches in length.

Adelie penguins

Adelie penguins
Like all penguins, Adelie penguins spend their lives plying the waters of Antarctica. This curious little bird splits its year between breeding and feeding grounds that can require more than 10,000 miles of travel of transit. In 2003, penguin researchers tagged two colonies living on Antarctica’s Ross Island and found average birds migrating a little more than 8,000 miles with the longest route being nearly 11,000 miles.
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Monday, June 5, 2017

7 Animals Found Only in the Middle East


The Middle East is home to many animals that you cannot find anywhere else in the world, that have evolved and adapted to the unique environment of the region. Some of the species are so rare they are actually endangered. Here’s a look at 7 mammals prevalent only to the region:
Arabian Mau
1. Arabian Mau: These frisky felines are descendants from wild desert cats, which are well- adapted to hot Middle Eastern temperatures. Their ears, for instance, are long and stand upright in order to dissipate heat. But the most fascinating thing about the Arabian Mau, which can be found mainly in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., is that it was thought to be a random street cat. It was only declared a legitimate breed in 2008!
Palestine Mole Rat
2. Palestine Mole Rat: Also known as the Middle Eastern Blind Mole Rat, this rodent has been pestering Palestinian farms for hundreds of years. It can be found in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon Turkey and, of course, Palestine. The Palestine Mole Rat is also considered the best animal for lab testing and is used in cancer research, thanks to its powerful immune system.
Arabian Tahr
3. Arabian Tahr: The Arabian Tahr, which is closely related to the wild goat, is an endangered species found mostly in the Hajar Mountains of Oman. They are well equipped to handle the high altitudes and the steep slopes with their rubber hooves, stocky builds and backward arching horns.
Syrian Hamster
4. Syrian Hamster: Who knew that one of the most popular house pets originated from Syria? The Syrian Hamster, also known as the Golden Hamster was referred to as “Mister Saddlebags” in local Arabic due to the amount of food it can store in its cheeks. The Wild Golden Hamster population is quickly decreasing however, due to habitat loss.
Arabian Oryx
5. Arabian Oryx: Qatar Airways’ mascot is known for its distinct, long straight horns and was nearly extinct in the 1970s. Fortunately, preservation efforts managed to reintroduce the antelope to the wild. The Arabian Oryx is mainly found in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula.
Bunn’s Short-tailed Bandicoot Rat
6. Bunn’s Short-tailed Bandicoot Rat: This teeny tiny rodent can actually only be found in Iraq, and prefers the marshlands of the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys. It is considered an endangered species.
Cheeseman’s Gerbil
7. Cheeseman’s Gerbil: Named after explorer and military officer Colonel Robert Ernest Cheeseman, this medium-sized gerbil is about 22cm long, and is mainly found in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as southwestern Iran.
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Thursday, June 1, 2017

5 Animals That Have Gone Wild in Australia


Australian scientists are looking to use a fish virus to control the exploding population of European carp that is damaging freshwater ecosystems in the country’s agricultural heartland. Biocontrol agents have been previously successful in controlling rabbit plagues. Scientists and lawmakers hope the koi herpes virus CyHV3 can do a similar job with the invasive fish known by most Australians as the “cockroach of the waterways.” But the country’s past experience of controlling so-called “alien” species has been mixed.

Here are five animals that have gone wild in Australia:

1. Rabbits

Rabbits
Rabbits were introduced to Australia in 1859 by a wealthy farmer who was eager to hunt them. The rabbits escaped and over the course of 70 years, they fanned out to cover most of the country—the fastest mammal invasion, according to government scientists. In 1950, scientists released the Myxomatosis virus which killed 500 million rabbits, though 100 million survived. Their numbers today are a fraction of pre-Myxomatosis levels, but rabbits still cause an estimated 200 million Australian dollars (US$149.2 million) in economic damage annually.

2. European Red Foxes


European Red Foxes
Like cats, foxes were introduced to Australia by settlers in the 1830s for hunting. They also spread quickly. Foxes are now found in all states except Tasmania and are a common predator in all areas outside the northern tropics. The fox is even seen in major cities and is blamed for numerous mammal extinctions or population declines. Controls include shooting and dropping poison bait from planes. But the fox population today still numbers more than 6 million.

3. Cats

Cats
Cats arrived with British settlers. Feral cats are now being blamed by scientists for a second wave of animal extinctions in Australia. With their population estimated at up to 23 million, these cats are believed to kill 75 million native animals each night, according to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, including birds, lizards and even small kangaroos. Scientists have tried biological control, but effective control requires trapping, fences and shooting.
Associated Press

4. Flies

Flies
An average cow drops up to 12 dung pads every day, according to government scientists. With more than 28 million cattle, this is a huge amount of dung and contributes to Australia’s fly plagues. Each pad can produce up to 3,000 bush flies and waving them away has become known as the “Aussie salute.” Since 1969, the country has imported dung beetles from Africa and southern Europe to break down dung, helping control disease and health hazards spread by flies.

5. Cane Toads
Cane Toads
Toxic South American cane toads were introduced to Australia in 1935 in an effort to contain two types of cane beetles that were ravaging sugar crops. Imported from Hawaii by the government’s Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, the toads—which weigh up to 4 pounds—had no impact on the beetles. But they have quickly marched across Australia’s northern tropics, killing native predators and birds that aren’t used to their toxins.
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