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14 of the funniest photos from the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Funny kangaroos, monkeys and more!

The 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, known for being one of the most entertaining photography contests, has just wrapped up, and this year’s top prize goes to Jason Moore for his hilarious and brilliantly captured photo of a kangaroo, cheekily named “Air Guitar Roo.” Not only did this fantastic shot win the overall competition, but it also rocked the Creatures of the Land category, too.

Jason's photo stood out among a whopping 5,300 entries submitted by 1,842 photographers from 85 countries. Moore’s photo of the female western grey kangaroo was taken in the outer suburbs of Perth, Australia when Jason visited a field of wildflowers to snap some pics of the many adult kangaroos and joeys playing there.

“The shoot turned out to be a great session, and I am quite fond of several images that I captured,” Moore said in a statement. “Not many people know that kangaroos are normally fairly docile and even a bit boring most of the time if I’m honest. However, when I saw this roo striking the air guitar pose, it immediately brought a smile to my face, and I knew that I had captured something really special."

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards was started in 2015 by Paul Joynson-Hicks MBE and Tom Sullam to create a competition focused on the lighter, humorous side of wildlife photography while assuming an essential role in promoting wildlife conservation.

Here are 14 of the big winners.

1. Overall Winner: "Air-Guitar Roo" (grey kangaroo) by Jason Moore, Australia

comedy wildlife photography awards, funny pet photos, nature photography

A kangaroo rocking out.

"On this day, I had been out with my camera photographing some waterfowl at a nearby lake. I had been up at sunrise to take advantage of the 'golden hour' light, but it turned out to be a disappointing morning on the water. After leaving the lake, somewhat dejected, I decided to swing past an area of open bushland, because there are often a 'mob' of Kangaroos feeding and sunning themselves in a field close to the road. ... The morning light was still favorable so I grabbed my camera and headed off to a spot where I could get down to eye level with my subjects. I ended up shooting about 40 or 50 frames of the kangaroos with various content including mum’s, joeys and also some action shots of them bouncing along through the yellow field. The shoot turned out to be a great session, and I am quite fond of several images that I captured. However, when I saw this animal strike this pose it immediately brought a smile to my face and I knew that I had captured something special." — Jason Moore

2. Creatures of the Air Award: "Unexpected Plunge" (heron) Vittorio Ricci, South Africa

A heron takes a dive.

"An unusual end of a perfect moment." — Vittorio Ricci

3. Creatures Under the Water Award: "Otter Ballerina" (smooth-coated otter), Otter Kwek, Singapore

An otter with perfect form.

"The otter was leaping while attempting to grasp the overhanging leaves, and during an unusual landing, it ended up in the Arabesque pose. I showed this photo to a ballet teacher, and she commented that the otter is a natural but just needs to tuck in its tummy a bit — precisely what a ballet teacher would advise." — Otter Kwek

4. People's Choice Award: "Dispute" (greenfinch), Jacek Stankiewicz, Poland

This greenfinch is very adamant about something.

"I caught this scene while watching birds in the Bialowieza Forest. My friends interpret this scene in two ways. One, a young naughty kid is arguing with a parent. Two, a kid is reporting to the parent that their brother did something wrong: 'Look he broke a window!'" — Jacek Stankiewicz

Highly Commended Winners

5. "The Happy Turtle" (swamp turtle), Tzahi Finkelstein, Antarctica

A turtle is about to have a meal.

"The swamp turtle is surprised and smiles at the dragonfly resting on its nose." — Tzahi Finkelstein

6. "The Monday Blahs" (great grey owl) John Blumenkamp, USA

This owl is so over it.

"While photographing the great gray owl shown in my image, I had been busy working to capture that majestic-looking pose. As the owl preened and then sat still for a short while, it stretched once more and for a quick moment gave the pose shown. As it did, I grinned and thought… now that’s funny!" — John Blumenkamp

7. "One for the Family Album" (gannets) Zoe Ashdown, UK

A proud family of gannets.

