The Only Animal That Doesn’t Flee From Fire. It Just Went to Sleep When the Forest Was Burning

today we've got tons of really exciting facts about animals and some of them are just i was honestly shocked by what steve found make sure you watch this video to the end wild goats are fascinating creatures you probably saw pictures of these goats standing on the steep rocks you probably have two questions how did they get there and why not a single predator will follow the wild goats up the steep rock and if the goat comes across some plants along the way he can also get a snack the rocks also contain salt and other useful minerals mountain goats lick them when they climb higher but the question is how animals which aren't exactly small or light can do tricks like that the secret lies in their hooves which look both like hard horse hooves and soft paws of some mountain lion it's basically two toes each with a hard edge plus a soft soul when these animals walk over steep rocky terrain the irregularities of the rock push up into the soft part the soul conforms to the shape of the bump and the rock which is then entrapped by the hard edge that's it it's nearly impossible for the hoof to slide the foot of a wild goat is almost glued to the rock in addition the goat carefully chooses exactly where to step despite the slight differences in the structure of hooves across different species of mountain goats the ascent and descent methods work roughly the same all of these goats climb almost vertical surfaces and of course people wouldn't be people if they didn't put the skills of goats to good use for example pack goats are used for hiking where they carry your stuff they don't need a smooth path as you already realized goats can climb almost anywhere but not only goats challenge our concept of physics kestrels have learned to hover in the air almost like a hummingbird though hummingbirds are very small and beat their wings very quickly kestrels simply can't do that so they have to rely on the wind they flap their wings as usual but the forward movement is canceled out by the wind and as a result the bird seems to be stuck in the textures that looks really funny the wind hovering of kestrels looks a lot like an aircraft hovering in the air from time to time videos like that pop up on the internet the plane simply frees in the air violating all the laws of physics though in this case it happens for a different reason it's an optical illusion the angular velocities of the plane and the driver filming the video are the same relative to the trees or the pole you're looking at that makes us think the plane stays motionless in the air how do you like fish that swim no not against the current this won't surprise anyone the cool nepeli rock climbing gobi has learned to swim vertically along the wall yeah why not since its freshwater habitat is easily disrupted for example by a violent storm the fish often crawl upstream to breed there are waterfalls on its way but nothing bothers the rock climbing gobi it's evolved to overcome vertical obstacles up to a hundred feet tall in terms of energy expenditure it's like running a marathon for a person and you know how gobies do that with their mouth this one-inch long fish uses suckers in its mouth and belly to climb rocks steve found out that young gobies deliberately relocate their mouth to the downward position start eating algae only essentially gaining the ability to crawl along vertical surfaces like a spiderman well this fish is not a rock climbing goby does this stop it from climbing a vertical wall nope hold on does it mean all fish will be crawling up the wall soon okay i feel somewhat reassured by the fact that so far the fish can hardly crawl somewhere when it's out of water it can't just summon it unlike the lizards the thorny devils are the animals from the agamidi family who look incredibly prickly live in deserts and know how to tame water well sort of even when there's been no rain for several weeks and there isn't a single puddle around thorny devils can collect moisture they don't even have to move their secret lies in the unusual skin between the giant spikes which appear to be very prickly there's a subtle network of microscopic grooves they can pull water from wet sand right into the lizard's mouth all the thorny devil needs to do to get water is stand in the right place and you know this phenomenon is actually well studied it's called capillary action that's how water can flow unassisted up the plant stems simply because the water molecules are attracted to each other and the narrow walls while some animals bend the water others handle the colossal pressure i doubt anyone will be surprised when i tell you sperm whales can dive up to 1.2 miles deep and feel great also whales constantly resurface to breathe then dive again that puts quite some strain on the body if a person dives even several feet deep they immediately feel the pressure rising both on the body and in the eardrum this is not a nice experience and the deeper we dive the worse it gets but sperm whales are just fine although they're also mammals to hell with physics said whales and learn to