These Predators Don’t Use Force, But Use Mind

in this hour-long video we compiled the most ingenious predators we've ever seen today we'll remember what birds learn to use fire for how spiders use ingenious traps including lassos now a little bird terrified everyone with its unusual approach to hunting we'll also refresh our memories of polar bears hunting techniques recall how clever elephants can be and much more let's go you've probably heard the story about how a common bee knocked down a rider once a tiny insect that crashed into a man at full speed and easily knocked him down is this true or not i don't know but i know one thing if a person meets a giant hornet the rider's problems will seem like nothing to him asian giant hornets are definitely not the kind of creatures you'd want to know closely even if you don't suffer from entomophobia first of all they're big no more like the asian giant hornets are huge 1.7 inches long with a wingspan of roughly three inches plus a quarter inch long stinger this is the damn giant of the insect world for comparison an ordinary bee stinger which can also hurt you a lot is about .06 inches long you see the difference the important thing is to not feel it it's believed that asian giant hornets have existed on our planet since at least the miocene period that is they've been living with us for a long time you shouldn't blame bad ecology for their enormous size hornets are just naturally big why well you know there's a reason media calls them killer hornets these are real machines for exterminating other insects however in the wild size doesn't always matter sperm whales are huge but they can't tangle with killer whales how dangerous are asian giant hornets really i was lucky i never encountered them but less lucky people say the bite of an asian giant hornet feels like a hot nail being driven into your leg i don't think i want to know how entomologists came up with this analogy but here's a fact the hornet's stinger is so long and strong it can easily pierce clothes and not just your favorite jeans or hoodies the asian giant hornets can handle even the protective clothing worn by beekeepers you know these tight suits seems like to protect yourself from the bite of the asian giant hornet you need to wear knight's armor however if the hornet wants to harm you it'll find a way not only can they use their stingers to inject venom asian giant hornets can also spray venom into a person's eyes under certain circumstances what exactly causes this behavior how can one avoid this so far scientists failed to figure this out as well as the degree of eye damage when it gets exposed to the venom but it certainly has consequences for health it's believed that the venom of the asian giant hornet is less toxic than the venom of some other species but the hornets win when it comes to volume imagine a splinter got under your skin ouch it's a nasty feeling but that's not too bad now imagine how you would feel when pierced by a huge steak you don't have to be a vampire to realize it doesn't feel good so these are huge insects with giant stingers and a large amount of venom that's just great a small colony of hornets can kill a human weighing about 154 pounds if insects attack him at the same time however some scientists believe that asian giant hornets are not as aggressive as they're believed to be they're just protecting their nests the only problem is that hornets are always ready to defend their nests even if humans don't threaten them at all and only i don't know passed by and didn't suspect these insects were nearby asian giant hornets are definitely the animals that believe the best defense is a good offense well they can afford to think that way even when they defend themselves from humans in response to toxins our nervous system can simply shut down the venom can cause kidney failure cardiac arrest plus an allergic reaction can occur which will cause anaphylactic shock each year these insects kill 30 to 40 people in japan but it's unlikely that all the unfortunate victims of hornets posed any real threat to them the good news is that one hornet can inject a lethal dose of venom unless you have an allergy of course the bad news when threatened the asian giant hornet will call on its friends to attack something like hey guys we have a stranger here let's take him down and this is a real problem in china people who've been bitten by a hornet 10 times are advised to seek medical attention and when mitten 30 times they need urgent help an encounter with an asian hornet is not that time when you can hope everything will somehow work itself out even if there are no serious consequences for the internal organs and the nervous system there's always a risk of tissue necrosis in short that's hardly nice personally this information was enough for me to understand how dangerous giant hornets are but if this is somehow not convincing enough for you i have more facts which can make your skin crawl the asian giant hornet is very predatory it hunts medium to large-sized insects like bees and other hornet species all kinds of beetles and even praying mantises in one of my previous videos i mentioned that praying mantises can even feed on lizards well giant hornets can eat praying mantises in the fall do you realize what kind of monsters we're talking about if the asian giant hornet wants it's quite capable of killing a dragonfly a spider or even a mouse yes adults can drink only the juices of their victims but for the sake of the offspring the hornets have adapted they chew their prey into a paste to feed their larvae yummy the main opponents and favorite victims of hornets are of course bees you can say that attacking beehives is something like their specialization a profession learned at the university of nature when asian giant hornets invade a bee colony they can go into berserk mode i'm not kidding in this state the hornets kill one bee after another and the number of victims reaches 40 per minute in a few hours a small group of hornets can destroy a colony of 30 000 bees and a smaller colony can be wiped out by only one hornet and it'd be okay if these monsters just attacked the hive to devour everyone inside but no the asian giant hornets act in a different manner they bite off the heads and legs of their victims and then carry the lifeless body to their nest to eat it there bee larvae also stand no chance sometimes after a quick cleanup of the bee colony the hornets slowly eat up the bee larva in order to feed their own larva later well here's a reasonable question can't bees actually do anything about it unfortunately honeybee stings can't penetrate the hornet's thick outer shells even if they try really hard and sacrifice their lives it won't do any good honeybee attacks on asian giant hornets are like a stone spear trying to pierce a tank very brave but completely pointless if i were a bee i'd start panicking at the mirror thought there might be asian giant hornets somewhere nearby you know what let's get animal feces bring it into the nest and smear it on the inside and outside how about that five minutes later mr bull could you give us some of your well this stuff to protect the hive thank you this is not some crude humor but a working strategy when giant hornets approach the hive the bees respond by collecting bits of solid waste from nearby chicken coops and heaps of mammal dong they then apply it in tiny mounds shaped with their jaws the hornets really try to fly around the protected hives as if they don't even want to touch the dirty passages the hives smeared with feces were never captured by giant hornets it'd be very embarrassing if a whole squad of giant hornets flew in to attack the hive and while the hive turned out to be alarmed but this simply can't happen because hornets like real warriors send a scout first the attack begins only when the scouts find a new hive and mark it with a pheromone however sometimes intelligence goes far beyond the familiar region there is a clear logic in this behavior local bees are gradually learning to adapt to the attacks of asian giant hornets which means they need new defenseless victims when the hornet enters a japanese honeybees nest its inhabitants gather