"At RSPB Bempton Cliffs, each year between March and October, around half a million seabirds use the chalk cliffs towering above the North Sea to nest and raise a family. Gannets mate for life and they return to the same nest year after year to raise their young. Lying safely at the top of the cliff face, I was able to observe the affection shown between the gannets each time one returned to the nest. They have a greeting ritual, they rub beaks and entwine their necks; it’s how they strengthen their bond. But it’s also a brilliant opportunity to catch them in various poses. I didn’t realize I’d taken this image until I got home, but as soon as I saw it I laughed out loud! They look like proud parents, posing with their baby." — Zoe Ashdown

8. "Don't Look Down" (Atlantic puffin), Brian Matthews, UK

A puffin doing the upside-down Snoopy routine.

"A puffin does an inverted snoopy impression while watching jelly fish." — Brian Matthews.

9. "Boing" (grey kangaroo) Lara Mathews, Australia

Silly little joey!

"Taken at Westerfolds Park, a beautiful and surprisingly wild pocket of land in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, famous for its kangaroo population. The mob was enjoying some morning sunshine when this joey decided to get silly and try his hand at boxing." — Lara Mathews

10. "The Rainforest Dandy" (monkey) Delphine Casimir, Bali

A sophisticated monkey.

"This picture was taken in the monkey forest in Ubud, Bali, a crazy place where monkeys are king! This forest is special even magical and sacred to the Balinese people. Maybe our dandy is the reincarnation of a divinity?" — Delphine Casimir

11. "Look Right, Bro" (macaque, deer) Pratick Mondal, India

"And on my right, is a deer."

12. "That Wasn't Here Yesterday" (white-winged dove) Wendy Kaveney, USA

A white-winged dove disrupted mid-flight.

"A white-winged dove appearing to fly head-on into a cholla cactus skeleton." — Whitney Kaveney

13. "Snowball" (white grouse) Jaques Poulard, Norway

Why is that snowball alive?

"The white grouse is coming towards me and looks like a snowball with eyes." — Jaques Poulard

14. "Excuse Me Sir But I Think You're a Bit Too Young to Be Smoking" (grey fox) Dakota Vaccaro, USA

A grey fox that looks like it's enjoying a fine cigar.

"While I was working deep in the Virginian woods, a family of grey foxes took up residence under the deck of the abandoned cottage next to my work housing. One day, while practicing their hunting skills on bits of moss and branches, one of the kits lunged at a small chunk of wood and started rolling around with his prize. Tired after his hunt, the kit lounged on his belly still holding the wood in his mouth which gave the strong resemblance of a cigar." — Dakota Vaccaro

This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Stunning video shows a mouse giving ‘CPR’ to his unconscious buddy

Mouse to mouse resuscitation?

via Science

A mouse attempts to revive an unconscious friend.

We do the animal kingdom an enormous disservice when we believe that specific characteristics are limited to our species. Throughout history, it’s been assumed that humans were the only creatures on Earth to exhibit empathy, rational thinking, consciousness, and the ability to use tools. But the more we learn about other species, the more those assumptions have fallen by the wayside.

A new study from the University of Southern California shows that when a mouse encounters another unconscious mouse, it will aid the mouse in a way that resembles human CPR. The researchers accidentally observed this behavior while studying why a mouse’s tongue protrudes under anesthesia.

“They start with sniffing, and then grooming, and then with a very intensive or physical interaction,” Li Zhang, a physiologist at USC and one of the study’s authors, told New Scientist. “They really open the mouth of this animal and pull out its tongue.” The mice were also found to lick the anesthetized mouse’s eyeballs and bite its mouth as part of the care behavior. In more than half of the interactions, the mouse pulled the tongue out of the unresponsive partner to clear the airway. “If we extended the observation window, maybe the success rate could be even higher,” team member Huizhong Tao told New Scientist.

Do mice give CPR?

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The behavior looks a lot like CPR, but researchers are careful not to anthropomorphize or assume that the animal is behaving as a human would. Zhang says the behavior is more of an attempt to wake the unresponsive mouse up as if he were using smelling salts or a slap to bring them to consciousness. However, they believe that tongue repositioning is done to ensure the mouse’s airway is clear.

The study also found that mice familiar with the unresponsive mouse are more responsive to the animal. This could show that mice care more for those they are familiar with than those they have never met. “These findings add to the evidence that an impulse to help others in states of extreme distress is shared by many species,” neuroscientists William Sheeran and Zoe Donaldson wrote in a commentary accompanying the study.

