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This lioness is yawning, but it looks like it's roaring so I'm gonna post this up because only a handful of people ever read what I write here anyway. Its to be expected, this app is based on visuals and not really meant for my daily diatribes, but I will continually make an effort to include supplemental info whenever I have the time to do so. For instance: Every cat's tongue is covered in tiny, backwards facing barbs called papillae, making them super rough like sandpaper. They can literally lick the hyde off an animal if they work at it long enough. These papillae are made of keratin, the same fibrous structural protein that is responsible for hair, fingernails, feathers, claws, horns, hooves, callouses and the outer layer of skin among most vertebrates. If you zoom in on this photo you can see them

Southern yellow-billed hornbill snacking on a lizard. These medium-sized birds are widespread across South Africa. The yellow-billed hornbill has been known to forage co-operatively with dwarf mongoose, catching prey items that the mongoose scratch up from the ground. There is anecdotal evidence of hornbills waiting expectantly at mongoose burrows, anxious for the scouring to commence. In return for this assistance, the hornbills alert the mongoose to danger from overhead raptors, if and when it is detected. The yellow-billed hornbill is an omnivorous ground feeder, foraging for seeds, fruit, insects, spiders and even scorpions. They also catch snakes on occasion, which they kill by bashing them on against a hard surface. Their prey is swallowed whole, allowing any indeigestable segmemts to pass through their digestive system.

A helpless, bloody harp seal gets smacked around by a polar bear. Its so easy to look at this and feel sorry for the seal. And to be honest, death by polar bear is right up there with being burned at the stake or boiled alive - so I don't really blame anyone who does. Polar bears aren't the type to kill before they eat (just in case that wasn't super obvious) and the suffering of their prey is so far down their list of concerns its basically non existent. On the other hand, polar bears are not super successful hunters. They operate at about 10%, so for every 100 attempts they fail 90 times on average. They are classified as hypercarnivores (70% of their diet is meat) and live in one of the harshest environments on earth. When the going gets tough and there's not enough food to go around, they have been known to resort to infanticide/cannibalism just to stay alive. So yes, being eaten alive is one of the worst ways to die - but at the same time, the next opportunity for this bear to feed might be days or weeks away. You can't blame him for getting while the getting good.

Attempted Pinocchio A pair of kayakers accidentally get caught in the crossfire of a feeding humpback whale. This happened at Avila Beach in California on Monday. Humpback whales do not have a taste for humans, they prefer squid, krill, herring, pollock, macarel and various other fish. Instead of teeth, humpback whales possess a baleen. They hunt by taking in large amounts of sea water and forcing it back out against the bristles of the baleen, keeping the fish inside of their mouth. Their prey is then swallowed whole. They can engulf and swallow thousands of fish in one gulp. As for the people in the kayak, they suffered no injuries, they were just a little shaken up

I can't tell what type of ungulate this is, but I'm sure one of you can. Keep in mind, this photo is from Norway. Not a fun way to go out, then again there's only a few ways to go in the wild. And none of them are pretty. Disease, predation and starvation are the 3 most common (not in that order). Slipping into your own Stoney prison is definitely not as common as those, but metal none the less.

Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire A hapless pigeon looking for shelter from the rain meets a farm cat named Banana. Farm cats are used specifically for pest control, so while the following does apply to them, the concentration of domestic cats in cities is a much more destructive issue. It is estimated that domestic cats kill 1.3 billion prey animals every year, which is a modest estimate and a major problem for the natural balance of the ecosystem. Domestic cats are not native to North America (they are native to modern day Iraq Cyprus, and Syria) and are one of, if not the most damaging of any predatory invasive species on the continent. Most will have the benefit of an owner and protected shelter, so they are able to temporarily remove themselves from the food chain while they sleep - which is a huge advantage over everything else in that system. They are also most likely fed at home, so when they attack something it's usually out of instinct and not hunger - which helps along their "kill for fun" reputation.

4 of the 5 members of the tano bora cheetah coalition (aka the fast 5) photographed feeding on a wildebeest. The adult males of this speedy species often become solitary or pair up with another male to hunt. The fast five are the first of their kind - they are the largest known coalition of male cheetahs. These 5 fleet-footed hypercarnivores are one of the main attractions of the masai mara. They are known for their exhilarating pursuits and spectacular takedowns of large prey animals, which speaks to the advantage of a coalition this size, as a solitary cheetah (male or female) would most likely not be able to take down an adult wildebeest on their own. And while a pair of cheetah working in tandem might fair a little better, the fast 5 do it regularly and for good reason: they have more mouths to feed. Only death can pay for life.

Lunchtime 🦈

Two male lions (one adult, one sub-adult/teenager) battle over the pride's latest kill. This particular male (Olbarnoti) is one of the oldest in the masai mara, and is beating back the adolescent male in order to allow the smaller cubs feeding time. If the young king had his way, they cubs would go hungry.

Black-headed ibis completing her Halloween look (or trying to eat a snake that simply will not go down easy, whichever works for you)

Chicken coop security cam catches an encounter between a rabbit and a bobcat. These security cameras were installed because the owners were having trouble figuring out who or what was stealing their chicken's.

Diver, a female grizzly known for diving down into the river's pools to grab salmon from the bottom, emerges with not one, but TWO beautiful sockeye salmon to feast on! Grizzly bears can consume up to 58000 calories per day, these two will make up roughly 8000 of that. If she's high grading, she will only consume the fattiest parts (skin, brain and eggs) of her kill and leave the rest. Bears will only high grade when fish are abundant, they will revert back to eating the entire fish when they become less plentiful and harder to catch. A high grading bear can and will kill up to 30 fish in a day.

Osprey gives a lucky fish a free flying lesson. These birds are specially adapted to seek and destroy fish. They will nest in any suitable location close to any body of water with an adequate food supply. Osprey inhabit every continent except Antarctica. They are the second most widely distributed raptor species after the peregrine falcon. The osprey has several adaptations that suit its predominantly pescetarian diet: Reversible outer toes Closable nostrils to keep water out during dives Backward facing scales on their talons, which act as barbs and makes escape almost impossible Sharp spines on the underside of the toes Dense plumage which is oily, thus preventing waterlogging of their feathers. Their eyesight is also specially adapted to target prey underwater from up to 40m (131ft) above the surface. Once a suitable candidate has been spotted, they'll dive feet-first into the water and extract their prize.

Tigress T-84 (Arrowhead) chases down and closes the book on a sambar deer. The codenames for the tigers who live within the boundary of Ranthambore National Park/Tiger Reserve make them sound like cybernetic organisms sent from the future to be the top of the food chain/kill Sarah Connor.

Two cheetahs turn a springbok into Laffy Taffy There is an evolutionary reason for the cheetah's incredible speed: the food they prefer is also incredibly quick and nimble.

A lioness decides to ruin the fun for a small pack of spotted hyenas. Kleptoparasitism (parasitism via theft) is the embodiment of the "work smart not hard" idiom. Why expend a ton of energy taking something down, when you can wait for another group of predators to do it for you, then run in and steal it once the hard/dangerous work is complete. Hyenas and lions are enemies in the truest sense of the word, and this back and forth hijacking of eachothers kills has been happening for as long as there have been hyenas and lions to do it. To be fair, in this clip it would seem that the lioness is the aggressor here, but for all we know she is just the tip of the spear in an all-out lion counter attack attempting to reclaim their own hard work.