around the invader and form a living bee ball they vibrate their flying muscles raising the temperature and carbon dioxide levels inside literally cooking the hornet inside by the way it's a very effective strategy when you have to fight with one individual the very scout who can call the rest of the army what are hornets supposed to do in such situations capture new regions attention soldiers you scout the area around our nest you fly to the nearest bee colony and you steve you fly to the north pole but it takes two months to get there it's cold no wi-fi there are bears around and well bears that's right not so long ago asian giant hornets were spotted in north america and this has caused serious concern their usual habitat is asian countries in some parts of the russian far east but since the hornets could cross the ocean the north american bees are in grave danger after all the hornets will not stop they can move south gradually capturing more and more new territories meanwhile bees are one of the most important insects on our planet they're pollinating food crops so that we can get fruits vegetables grains and so on if all the bees go extinct it'll upset the delicate balance of earth's ecosystem and affect global food supplies you see what the problem is even if you hate vegetables and fruits the absence of bees will ultimately affect everything there'll be no bread there'll be no fries by the way there'll be no ketchup either wasn't so long ago that scientists began to study bees more closely and realized just how important they really are after realizing that they panicked and their concern is justified insects are facing extinction rates that are eight times higher than vertebrates there are more than 800 species of wild bees in europe of which more than 150 are endangered vulnerable or near threatened of course bees are not the only insects involved in pollination though butterflies bumblebees some flies and others are also in danger research shows that up to 40 percent of the world's insect species are in decline the situation is not getting better invasive predators like giant hornets parasites and disease-causing bacteria kill many insects important to us and they do it pretty fast humans of course are trying to do something but so far our attempts are not very successful we hope we can come up with some kind of robotic bees in the future seems like the asian giant hornets deserve to meet an opponent like a terminator i'll be back our planet formed around 4.6 billion years ago at about the same time when the solar system was born from a giant rotating cloud of gas and dust large debris and cosmic dust formed the earth which was heavily bombarded by meteorites and then a planet the size of mars crashed into the earth this collision gave us the moon after a while continents in the familiar world ocean appeared on earth volcanic activity abated the planet was ready for life but a huge territory like that needed a king that was a problem because there were a lot of candidates water it all began in the water it was here that the very first king the apex predator appeared and it's believed was anomalocaris yes it looked like a giant shrimp with a weird mouth but most likely it was enough to be big at that time the appearance of anomalocaris is linked with the cambrian explosion a period of rapid diversification of life on earth just imagine at first the water looked like a thin soup with small worms and then boom many more organisms emerged they acquire an exoskeleton predators begin to eat their prey vertebrates evolve and here we are welcome to the modern ocean if the anomalocaris had survived to this day it wouldn't maintain its status of an apex predator more than half a billion years ago it was enough to grow to 15 inches long but the ocean we're used to follows completely different rules now a new king rules here a killer whale one of the largest predators in the world killer whales are rightfully considered the kings of the seas they hunt in deadly pods of up to 40 individuals and eat whatever they come across fish penguins other seabirds squids marine mammals up to whales everything is good enough for each victim killer whales choose an individual strategy because their intelligence and ability to work in a team allow them to do this they can even cruelly play with their prey if saw was filmed underwater i know who the killer whale would play and they're also incredibly fast and can reach speeds of up to 34 miles per hour this is the maximum allowed speed in a number of countries but hardly anyone would risk giving a ticket to a killer whale would no one oppose the killer whales and seize the throne take sharks for example they terrify humans so why not slightly expand their influence on the animal kingdom unfortunately for sharks it's impossible to broadcast jaws in the ocean and they are also afraid of killer whales it's hard to judge them because killer whales don't mind eating a shark and they choose complicated methods of killing some push their prey to the surface others paralyze sharks by turning them over and then eat only the liver they attack both the fastest and the largest species even a great white shark is in danger if it gets caught by a killer whale no wonder sharks prefer to swim away as soon as they smell a killer whale because an encounter means certain death oh and don't forget that sharks are loners by nature while killer whales hunt in pods in short sharks stand no chance the only one who can challenge the title of the killer whale as the king of the ocean is human but that's a completely different story land when we talk about the most powerful fearless bloodthirsty in short the most formidable predator on land everyone immediately thinks of the honey badger oh yeah this guy is as cool as it gets the honey badger's not afraid of venom his coat is so thick it's hard not only to bite through but even to cut it an internet tells legends about the courage of the honey badger in addition he's cunning dexterous smart and prefers to avoid dangerous opponents wait what despite their reputation as the world's most fearless animal honey badgers try to stay out of trouble sometimes after finding fresh tracks of a lion or a leopard honey badgers prefer to hide in their holes and they attack large predators only when they're surprised when the honey badger is digging he doesn't see what's happening around so the approach of a lion is an unpleasant surprise so you have to attack someone from whom you could hide otherwise hey easy bro don't give us away be a good fellow and take this out of the video okay okay who else if not the honey badger can be called the king of the land well it all depends on the region in the arctic the polar bear is considered an apex predator on several islands in indonesia the crown belongs to the komodo dragon in other areas alligators brown bears packs of wolves and big cats like lions or tigers can be found at the top of the food chain and yet if i had to vote for the most formidable predator i'd pick the polar bear why well just look at it huge heavy with a thick coat and a layer of fat that works like natural armor against any blows powerful paws with long sharp claws to tear the prey ability to walk on snow and thin ice a perfect sense of smell this predator will find its prey even one mile under the snow also the polar bear is really not afraid of anyone because there's no one to hunt it and yet these kings of the arctic have one serious drawback like sharks polar bears are solitary whereas the lions which claim the title of the apex predator in africa hunt in groups you see what i'm getting at perhaps a polar bear can handle one lion simply crushing it with strength and weight but most likely the lions would attack the arctic predator with the entire pride which can include up to 20 individuals yeah seems like the bear just won't stand a chance so lions are the kings of land well looks like it let me know if the tigers call to challenge that statement air so far we've only talked about certain species that dominate in water and on land but when it comes to air that is the sky things are a little different i've done some research and it looks like the whole family is sitting