Animals are Magical

[rgray222]

Extremely short video, but it appears the dog and the girl both clearly understand the commitment being made.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fF_Pj0u2WJQ

[Tintin]

The Mantis Shrimp

Here's one of the most extraordinary creatures that shares our world with us

"...[at] the speed of a .22 calibre bullet"

Source: https://x.com/TheLizVariant/status/2075356777743339543

[Johnnycomelately]

Sad in one way, magical in more. Everything must eat, to live here.

Lion kitty got away from the hippo, then got taken by a big croc. They didn’t show the sibling’s sad story.


No judgement here. I love God, and ALL his critters. File this under dunno why this happens but I trust in the nature order.


Helpless Lions Watch Crocodiles and Hippos Catch their Brave Cub

Latest Sightings
6.47M subscribers

Oct 20, 2025

A pride of lions somehow got stuck at the water's edge in a croc-infested river. All the adult lions managed to climb to the top, but 2 little cubs didn't have enough strength to get up and over.

Crocs and hippos saw the commotion, and they joined the fight. The brave little cubs ran along the bank, desperately dodging the crocodiles, almost as if they were in a video game. 😢

None of the cubs made it out, and in the video, you can see how one of them got snapped up by a massive crocodile while hopelessly running for an escape.

"My guide and I stayed and filmed/photographed this event the whole day, from 5.30am to 8pm. The Nsefu pride had tried to cross the fast-flowing Luangwa River, and 6 became trapped on the steep bank. The only exit was some 200M upstream (on the right), the Lions could not see that exit from their angle. My breathing was caught via my Z9’s built-in microphone b4 I switched to a shotgun mic later."
Tinged by ‪@MarcMol‬ --- Wildlife photographer

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=60KVu5ADz4E

[BMJ]

First There Was " Denise the Menace " and Now We Have " Neil The Seal "

Stark warning as admirers flock to catch famed elephant seal’s viral antics

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vHExrIAgbPE

A Current Affair
July 6, 2026
Neil the one tonne elephant seal’s famed antics across Tasmania may not be as innocent as they seem.

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by BMJ (here)
First There Was " Denise the Menace " and Now We Have " Neil The Seal "

Stark warning as admirers flock to catch famed elephant seal’s viral antics

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vHExrIAgbPE

A Current Affair
July 6, 2026
Neil the one tonne elephant seal’s famed antics across Tasmania may not be as innocent as they seem.

Haha, came to post this, good on you BravoMJ.

The folks interviewed on the street all love that the Neil visits. Say he’s interesting, and generates lots of touri$m.

Imo, Aussies could handle the automobile damage problem by giving him a choicer car to challenge. Make an armoured Low Rider type vehicle, not just jumping but tuned for this purpose, agile and maybe looking like a same size fat bas*erd seal.

I haven’t searched if big boy has been tagged, lazy me. They track sharks, at least, for thousands of miles. Maybe one year he will catch a scent on a south wind, and he’ll be “Here I come”. That voyage would be epic to behold.

[Tintin]

An extraordinary piece of footage showing an altercation between an Anteater and a Jaguar, and the Anteater seemingly more than able to hold its own:

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by Tintin (here)
An extraordinary piece of footage showing an altercation between an Anteater and a Jaguar, and the Anteater seemingly more than able to hold its own:

Amazing vid, Tintin! I am stunned, as I had figured the docile side was all these critters had. What a weapon those clawed front limbs are, usually used for ripping apart termite mounds.Together with the quickness and aggressiveness shown.


Yesterday, found this story of a German woman who studied and loved and championed Giant Anteaters such as this. Found it in my Google News saved search “Aircraft Crashes: 1d” (d for day). She died just recently, and was well loved for her passionate work.

Recommend clicking for the pics.


https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ly...il-she-was-45/


Lydia Möcklinghoff, champion of the giant anteater, has died in a plane crash. She was 45

Rhett Ayers Butler
11 July, 2026 Brazil

*pic* Header, no caption, her embracing a Jaguar slayer.