This story cheered me in the context of current human news. I for one look forward to welcoming our mouse overlords. Mice seen giving 'first aid' to unconscious companions | New Scientist https://t.co/3rV1SstCvm
— Nick Spencer (@theosnick) March 4, 2025

The behaviors were driven by the release of oxytocin in the amygdala and hypothalamus regions of the brain. The hormone is associated with caring behaviors in various vertebrate species. James Burkett, a neuroscientist outside of the study research group, says that the release of oxytocin in the mouse’s brain is evidence of an “altruistic impulse” that appears to be born into mice.

The caring behavior exhibited by the mice has also been found in other species. Dolphins have been known to bring an ailing member of its pod to the surface for air when sick or injured. Elephants are known to support wounded or ailing relatives.

This study is another reminder that the line between human and animal intelligence and emotions is far blurrier than we think. The evidence continues to show that even species as small as mice—a species we call pests—have a natural impulse to help one another. The more we learn about the animal kingdom, the more we need to reconsider the uniqueness of many characteristics we call “human.”

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Ecologist 'burst into tears' seeing endangered gliders using boxes designed to save them

A third of the greater gliders' remaining habitat was destroyed in the Australian wildfires, and researchers didn't know if their high-tech box idea would work.

Mark Gillow/Flickr

Greater gliders are endangered in Australia and rely on old-growth tree hollows to make their nests.

When a team of Australian researchers started checking the high-tech boxes they'd installed to help save endangered greater gliders, they weren't sure what they were going to find. The hope was that the tree-dwelling marsupials would use them for nesting—a replacement for the tree hollows they normally nest in—but no one knew whether or not the creatures would take to them.

So when Dr. Kita Ashman, Threatened Species and Climate Adaptation Ecologist at WWF-Australia, found a glider in the second box she checked, she was thrilled.

"I just burst into tears, I was so surprised and so happy," she told ABC News Australia.

Greater gliders are nocturnal marsupials that live in old-growth forests of eastern Australia. They have large ears, fluffy fur, long tails, and they can glide up to 100 meters at a time. The species is only found in Australia.

"I grew up looking at greater gliders all throughout the Dandenong Ranges. So they have a really special place in my heart," said Dr. Ashman told ANU.

The special nesting boxes were designed and created through a partnership between Australian National University (ANU), Greening Australia and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia after bushfires destroyed a third of the greater gliders' remaining habitat. The tree hollows that greater gliders rely on to nest can take over 100 years to form, according to ANU, so it's not like they can just find some new trees to live in when their homes are destroyed.

Nesting boxes that are commonly used for wildlife aren't a good fit for greater gliders, as the thin walls and lack of thermal protection can result in gliders overheating. (Heat-stressed gliders will slow their eating, which can be life-threatening, according to ANU.) The high-tech boxes in this project are insulated and include a non-toxic, heat-reflective, fire-resistant coating to keep gliders safe.

"I've affectionately been calling this design the Goldilocks box because we hope it will keep greater gliders not too hot and not too cold and will help to increase the species' resilience in a changing climate," Ashman said in July 2022.

"Producing and installing high-quality nest boxes is costly," added ANU research fellow Dr. Kara Youngentob, "so this project is very important because it will help us understand if expensive interventions like nest boxes are the best use of funding in our urgent mission to save greater gliders."

It appears that their efforts are paying off.

"What we didn't know was whether these boxes worked and whether they have an impact on the glider population," Dr. Youngentob told ABC News Australia. "Much to our delight, within a few months of them going up they are already being used by gliders, so we know the individuals themselves like them and use them."

According to Youngentob, greater gliders are the largest gliding marsupial at risk of extinction. More than 200 nesting boxes have been installed in Victoria's East Gippsland and in Tallaganda National Park in New South Wales. Youngentob told ABC News Australia that this project will help researchers learn more about how many of the species are left in the wild.

The quiet, nocturnal marsupial faces threats from climate change and deforestation in addition to the wildfires that ravaged Australia in 2020. Their population has fallen by 80% in the past 20 years and the species reached endangered status in July of 2022.

"They're a treasure for this country." Dr. Youngentob told ANU. "And I think the more people know about them, the more that they will fall in love with them and want to protect them too."

This article originally appeared last year.

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5 reasons platypus are the world's weirdest mammals, not including the egg laying thing

They have venomous spurs and sweat milk?!?

Photo credit: Canva

Platypus are like the Frankenstein's monster of the animal kingdom.