on a throne here no not the lannisters or even targaryens these are accepted trip for me this largest order of diurnal birds of prey probably includes everyone you imagine when you hear the words king of the sky well except for elon musk of course these are vultures eagles hawks kites can you imagine how much influence this order i mean this family has in the sky i wonder who's the boss among them you come to me but you come without respect you don't even offer me a mouse sharp beaks huge wings downright gigantic claws one could only compare with that of a grizzly bear perfect vision speed acceptor for me have all these weapons hell the strongest bird in the world is part of this family the female harpy eagle is capable of killing and carrying away prey of superior size add to this the legs that can be as thick as a child's wrist and an attack force that generates three times the muzzle energy of a bullet shot from a 357 magnum handgun even though the fastest birds belong to a different order hardly anyone would argue that the air belongs to the axiformes also they literally took over the entire planet after all acceptor farmies hunt not birds only they choose their prey both on land and in even the water some eagles are happy to catch fish golden eagles are actually trained to hunt wolves yeah you heard that right aprex predators who rule over one element attack the kings of another yes they have to be trained by people but you can't deny golden eagles can kill mammals larger and heavier than wolves with a powerful blow right to the back of the skull it's in their instincts if animals could reason the same way as humans we would face a war harder than that in game of thrones shadow as soon as the sun sets the time of darkness comes and different laws rule here many diurnal creatures become completely defenseless and prefer to hide while others receive a bonus from nature take for example lions they can hunt at any time of the day but it's at night that most of their prey can't see well a great opportunity to sneak up close darkness is also on the side of those who unleash a war between the kings of different elements the same eagles that attack the wolves during the day become victims of owls at night yes owls use the knight to settle scores with the eagles and this actually this confrontation has been going on for millions of years and over this time i even managed to make a video about it it turned out to be as legendary as the war itself check it out if you haven't seen it yet think the world of shadows isn't fair well that's the way it is here the successful ones are the most slithery creatures who attack sleeping animals sneak up in the dark to strike and drink blood exactly that's the bats they're the ones you can call the real monsters of the night yes out of a bunch of bat species only a couple feet on blood but that doesn't make bats any less creepy they move rather quietly maybe they learn from mosquitoes how not to do also the vast majority of bat's prey sleeps during their meal wild animals livestock even humans we don't usually appear on their menu but a hungry bat won't say no to a human sleeping outside plus he won't even wake up it's all about the teeth they lack enamel which keeps them so razor sharp that you can cut yourself even if you handle the skull of a bat exhibited in some museum take care of your hands usually during the bite a bat drinks about a tablespoon of blood that's nothing this loss won't do much harm but this is only if you were attacked by one bat and they in fact love hunting together according to the data i found online 100 bats can drink the blood of 25 cows in a year i mean all their blood you can calculate how many bats it takes to drain one cow over a night share the answer in the comments i'm also curious about eight out of ten bush fires in australia are caused by lightning strikes animals are always the first to suffer from fire over millions of years of evolution they've come up with different ways to escape it and it's always worked until the point when the animals themselves became the cause of fires in the 1980s a firefighter named dick yousen was called to put out a fire in kakadu national park he eliminated the source of fire but suddenly noticed a raptor with a burning stick in its talons the bird flew a couple feet more dropped the stick and the fire broke out in a new place right away no matter how hard houston tried to put it out the fire sparked again and again like it was done on purpose but this sounds like complete nonsense why would any animal set fire to their own home after all they all know that fire means death and where would a bird get fire to learn how to use it how are these bipeds doing so well okay birds of course don't start a fire on their own in any case people have not seen anything like it yet but they make excellent use of the flame which has already started burning at least three australian species the black kite the whistling kite and the brown falcon are considered cereal arsonists or rather fire hawks the primary source of the fire can be a forest fire caused by lightning or any other cause all you need to do is just wait and fire will certainly spread around all that's left is to grab the burning stick with talons or take it in the beak and carry it to the right place i wouldn't be surprised if it turns out the birds even thought of pulling branches out of the bonfires what's next they'll snatch logs from fireplaces hold on i still don't understand what's the point of that birds can't be doing this simply out of spite or a desire to burn everything around and the reason is really different as soon as a fire breaks out most animals simply have to flee for their lives they get out of their hiding spots and move in a certain direction opposite to the spreading of the flame this is an emergency evacuation inherent by nature and the fire hawks understand it very well no one will deny the instinct of self-preservation and think about the fact that there might be predators there maybe we should look around to hell with the predators there's a fire blazing what should you do when other animals are scared attack that's probably the fastest and easiest hunting method ever invented by a predator i wonder if the animals fleeing from the fire are considered fast food though when you are a bird you have to really try to understand how fire works observe make conclusions check out how exactly fire spread whether it's possible to take a piece of disaster with you and move it to the right place it only looked simple at first glance because people have learned to use fire too long ago and you know what the birds may have done the same the indigenous population of australia has always known about so-called fire hawks while scientists are still arguing whether birds can deliberately set something on fire ordinary people figured it out 40 000 years ago and they are certain yes birds can do it and they do it all the time complete madness on the other hand why not after all people once realized they could use the flame created by lightning for their own purposes so why can't others do the same birds can also observe and analyze what stops them from taming fire give these birds some more time and in a couple thousand years they'll invent their version of facebook however using fires is not such a unique ability it's just that animals usually do not start these fires on their own but they've long figured out how to get the most from a devastating catastrophe like some other birds maribo storks follow the fires not flea from them they usually feed on carrion as well as insects and all sorts of small things like rodents so the burnt out ground is the perfect place to have a feast for the maribo storks they got the nickname undertaker birds for a reason even though they actually got it for their looks admit it they're not very cute some terrestrial predators also use fires for their own selfish purposes bears and raccoons often hunt animals that are trying to flee from the fire i don't know how they do not catch fire at the same time but maybe the reason lies in experience and cold-blooded calculations when you understand which direction and at what speed the fire is moving