The Wild Heart Of Africa Vol 8 Only on Snap! You know where to find the link :)

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Pinpoint Accuracy 📽 by @bryce_jacobsen When it comes to feeding, the great blue heron is a meticulous hunter. They don't really go for vegetation or things without a pulse, they enjoy a livelier fare and love showing up like a melee AT-ST and terrorizing the local “rebel alliance" with that knife-like pecker they’re packing. They literally use the business end of their face like a spear, and if you’ve ever wondered how they do so with such force without getting hurt, it's all in the neck. The S-shaped curve, formed by long vertebrae, is supported by robust tendons and ligaments that allow it to act like a coiled spring. This composition stores elastic energy when the heron prepares to strike and releases it in a controlled, explosive motion, propelling the beak forward with precision. These vertebrae are uniquely jointed to allow smooth extension and retraction, while their structure spreads out the force of the strike, preventing jarring or strain on the heron’s neck. These features turn the neck into a flexible, shock-absorbing mechanism that safeguards this menacing hunter from harm during fast strikes at prey. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Nature Is Metal is powered by you! Did you record a wild video that you would like to get featured here? natureismetal.com/submissions is the absolute best place to send it. Our team checks the submission page daily

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Three of a Perfect Pair 📽 by @sean_isnt_rich Sometimes, something as innocent as trying to get a photo of some cute wood ducklings can have dire consequences. To be fair, being without their mother wasn’t doing these little ones any favors either, they might not have been here at all if she weren’t MIA. From the perspective of the hawk, who will be entering the frame momentarily, she couldn't be happier. Without having to deal with the mother duck, she is free to take her pick of this deserted litter of young ducks. As you can see from the slomo, she tried to get two in one go, but instead settled for one. Keep this in mind: the raptor taking advantage of the situation also has young to feed, so while it might be hard to watch a life end so quickly, this is a feature of the natural system, not a bug. Nature is fueled by tragedy and loss, the sooner this is realized, the easier it is to come to grips with the scale of it all, which is immense. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Nature Is Metal is powered by you! Did you record a wild video that you would like to get featured here? natureismetal.com/submissions is the absolute best place to send it. Our team checks the submission page daily

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United Front 📽 by @rashid_billow These two lover lions picked the wrong place to start a family, and the rhinos made their presence known to show them the door. Rhinoceri, especially males, are staunchly territorial, they don't really enjoy sharing their spots with other animals, and when those other animals happen to be lions, they get extra irritated. Lions come with the extra added bonus of being dangerous, not so much to the adults, but to their young. Regardless of what they are doing, mating in this case, the rhinos would prefer it if the lions went on their merry way and did so elsewhere. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Nature Is Metal is powered by you! Did you record a wild video that you would like to get featured here? natureismetal.com/submissions is the absolute best place to send it. Our team checks the submission page daily

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It's What’s Inside That Counts 📽 by @soykb23 This clip features a headless turtle being emptied out like a formerly alive piñata. At first I was gonna go with one of those tubes full of snakes toys from the 80s but then I realized that might as well have been 800 years ago. It's really hard to imagine living like this, knowing (or not knowing until it happens) that at any point in its short life, where animals rarely if ever die of old age, it can one day meet a sea lion that will chase it down and decapitate it in full view of other sentient beings on a boat, just to hollow it out and use its insides to fuel the rest of his day. Once the life has been extinguished, it is gone, and while the remaining components of its body will last much longer, it will be instantly forgotten. Just another molecule of water in a vast ocean of death and destruction. The sea lion doesn’t think twice about it or its intended purpose on this earth any further than what it can gain from it. Animalistic intent, instinct, whatever, meant to keep the natural world functioning as it does, doesn’t account for individual lives, only the whole of the species and the aggregate rate of births and deaths. I swear this was going somewhere. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Nature Is Metal is powered by you! Did you record a wild video that you would like to get featured here? natureismetal.com/submissions is the absolute best place to send it. Our team checks the submission page daily

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Say It Don't Spray It 📽 by @herpexploration The primary objective of the Mozambique spitting cobra's defense mechanism is to deter predators and threats. This is achieved by temporarily incapacitating potential attackers, allowing the cobra either to counterattack or escape. The venom, when spit, is aimed at the eyes of the threat, causing intense pain and temporary blindness, thus reducing the immediate danger to the snake. They achieve this defense by accurately spitting venom at the eyes of the perceived threat. The cobra has specialized fangs with front-facing holes that act like narrow channels, allowing it to eject venom in a fine, targeted spray. This precise venom projection is a unique adaptation that enables the cobra to defend itself from a safe distance, reducing the risk of injury from larger predators or aggressive humans. In addition to its unique spitting ability, the Mozambique spitting cobra’s fangs serve the traditional role of venom delivery during feeding. When biting its prey, the cobra injects venom through the same fangs used for spitting. This venom is potent enough to quickly immobilize or kill the prey, facilitating safe and efficient consumption. This dual functionality of the fangs highlights the evolutionary versatility of the snake’s venom delivery system, serving both defensive and feeding purposes.