The diversity of life on Earth is mind-boggling. Scientists have identified over a million different species, but they estimate that it's less than 15% of the total number of species that exist in our world. We've barely scratched the surface of what creatures we share the planet with, and yet the variety of animals we know about is absolutely wild.

Among nature's weird animals, though, one stands out at perhaps the strangest—the platypus. The famed oddity from Down Under is known for being one of the tiny handful of mammals that lay eggs, but that's only the beginning of their weird quirks. Here are five reasons platypus might just be the most anomalous animal ever.

1. British scientists thought they were a hoax

Perhaps the most telling indicator that platypus are weird is that even actual animal researchers were in disbelief when they were first introduced to them.

Around 1799, biologist George Shaw was working in the natural history department of the British Museum when he received a pelt and drawing of a mysterious creature from the continent of Australia. It appears to be part duck, part otter, and part beaver—a Frankenstein's monster of an animal, essentially—and it was so strange that Shaw and others questioned if it was even real. After cutting into the pelt in various places to look for stitches, he determined that it was not a scientific hoax but a genuinely unique species.

Drawing of a platypus from 1799Frederick Polydore Nodder (public domain)

To be fair, it genuinely does look like it's just a bunch of random animal parts all stitched together, so we can't really blame them for being skeptical.

2. They're venomous

At least the males are. Spurs on the back of male platypus feet look a bit like dog's canine tooth and contain a clear, slightly venom. If you get stung by a platypus, you won't die, but you will be in a lot of pain—worse than childbirth, according to a woman who was stung by one—that could last for weeks. The localized swelling can last for months, and if you're super lucky you'll get some muscle wasting as well. Morphine and other standard analgesics won't relieve the pain, either, but nerve-blocking drugs can help. Neat, huh?

You're not likely to be attacked or stung by a platypus, however. The main thing to remember is to never pick up a male platypus from below, as touching its belly can trigger the spur response. (Or, you know, play it safe and just don't try to pick up a platypus.)

3. They 'sweat' milk

Platypus are mammals, which means they produce milk to nurse their young. Only problem is they don't have nipples. How does that work?

two baby platypus Even as babies, platypus look like a weird mish-mosh of a creature.Photo credit: Canva

Specialized mammary glands produce milk that oozes from a platypus's skin, much like sweat. As aquatic animals, they don't actually sweat at all, but it's the easiest way to describe how their milk comes out. As it's secreted, it pools into creases in the platypus mother's skin, where her babies—colloquially and adorably known as puggles—lap it up from her fur.

4. They're almost completely blind and deaf when they hunt

Platypus have eyes and ears that work fine on land, but these semi-aquatic creatures hunt in the water. When they go underwater, they keep their eyes closed most of the time, and flaps covering their ears close, rendering them mostly blind and deaf. So how are they able to locate the bottom-dwelling invertebrates they feed on (insect larvae, crustaceans, worms, and mollusks) when they can't see or hear?

Platypus use electroreceptors in their bills that detect electrical fields in their prey. Waving its head back and forth in the water like a metal detector, it can sense the direction and distance of its snacks.

platypus underwater Platypus use electroreception to hunt.Photo credit: Canva

5. They glow under black light

Platypus are about as "boring brown" as an animal can come, which allows them to blend into their natural environment easily. However, that drab coat is hiding a fun little secret: it glows under UV light.

Biofluorescence is common among some species, but exceedingly rare among mammals. Flying squirrels and opossums were the only two mammals known to glow this way prior to the discovery that platypus do it. Black lights make platypus glow a lovely blue-green color and no one knows why. Another delightful mystery.

All of that on top of the fact that they're a monotreme—a mammal that lays eggs—one of only five species with that claim to fame. No wonder they continue to surprise researchers just by being their cute, quirky selves.

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The oldest whales on the planet are more ancient than 'Moby-Dick' and have the harpoons to prove it

Wow... just wow.

Image from Pixabay.

Under the sea...

True

You're probably familiar with the literary classic "Moby-Dick." But in case you're not, here's the gist: Moby Dick is the name of a huge albino sperm whale. (Get your mind outta the gutter.)

There's this dude named Captain Ahab who really really hates the whale, and he goes absolutely bonkers in his quest to hunt and kill it, and then everything is awful and we all die unsatisfied with our shared sad existence and — oops, spoilers!