you can come up with a plan however many species already have their own survival algorithm not all animals mindlessly run away from the fire amphibians can bury themselves in the mud moose can wait out the disaster in the nearest reservoir and kangaroos kangaroos sometimes run towards the flames according to research kangaroos like wallabies other marsupial species risk crossing the fire edge to occupy the territory which is already burned this makes sense since nothing is burning there it means that there is nothing left to burn so it's safe perhaps if animals learn to put out fires it would become much easier for all of us but we're not there yet so far the best nature has to offer is fire hawks and chimpanzees that understand how fire works not like they talk to it like harry potter with the fireplace serious chimpanzees stay cool in front of the fire they have an almost human ability to predict the spread of wildfires when they see the flame they calmly avoid it no stress by the way that was how our distant ancestors once began to tame fire it is unlikely any other animals like tortoises have any chance to start using fire but on the other hand they learn to save other creatures from disasters the gopher tortoise can dig excellent burrows that provide shelter for over 350 other species during fires or hurricanes most importantly the owner of the borough does not mind the unexpected neighbors at all although this means snakes including rattlesnakes burrowing owls various frogs and invertebrates and probably everyone who can crawl through the entrance perhaps if all these animals that actually suffer from fires realize that sometimes birds are the cause they'd well somehow deal with them perhaps many fires in australia would have been extinguished much faster if it were not for the birds love of fast food but birds of prey are not the only ones starting fires you've probably seen how birds sit on power lines quite an ordinary scene if these are modern power lines then everything should be in order but if the power lines were designed at the beginning of the last century then the bird can actually cause an accidental spark while they didn't think about the impact on wildlife back then the bird can simply fly into the power line then the spark hits the feathers the feathers light up and yes the poor birds really had tough luck turns out about a thousand years ago people even used the ability of birds to cause fires it's clear back then there were no power lines yet let alone electricity princess olga who ruled over kiev and ruse used birds to capture the city of asgoristan the siege lasted a whole year until olga went for a trick she offered the residents to pay her a strange tribute three pigeons and three sparrows from each house people of course were surprised but agreed and gave olga the birds then she ordered to tie some small pieces of cloth to each bird and at night when it got dark they set the cloth aflame and released the birds the pigeons flew to their nests the sparrows flew under the roofs a fire broke out and the inhabitants were forced to flee the city was captured does it mean that fires can be beneficial to the predators and princess olga generally it seems to be true but when i began to study this issue i discovered an unexpected thing turns out animals almost do not die of fires unless of course they last for a very long time occur due to natural causes or cover two large territories animals got used to the fact that something burns on earth from time to time and they know how to behave in that case moreover fires even have a positive effect on nature for example on burned out pastures there's 20 times more food for moose so it's unlikely they'll be against fires also wilderness areas such as forests and prairies grow naturally and change over time a fire is something like a reset button when everything is rolled back to factory settings but sometimes even the best reboot in the world can get out of hand and result in a blue screen of death forest fires are so intense they can create their own weather systems causing more fires yeah you heard right fires that cause fires smoke and hot air rise upwards where pyrocumulus clouds form the quivering air causes water droplets and ice crystals to collide building up an electrical charge and turning the system into a giant thunderstorm mushroom thunderstorms mean wind which helps fire spread in lightning which causes new outbreaks at a great distance in at least one case such a mushroom even created a fire tornado can you imagine the consequences so good things come in small packs especially when it comes to fire in 2014 a team of scientists discovered a large number of dinosaur remains in utah all of these ancient lizards had been caught in a cruel quicksand trap 25 million years ago first the herbivores were trapped then the predators came at their scent hoping for easy prey all of them died because of a simple vagary of nature which made no sense but over time animals have evolved now they're capable of creating their own traps and even teaching it to humans people often call this bird dumb and whoa whoa whoa put aside your dislikes that's the real origin of its name before boobies were too friendly and clumsy they could board a sailing ship where they were easily caught and then roasted and other boobies weren't at all embarrassed by the fate of their eaten brethren but people were so impressed with the silly boobies that they even named minds after them and it's quite anonymous legacy booby traps were planted in the most unobvious places for the specific purpose of fooling the enemy confusing them and of course hurting them explosive devices named after birds can be found anywhere inside furniture under stairs in cars in personal belongings behind paintings and even in the toilet for crying out loud in short pretty creepy stuff however i was telling all this because of one particular trap here it is see well it looks pretty conventional some kind of trench for an introvert what's so special about it it's simple the authors of this idea aren't human but spiders look at that that's amazing good thing there's no copyright in the arthropod world otherwise the tens zeity would have every reason to sue humans these spiders differ from their many brethren and their love of burrows which they build themselves and close with trapped doors made of soil plants and cobwebs anxiety usually lead a nocturnal lifestyle and wait for prey by holding onto the bottom of the door with claws on their legs as soon as an insect or other arthropod or small vertebrate catches the threads of web stretched in advance the vibration enters the hatch the spider only has to quickly jump out and drag the prey into the deep dark corridor yes got it look at that did you see that by the way the oldest spider of the species lived 43 years and all because it almost never left its small burrow now that's what hashtag stay home should really look like of course people sitting in cramped spider holes couldn't spend decades there it's just a hole in the ground where a person could fit about shoulder height or even less depending on their height in some holes you could only sit in a squatting position and it was necessary to be as secretive and quiet as possible the top of the shelter was often camouflaged with a lid and it was used for a foray or a surprise attack yeah imagine having to climb into that hole with a gun in your hand as well nevertheless the trap perfectly copied from the spider hole was used in world war ii and during the vietnam war this lid has to be camouflaged to match the surrounding area but if everything's clear with humans how does this spider itself create its traps i mean it certainly has many legs but no shovels are spiders even capable of digging oddly enough yes unlike other species panziti have a number of hard spines located on their chelycera in other words the arthropod mouth parts these two appendages at the front are covered with special serrations you know those things yeah thanks harry they're used to dig in the ground and to collect and discard excess soil when building a burrow so you could say that nature created spiders with hairy teeth on purpose to dig burrows with