Animals

In 2019, a beluga whale wearing a harness labeled "Equipment St. Petersburg" appeared near Hammerfest, Norway. They named him Hvaldimir, a pun on "whale" and "Vladimir." Weeks later, a woman dropped her phone off a dock into the ocean. Hvaldimir dove down, picked it up in his mouth, and brought it back to her. Her friend caught the whole thing on camera.

A dolphin named Kelly was trained to trade litter for fish. She started tearing paper into tiny pieces and trading each scrap separately for maximum fish. Then she lured a seagull into the pool, caught it, and traded that for even more fish. She taught her calf. Her calf taught others. She was training them.

In 1998, Jo Ann Altsman had a heart attack alone in her vacation trailer. Her 150-pound pig Lulu squeezed through the dog door, cutting her belly, and lay down in the middle of the road. Cars drove around her. She kept going back to check on Jo Ann, then back to the road. A driver finally stopped. Lulu led him to the trailer. Doctors said 15 more minutes and Jo Ann likely would have died. Lulu later died of a heart attack herself.

In 2017, marine biologist Nan Hauser was diving in the Cook Islands when a 50,000-pound humpback whale began pushing her. For 10 minutes it tucked her under its fin and nudged her toward her boat. She thought it was trying to kill her. Then she saw the 15-foot tiger shark below. The whale had been shielding her the whole time. 28 years studying whales. It had never happened. Caught on camera.

In 1996, a 3-year-old boy fell 24 feet into the gorilla enclosure at Brookfield Zoo and was knocked unconscious. A gorilla named Binti Jua picked him up, cradled him, and carried him to the door where keepers could reach him - with her own baby clinging to her back.

In 2005, a 12-year-old Ethiopian girl was kidnapped by seven men trying to force her into marriage. When police found her a week later, three lions were standing guard around her. The kidnappers were gone. The lions turned and walked back into the forest as the humans approached.

A dog named Eclipse was at a Seattle bus stop with her owner. He stopped to finish a cigarette. The bus came. She got on without him. She rode 3 stops, got off at the dog park, and waited for him to catch up. Then she did it again. Every day. For 7 years. She had her own transit card on her collar.

In 2004, four lifeguards were swimming off Ocean Beach, New Zealand when a pod of seven dolphins suddenly herded them into a tight group and started circling. For 40 minutes, the dolphins swam inches from their bodies, slapping the water with their tails. When one swimmer tried to break away, two dolphins pushed him back. Only then did he spot the 9-foot great white shark circling two metres below them.

Old Billy was a barge horse in 18th-century England who hauled canal boats for a living. He was born in 1760 and died in 1822 — at 62 years old. The average horse lives 25 to 30. His taxidermied head is still on display at the Manchester Museum.

The rarest shark in the Gulf of Mexico is 5 inches long, glows in the dark, and shoots clouds of luminous fluid from tiny pockets near its fins — basically a living flashbang grenade.

Quokkas are known as the world's happiest animal because they always look like they're smiling. But when a predator shows up, mothers eject their baby from the pouch and let it flop around on the ground as a distraction while they run away.

Lemurs chew toxic millipedes and rub the secretions on their fur to repel mosquitoes, but the side effects accidentally send them to another dimension.

Researchers used machine learning to decode 15,000 Egyptian fruit bat calls. Over 60% were arguments — about food, sleeping positions, personal space, and unwanted mating advances. They even change their calls depending on who they're talking to. Basically, bats have names.

A single weaver ant can pull 60 times its own body weight. But in a group of 15, each ant pulls 103 times its weight. Humans get lazier in groups. Ants get stronger.

A male cat named Xiaopi had to be put on a glucose drip after mating with five female cats in a single night at a pet hotel in China. The hotel staff had let the unneutered Russian Blue roam freely overnight, and CCTV footage captured the marathon session.

Green vine snakes aren't dangerous. They just stare at you like you've disappointed them.

During the Gobi Desert ultramarathon, a stray dog ran over 77 miles alongside British runner Dion Leonard. After the race, she went missing, but with 20 volunteers and a two-week search, Dion found her and now happily lives with him in Edinburgh.

A group of flamingos is called a 'flamboyance.' These pink birds form groups of up to a million individuals and perform elaborate synchronized dances to attract mates.

In scientific experiments, rats consistently chose to free their trapped companions from cages, even when chocolate was offered as an alternative. They would then share the chocolate with their freed friend.

The mantis shrimp has 16 types of color receptors compared to humans' 3, but despite this they're actually terrible at distinguishing between similar shades. Scientists believe they use colors more like a barcode scanner than a camera.