OK, technically, the narrator Ishmael survives. So it's actually a happy ending (kind of)!

whales, Moby Dick, poaching endangered species

Illustration from an early edition of Moby-Dick

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Basically, it's a famous book about revenge and obsession that was published back in 1851, and it's really, really long.

It's chock-full of beautiful passages and dense symbolism and deep thematic resonance and all those good things that earned it a top spot in the musty canon of important literature.

There's also a lot of mundane descriptions about the whaling trade as well (like, a lot). That's because it came out back when commercial whaling was still a thing we did.

A non-albino mother and baby sperm whale.

Photo by Gabriel Barathieu/Wikipedia.

In fact, humans used to hunt more than 50,000 whales each year to use for oil, meat, baleen, and oil. (Yes, I wrote oil twice.) Then, in 1946, the International Whaling Commission stepped in and said "Hey, wait a minute, guys. There's only a few handful of these majestic creatures left in the entire world, so maybe we should try to not kill them anymore?"

And even then, commercial whaling was still legal in some parts of the world until as recently as 1986.

International Whaling Commission, harpoons

Tail in the water.

Whale's tail pale ale GIF via GoPro/YouTube

And yet by some miracle, there are whales who were born before "Moby-Dick" was published that are still alive today.

What are the odds of that? Honestly it's hard to calculate since we can't exactly swim up to a bowhead and say, "Hey, how old are you?" and expect a response. (Also that's a rude question — jeez.)

Thanks to some thoughtful collaboration between researchers and traditional Inupiat whalers (who are still allowed to hunt for survival), scientists have used amino acids in the eyes of whales and harpoon fragments lodged in their carcasses to determine the age of these enormous animals — and they found at least three bowhead whales who were living prior to 1850.

Granted those are bowheads, not sperm whales like the fictional Moby Dick, (and none of them are albino, I think), but still. Pretty amazing, huh?

This bowhead is presumably in adolescence, given its apparent underwater moping.

GIF via National Geographic.

This is a particularly remarkable feat considering that the entire species was dwindling near extinction.

Barring these few centenarian leviathans, most of the whales still kickin' it today are between 20 and 70 years old. That's because most whale populations were reduced to 10% or less of their numbers between the 18th and 20th centuries, thanks to a few over-eager hunters (and by a few, I mean all of them).

Today, sperm whales are considered one of the most populous species of massive marine mammals; bowheads, on the other hand, are still in trouble, despite a 20% increase in population since the mid-1980s. Makes those few elderly bowheads that much more impressive, huh?

population, Arctic, Great Australian Blight

Southern Right Whales hangin' with a paddleboarder in the Great Australian Bight.

GIF via Jaimen Hudson.

Unfortunately, just as things are looking up, these wonderful whales are in trouble once again.

We might not need to worry our real-life Captain Ahabs anymore, but our big aquatic buddies are still being threatened by industrialization — namely, from oil drilling in the Arctic and the Great Australian Bight.

In the off-chance that companies like Shell and BP manage not to spill millions of gallons of harmful crude oil into the water, the act of drilling alone is likely to maim or kill millions of animals, and the supposedly-safer sonic blasting will blow out their eardrums or worse.

This influx of industrialization also affects their migratory patterns — threatening not only the humans who depend on them, but also the entire marine ecosystem.

And I mean, c'mon — who would want to hurt this adorable face?

social responsibility, nature, extinction

BOOP.

Image from Pixabay.

Whales might be large and long-living. But they still need our help to survive.

If you want another whale to make it to his two-hundred-and-eleventy-first birthday (which you should because I hear they throw great parties), then sign this petition to protect the waters from Big Oil and other industrial threats.

I guarantee Moby Dick will appreciate it.

This article originally appeared ten years ago.

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Study reveals the smartest dog breed—and it's not the one you might expect

Move over, border collies, there's a new top dog in town.

Photo by Anthony Duran on Unsplash

Belgian Malinois, the smartest dog breed.

If you Google "smartest dog breeds," most lists you'll find put border collies in the No. 1 spot, followed in some order by poodles, German shepherds, and golden retrievers. But a 2023 study of canine cognition from the University of Helsinki puts a whole different breed at the top of the ladder—one that most of us have probably seen before but haven't heard the name of—the Belgian Malinois.