them not a bad example to follow if you think about it what do you think a gladiator a fisherman and a spider have in common that's right a net and it's unlikely that spiders looked at gladiators in ancient rome and were like hmm cool thing these bipeds have i'll be using it during the hunt too it's more likely that people were inspired by spider methods and i'm not talking about the usual web stretched between stationary objects day and nopeday don't weave such webs instead they create a web between their front paws and wait their turn when prey approaches the spider stretches the web to two or three times its original size and can throw it on its prey honestly this is one of the most unusual ways of hunting in the animal kingdom that i've seen but not the most unusual if gladiator spiders exist in the world why shouldn't there be cowboy spiders bolus spiders use a silk thread with a sticky ball on the end instead of the standard web this ball consists of a sticky poisonous substance and twisted threads coated with a slightly less sticky substance the composition of course is complex but everything is thoroughly calculated when the bolus spider sees a desirable insect it swings around and throws the ball thread at it [Music] much like a cowboy throws a lasso around the neck of a bull or horse if the ball at least touches the prey all the spider has to do is entangle it in the thread and soon eat it no biggie this way it sometimes catches up to seven prey in one night and imagine if these spiders also had horses actually if you look at spiders it begins to seem that they're the perfect predators years of evolution have perfected even their traps and now no one can hit and what what are those babies meet the assassins bugs the hitmen of the insect world not only are they able to hunt spiders but they do it right in the middle of spider webs to avoid attracting unnecessary attention from the spider the assassin bugs slowly take the threads of the web and gently pull them apart until the threads tear then again and again and again in this way they literally tear their way to the prey while remaining completely invisible to the spider these actions are so invisible that they can hardly be tracked with the most modern technology and since the spider has no such technology well so long buddy yes to be a perfect predator it's not enough to know how to set cunning traps however some insects don't need to they're already born with traps on their faces literally erantomacus is a genus of omnivorous ants that have simply huge jaws seriously it's like nature decided not to bother with all sorts of hunting strategies and gave these insects all the cards at once but the size of the trap on the face is not the only feature because the giant jaws can also open 180 degrees slamming down with unreal speed if necessary according to scientist calculations it takes ants about 130 microseconds to do this hardly anyone can notice the whole process without special equipment just imagine 130 microseconds and the prey has been grabbed with force about 300 times the ant's body weight but against smaller soft bodied insects these strikes can be deadly it's believed that the jaws either kill or [ __ ] prey instantly but sometimes they're used for slower and more precise tasks for example for nest building or for caring for larva and that's where the important thing is to not mix things up of course traps aren't only found in the animal or insect world for carnivorous plants it's the only way they can get any food at all they can't chase after anything delicious the largest carnivorous plant in the world is the nepetis raja its menu includes not only insects but also mice frogs or lizards after all its size allows it to do so but there's the problem there aren't many insects where nepenthos raja grows to survive the plant has to rethink its diet its large bowl full of nourishing nectar attracts small animals after licking the nectar off the leaves the animals relieve themselves fertilizing the plant and the waste is transformed into new nectar which attracts new animals and so it goes round and round and also just think about it the plant has turned itself into a natural analog of a toilet bowl it thickened the walls of its bowl so that the animal could sit on it comfortably not falling down and not breaking the flower and the shape of the funnel which the plant's bowl has adopted allows the droppings to go exactly to their destination all that's left to do is grow a brush yep that awkward feeling when the largest carnivorous plant on the planet is forced to work as a public toilet seems like some kind of sad metaphor for employment after college what about a trap the size of an entire tree that's also misused the sonia are seemingly harmless trees and shrubs that grow in the tropics and subtropics but what is completely harmless to humans and even considered a great garden plant is simultaneously a deadly trap its main victims are birds the large seed pods of pesonia are covered with dense mucus and small hooks insects get stuck in this sticky mess but when a bird is about to snack on this kind of fast food it becomes a prey itself the sticky and sharp pisonia seeds cling tightly to the feathers of the bird and often the bird simply can't fly away that is the tree acts as a giant fly tape often the trapped bird falls to the ground or remains trapped on a branch well then death comes either from starvation or from the claws of birds of prey it's not clear why the pesonia kill the birds at all their bodies are quickly eaten by scavengers so this is clearly not a way to fertilize most likely in this way the plant simply spreads its seeds by gluing them to the plumage and the fact that many birds simply die in the process of gluing well it's kind of a side effect for pisonia a small error unlike pisonia the alligator snapping turtle hunts without incidental victims well even if there are some they can no longer tell you anything this turtle's trap is located right in its mouth and really why think of anything else when you can use your own mouth thanks to evolution which gave the snapping turtle a thin worm-like tip of its tongue colored bright pink all that's left to do with such thing is to lie motionless on the bottom buried in the silt open the mouth wide and wait well and wiggle your tongue from time to time something pick and worm like of course attracts the attention of fish they swim closer to grab their prey then become one themselves it's simply impossible to get out of the snapping turtle's powerful jaws oh look look so it turns out that it literally lures fish with a worm but it doesn't use a fishing rod not a bad way to save money according to research by professor roger ulrich the view through a window can facilitate recovery from surgery patients with nature window views were released from the hospital faster and had fewer complications trees reduce stress relieve pain and help you relax until you look at the branch and see this what if i tell you this small bird that looks like a sparrow is in no way inferior to eagles and owls the loggerhead strike is also known as a butcher bird although it looks like a companion to some disney princess but don't let the looks deceive you the menu of this bird includes insects arachnids amphibians reptiles small rodents and even young birds of other species seeing potential prey the loggerhead shrike swoops down on it like an eagle hold on an eagle seriously this baby yes sometimes strikes grow up to 10 inches but that's still very small just look at them usually predators have powerful wings to carry heavy loads and sharp strong claws to catch their prey add the beak and you get a real killing machine meanwhile loggerhead strike got the feet of a sparrow they're only good for sitting gracefully on a branch their wings also don't look like powerful lifting mechanisms of course evolution gave loggerhead shrikes hooked beaks but compared to the beaks of eagles they look like mockery and when i say loggerhead strikes feet are only good for sitting on branches i mean it as soon as the birds land on a branch or some kind of wire their feet are automatically locked to prevent falling in addition their feet usually