Lydia Möcklinghoff, a German biologist and science communicator, died on July 3, 2026, aged 45, in a plane crash near Campo Grande, Brazil, during a flight connected to Pantanal fieldwork.
She became one of Germany’s leading experts on giant anteaters, turning a little-understood animal into the focus of serious field research, public writing, radio reporting, and children’s science communication.
Her work combined patience, humor, and precision, linking the behavior of anteaters to larger questions about habitat, fire, drought, land use, and the future of the Pantanal.

Through books, columns, podcasts, films, and WDR’s MausRadio, she helped readers and listeners see that overlooked species are worth studying, explaining, and protecting.

The giant anteater is easy to turn into a curiosity. Its head narrows into a long tube. It sees poorly. It opens termite mounds with strong claws and gathers insects with a tongue that can reach far beyond its mouth. Its life can appear simple until someone tries to study it. Then it becomes a set of hard questions: where it feeds, how far it ranges, what cover it needs, and how roads, fire, drought, and ranching change its chances of survival.

These were the questions that drew Lydia Möcklinghoff into the Pantanal, the vast wetland in western Brazil and neighboring countries. She died on July 3rd in a plane crash near Campo Grande, Brazil, during a flight connected to Pantanal fieldwork. The cause of the crash was still under investigation. For her colleagues, students, readers, listeners, and the many children who knew her through radio reports from Brazil, the news carried a particular cruelty. She had made a difficult, overlooked animal visible. She had done so with humor, discipline, and a rare gift for explanation.

*pic* “Lydia Möcklinghoff in the Pantanal. From her social media.”

She did not begin with anteaters. Born in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, she studied biology in Giessen and Würzburg, with an interest in tropical ecology and animal behavior. Earlier, she had imagined becoming a wildlife filmmaker. Work experience in film companies changed her direction. The image mattered less to her than the animal in front of the camera. What was it doing? Why was it doing that? What could its behavior say about the landscape around it?

The anteater entered her life through a university posting. A research placement in Brazil was available at short notice. She went. What might have been a student trip became a career. She first studied giant anteaters in plantations in northern Brazil, then in the Pantanal, where she spent long periods each year from 2009 onward. The place suited her patience. It demanded stamina, improvisation, and close attention to animals that do not perform for human schedules.

Her research was deeply applied. Giant anteaters are threatened across parts of their range, and much about their behavior has remained poorly understood. To protect them, researchers need to know how they use space, which habitats matter, how they respond to disturbance, and what happens when a landscape is cut, burned, drained, or simplified. Möcklinghoff helped turn a species many people recognized only from zoo enclosures into an animal with an ecological life that could be studied, explained, and protected.

*pic* “Lydia Möcklinghoff with an armadillo. From her social media.”

She worked with the Zoological Research Museum Koenig in Bonn and had long ties to Zoo Dortmund, which supported her field research. Colleagues regarded her as one of Germany’s leading experts on giant anteaters. That standing came from field time, repeated observation, and the knowledge that accumulates when a researcher returns to the same place often enough to notice change.

Her affection for anteaters was clear, and it was never sentimental. She enjoyed their strangeness. She liked their focus. She could speak about their poor eyesight, narrow heads, and limited cognitive equipment with amusement, then make the listener reconsider the easy assumptions behind those judgments. Human beings, she suggested, were too quick to measure intelligence by human habits. An anteater did not need to be like us to be well adapted to its world.

*pic* “Lydia Möcklinghoff with a caiman. From her social media.”

That ability to move from a joke to a serious point made her an unusually effective communicator. Her books, “Ich glaub, mein Puma pfeift!” and “Die Supernasen,” opened field biology to readers who might never read a scientific paper. Her photographs and drawings added another route in. On radio, in films, in science slams, in columns for the Frankfurter Rundschau, and in the podcast “tierisch!”, she treated communication as part of the scientific task. Knowledge had to travel beyond specialists.

