National Geographic Wild Worlds Weirdest Freaks Of Nature CONVERT HDTV XviD AFG

in the fight for survival speed agility attacks and even appetite need to loom larger than life but even these animal Olympians can't measure up to the world of the weird from freaky Flyers to freaky frogs from odd eaters to strange swarms bizarre Body Snatchers or mysterious mutants this dream team doesn't play by the rules see what it takes to be the best of the bizarre these are nature's freaks from strange faces to odd diets curious customs to mysterious monsters these freaks have got it all this is the world of the weird it takes some strange survival tactics to thrive in this wasteland especially when you don't belong here in the first place turn loose by early settlers Australia's dromedary camels have run wild in the outback for nearly a century they can live on forms and even drink saltwater but when it comes to mating camels really start to take a walk on the wild side a face covered in spittle is the height of sex appeal but when a male really wants to flirt inflating the soft palate is the only way to impress the ladies a few sprays of urine seal the deal and keep other males from moving in on the prize but some don't get the message more than 800 kilograms of spit and muscle should send it home a faceful of camel spit might sound less than appetizing but consider the diet of the baby koala these furry marsupials are already one of nature's oddities koalas subsist almost entirely on the leaves of the eucalyptus a toxic tree that offers so little nutrition they spend most of their time asleep as much as 20 hours a day at first their babies get a better deal for seven months the Joey's live in the pouch going fat on Mother's Milk but when the time comes to start snacking on solids their mothers come through with PAP PAP is a half digested mush of leaves and feces chock full of bacteria that will help the Joey digest his future meals it's koala baby formula straight from mother's rear and baby goes right to the source it's an odd undecidedly unattractive survival diet but it will take a lot more food to sustain a creature this size weighing in at more than 400 kilograms and as big as a horse the liger is the true definition of weird the hybrid offspring of a male line and a female tiger ligers are only created when the two rival cat species meet in captivity and clearly opposites attract the results in genetic cocktail cooks up a giant a super cat that is so big it may be too heavy to hunt in the line world size equals dominance so male lines pass on genes that encourage growth but the females know that big doesn't always equal better their genes keep male Cubs from getting too large so it's thought that their whole litter has a better chance to survive tigresses don't carry a gene that inhibits the size of their cubs so when a tigress meets a suitor from the wrong continent their baby can end up bigger than both of the parents combined it's mating time in the South American rainforest an acquire of male calf Birds is setting up for a show but when this bird band gets together it sounds more like a barnyard their staging is Spartan they like to strip their risers bare using their beaks to break off branches that way all the focus is on the song because female calf birds are some pretty strange tastes in music the bovine calls fill the trees and soon the calf birds have attracted an audience the calf bird isn't the only weirdo on the wing the gray crowned crane isn't afraid of commitment during the mating season these faithful birds are never more than three meters apart this birds feathery fringe looks like a cross between an owl and a circus clown but the harpy eagle is actually a deadly predator but when it comes to Luc's nothing beats the tube nosed bat these scary snouts don't just smell they're also full of sharp teeth earning this weirdo the nickname demon bat most predators are armed with tooth and claw pure size tends to work too but to be the best of the bizarre you have to wield some much weirder weapons strange tools and tactics that enable these bizarre all-stars to swoop in for the kill the woodpecker is already equipped to take on the trees but it doesn't pummel wood with a saw or an axe it just uses its head this bizarre bird headbutts trees up to 16 times a second and forces more than 250 times more powerful than a space shuttle liftoff at that rate just a few minutes of pecking should bring a lifetime of brain damage but the woodpeckers head is harder to crack than a crash test dummies right before each time the bird bludgeons a tree a muscle behind us bill who's a brain case away from the impact it's extra-long tongue retracts to act as a cushion for the skull some species even have an extra eyelid to shield against splinters they turn into living jackhammers able to drill for insects drum for mates and carve out nests the flightless cormorant has an even more bizarre approach to