don't feel anything birds need that to be able to sit on cold surfaces try grabbing a metal handrail outside in winter time and you'll understand why loggerhead shrikes prefer to get rid of the feeling hey i told you to grab it with your hand do not try to lick it [Music] it would seem that with skills like that the loggerhead shrikes should have switched to a diet of berries seeds and small bugs but they did not give up and came up with quite a gory way of hunting since nature has not given the shrike strong enough feet wings and beak they use tools like thorns i'm not even sure i can explain how it works without violating the youtube policies well can you imagine a kebab it works the same way it's much more convenient to eat prey from a thorn also you can leave it there like in a pantry and then go back and finish your meal and just when you think things can't get any more frightening the shrikes say ha because these cute birds use the kebab technique not only to make prey easier to eat sometimes even not very big prey ends up on the thorns if the loggerhead shrike needs to remove toxins from it it's simple grasshoppers live somewhere in a field that humans have treated against pests which means they carry some of the toxin on themselves as well trikes are smart enough to realize this but if you leave the grasshopper in the sun and let it dry for a while then the toxin will no longer be dangerous so how long should i dry them i know i shouldn't have skipped grasshopper studies and you know what the sun can really destroy toxins researchers from two american labs are working on using sunlight to break down harmful compounds such as dioxins these substances appear for a number of reasons but mainly due to the uncontrolled burning of waste they end up everywhere from soil to food plants and air only recently if scientists figured out how to use the sun to solve this issue and it looks like it really works to be honest i felt i was a little dumber than a bird when i found this out on the other hand i don't eat grasshoppers so but i don't think strikes are reenacting forest horror scenes just for the sake of food nature probably thought that was too cruel and so shrikes began to use thorns to court the ladies the approach is the same males make several kebabs and attract females whoever did it better is a winner i agree a dead mouse on a spit doesn't look like the perfect gift on a romantic date by human standards animals are generally not very good at surprises and bring all sorts of nonsense better not invite a male scorpion to your birthday it'll give you a drop of his saliva penguins will bring you stones crickets pieces of their own wings what about half-eaten insects well the best gift ever nursery web spiders went to even greater extremes according to the spider tradition they should give the female a delicious gift but sometimes the males use deception instead of prey they bring worthless stuff like pieces of flowers cotton inedible leftovers from the insects they ate moreover worthless gifts are usually wrapped in more layers of silk than ordinary ones and this leads to an obvious idea the spiders clearly know what they're doing they deliberately use decoys and try to disguise them as best they can well in the end the female will still find out the truth but during the short period when she's busy unpacking the gifts she thinks this mail is just perfect for her please let it be a playstation please let it be a playstation a stone again can't i find a real man anymore these days what the strikes gifts don't seem so weird anymore do they moreover the birds also put in some effort to prepare them before turning its prey into a gift kebab the shrike shakes it vigorously remember the woodpeckers who put their brains under enormous stress shrikes are not like that yet but in order to immobilize or even kill large enough prey they have to arrange a roller coaster for them well almost the birds grab the mice by the neck with their sharp beak pinch the spinal cord to induce paralysis and then shake them they do it with a force that reaches about 6 g coincidentally this is usually the highest allowed g-force on the rides do you remember this moment when you're suddenly pushed into a chair the stronger this feeling the stronger the overloads but they should last no longer than a couple of seconds these are safety requirements so that people stay alive after the roller coaster ride good thing roller coasters aren't run by strikes however despite all the safety measures people still black out on the rides there's still no statistics on that but what's happening can be explained from a medical point of view due to high g-force when a person is pushed into a chair the blood does not have enough time to get to the brain which means it doesn't receive enough oxygen and the best thing the brain can do in this situation is to go into sleep mode for a few seconds sometimes it just affects vision sometimes a person passes out but have you ever wondered why this is happening at all well as for the internal structure of the body everything is clear blood oxygen all that stuff but what about evolution passing out looks like a death sentence in the wild imagine if i don't know an antelope chased by a lion acted this way he would hardly think oh no she's unconscious i'll look for something else for lunch so what's the reason the most common type of syncope is vasovagal it occurs as a reaction of the body to emotional or physical stress for example when you see something unpleasant passed out when you saw blood this is also a vasovagal cinco and humans seem to have developed it as a defense against other humans in the paleolithic era ancient people were always fighting each other and the most common cause of death was a wound caused by a sharp object scientists believe that women and children simply could not escape from enemy warriors so they developed such a weird reaction they began to pass out from fear or at the sight of blood unwittingly pretending to be dead seems like it worked turning into a survival mechanism otherwise modern people would simply not know how to pass out she's dead for the fifth time this week it's kind of weird it's okay steve let's go invent the wheel okay unlike humans animals can't experience vasso vego cinco and this is understandable as i already said predators will not abandon a prey that is suddenly passed out which is why there are other defense mechanisms in the wild when the prey can't escape for some reason it becomes sort of stunned but it has nothing to do with fainting it's just staying immobile for the sake of survival many predators who track down their prey react to movement and since lunch does not move this is not lunch anymore so they keep looking at the same time staying immobile can be a reaction to extreme fear and some predators have learned to use it snowy owls which are supposed to be less successful hunters on moonlit nights scare rodents with bright light reflected from their plumage this fear has been tested in the lab and yes the brighter the light the stronger the fear and the longer the animals remain still as if they're stunned but often they freeze too late owls have time to see and hear them all that's left is to attack loggerheads shrikes hunt in daylight and look harmless but they pounce on their prey like falcons and know how to stun it like owls and even learn to use tools instead of sharp claws we're talking about a small weak bird with a beautiful singing voice how did it even manage to evolve this way well i have an answer you're not you and you're hungry this illustration is about 150 years old charles hall an arctic explorer drew it based on a story that locals shared with him while he was searching for the missing members of the expedition led by john franklin however he was skeptical about who would believe polar bears can use rocks to hunt walruses official science considered these stories mere myths but it turned out that the inuit knew much more about the world than most prominent scientists do polar bears really throw rocks at walruses the biggest land predators can't handle their prey well the traditional way come on these are walruses giant hulking sausages with tusks how