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An amazing picture of a Great Grey Shrike having impaled a Dunnock - Photo by Glenn Vermeersch

There are many fascinating stories to be told about the unique feeding behaviours of the 10,000 or so bird species that roam the earth. From hitting your head against a tree trunk 20 times a second, eating bones, drinking nectar, or cleaning a crocodiles teeth! However, one of the most ferocious and graphic ones must be that of the shrike family.

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On a cold autumn day, Sophie Windsor Clive and her friend Liberty Smith decided to go for a nice canoetrip on the river shannon in Ireland. They thought it would be fun to film that day and decided to bring their camera along, not knowing that within days their to-be taken shots would amaze millions of people across the world.

The synchronous movements of large flocks of starlings are definitely one of the most aesthetic pleasures nature can give. Roaming the sky in immense numbers, these starling flocks remain incredible cohesive, often resulting in amazing formations.

The secret behind these swirling formations is that they are self-organized dynamic systems: in a flock of starlings there isn’t a single leader, but the cohesion and movement of the group is created by the massive interaction among the birds where each bird keeps track of the position of its closest neighbours.

As a large group, the starlings benefit from safety in numbers and can feed more efficiently, which may be needed during the cold winter months. Just as fish swim in shoals for safety, the tight sphere-like formations of starlings constantly swirl and change to confuse predators.

This video is absolutely amazing and one of its kind due to it being filmed above the water which gives the benefit of a much wider view and the birds coming closer to the surface. And the 4.5+ million people that have watched it since the two weeks of its existence probably agree!

For more photos and videos of the amazing shapes starling murmurations might have, see my other starling post here.

For you to enjoy on this rainy, windy autumn (already!) day, some of the best of Mudfooted’s favorite videos! This is the third in a series of nature video posts that feature the most interesting, fascinating, weird and beautiful videos on the web. Go to Mudfooted’s youtube channel to see my favorite nature videos! Watch Part 1 and Part 2!

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As you will know by now I am highly enthusiastic about animal curiosities and discovering our wonderful natural world. But what I maybe like even more is when animal curiosity is combined with creativity. Take a look at the fantastic photographs below and see if you agree.

A beautiful spectrum of colourful ants

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The verocious giant water bug devoring a baby turtle

One night while exploring the japanese ricefields in search for water bugs, Dr Shin-ya Ohba managed to record a bizarre behaviour never seen before.

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Bar-headed geese on their way to their breeding grounds in central Asia. Photo: {link:http://www.flickr.com/photos/12915728@N00/}srikanthgp{/link}

Bar-headed geese are known for their exhausting migration route over the Himalayas, reaching extreme heights up to 10,175m and traveling distances of 1500km in a single day. Although it was already known these high-flyers are physiologically and biochemically adapted to flying at these altitudes where oxygen levels and temperatures are both extremely low, it remained unclear how they performed this incredible energy-costly feat.

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For you to enjoy on your relaxed saturday afternoon, 10 of the most amazing nature videos! This is the second in a series of nature video posts that feature the most interesting, fascinating, weird and beautiful videos on the web. Go to Mudfooted’s youtube channel to see my favorite nature videos! See Part 1 here!

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Humpback whales are famous for their extraordinary songs, which are amongst the most complex in the animal kingdom. Now researchers from the University of Queensland have revealed that multiple song types spread rapidly and repeatedly like cultural waves, eastward across the Pacific Ocean.

The plaintive song of the humpback whale can travel for great distances underwater. Photo: Dr. Louis M. Herman/NOAA

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For you to enjoy on your relaxed saturday afternoon, 10 of the most amazing nature videos! This is the first in a series of nature video posts that feature the most interesting, fascinating, weird and beautiful videos on the web. Go to Mudfooted’s youtube channel to see my favorite nature videos!

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I simply had to share this amazing video of a dog dancing the merengue. Not only is it very funny, it is fascinating how the dog learned how to pull off this feat.

For more than three minutes the dog seems to successfully perform a line of dance moves as if it is the most normal thing in the world -- and all that just on its hind legs! Is the dog just reacting to subtle movements of its ‘dance partner’ with individual behaviours learned to perform in response or does it actually know different sequences of dance moves and how they possibly can be connected? Even walking on hind-legs for a dog is a very unusual feat that takes a lot of training, not even talking about the ability to walk backwards or sit just on its two hind legs!

Update: An important point was raised in the comments by Linda, that it might be harmful for the dogs hips to spent so much time on its hindlegs. I think indeed a dogs hips are not meant to bear the whole weight of the dog. I expect the dog has been trained from a young age which would mean that the dogs muscles will have developed in a slightly different way which makes it better able to walk on its hind legs, but at the same time it also means that the dog will probably wear through its hip muscles at a much earlier age. Especially since I think this breed of dog is more susceptible to hip injury.

It was a cold winter morning. I was hiking through the British countryside enjoying some birdwatching on the way when I suddenly encountered something rather peculiar: in the middle of a frozen field there was a sheep laying flat on its back with its feet up in the air. It just lay there, motionless on the icy ground while its fellow flock mates were enjoying a chew on the crispy grass. I stopped wanting to find out more about this mysterious behaviour, only to see about fifty sheep staring at me. The group of sheep couldn’t handle being in my nice vicinity so in no time retreated to one of the far corners of the field, leaving the helpless sheep behind.

The print the helpless sheep left on the frozen grass

Standing there on the edge of the field looking at the stuck sheep moving its feet as if running against the grey sky, I suddenly realized to my amazement that sheep thus apparently cannot get up onto their legs when they roll onto their back! It was time to help so I hopped over the fence, walked towards the sheep and started to push it. However, helping it was not as easy as I hoped: each time I pushed the sheep and it tried getting up it just rolled over onto its other side! Luckily after minutes of hard work I somehow managed to push and pull the sheep at the same time so that it finally managed to get onto its shaky legs again. Confused after having been laying there for hours or possibly even a full day, the sheep just stood there for a couple seconds looking around at me and sneezed, after which it slowly started hobbling back to its flock of grazing friends.

Let me be honest with you. I have a great fascination for goats. I think they are one if not the most fascinating animals on our planet. Probably most of you might at first not agree, thinking of your ‘favourite animal’ the Panda, Lion, or dolphin. However, my previous article on mountain goats might have already showed you goats have more to offer than their great grazing abilities. If that did not convince you, take a look at the following.

The small brown dots on the dam's face are actually mountain goats! - Photograph: Adriano Migliorati

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Alaskan Bar-Tailed Godwits just look like an ordinary shorebird. Recent research however has discovered that these waders are the new world record holders for non-stop flight. Every autumn, these extreme migrators fly an astonishing 11.000km from Alaska to New Zealand without any stopovers to rest or refuel. This roughly doubles the previous maximum known non-stop distance for migratory birds.

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In an animal’s life there are critical periods in which certain important events must happen or otherwise that learning opportunity is lost. The most important critical period is during the first few months after birth. It is important to understand more about this so-called socialization period in animals and especially in dogs because a lack of socialization can result in serious behaviour problems of our favorite pet.

Cats and dogs don't have to be enemies - my cat loves its warm doggy-cushion

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Sloths are mostly known as rather slow-moving adorable creatures that spend their days eating leaves and sleeping. However, a recent paper in the journal Mammalian Biology shows they might actually have a side to them that makes them a little less adorable. Heymann and colleagues (2010) reported that two-toed sloths were found to have developed the charming habit of climbing into an outdoor toilet and eating its contents! This unusual feeding habit was observed at a research station in the Amazon rainforest of North-eastern Peru.

A sloth coming out of a toilet! Picture: M. Stojan-Dolar

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