Best known as a police or security dog, the Belgian Malinois is a shepherd breed that looks very similar to a German shepherd. Both breeds are of similar height and coloring, but the Malinois is lighter weight and its ears are more triangular-shaped, according to the American Kennel Club.

So, what is it that makes the Belgian Malinois more intelligent than other dog breeds?

Belgian Malinois Male Puppy.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

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The study published in Scientific Reports analyzed 1,002 dogs from 13 different breeds using a battery of smartDOG cognition tests. These tests involve food reward tasks that determine a dog's capacity for memory, problem-solving, impulse control, reading human gestures, copying human behavior, and logical reasoning. Despite a wide field of research on dogs, only a handful of studies have examined cognition of specific breeds instead of breed groups. Additionally, not much empirical research has been done on nonsocial cognitive traits such as memory, inhibitory control, spatial problem-solving, and logical reasoning—all of which were covered in this study.

The researchers identified a few different tests as signifying high intelligence. For the most significant measure of intelligence—logical reasoning—the study revealed no significant difference between the dog breeds. So, according to The Telegraph, the three tests the authors singled out instead for measuring and comparing intelligence were:

- A V-detour test, in which a dog had to detour around a transparent V-shaped fence to get to a food reward, showing some problem-solving ability.

- A human gesture reading test, in which a dog's response to five gestures—constant pointing, brief pointing, pointing with the foot, pointing at something while facing another direction, and following a human's gaze—was measured.

- An unsolvable task test, in which a dog tries to access food in an unopenable box, measuring independence and how quickly a dog asked a human for help.

The Belgian Malinois scored 35 out of a possible 39 points on these three tasks, making it the top scorer for high intelligence overall. Border collies came in second with 26 points and hovawarts came in third at 25 points.

brown and black german shepherd lying on white and gray area rug

Photo by Gerrie van der Walt on Unsplash

The study authors point out that there are strengths and weaknesses in most breeds. Some score very high on some tests and very low on others. Some breeds saw middle-of-the-road scores across most tests.

According to IFLScience, one weakness the Malinois showed was in the cylinder test, in which a dog is taught to retrieve a piece of food from inside an opaque cylinder. The opaque cylinder then gets replaced with a transparent one to see if the dog will go around to the end of the cylinder to retrieve the treat, as it did with the opaque one, or try to go directly through the side of the cylinder to get to it. This test measures inhibition, and the Malinois scored among the lowest of all breeds on it.

Every dog has its bright and dim spots, but it's clear why the Malinois is a dog of choice for security work: high intelligence is necessary, of course, but even being low on inhibition can be seen as a plus for a working dog that needs to be highly responsive and act quickly when needed.

“The Belgian Shepherd Malinois stood out in many of the cognitive tasks, having very good results in a majority of the tests,” study author and owner and CEO of smartDOG Dr. Katriina Tiira told The Telegraph.

“Border Collies also performed well in many of the tests," she added.

This article originally appeared two years ago.

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From eagles to cheetahs to porcupines: 7 animals that sound nothing like people expect

That bald eagle screech we hear in movies? Not a bald eagle sound at all.

Photo credit: Canva

Cheetahs and bald eagles both chirp like little songbirds.

The shriek of a bald eagle is a sound we're all used to hearing in TV and movies. In fact, it's so distinctive that you can probably hear it in your mind as you picture an eagle swooping down to catch unsuspecting prey in its talons, right? But if you were to see a bald eagle in real life, you'd never hear it make that sound. Why? Because that screech is not a bald eagle sound at all. What we think of as an eagle screech is actually the call of a red-tailed hawk.

Yep, we've all been duped. Bald eagles, oddly enough, sound much more like a chirpy little songbird than a big scary raptor, which is probably why the hawk cry is so often used instead. Check it out:

— (@)

Isn't that pretty? And odd? And they're not the only surprisingly chirpy predator. Cheetahs—yes, the super fast spotted big cat—chirps like a little birdie too. Oh they growl and purr as well as meow like a housecat, but their chirps (technically called a chirrup) are used when they're excited or communicating with their young. Take a listen:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

There are lots of animals that we don't really associate with a particular sound because we rarely hear what vocalizations they make. If you ask a child what a pig says, they'll say "oink." If you ask what a cow says, they'll "moo." Horses neigh, lions roar, elephants trumpet, and so on.

