Great white shark attacks shark cage, attempts to eat it

Mossel Bay in South Africa is a popular destination for shark cage divers to get up close and personal with great white sharks, but Hillary Petroski got more than she bargained for when a great white shark attempted to eat the cage she was in.

Somehow, with a shaky hand, Petroski managed to capture the scary footage of the great white shark, which she said was closer than it appears:

“The round buoy attached to the side of the cage was bent in half,” she told Jukin Media, according to GrindTV. “Some of the lining of the outside blue barrier bar was bitten through as well.

“We saw roughly eight different sharks, some multiple times, in the 30 minutes we were down. It was my first time diving with sharks and it was quite the up-close-and-personal experience!”

Fortunately, the great white shark gave up and swam away, leaving behind a few scary memories.

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Crocodile misses out on dinner—twice—due to elusive prey

Twice, a crocodile in a river in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia had dinner right at the tip of its nose, only to be denied by the quick reflexes of its prey.

Crocodiles are ambush predators that use the water to sneak up on unsuspecting prey, in this case a warthog and an antelope, both quenching their thirst at a local watering hole. But not for long. Watch the split-second elusiveness of the animals:

Amazingly, the warthog did a quick sidestep and raced off. The antelope, aka a bushbuck, sprung backwards to escape the snapping jaws of the crocodile, which has a bite more powerful than a great white shark.

This time the crocodile went hungry, but we suspect it eventually filled its belly. 

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Rabbit runs into and across an avalanche, and somehow survives

A white rabbit (circled) races across an avalanche in amazing video. 

Video of a professional snowboarder riding out of an avalanche near Snow Valley Lodge in Kamchatka, Russia, also captured the incredible moment when a white rabbit scampered into and across the avalanche.

Snowboarder David Carrier Porcheron, aka DCP, was being filmed as part of a movie organized by Helipro, a Russian tourist company for winter and summer activities.

Difficult to see at first, the footage of the white rabbit posted by Helipro on Vimeo zoomed in to get a closer look at the brave bunny, revealing “the best survival technique.”

Here is the amazing video, aptly accompanied by the popular ditty from 1939 “Run Rabbit Run”:

“What a ‘hare’-raising experience,” one commenter wrote under the Vimeo post.

“Pretty wild. Rabbit’s got skill,” another said.

“Awesome rabbit—I would not have made it,” yet another stated.

Someone asked whether the rabbit actually did make it all the way across, and Helipro gave the assurance that it did, saying, “He survived and has a beautiful life in Kamchatka!”

First appeared on GrindTV 

 

Tourists can't believe what this zebra is about to do

Zebra at Kruger National Park is walking into an ambush of lions

When lions hunt, they need to be close to their prey because they can only run fast in short bursts. So when an unsuspecting zebra in Kruger National Park started walking toward a hiding pride of lions, the lions had to be salivating. The zebra appeared doomed.

A group of tourists on safari at the famous South Africa game reserve knew the lions were waiting in ambush mode and were incredulous that the zebra didn’t notice them. Here’s the video one of the tourists shot that is aptly entitled “Lions miss the easiest zebra meal ever” (warning for minor expletive):

It was an adrenaline rush for both zebra and tourists, as the zebra apparently caught sight of the lions just in the nick of time, bolting off before walking right into the lions’ jaws.

The incident occurred on the H6, a tar road near Satara that cuts through very open plains where zebras and blue wildebeests are very common and attract lions—and tourists.

The tourists had these reactions:

“You blew it guys.”

“They had him right there.”

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Spider crabs build huge pyramid on ocean floor in Australia

A pyramid of spider crabs. Photo courtesy of Pink Tank Scuba

PT Hirschfield and some friends were diving near the Blairgowrie Pier in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, in Australia when they encountered a most unusual sight: close to 1,000 spider crabs crawling over each other to make a huge pyramid on the ocean floor.

It’s the time of year when all the spider crabs gather for a mass migration and simultaneous molt, so the divers were on the lookout for the congregating spider crabs and found this (one minute of video captures the essence):

The odd behavior comes as a pre-migration act, but not much is known about it.

“Unfortunately, not much official research is done on the spider crabs so it's more guesswork based on observation than anything,” Hirschfield told GrindTV. “I hope to spend a solid week underwater with them when the migration proper happens to continue studying them more closely, but the pre-migration stages remain somewhat of a mystery.”

Hirschfield added that the sight of a spider crap pyramid is “pretty unusual, at least in the shallows. I’m not aware of anyone having seen a pyramid this high, though who knows what happens at depth?

“The behavior I observed was really just a lot of climbing and a few scuffles as crabs got in each other’s faces…A few of the crabs in the pyramid were also adorning themselves with sponges becoming decorator crabs, which is a camouflage mechanism.”

All pre-migration behavior is short-lived. Hirschfield recently saw a couple thousand spider crabs in the shallows at the start of a two-hour dive and they had all but vanished by the end of the dive.

So it is unlikely that the pyramid lasted very long, making the encounter that much more special.