Children knew this especially well. For WDR’s MausRadio and related programs, she reported from the Pantanal in a way that respected young listeners. She did not reduce the natural world to cuteness. She took them into the process: looking for tracks, waiting for signals, finding animals, failing to find them, and noticing what else appeared along the way. She made fieldwork sound like work, which was part of its appeal. Wonder, in her hands, was tied to effort.

She also knew the Pantanal was changing. Drought, fire, and pressure on land and water had altered the place where she worked. In her columns she wrote about damage and recovery without treating either as an abstraction. The question was always practical: what allowed an animal, a wetland, or a human community to endure?

*pic* “Lydia Möcklinghoff with a seriema. From her social media.”

Her public voice mattered because the species she studied could easily be ignored. The giant anteater is not a symbol that can carry a campaign by itself. It does not have the fame of a jaguar or the immediate charm of a primate. Möcklinghoff seemed to understand this as a reason to work harder, rather than as an obstacle. She gave people reasons to care: the animal’s odd beauty, its precision, its vulnerability, and its place in a landscape under strain.

There was courage in that choice. It was not the staged courage of danger sought for its own sake. It was the steadier kind required by field science: returning, observing, explaining, raising funds, repairing equipment, answering questions, and asking people to look again at something they had barely noticed. The work asked for patience. She gave it patience.

*pic* “Lydia Möcklinghoff with a giant anteater. Shared via Facebook.”

The sadness of her death lies partly in how much more she seemed ready to do. She had already become trusted, useful, and clear. She had given an obscure mammal a wider public life. She had shown that a scientist could be exact, funny, generous, and serious all at once. At 45, she still had many field seasons ahead.

Now the work continues in other hands. In the Pantanal, giant anteaters will keep moving through grass, forest edges, ranchlands, and burned places, lowering their long snouts to read a world mostly hidden from human senses. To follow them well will require the qualities Möcklinghoff brought to the effort: patience, accuracy, humor, and care for animals that do not ask for attention. She made that work feel necessary. She made it feel possible.

*pic* “Lydia Möcklinghoff with a giant anteater. From her social media.”

[Johnnycomelately]

Found a critter lover. He went out and approached the big young female Alaska Brown Bear. All good, and interesting to see and hear about.

Am on to parts 2 and 3, filed on this same trip, he says he will get much closer.

And he announced he will upload a vid about monkeys in Africa. Year-plus old news, am just catching up.


Travelling into Remote Alaska to film Brown Bears - Part 1

Explore The ROAD | Douglas Parker
6.74K subscribers

Feb 4, 2025.

Experience epic brown bear encounters with me in Katmai National Park as we filmed for the Netflix series Animal. We travelled to the farthest corners of Alaska to observe and film these stunning and MASSIVE creatures as the mating season hits the bay.

This is the first of my Hallo Bay series, follow the behind the scenes as we try and capture images of these stunning animals.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=v5mQILSqzCE

[Ewan]

The Leatherback Turtle

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8rWk7Z7q32Y

The video might have been equally at home within the Intelligent Design thread.

[rgray222]

Vulture bees are a unique group of stingless bees in the genus Trigona found in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. They are distinct because they are the only bees known to have evolved an obligate carnivorous diet, feeding exclusively on rotting animal flesh (carrion) rather than nectar and pollen.

[Ewan]

Urban Sloths.

A reminder:



---

As human settlements encroach on nature's habitats the creatures there are forced to adapt, and some seem to cope quite well - hazards aside.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0K8rDZeN9_0

Ever wondered why older sloths have a green tinge to their hair/fur? Fascinating.

[Harmony]

