Sea lions are suffing giant waves

sea lions sufing wave in California

This is awesome! These sea lions are having a blast surfing the giant wave. Taken off the coast on Santa Barbara Island, California, this is crazy cool footage.

 

 

This is part of the Pacific Offshore Expeditions. Watch as these sea lions take the waves, jump out, and dive back in.  It’s a rare catch to get this on video.

Dancing aninamals

Dancing Animals

Sometimes we just need to find something to make a laugh. Unfortunately for the animal kingdom, dancing horse, cats, birds and chimps fit the bill. In the video below there are some funny dancing animals. Though there is one of a person making the cat dance and all you can do is hope that we (and the cat) are rewarded with a big chunk of the man's hand taken out. In truth, what kept me watching, well actually listening to this was the music. The animals provided some entertainment, but it ended up being the music that made it worth watching.

Hummingbirds sleeps, and snores

hummingbird sleeping video

Hummingbirds are seen around our house a during the Spring and occasionally we catch them in the summer. Our neighbor, who keeps feeders and plants specifically to attract birds has hummingbirds around her house much longer. But I’ve never seen them in winter.

In a piece from National Geographic’s on hummingbirds, I read about how they are around in the winter, at least is some areas. At night they go into a hibernation like state where their body temperature drops to 47 degrees from 107.

Their heart rate drops by about 90%, from over 1,250 down to about 100. The National Geo article has a lot more about the different types of hummingbirds, check out out.

One of the videos they had was this one of a hummingbird sleeping. They actually snore! It’s pretty cute.

Greenland Shark lives up to 500 years!

In August 2016 scientist looked at 28 Greenland sharks that were accidentally cot in nets as by-catch by fishermen in the North Atlantic. Through tissue Greenland sharksdating they determined that some of the sharks were over 292 years old when they were caught. Their estimates ranged as high as 400 years for those caught, leading to a determination that they would live to 500 years if not accidentally caught.

While the estimates are wide, at over 300 years, and possibly 500 years lifespan, the Greenland shark is the longest living vertebrate.  Scientist cannot greenland sharkbe certain but believe the low temperatures of the North Atlantic slow the rate of aging for the shark.  Whatever the reason, it is remarkable.

 

more on the sharks here