Favorite non-domesticated animals thread.

[Kerberoz]

Was gonna say stomatopods, corvids, or orcas, but they've been mentioned... I'd love to see a whale shark in the wild

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61TFjZOMsjs

[Chun Liroy]

It's actually true. I'm good friend's with internationally recognized "head hancho" on stomatopod research, Dr. Roy Caldwell. These mantis shrimp are literally, this man's life work.


Here's a website with some more info on them. Not as sensational as the above info, but pretty interesting.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthrop...raca/royslist/

Well I had no doubt about their bubble producing capabilities and such but the temperature of the bubble just didn't seem right to me. 10000 kelvins? I mean wouldn't that type of temperate cause a lot of damage no matter how small the point of heat is? Not to mention those cavitation bubbles can form in propellers and stuff and can cause damage over time.

Swimming with a whale shark would be awesome.
Giraffes will always be my favorite animal <3

[Blarg]

There is a difference between temperature and heat. You can have super high temp but if there are just a few molecules/tiny bubble the overall heat is miniscule

[Quixon]

I don't fault you for doubting the claim haha. It's pretty fucking incredible tbh.


On the topic of the Whale Sharks, you can swim with a baby one at the Georgia Aquarium. Not even close to swimming with them in the wild, but it is a way to experience something you more than likely NEVER will have an opportunity to do otherwise.

[Serif]

Awesome thread idea.

I'd normally say something along the lines of an awesome wolf or something, but I have 2 animal/creature/insects fresh in my mind that I was talking about in rlpics after watching a fuckton of BBC Life a few weeks ago, here they are, plus a bonus frog lol:

Haha all of those are fucking awesome. I also enjoyed the Peregrine Falcon and Gos Haw, never knew about any of these creatures.

[Moss]

See what I mean? The Pistol/Mantis Shrimp is so incredible that some people STILL don't believe it! If anyone can find the slow motion video of the shrimp smacking a snail and the resulting cavitation bubble please post it, shit's badass.

[Quixon]

Here you go:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6I8iPiHT8

[Moss]

Here you go:

Awesome, thanks.

Seriously people, watch this video.

[BerenTebogo]

I am at work right now on lunch, so can't post anymore vids...but can relay a story. I was pressure washing the patios that lead into the barn on the side where the elephants hang out sometimes. One of the girls comes up and sees me pressure washing. No big deal, they tend to watch when we are doing things out of the ordinary. She makes an odd squeak noise...goes and gets a trunk full of water out of the automatic waterer about 30 ft away...then comes back and makes a long loud rumble 'till I look up at her. She then sticks her trunk out and sprays herself in the face and along her head. She repeats this about 3 times before looking at me like I'm retarded and walking into the woods. I find out later that our boss sprays her with the mist from the pressure washer when he does it and she was trying to show me what to do. Trying to teach me like she would an infant. That just blew me away.

This is fucking awesome. Seriously, more elephant stories whenever you can please, lol.

[Dagren]

Wow I laughed so hard at the end of that Darwin's Beetle video.

[Quixon]

Friend of mine has one of those pistol shrimp that are in the video.

I pulled a crab out of my reef that I caught eating my coral, and he said he would take it. This wasn't a small crab by any means, he was a bit larger than a .50 Piece.

Anyways, I brought it over and we fed it to his Pistol Shrimp. One fucking snap of the claw, and all the crabs legs just popped off. The only ones that stayed on were the front big claws.

[Cleverness]

As hot as the sun? Holy fuck that's insane.

In regards to favorite animals I've always liked the giant cats like a few others have mentioned. Probably comes from watching lots of Discovery Channel + Thundercats as a child.

[Cream Soda]

Easily my fav, table breaker

Spoiler: show

http://gallery.hd.org/_exhibits/natu...seup-1-DHD.jpg

[Caiyuo]

See what I mean? The Pistol/Mantis Shrimp is so incredible that some people STILL don't believe it! If anyone can find the slow motion video of the shrimp smacking a snail and the resulting cavitation bubble please post it, shit's badass.

Awesome, thanks.

Seriously people, watch this video.

wow, thanks lol I love the sound effects, I refuse to accept that it doesn't literally sound like that in the ocean every time some jerk creeps too close to his house.

This is fucking awesome. Seriously, more elephant stories whenever you can please, lol.

Seriously, yes, that is amazing and I love reading stories like that one. My brother worked at a Save the Chimps sanctuary that's in our town, but most of the stories were just super gruesome tales of 2 dudes clashing on a high-rise play-structure and someone losing a foot or something.

Haha all of those are fucking awesome. I also enjoyed the Peregrine Falcon and Gos Haw, never knew about any of these creatures.

The mention of the falcon reminds me of another bird in the Life series that has this crazy awesome method of breaking up bones small enough to consume by dropping them from hundreds of feet in the air onto small slabs of rock. Gonna have to watch again later and post lol

What's the Gos Haw? Is it Hawk*? Google gives me nothing lol

[Jaybar]

Well since my favorite, the Whale Shark, was taken, I choose you, Emperor Penguin!!

http://daysofarabianlives.files.word...3/penguin1.jpg

No real reason. I've loved them since the day I could remember.

[Kerberoz]

More on stomatopods: http://www.ted.com/talks/sheila_pate...t_animals.html

Been meaning to set up a marine tank and grab one for a while, whenever I have the cash to spare. Little bastards are fucking cool.

[Max™]

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/vo...EB006486F2.gif

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2009/6591.html

Special light-sensitive cells in mantis shrimp eyes act as quarter-wave plates – which can rotate the plane of the oscillations (the polarization) of a light wave as it travels through it. This capability makes it possible for mantis shrimps to convert linearly polarized light to circularly polarized light and vice versa. Manmade quarter-wave plates perform this essential function in CD and DVD players and in circular polarizing filters for cameras.

However, these artificial devices only tend to work well for one colour of light while the natural mechanism in the mantis shrimp’s eyes works almost perfectly across the whole visible spectrum – from near-ultra violet to infra-red.

Dr Nicholas Roberts, lead author of the Nature Photonics paper said: “Our work reveals for the first time the unique design and mechanism of the quarter-wave plate in the mantis shrimp’s eye. It really is exceptional – out-performing anything we humans have so far been able to create.”

Exactly why the mantis shrimp needs such exquisite sensitivity to circularly polarized light isn’t clear. However, polarization vision is used by animals for sexual signalling or secret communication that avoids the attention of other animals, especially predators. It could also assist in the finding and catching of prey by improving the clarity of images underwater. If this mechanism in the mantis shrimp provides an evolutionary advantage, it would be easily selected for as it only requires small changes to existing properties of the cell in the eye.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

GD's going downhill when I see a thread with the same topic of conversation my 7 year old nephews had this morning.

[Jaybar]

Yea, let's just fill this shit with political/religious debate threads.

[Max™]

Clearly anything a curious child would talk about is stupid, and should be laughed at.

What ever were we thinking, trying to maintain a sense of youthful wonderment at the world around us?