For those who love short documentaries about human interaction with wild animals will enjoy this post copied to this thread
~~~~



I have just come across this documentary film, Billy and Molly: An Otter Love Story. I have only skipped through it and will watch it later. It has lovely music, beautiful scenery from the Scottish Isands of Shetland. Billy and Molly's interaction with wild otters filmed by National Geographic .

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fkoNeESBH94

1.9M views 2 years ago #NationalGeographic #FullEpisode #NatGeoDocumentary
When a wild otter in desperate need of help washes up on his jetty in the remote Scottish Islands of Shetland, Billy, his wife Susan, and their devoted sheep dog Jade find themselves with a unique new member of their family. Billy & Molly is a heart-warming documentary about the ability of love to reawaken us to the beauty of nature. …

[rgray222]

[mountain_jim]

https://x.com/catturd2/status/2077034834623336885?s=20

G-PA
@IndianaGPA

You hear about moose your whole life, think you've got 'em figured out. Big deer, right? Wrong. There you are minding your own business when one appears, no warning, no sound, like a pickup truck with legs. Up close, you realize real quick... you don't know how big a moose is

[Harmony]

Another Plumes Singing for Animals Compilation to clear your mind if your feeling out of sorts or misunderstood and just need to smile

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3xukC2fqaqI

[onawah]

A short one with appreciative rescued lions being serenaded by Plumes
(takes a minute to download)

[Johnnycomelately]

GOOD CROCODILES!!

Nile crocodiles proposed as prison guards in Israel. World facepalms, crocs just hope prisoners are well fed. Meanwhile, prisoners are studying Plumes videos and are making guitars in the prison workshops.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/po...article-902827


Silman declares Nile crocodile ‘cultivated wild animal’ to allow Ben-Gvir's 'crocodile prison' plan

The environmental protection minister changed the crocodile’s legal status to facilitate National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s proposed “crocodile prison.”

ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
JULY 17, 2026


Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman declared the Nile crocodile a “cultivated wild animal” in a move intended to allow the Israel Prison Service to station crocodiles around prisons, despite opposition from her ministry’s legal adviser and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, Ynet reported on Thursday.

Silman issued the declaration to enable National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to establish his proposed “crocodile prison.” Pressure was placed on the Israel Nature and Parks Authority several months ago to allow the National Security Ministry to receive crocodiles from Hamat Gader and position them around prisons holding security prisoners. The program was expected to be piloted at Ketziot Prison.

The Nature and Parks Authority said the proposal was not feasible because such wild animals may be held only for educational, research, and public information purposes.

“We need to protect them, not have them protect us. That is not the spirit of the law,” officials tried to explain to Ben-Gvir and Silman.

In an attempt to obtain approval for the plan, a request was made to declare the Nile crocodile a “cultivated wild animal.” Crocodiles had previously been given that designation to allow them to be raised commercially for their skins.


Legal objections to the crocodile prison plan

In the past, crocodile farming has led to numerous problems, including incidents of crocodiles escaping into the wild and risks to human life. Former environmental protection minister Gilad Erdan ended the practice following a recommendation from the advisory committee of the Nature and Parks Authority’s plenum.

Silman effectively decided to revive a dead letter in the Wildlife Protection Law. In practice, however, she created a new category: a cultivated wild animal kept for security purposes. Her declaration stated that the animals would be held by a security organization, subject to the environmental protection minister’s approval of the security need.

The move therefore goes beyond a regulation and would require primary legislation rather than a ministerial decision.

The Environmental Protection Ministry’s legal adviser, attorney Neta Drori, wrote to Silman last month that there was insufficient professional and factual evidence to proceed as the minister wished. She added that there was no known professional precedent for using crocodiles as a security measure at modern prisons, contrary to the Prison Service’s claim that they had been used for this purpose in the US and South America.

“With regard to the use in the United States, it was noted that this was a short-lived trial that was discontinued. It apparently took place in an area where crocodiles already occur in the wild, and there is therefore no basis for comparison,” Drori wrote.

The ministry’s legal adviser said the Prison Service’s request also required an in-depth examination of animal welfare and public safety concerns.

“Although Prison Service officials said they are aware of and prepared to ensure the animals’ physical welfare, among other things based on their experience with dogs, the organization apparently has no expertise in raising dangerous wild animals such as crocodiles,” she wrote.