But what about a porcupine? Nope, no idea. Do they even make sounds? Apparently yes, they do, and it is downright hilarious. They sound like background characters on a video game or a cartoon or something. Check it:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

That's almost impossible to listen to without laughing, isn't it?

And speaking of laughter, remember that song, "What Does the Fox Say?" It turns out what foxes actually say is, "Hahahahaha." That's right, foxes giggle like schoolchildren.

@arcticfoxdaily
Cleo’s “smile” and her happy giggles are the BEST! Love Arctic fox vocalizations. #wildliferescue #wildliferehab #foxsanctuary #wolfdog #wolfsanctuary #redfox #arcticfox #babyfox #furfarm #furfarmrescue

What about rhinos? Or specifically, baby rhinos? I personally had never even thought about what a rhinocerous sounded like, but assumed they just sort of grunt or make a "humph" sound. Then I saw this video of baby rhinos squeaking and…singing? Almost like whales? Hard to describe, but listen:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

And, speaking of baby animals, we know that bears can make a fearsome growl when they're all grown up, but baby bears are another story. When they're safe, comfortable, and content, they purr kind of like kittens, only with a bit of a different quality to it.

Watch:

— (@)

How about an animal that literally sounds like a squeaky toy? The desert rain frog is an adorably tiny frog that lives in a narrow strip of land along the southwestern coast of South Africa and Namibia, and it makes the highest-pitched little squeak you just have to hear to believe.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

No matter where in the world we live, we hear animal sounds all around us that we likely don't pay much attention to. Birds, frogs, crickets, cicadas, and more make up part of the background noise of daily life—in fact, what we think of as silence usually includes some ambient animal sounds. Some people find certain animal sounds so pleasing and comforting they use recordings of them to relax or fall asleep.

Then there are animal sounds that send chills down our spine. No one wants to be hiking and hear a growl of a bear or the scream of a cougar. A lion's roar or a rattlesnake's rattle is enough to stop someone in their tracks. It's interesting—and understandable—that we are conditioned to enjoy some animal sounds and fear others. But it's the animal sounds we would never expect that make our planet a continuously fascinating world to explore.

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Funny kangaroos, monkeys and more!

1. Overall Winner: "Air-Guitar Roo" (grey kangaroo) by Jason Moore, Australia

2. Creatures of the Air Award: "Unexpected Plunge" (heron) Vittorio Ricci, South Africa

3. Creatures Under the Water Award: "Otter Ballerina" (smooth-coated otter), Otter Kwek, Singapore

4. People's Choice Award: "Dispute" (greenfinch), Jacek Stankiewicz, Poland

Highly Commended Winners

5. "The Happy Turtle" (swamp turtle), Tzahi Finkelstein, Antarctica

6. "The Monday Blahs" (great grey owl) John Blumenkamp, USA

7. "One for the Family Album" (gannets) Zoe Ashdown, UK

8. "Don't Look Down" (Atlantic puffin), Brian Matthews, UK

9. "Boing" (grey kangaroo) Lara Mathews, Australia

10. "The Rainforest Dandy" (monkey) Delphine Casimir, Bali

11. "Look Right, Bro" (macaque, deer) Pratick Mondal, India

12. "That Wasn't Here Yesterday" (white-winged dove) Wendy Kaveney, USA

13. "Snowball" (white grouse) Jaques Poulard, Norway

14. "Excuse Me Sir But I Think You're a Bit Too Young to Be Smoking" (grey fox) Dakota Vaccaro, USA

Mouse to mouse resuscitation?

Do mice give CPR?

A third of the greater gliders' remaining habitat was destroyed in the Australian wildfires, and researchers didn't know if their high-tech box idea would work.

They have venomous spurs and sweat milk?!?

1. British scientists thought they were a hoax

2. They're venomous

3. They 'sweat' milk

4. They're almost completely blind and deaf when they hunt

5. They glow under black light

Wow... just wow.

Basically, it's a famous book about revenge and obsession that was published back in 1851, and it's really, really long.

And yet by some miracle, there are whales who were born before "Moby-Dick" was published that are still alive today.

This is a particularly remarkable feat considering that the entire species was dwindling near extinction.

Unfortunately, just as things are looking up, these wonderful whales are in trouble once again.

Whales might be large and long-living. But they still need our help to survive.

Move over, border collies, there's a new top dog in town.

That bald eagle screech we hear in movies? Not a bald eagle sound at all.