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Bizarre-loooking oarfish washes ashore in New Zealand

A rare oarfish washed ashore on a salt marsh in New Zealand.
Photo courtesy of David Agnew/Department of Conservation

Oarfish rarely wash ashore, but when one does the bizarre-looking sea creature usually creates a bit of a stir, as one did the other day on the southeastern coast of the south island of New Zealand.

Don Gibbs was walking along the salt marsh in Aramoana when he encountered on the beach an unusual sea creature that some have previously mistaken for some sort of sea serpent.

Gibbs phoned Department of Conservation service manager David Agnew and asked him to come take a look, according to the OtagoDaily Times.

“It was very unusual looking,” Agnew told the Daily Times.

In his 20 years at DOC, Agnew had never seen anything like it, so on Thursday morning he contacted Tessa Mills of the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre and asked if she could identify the sea creature.

“From his description I guessed it would be an oarfish and when his photos came through it was confirmed,” Mills told GrindTV. “There are thought to be only two species and this is the southern one, Regalecus glesne.”

This oarfish was nearly 10-feet long, but they can grow up to 32 feet.

This oarfish was nearly 10 feet long, but they can grow up to 36 feet; an 18-footer was discovered off California in 2013. Oarfish are typically found in deep water in tropical oceans.

Not surprisingly, the find created quite a buzz.

“There has been lots of social media interest and comments and questions on the find,” Mills told GrindTV. “And I have spent most of today talking to newspapers and TV channels.”

Everybody wanted to know more about the oarfish.

“Little is known about the oarfish,” Mills said. “When this was dissected, its stomach was full of krill. Other specimens have also been found stuffed full of krill.

“They have been some caught on video in recent years and they have been observed swimming vertically with their pectoral fins out to the side, which is how they get their name `oarfish.’”  

Mills said it is rare to find an oarfish washed up in this area—only five reports of them over the past 150 years, the last being in nearby Dunedin in 1998. 

“The oarfish was in great shape,” Mills said. “Its stomach was full, so it did not starve to death. It seems the strandings often occur after earthquakes or storms, and we have just had a storm here, so I think it just got washed in and stranded on the salt marsh.”

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Last northern white rhino male in the world is guarded 24/7

The last northern white rhino male on Earth is guarded around the clock
by armed rangers, but not always as closely as photo shows. Photo
courtesy of Ol Pejeta Conservancy

The world’s population of northern white rhinos is down to five and the Ol Pejeta Conservancy is home to three of them, including the last remaining male—which is being guarded by armed rangers around the clock.

Along with the critically endangered northern white rhinos, the conservancy in Kenya is also home to 23 white rhinos and 105 black rhinos, making it the largest black rhino sanctuaries in East Africa.

In an effort to protect the rhinos from poaching, and to possibly save the northern white rhinos from extinction, the conservancy enlists 40 armed rangers to patrol the 90,000-acre conservancy.

The most important rhino is Sudan, the 40-year-old male northern white rhino that is under constant surveillance, as are two females. Sudan isn’t always surrounded closely by armed guards, as “we try and let our rhinos be ‘wild’ as much as possible without human interaction,” Eldoie Sampere of the conservancy told GrindTV.

To increase security, Sudan was fitted with a radio transmitter, and its horn was removed.

“The only reason his horn has been cut off is to deter poachers,” Sampere told The Dodo. “If the rhino has no horn, he is of no interest to poachers. This is purely to keep him safe.”

Sudan and three other northern white rhinos were obtained by the conservancy from a Czech Republic zoo in 2009 in hopes of breeding the rhinos, a goal yet to be attained. Suni, a 34-year-old male, died last October, leaving the existence of the northern white rhino up to Sudan.

Sudan, the last northern white rhino male in existence. 

Rhino horns, prized in Asia for its ancient belief that they can reduce fevers and seizures, have no medicinal value. It’s said to be like biting your fingernails.

Nevertheless, rhino horns command big money—$30,000 per pound.

The Kenya Wildlife Service says 54 rhinos in general were killed by poachers in 2014, according to Inquisitr.com.

From 1960 to 1980, the population of more than 2,000 northern white rhinos was reduced to only 15 because of widespread poaching, and now it’s up to Sudan to keep the species alive. And it’s up to the armed rangers to keep Sudan alive.

According to an interview with World of Animals, Simon Irungu, a ranger with the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, said armed patrols set out at dusk and return to camp by morning and often find themselves in the line of fire to protect the animals.

“With the rising demand for rhino horn and ivory, we face many poaching attempts and while we manage to counter a large number of these, we often risk our lives in our line of duty,” Irungu said. “Our conservancy is among the least damaged by poaching now, thanks to a dedicated and united team and the support of our management and beyond.”

The Ol Pejeta Conservancy is hoping to raise funds to keep the rhino rangers safe so there is a future for the animal.

“Please keep giving and spreading the word, our wildlife’s future, depends on you,” the conservancy stated on its gofundme.com campaign.

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