Drori also explained that the legal process would require consultation with bodies including the Nature and Parks Authority’s plenum and relevant government officials, as well as publication of the proposal for public comment. This was necessary because professional officials believed crocodile farming posed critical risks.

She concluded her letter with a clear message: “In light of this, our position is that the conditions for a declaration under the law have not been met and that there is a legal impediment to advancing the declaration as requested.”


Silman disregarded legal adviser's position

Silman decided to disregard the legal adviser’s position, arguing that a senior professional official at the Nature and Parks Authority had said the authority did not oppose the Prison Service’s initiative and that an approved framework used in the past already existed.

Several weeks ago, Ben-Gvir and Silman met with the Nature and Parks Authority’s director-general and the Environmental Protection Ministry’s legal adviser and said they wanted crocodiles to be placed around a prison. The legal adviser made clear that this could not be done and that there was no legal authority to approve it, but Silman persisted.

The Nature and Parks Authority’s plenum is expected to convene soon, and the issue will again be raised after Silman bypassed her own ministry’s legal adviser.

“The minister is acting contrary to her own legal adviser, contrary to the legal opinion of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, contrary to the authority’s plenum, and contrary to the law. In other words, there is no legal basis for this,” a professional official said.

Silman had not issued a response at the time of publication.

[Bluegreen]

A frog after my own heart



The Green and Golden Bell Frog



Australia's endangered green and golden bell frog (Ranoidea aurea)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DTl0W0sDK3f/

The Return of the Green and Golden Bell Frog

Published 18th February 2026 (8:42)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RLBPaX_jPUE

[RunningDeer]

White Wolf and Plumes sign along.

Plumes - A little bit of context about this very special moment:

"Dirus is an 11 year-old wolf living at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. This year, he lost several of his longtime packmates, and for now he's living alone (until another rescued wolf can eventually be introduced).

Wolves are incredibly social animals, and their packs are a huge part of their lives. The team shared that since losing his companions, Dirus hasn't really been howling the way he used to.

It was an incredibly emotional moment for everyone there to hear him howl again. I can't say why he did it or what he was feeling, only Dirus knows that. But hearing his voice again after everything he's been through was something none of us will forget."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=S-ALcBkwAdk

[RunningDeer]

Fruit Fly Gladiators: scientists manipulated their genes.

Fruit flies battling like martial arts masters are helping scientists map brain circuits. This research could shed light on human aggression and depression.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qw35GKSHi3c

Longer Version (4 minutes)

These Fighting Fruit Flies Are Superheroes of Brain Science

Neuroscientist Eric Hoopfer likes to watch animals fight. But these aren’t the kind of fights that could get him arrested – no roosters or pit bulls are involved.

Hoopfer watches fruit flies.

The tiny insects are the size of a pinhead, with big red eyes and iridescent wings. You’ve probably only seen them flying around an overripe piece of fruit.

At the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, Hoopfer places pairs of male fruit flies in tiny glass chambers. When they start fighting, they look like martial arts practitioners: They stand face to face and tip each other over; they lunge, roll around and even toss each other, sumo-wrestler style.

But this isn’t about entertainment. Hoopfer is trying to understand how the brain works.

When the aggressive fruit flies at Caltech fight, Hoopfer and his colleagues monitor what parts of their brains the flies are using. The researchers can see clusters of neurons lighting up. In the future, they hope this can help our understanding of conditions that tap into human emotional states, like depression or addiction.

“Flies when they fight, they fight at different intensities. And once they start fighting they continue fighting for a while; this state persists. These are all things that are similar to (human) emotional states,” said Hoopfer. “For example, there’s this scale of emotions where you can be a little bit annoyed and that can scale up to being very angry. If somebody cuts you off in traffic you might get angry and that lasts for a little while. So your emotion lasts longer than the initial stimulus.”

Circuits in our brains that make us stay mad, for example, could hold the key to developing better treatments for mental illness.

“All these neuro-psychiatric disorders, like depression, addiction, schizophrenia, the drugs that we have to treat them, we don’t really understand exactly how they are acting at the level of circuits in the brain,” said Hoopfer. “They help in some cases the symptoms that you want to treat. But they also cause a lot of side effects. So what we’d ideally like are drugs that can act on the specific neurons and circuits in the brain that are responsible for depression and for the symptoms of depression that we want to treat, and not ones that control other things.”

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yvd3X1N0jUU