survival but you wouldn't know it to look at it it's the only cormorant that can't fly except this bird has no need to take to the skies instead it swims for its dinner calm and feathers absorb water making them less buoyant under water that means they can quickly dive for prey even under water those little wings are useless but a pair of webbed feet can help catch the speediest fish cormorants are so good at fishing that Japanese and Chinese anglers have used them to fish for over a thousand years now that's a bird that deserves some shore leave the toads of Hamburg and Germany are in trouble their bizarre bodies aren't helping them they are killing them every spring hundreds of european common toads meet here for a mating season but the lovefest can become an unfilial apocalypse toad carcasses litter the ground surrounded by guts and gore it's almost as if they have been bombed from the inside out the toads were the victims of a surgical attack by a clever enemy crows have developed a taste for frog liver a valuable source of vitamins and minerals they've also developed a way to get them using their beaks with surgical precision when the liver is removed and the crow punctures our lung air leaks into the body and the toad explodes that may be a little too weird these land animals look even more like science experiments gone wrong the 6 meter long Gary Oh looks like the lovechild of an alligator and a crocodile but that bulbous snaggletooth snout is used to make a loud buzzing noise during vocalizations the shy or Cappy looks like someone grafted to hindquarters of a zebra onto the body of an antelope but the okapi is actually the only living relative of a giraffe those stripes help it hide and dense rainforest but nothing screams weird scientists like the Baird's tapir this highly endangered mammal forages in the rainforests of Central America when the super strange go on the move there's only one rule expect the unexpected whether escaping or attacking working or traveling nothing gets in the way of a bizarre all-star when you set up house in the canopy of a Malaysian rainforest there's only one way to get around but birds aren't the only travelers on the arboreal highway the teacup sized wallis frog prefers not to descend to ground level luckily is equipped with some pretty strange parachutes the Frog spreads his webbed feet and turns itself into a glider using the membrane between its toes to catch big air but it doesn't just jump out into the void its splayed feet can also act as steering wheels and brakes controlling its fall one leap can stretch 15 meters or more the spring tail can do even better when it comes to odd evolution these tiny creatures have always led the pack they're one of the oldest land dwelling animals on the planet they spend most of their time munching on decomposing leaves and fungus and no day is complete without a home spa treatment one drop of grooming fluid keeps them from drying out while two inflatable tubes help spread the fluid into every crevice springtails live on every single continent even Antarctica but when you're the size of a pinhead you tend to be easy to miss especially when you move this fast springtails are masters of the high jump one push from a tiny limb in their abdomen and the bouncing bug can leap over 15 centimeters into the air that's the equivalent of a human being jumping over a skyscraper scientists have discovered over 6,000 spring tail species an estimate there are 15,000 more but spring tales aren't the only creatures one jump ahead of the competition plenty of reptiles like to leap after their prey but not many of them have learned to do this the rare Cuban crocodile makes its home in just two swamps on the long Caribbean island in these brackish waters fish are scarce so the crocodile has evolved to improvise its body has heavy scaly armor and a muscular tail that takes up 30% of his body mass his feet are less web than ordinary crocodiles enabling it to run faster and jump higher than its ferocious kin the Cuban croc doesn't just hunt in the shallows or at the water's edge it looks to the skies the trees are home to one of its favorite snacks a rodent the size of a house cat called a new tear all it takes it a few swipes of that powerful tail to launch the croc skyward and take down the meat the splash Tetra also makes a leap into the blue but this isn't a cunning attack it's a mating dance and it only has one strange step fish out of water the female nudges the male with her head and they propel themselves skywards in a wriggling duet they will jump until the app deposited at least 60 fertilized eggs then the male begins his new career stay-at-home-dad with a flick of his tail he splashes water on the eggs to keep them wet he will keep this up for two days when the fry hatch into the world with a league of their own there's plenty more weirdness beneath the waves the bubble eyed goldfish doesn't inflate his eye sockets to