collapse their lungs during a dive so that the growing pressure wouldn't damage them collapsible ribcage also helps avoid any trauma a special protein allows whales to store oxygen not only in the blood but also in the muscles to prevent excess nitrogen accumulation in the blood and decompression sickness whales actually limit gas exchange this is how whales survive even very deep dives they can safely stay deep down below where high pressure can crush even submarines whales knew exactly how to evolve now take a look at this guy this is an oriental hornet scientists have discovered it has the unique ability to absorb solar energy and is literally powered by the sun see the yellow stripe on its body it allows these insects to trap the sun's rays and harvest their energy this by the way explains why oriental hornets become more active on hotter days as for me i feel awfully tired when it's hot so i'm definitely not a hornet the yellow tissues of the hornet contain a little-known pigment called xanthopteryn it works as a light harvesting molecule that converts light into electrical energy you get it right hornets essentially convert sunlight into electricity if you think about it these hornets are somewhat similar to solar panels well except for the design scientists have even estimated that the current generated by the hornet could reach 700 nano amps though i have to admit neither steve nor i know a thing about electricity so it's up to you to know what to do with this information after power generating hornets i thought no animal would surprise me today but then steve told me about the african crested rat this animal looks like the love child of a skunk and a shoe brush but it only seems funny until you find out that the crested rat is covering itself with poison nature didn't give poisonous glands to these rodents so crested rats chew the branches of a plant called echocanthera shimperi they chew it and then spit it back out to slaughter a toxic substance onto the special hairs on its flanks where the fur of crested rats is spongy and easily absorbs everything the smearing ritual turns crested rats into the world's only known toxic rodents well predators who decide to eat them end up dead if they're lucky enough to survive they'll never approach crested rats again because the poison of the acocantheris chimperi is in fact quite strong in africa it's traditionally used to make poisonous arrows as well as to kill dangerous wild animals actually when i first saw a crested rat it seemed a bit like an echidna to me although they are definitely not related since we mentioned the echidnas what special skills do they have it's weird but echidnas are not afraid of fire and don't try to flee from it they sleep in it echidnas are known to hibernate lowering their metabolism and body temperature during a fire they choose a safe protected and hidden location such as a hollow tree log or underground burrow and snooze away in there yes the fire may well heat the shelter like a furnace but the echidna doesn't care just imagine sleeping through a natural disaster some scientists suspect this is how echidna survived the asteroid impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs but echidnas actually tolerate high temperatures quite well this animal can survive even 138 degrees fahrenheit no wonder it's sleeping during the fire how about a waterproof lizard that can't drown the pygmy gecko from the amazon rainforest is so tiny it's like a small paper clip it's .9 inches long when you're so small you just need to have some kind of trump card up your sleeve like a super skin covered with microscopic hairs which prevent water from sticking to the gecko and if the gecko itself falls into the water it can simply run on it because it's tiny light and hydrophobic it's even cooler than the common basilisks that run on the surface of water incredibly fast but i was even more surprised that birds could do the same i'm talking about western and clark's greaves during the mating ritual they sprint along the surface of the water at a speed of about 20 steps per second that's incredibly fast on average greebs can travel up to 66 feet in seven seconds on water but it's not only their speed that allows these rather big birds to stay on the surface their paws are wide enough to slap the water with enough force to support up to 55 of the bird's weight just think about it grebes have evolved specifically to break laws of physics and engage in mating dances the things you do for love people don't have abilities like that the fastest of us can take five well six steps per second but that's not enough so a person trying to walk on water will always fail no matter what while the birds were practicing their running skills people upgraded their intelligence maybe soon we'll create a robot that moves across the water in exactly the same way it can be used for search and rescue operations in flooded or swampy environments or for racing the birds we'll see how it goes see you later

Channel: WATOP

Views: 1,121,712

Keywords: WATOP, Wa Top

Id: WnEKu2VgRwI

Length: 10min 57sec (657 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 21 2022