can they be difficult to handle turns out they can nature gave them not only huge tusks and a permanently sleepy look but also provided them with a means of protection don't look at the tusks walruses mainly need them to subdue other walruses and climb onto the ice when they get out of the water let me give you a second to imagine this in order not to become prey to a predator these animals have grown incredibly thick wrinkled skin around the neck and shoulders that is in the most vulnerable spots its thickness reaches four inches in males and then there's also a layer of fat six inches thick it's like evolution gave them a body vest which protects both from the cold and predators yes polar bears have very sharp teeth and equally sharp claws but their length usually does not exceed two inches you see what the problem is even if the bear's fangs were twice as long and the walrus it came across turns out to be very young the layer of fat will still ruin the hunt don't forget about the strong bones of the skull which a bear can't bite through the same way as the bones of seals oh and keep in mind the weight on average walruses weigh twice as much as polar bears you can't even move walruses how do you hunt them the only way is to use the tools at hand well there are not many of them in the arctic so there's not much to choose from you'll hardly find anything other than snow ice and rocks perhaps the bears experimented with different tools to come to an unexpected conclusion rocks and ice really work you just need to climb higher and aim properly unlike with many other hunting techniques this one is not embedded in the bare jeans it comes with experience the bear can see how his relative is tossing rocks or just accidentally drop something on the walrus steve let's throw stones just for fun oh yeah a person discovering such a thing would have the so-called eureka moment a sudden insight an understanding of a previously incomprehensible concept you've probably heard the story about archimedes who found out that when a body is immersed in water it displaces the volume of water equal to the volume of the body according to legend this realization came to archimedes in the bath house and the scientist was so delighted that he ran home screaming eureka without even dressing up first now for the really interesting fact animals can also experience eureka moments for example chimpanzees who could not get to a banana for a long time but then found a way to do it were as ecstatic as archimedes so maybe polar bears feel the same way after all they can teach their cubs how to hunt share the secrets of their skills so why not borrow something human-like from humans also sometimes bears and humans share the same attitude towards learning that is it's incredibly boring for example adult bears take the younger generation on a fishing trip with them to sit by a hole in the ice they wait for a seal to appear on the surface and sometimes it takes a very long time if i were them i'd rather go throw some rocks son guess what we're gonna do today sit and watch this hall in the ice for 10 hours straight again yeah but to experience the eureka moment damn even just to learn how to hunt with rocks one has to be really smart i never thought nature gave polar bears big brains how did they manage to upgrade their intelligence it may seem weird but their diet played a key role here all bears are omnivores by nature even if some of them prefer to eat plants and some meat nevertheless it's the omnivorous diet that levels up the bear's intelligence when you constantly eat the same food for example gophers you don't need to think too much it's a different story when you have to choose imagine you're in line at a buffet choosing what you want to put on your plate and the people who cook the food constantly change it in front of you and you never know what you'll see next and this happens every year so bears constantly need to make efforts and think this is how they gradually develop their brains actually bears have already achieved impressive results independent biologist ben kellum who helps american black bears at the rehabilitation center believes these animals can remember the distant past analyze the likelihood of events in the distant future communicate and sympathize with each other according to the biologists bears could potentially be even smarter than monkeys some research confirms that kilim is not far off the mark it's believed bears can even count to 12. 10 11 12 12 12. however their intelligence is not limited to all these things most bears are diurnal animals but they know that people also sleep at night and when people are sleeping they won't notice if someone steals some food from them in addition it's much more convenient to steal something in the dark this is conscious behavior not an evolutionary adaptation like for example in the case of owls bears fully realize no one will stop them at night the key is not to go out into the lit areas because where the light falls people can see the animal and then stealing food won't be possible um i can explain everything and since the bears figured out how to outsmart a human other intelligent animals can do even better than that i'm talking about elephants in regions where there are really a lot of them people have to protect their crops from raids and not only the crops any encounter with a wild animal can be dangerous for both humans and the animal itself now imagine how hard it is to stop someone weighing six tons when that someone really wants to eat your corn ordinary fences do not help here and the guard dog won't handle a thief like that especially considering that sometimes elephants come to feed in a pack this is why people started using electric fences yes perhaps this is not very humane towards the elephants who would like to be electrocuted but thankfully the voltage is not very high it's just enough to scare off the animal well used to be enough for a while elephants do stay away from the fence which can't electrocute them but over time curiosity and hunger make them come up with some life hacks it's quite difficult to demolish such a fence without getting a discharge so the animals had to carry out a number of experiments they found out the tusks do not conduct electricity which means they can hook them on a wire raise tear or simply pull out the fence or put it on the ground in short there are many options the important thing is that the elephant will go where he wants to go and no fences will stop him then of course people came up with the idea of implanting something like metal brackets into the tusks so that the fences would still stop the animals just you wait a little elephants are already using stones and sticks to break the fence and not get electrocuted it's only the beginning if you think about it there's something weird about it using tools is a distinctive feature of humans why do animals need them well apparently the species evolved this way it's not just about growing longer fur or stronger hooves everything on this planet can adapt and tools are part of that adaptation most of the time new tools help you get food see for yourself an ancient man without a spear or other primitive weapon would never stand a chance against a mammoth just because the mammoth is too big its skin is too thick and does it remind you of anything also the tools reduce risks you don't have to fight a mammoth if you throw a spear at it or you won't have to attack a walrus if you throw a heavy ice flow on its head once upon a time our distant ancestors took ordinary sticks in their hands to make their life a little easier then they switch to stones learn how to make plates from clay sew clothes in bags work with iron got a little carried away and today we can order a pizza to our home and then eating it while watching another video on youtube what is this if not evolution driven by tools to some extent who knows what if today polar bears use rocks and ice for hunting and in a couple of million years they'll also create their own civilization or maybe it already exists now you are no king and i will show you that you would hardly even pay attention to an adult ant lion it looks a bit like a lazy dragonfly that