stay afloat these large balloons are full of lymph an immune system fluid that helps the fish stay healthy then there's the hatch of fish this freaks huge eyes help it see in the darkness of the deep it lives more than one and a half kilometers down but the oddest ocean creature may be the frilled shark this ancient monster is older than the dinosaurs and it eats like a snake dislocating its jaws to swallow a big meal in the world of the weird it pays to be assertive and these bizarre brawlers use some unusual tactics to get their way this insect mother has a brutal way of birthing her babies dozens of caterpillars have emerged from their eggs onto a juicy cabbage leaf first they devoured the protein in their egg casings in us off to life as a vegetarian but they won't be safe for long the little worms munch organic compounds released by the cabbage leaf attract a predatory quit easier wasp she needs a place to lay her eggs and live caterpillar flesh is the first item on her bizarre baby's menu the caterpillars barely noticed the injection her eggs are accompanied by a virus that shuts down the hosts immune system there's no way for the caterpillars body to fight back as the wasp grubs grow it won't be long before their host starts living the larvae edition of invasion of the Body Snatchers for those that avoided an alien injection the life cycle keeps on turning but the less fortunate siblings have become an empty shell the parasitic grubs spin their cocoons right over their unfortunate hosts two weeks later the adults emerge and fly off to find another victim this armored African insect knows how to stand its ground this fight is all about food and dung is the only item on the menu whenever a herbivore deposits a pile the dung beetles come out to play and they can smell the food from far away they're athletic eaters too a nice size dongpal can be a fast food meal for thousands of beetles but some species like their food to take away just cut role and push it home by balancing on its front and rolling the ball backwards with his hind legs one beetle can push ten times its weight and waste - these insects dung is everything food shelter even a baby nursery which means these balls of poo are worth fighting for there's just one way to win eject the loser from the game you even the silent giraffe has developed some strange tactics to get around as favorite foods defenses it's thick hide tough mouth an acrobatic 45 centimeter long tongue can stripped leaves from the thorniest trees but the acacia tree still has a few tricks of his twigs including chemical warfare as the juror feeds the acacia fires up its defenses loading its leaves with tannins a toxic soup when eaten in large quantities it can even send chemical signals to nearby trees that it's time to lock and load but poison doesn't seem to faze this giant foot soldier there's a reason why he has the perfect antidote slobber giraffes pit neutralizes the tannin but there's a sloppy side effect giant drool trails other trees don't give up the fight so easily the succulent whistling thorn acacia has hired insect mercenaries to defend its thorns and leaves from hungry Raiders they even get homegrown barracks but a measly ant army isn't going to scare off the weirdest grazer on the plains just one bite mobilizes the defenses immediately but it isn't until the ants crawl into the giraffes mouth and nose that the giant ruminants begins to feel the sting chewing up the invaders doesn't help there are too many and those slimy drool trails don't help that this biting issue there's only one thing to do lick them out but even sticking that long tongue straight up his nose doesn't get rid of the angry ants the giraffe decides that a few thorny leaves aren't worth fighting for when you need to eat for 20 hours a day it's important to choose your battles a fool Marchak looks a little too cute and fluffy to be a brawler and they seem pretty vulnerable to anyone who can climb high enough to catch one but no one would want to take on these babies in a fight they have a secret weapon that gives new definition to the word foul the chicks appear to have weaponized an oily pungent mix of their own secretions when any thread comes near they take aim and puke the guts out they can propel their vomit almost two meters away any predatory bird hit with this projectile is going to have problems the stinky spit can damage feathers as badly as any oil slick making flight impossible this weird-looking creature looks like something from outer space but it's actually a shark the spot in the center of his forehead is a giant eye this is an albino cyclops shark pup the dusky sharp fetus has a rare mutation called cyclopia a birth defect where the eyes don't divide it may look like the most freakishly fearsome shark in the seas but the fish won't have much to be scared of sadly this mutant is unlikely to survive in the wild strange looks weird weapons fierce fights all tried