See the universe in the marvelous googly-eyed cosmic caterpillar of the Pacific fruit piercing moth (Eudocima phalonia), and you’ll never be the same.
While dazzling as the cosmos, the caterpillar is a serious pest in its moth stage, destroying ripe and riping fruit harvests across Hawaii, Australia, to West Bengal, India.
Here are some more pics of the cosmic caterpillar in its advanced larva stage and its appearance as an adult moth. It does an incredible leaf mimic.
Here’s a creature from the Philippines that will stop you in your tracks. The giant golden-crowned flying fox (Acerodon jubatus) grows as large as 3 feet with a 5-6 feet wingspan.
It is quite simply one of the largest bats in the world.
You’d think that the megabat the size of a 6-year-old kid would be a threat, but it’s harmless — the animal is vegetarian and primarily munches on fruit. For that reason, it is also known as the golden-capped fruit bat. The bats even help spread seeds as pollinators.
Unfortunately, the species is endangered and facing extinction due to poaching in the forest.
The cuttlefish (Sepia latimanus) is a real master of color change.
The bioluminescent fish can modify their appearance and shape using flashing LCD-like bands to hypnotize prey before snatching it up.Â
A cuttlefish hypnotizes its prey to eat it pic.twitter.com/Q5yPxqDaoE
— Diane Doniol-Valcroze (@ddoniolvalcroze) January 19, 2021
That’s right — these fish use their strobing disco lights to psyche-out crabs and small fish!
Like the octopus, the cuttlefish have pigmented chromatophores in their skin, allowing them to camouflage with their surroundings.
Learn more about the cuttlefish in the video below.Â
The beautiful Great Blue Turaco (Corythaeola cristata) is a bird from West and Central Africa’s tropical forests.
The birds weigh up to three pounds and grow up to 30 inches long, about a pheasant’s size. While not the most competent flyers, they are excellent climbers, spending most of their time hanging out in the trees.
While the great blue turaco sings sweet melodies and snacks on fruit, leaves, and flowers, it’s most famous for its mix of vibrant colors.
With blue running across its head and upper breasts, the bird also flashes a black crest, a teal belly, and a red and tipped beak that gives it the impression of wearing lipstick. It also sports a stunning dark blue mohawk.
One of the most sought after bird species by birders, the Great Blue Turaco is also widely regarded as a bird that brings good luck.
The Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica) stands out from the crowd as the extinct Dodo’s closest living relative.
Found in the coastal regions of Andaman and Nicobar Islands southeast of the Indian continent to the Solomon Islands and Palau, the Nicobar pigeon fashions the most beautiful metallic green colored plumage.
With low repetitive calls, the Nicobar pigeon is also quieter than your standard urban pigeon. It is also one of the largest pigeon species, stretching 16 inches in length.
Unfortunately, the bird appears near extinction due to the demand for its gizzard stone used in jewelry. Gizzard stones help the bird break down hard foods like seeds and nuts.
Behold this rare video of a great horned owl “swimming” (read: trying to fly) through a canyon in Lake Powell. The great horned owl is a type of force eagle-owl native to the Americas.
The young swimming owl – identifiable by the spot of nestling feathers — accidentally fell from its nest on the cliff edges during a snooze. Luckily, the owl treaded enough water to make it to shore. Surely it won’t be as careless as a grownup.
Known as the “tiger of the sky,” great horned owls excel at hunting using their keen eyesight and powerful talons. The owl can exert 28 pounds of force to split the spine of large prey. Imagine being wrapped in such an intense grip.
Let’s hope this animal doesn’t upset your sleep tonight. Below is a close-up facial expression of the Wolf Spider (Lycosidae).
If you don’t think the energy the creature gives off is weird enough (see the Oni Mask), look more closely at the additional four more little eyes near the mouth.
Despite looking like an angry muppet, the wolf spider takes the parenting role seriously.
The mothers carry the kids on their backs until the Spiderlings are old enough to hunt independently.
When spotted at night, the baby spiders look like little sparkly eyes.
Babies on board. A wolf spider mum with the weight of the world on her back pic.twitter.com/vCzw6lXxlV
— The Lorax (@JWhiteWildlife) December 12, 2020
This is a wolf spider carrying its babies.
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) November 4, 2020
The sparkles are their eyes, many creatures that need to see well in dim light have a tapetum lucidum which is a retroreflective tissue found in eyes.
Unsettling or exciting? pic.twitter.com/lltzGfliG6
Here are some other more zoomed-out images of the Wolf Spider so you can identify it just in case you cross paths.
This video of a chimpanzee scrolling through Instagram is eye-opening.
Touch is intuitive; the candy-colored screen all too addicting.
Generation thumbs transcend humans.
Still, it is the ability to communicate and tell stories that released humans from the prison of biology.
This video echoes what Yuval Noah Harari noted in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind on the difference between humans and other animals.
We control the world basically because we are the only animals that can cooperate flexibly in very large numbers. And if you examine any large-scale human cooperation, you will always find that it is based on some fiction like the nation, like money, like human rights. These are all things that do not exist objectively, but they exist only in the stories that we tell and that we spread around. This is something very unique to us, perhaps the most unique feature of our species.
You can never, for example, convince a chimpanzee to do something for you by promising that, “Look, after you die, you will go to chimpanzee heaven and there you will receive lots and lots of bananas for your good deeds here on earth, so now do what I tell you to do.”
But humans do believe such stories and this is the basic reason why we control the world whereas chimpanzees are locked up in zoos and research laboratories.
Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Strange-looking but cute — if you can even see their faces — the Valais Blacknose sheep is a type of mountain-breed sheep from the Valais region of Switzerland.
These fancy-looking lambs are called ‘luxury sheep’ for their magical faceless features, shaggy coats, and spiral horns.
Although they’re used for their wool and meat in Switzerland, the sheep are growing in demand in the UK as pets with a value of up to ÂŁ10,000 each for newborns.
Attenborough’s fan-throated lizard (Sitana attenboroughii) is a species of fan-throated lizards endemic to India, primarily found in the state of Tamil Nadu.
The males flaunt their colorful dewlaps — loose skin on their necks — to woo potential mates during mating season. They also flash the fan-structured throat to challenge a potential rival in a territory. Females, meanwhile, have smaller white colored dewlaps.
This superb lizard lives mostly on the ground in open ground patches and takes its name after natural historian, David Attenborough.