just kind of flies leisurely back and forth occasionally eating someone and that's only if someone gets in its way an antlion larva is quite another matter oh that's a creature from your nightmares it seems like it might be what the creators of star wars were inspired by when they came up with sarlacc see for yourself an ant lion lives inside a sand funnel and eats anyone who accidentally falls into it but before it eats an accidental victim the ant lion hides in the sand and waits only exposing its sickle-like jaws as soon as the sand under the paws of any insect shake even a little the hidden hunter attacks a huge amount of sand flies into the victim and if that seems like nothing to you remember the dimensions sands like rocks to ants the knock down victim collapses to the bottom the predator's sickle jaws lock onto its body the end the seized prey is sucked into the sand and the insatiable predator devours it small beetles and butterflies caterpillars ants and other insects become victims of the ant lion eventually after having eaten enough the larva transforms into an adult and frankly becomes like a school bully who then turns into a harmless loser nothing personal buddy caterpillars most of them feed on leaves meaning they are considered herbivores but not this one the hawaiian eupathetia caterpillar eats other living things it's probably because of the isolation of hawaii there were no insect predators here early on so the niche was occupied by eupathesia however in order to get its own food it had to get clever and evolve its hind legs have changed so that the caterpillar can cling to the edge or median veins of leaves twigs and other surfaces on the other hand the four legs have evolved to grab and hold its prey the caterpillar stays as still as a branch or stalk and waits for insects to come within striking distance and then it needs only a momentary attack and there one insect is already devouring the other with an appetite disguise is of course really cool but what about real zombies i'm not kidding the ones that are no longer alive but not yet dead it does happen in the wild world and the emerald cockroach wasp is responsible for the zombification this is a very beautiful yet incredibly deadly insect that could very well be the hero of a horror movie if it were bigger emerald wasps rarely grow larger than two centimeters but they prey on cockroaches which are much larger fighting them in a fair fight is simply unrealistic so the wasps do things differently and zombify the enemy a couple of bites is enough to partially paralyze the victim but so that it retains the ability to move only under control then all is really easy the wasp takes the cockroach by its antenna and leads it to its burrow robin take it he's yours there it lays eggs on its abdomen and leaves it there for a while the emerging larva used the cockroach's food pupates and then the adult wasp gets out the cycle repeats another beautiful and frightening hunter in their own way are the predatory fireflies that live in the tropical forests of peru or rather glowing larvae ready to devour anything that comes close enough attracted by their light they burrow into the mud sticking out only their heads and huge jaws to make a dash at the right moment to grab their prey scientists have determined that the larva can control weather and how brightly they emit light it all depends on the circumstances for a potential dinner you can shine a lot but if there's a predator or some meticulous person nearby it's better to just turn it off and hide what about the creature which is called the assassin bug okay that's something i just couldn't miss especially since the name is absolutely justified these little predators are almost everywhere and if insects could feel fear they would definitely freak out at the mere mention of the assassin bug well it'd seem well what's wrong with them bunny bugs long nose oh it's not just a nose but a formidable weapon and feeding device at the same time the assassin bugs are the masters of stealthy killing in the insect world they ambush and then kill unsuspecting victims and drink their liquid viscera by piercing soft tissue with their sharp beaks or rather first the beetles inject the digestive secret into their prey and after its entrails have been turned into nutritious soup the assassin bug sucks up the victim's contents without thinking whether it's still alive or not everything happens very quickly ruthlessly and extremely professionally however not all assassin bugs feed on insects some having just appeared in the world gladly drink the blood of bats and some assassin bugs even feed on humans it's a good thing you can't suck a human try at least someone so small can't do that they don't hunt in groups do they do they seriously guys as you've learned by now some insects don't acquire their hunting skills as adults some manage to become dangerous hunters as soon as they're born epomas beetles can be considered hereditary amphibian killers who begin their violent journey as larva such a larva forces a frog to attack it and when it attacks it wounds it and damages its leg tendons so that the victim can't escape even if the amphibian manages to swallow a pumice no good will come of it the insect is not digested anyway and in the end the amphibian will have to spit it out if the larva that attacked is in the early stages of development the frog still has a chance to escape alive if the larva that attacked is in the early stages of development the frog still has a chance to escape alive in this case the insect behaves as an ectoparasite feeding on its body juices and may accidentally let go of its live meal if the larva is in the middle of development or preparing to become an adult insect it simply slowly chews up the tissues of its prey leaving only bones from the toad charming animal life by the way remember the ant lion from the beginning of the video i also thought it looked like a sarlacc well i was wrong what really looks like a sarlacc is the predatory sea polychaete worm it lives on the ocean floor at a depth of 10 to 40 meters preferring tropical waters as an adult it's two to three meters long but only its head which has five antenna like things sticks out on the surface the worm uses these antennae to detect any movement nearby and tracks its potential prey when any fish gets too close the monster grabs it with its powerful mouth it does this with such speed and force that it can split a fish in half and that frankly would be a merciful decision because the unfortunate survivor of the attack would learn what it's like to find herself in a worms burrow what exactly happens down there is still a mystery to scientists perhaps the monster injects its victim with some kind of paralyzing toxin to swallow it alive and then digest it creepy but the seaworm has a rather cheerful coloring perhaps that's a little comforting to the victims at least they've been eaten by someone classy but if there's one insect that's really made me feel uncomfortable it's the giant water bugs wow like i'm not sure the snake can win this one but this is horrifying they're found all over the world and have a total of about 150 genera the largest live in south america and can grow up to 10 to 15 centimeters what's really frightening though not their size or even the fact that we're talking about water bugs which aren't pleasant creatures at all these insects are insidious and skilled predators hunting from ambush their thick curved front legs with hooks on the ends are able to grab and hold quite a large prey and it's not just about insects giant water bugs gladly hunt fish frogs and even snakes they grab their prey stick their sharp proboscis into it and inject their saliva with a paralyzing effect into the body it also contains digestive enzymes which very quickly turn the victim's internal organs into a mushy mass kind of like a snake smoothie all right that's disgusting but water bugs suck it up with an appetite i really hope you weren't eating anything while you were watching see you later

Channel: WATOP

Views: 962,700

Keywords: WATOP, Wa Top

Id: D2gvhcf6occ

Length: 65min 47sec (3947 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 17 2022