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Free Stress Test 📽 by @cheeeezeee Deer, suspected to have CWD tosses itself through a window Chronic Wasting Disease is a progressive, fatal neurological disorder that afflicts deer, elk, moose, and related species, much like mad cow disease does in cattle. It stems from misfolded proteins called prions, which cause brain damage along with a cascade of other symptoms. This disease is notorious for its long incubation period; symptoms like drastic weight loss, stumbling, lack of coordination, and a strange lack of fear can take over a year to manifest after infection. But why would a deer with CWD exhibit such extreme behavior as breaking through a window? The answer lies in the disease's impact on the brain, leading to severe disorientation and confusion. Deer, unable to comprehend glass and reflections as humans do, could perceive a window as an open space or see their reflection as another animal, leading to a panicked, harmful response. In its advanced stages, CWD drastically alters deer behavior and motor control. This incident illustrates the disease's devastating effect on wildlife, altering not just their physical state but how they interact with their environment. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Nature Is Metal is powered by you! Did you record a wild video that you would like to get featured here? natureismetal.com/submissions is the absolute best place to send it. Our team checks the submission page daily

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Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained 📽 by @facundo._.garcia Orcas risk their lives to hunt sea lions at Península Valdés, Argentina, employing a fierce tactic that exploits the region’s rare flat beaches, smooth with pebbles, during high tide to target animals with a high success rate. These beaches are uniquely suited to this hunting style because their gentle slope and slick, rounded pebbles allow orcas to surge onto shore with a tail thrust and wiggle-slide back to safety. High tides provide water depth and wave momentum to support their 12,000-pound bodies and assist retreat, whereas rocky or sandy coasts might beach the orca for good. Dense sea lion colonies, who are vulnerable on land due to clumsy movement, cluster close to the water’s edge on these open shores, enabling the cunning orcas to grab them before they can escape. This strategy’s extreme risk overshadows its effectiveness: if an orca misjudges the high tide’s narrow window, its 12,000-pound body strands on the slick pebbles, and without the water’s buoyancy to keep it afloat, gravity presses the orca’s massive frame downward, gradually compressing the lungs and heart against its ribcage over time, causing organ collapse as tissues are starved of oxygen. This restriction prevents full breaths, leading to progressive oxygen deprivation, while the orca’s body, unable to dissipate the heat of the sun since they are usually underwater, begins to overheat, accelerating dehydration that shuts down vital functions, as seen in a 2022 incident where a pregnant orca died after stranding. Most beaches lack the flat, pebbly terrain, tides you can set a watch to, or dense sea lion colonies required for this maneuver, making the coast of Península Valdés nearly unmatched for this high-stakes hunt, where orcas balance survival against the constant threat of a lethal stranding. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Nature Is Metal is powered by you! Did you record a wild video that you would like to get featured here? natureismetal.com/submissions is the absolute best place to send it. Our team checks the submission page daily

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Fortune Favors The Bold 📽 by @russ_wildlife We humans cling to certain animals, elevating them in our hearts above the rest. From my own experiences, three species - dogs, whales, and elephants - spark the fiercest sorrow when they perish in the wild. Dogs, bound to us through millennia, are family; their devotion, bred into their genes, makes their loss feel like a knife to the soul. Whales, like humpbacks or blues, glide through oceans with a grace that seems eternal, their haunting songs evidence of their perceived omnipresence. When they’re hunted or stranded, we ache for these titans. Elephants carry a unique weight. Their minds rival ours, with memories that span decades. A gestation period of 23 months - nearly two years - yields a 200-pound calf, born into a herd woven by matriarchal bonds. When that calf is ripped away to nourish a bandit like a lion or hyena, it’s a gut-punch, a theft of years of care. But nature will never heed our tears. It’s a massive fucking swirl of chaos and luck. We like to create our hierarchies, slotting animals into neat boxes, saying this one’s too noble to fall. Yet, the wild laughs at our charts. A leopard sees no wisdom in an elephant, only flesh to sate its hunger. An orca cares not for a whale’s grandeur, only its meat. Survival boils down to one brutal edict: be faster or smarter than what’s trying to end you, be it the jaws of a ravenous hunter or the specter of failure that haunts every predator in the form of devastating hunger. No one animal is sacred. There are no untouchables, no favorites or underlings. Only the lucky and the unlucky, dancing on a knife’s edge. A missed step can mean certain death - whether you’re the hunted or the hunter. Predators face their own doom: a few failed hunts can spiral into starvation quickly, turning the pursuer into the pursued. Our pleas, our love for these creatures, changes nothing. The wild is a relentless lottery, where every soul, revered or ignored, draws the same unforgiving odds: outrun, outwit, or into the grinder you go. - Did you record a wild video that you would like to get featured here? natureismetal.com/submissions is the absolute best place to send it!

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