and true survival tactics in the world of the weird you can be a bizarre beauty or the Beast but don't forget the brains these are some of nature's oddest tricksters creatures who con rivals into helping them survive this is a full-scale and invasion but these polyergus ants aren't raiding their rival ants to steal food or shelter they're looking for slaves polyergus have a strange way of surviving the dependent Formica ants to serve them in fact they are so dependent on their smaller servants for food grooming and defense that they've forgotten how to take care of themselves thousands of polyergus soldiers invade a nearby formica colony but they don't bother with the adults they carry away the babies they bring the Pugh pie back to their nest and enslave the Formica larvae from the cradle the young ants will gather food for their masters groom them and raise their young the form occurs who even defend the polyergus colony when it's under attack and when the enslaved ants get old and sick they'll be cast off for new ones to most insects the bucket orchids weird waxy fluid food flowers are a deathtrap but to attract South America's orchid B the blooms use some pretty clever advertising all the plant has to do is stick to the age-old principle sex sells the blossoms give off a pretty potent perfume pheromones that make the male bees attractive to females that's a scent the male bees will take any risk to wear the male lands on the lip of the bucket shaped bloom and begins to collect the heady Cologne but one misstep and the bee falls into the slimy pool of liquid at the base but unlike other victims the B takes advantage of a custom-designed escape hatch a tight squeeze through the orchids throat but there's a price for passage - sticky pollen sacks are attached to the convicts back there's only one way to remove them to visit another orchid as the bee orchestrates another prison break a ridge and the flowers throat tears the pollen off his back and each species gets what it needs to create a new generation these unlucky and fib Ian's are carrying a sinister hitchhiker it looks like a post-apocalyptic nightmare but these frogs aren't the victims of radiation poisoning or pollution they've got worms the mutants are infected with a parasitic flatworm called a tremor toad and they have their most feared predator to thank for it heron droppings are riddled with tremor toad eggs snails eat the eggs and when the tiny worms hatch they seek out the perfect host to attach themselves to a tackle but the easiest way to borrow into a juicy frog Ling is through the limb buds when the damaged limbs tried to regrow the freakshow begins multiple legs start to develop and it isn't an accident the parasite needs to come home to mama and the only way to do that is to make sure it's mutated host becomes easy pickings this trickster species prefers a mother's touch it's clear this cichlid mother puts her whole body into protecting her babies and no one knows it better than the catfish that preys on her eggs but these cuckoo catfish aren't just out for a quick snack they are looking for foster mothers as they slip up cichlid eggs they mix in a bunch of their own and abandoned their young without a backward glance when the cichlid mother approaches she unwittingly scoops up the catfish eggs along with her own little does she know that her nurturing mouth will soon become a killing ground the catfish eggs hatch first they eat their smaller foster siblings alive by the time their surrogate mother opens her mouth none of her young have survived strangely the mouth brooder will still protect her adopted children scooping them back up whenever there is danger frigate birds never miss a chance to snack on cute little babies when you're a trickster easy pickings are your bread and butter at sea turtle hatching time the frigate Birds 2 meter wingspan swoops down on the nests bringing death from the sky some turtles will never even reach the sea but they don't just snatch babies out of nests when it comes to feeding these birds are pirates and that means stealing from other species that do the heavy lifting in this smorgasbord of seabirds a storm petrel seems like a tasty treat but just because you catch it does it mean you get to keep it a pirate raid on the wing is risky if one of the big birds has to take a water landing its water lock feathers would keep it from taking off again but the easy loot is too tempting and a juvenile goes home with the booty in the battle for survival you can't beat the most bizarre beasts where the fighting or eating mating or fooling around are just acting more odd than your competition one thing's for certain being weird maybe the way to survive you

Channel: mido miro

Views: 2,183,465

Rating: 4.5297098 out of 5

Keywords: National, Geographic, Wild, Worlds, Weirdest, Freaks, Of, Nature, CONVERT, HDTV, XviD, AFG

Id: cZXQvd5KJUk

Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2012