10 Animal Actions You’ve Never Seen (Caught on Camera)

New animal behaviors are discovered every day. Some of the most captivating scenes come from well-known species, mainly because seeing bears and badgers doing wild things is surprising.

This is the best time to witness these rarely seen moments. Surveillance cameras, private photographers, and research camera crews are everywhere, and this vast surveillance network makes it possible to catch mind-blowing surprises from the animal kingdom.

From grizzly bears running with wolves to killer turtles, here are ten things the creatures do that are worth considering!

Related: Top Ten Misunderstood Animal Behaviors

ten A drone kidnapped by eagles

Since the launch of the first drone, a small army of these machines has been active at all times around the world. They are used for surveillance, security, rescue operations, research and wildlife conservation. Many people also use drones to capture stunning aerial images, but in 2015 one such drone was captured by wildlife.

Expecting a normal flight and great images, a man named Patrick Pircher launched his DJI Phantom 3 drone in Austria over beautiful snow-capped mountains. Shortly after, the flight took an unexpected turn.

A pair of eagles began circling the drone and eventually attacked it, striking so hard that the device toppled over. The footage then shows an eagle gripping the drone in its claws before landing and examining the machine. The eagles abandoned their unusual catch after realizing it wasn’t a tasty snack.

The film doesn’t specify which species kidnapped Pitcher’s drone, but one of the contenders is the great golden eagle, known to live in Austria.⁽¹⁾

9 A fox’s flight

In 2023, Esmeralda Egurrola of Tucson, Arizona, noticed that three of her motion-activated cameras were no longer online. Upon further inspection, the devices were found to be missing. Wondering who had stolen her property, she opened an app on her cell phone to check the final records of each device and caught the thief in the act.

The intruder was adorable. Armed with a fluffy tail and beautiful ears, a gray fox pulled off the heist shamelessly, and it was no light accusation. A recording shows the fox standing with one of the cameras missing in its mouth. We can therefore assume that the animal returned to steal the other two as well.

Why the fox went to the trouble of pinching something that is not food or useful to its survival is a mystery. But one thing is certain: the fox has shown his best criminal paws and the cameras are still missing.⁽²⁾

8 An elephant peeling a banana

A pachyderm peeling a banana seems boring. However, this is a fantastic feat, considering elephants have no hands or fingers. To add another layer of “wow” is that an elephant learned this skill herself after seeing humans peel bananas.

Meet Pang Pha, an Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo. Lacking thumbs, the elephant relies on a unique technique to do its job. First, she wraps her proboscis around the end of the stem and pulls it off. The banana is then dropped on the ground where it carefully pinches the broken skin to shuck the fruit.

Interestingly, Pang Pha doesn’t bother with green bananas and swallows them whole. But she will take her time with a riper banana and carefully open it. The footage of her showing off her fruity skills is also the first time an elephant has been filmed preparing bananas in this way.⁽³⁾

7 Armed Whale Bubbles

Humpback whales are known for their warty snouts, graceful swimming and beautiful songs. However, these majestic beasts have another trait that deserves special mention: they use the bubbles as fishing nets to catch their dinner.

Researchers have known about this hunting technique for some time, but it wasn’t until 2019 that the bubbly behavior was first filmed. The study followed a pod of humpback whales along southeast Alaska. They attached cameras to the animals with suction cups and flew drones above the module.

The result was visually pleasing and insightful. When the whales encountered tasty fish or crustaceans, they began to circle them. In doing so, humpback whales exhaled strings of bubbles to create a wall of air around their prey. Once the tiny creatures were trapped, a whale would pass through the fish-filled vortex and grab a mouthful of meat.⁽⁴⁾

6 Orcas helping a dying friend

In 2023, whale watchers filmed a one-of-a-kind video. They were drifting into the territory of a pod of orcas north of Loppa, a Norwegian island, when they realized that an orca was in trouble.

The tragic scene involved Hunchy, a man around 35 years old who appeared emaciated and unable to swim. He was not alone. Two young orcs huddled against him. Their efforts to keep him afloat so he could breathe were described by witnesses as “desperate”. After almost an hour, both men seemingly gave up and eventually, Hunchy sank to the deep end.

Although the behavior of an orca after the death of a calf has been filmed, this is the first known footage of a dying adult orca and the effect it had on other orcas.⁽⁵⁾

5 A badger stealing a cow

In 2016, researchers in Utah went to great lengths to find cow carcasses and transport them to the desert. The objective was to study the winter behavior of predatory and scavenger species in the Great Basin region.

Much to the team’s dismay, one of their hard-earned cows went missing within the first week. A scientist, Evan Buechley, decided to take a look around and noticed disturbed ground where the missing carcass had been tied to a stake. To solve the mystery, Buechley downloaded footage from a nearby camera trap, and the film revealed never before seen badger behavior.

American badgers are known to bury small amounts of food (e.g., a dead rat). But one creature decided that this bovine feast was just too good to pass up and, working around the clock, it buried the entire cow where it lay.

The footage shows the cow sinking deeper into the ground as the badger dug and pulled, not stopping until the carcass was completely buried. In a comical twist, one image shows the tired but contented badger sitting on his handiwork and glancing cheekily at the camera.⁽⁶⁾

4 A grizzly bear hunting horse

The Help Alberta Wildies Society (HAWS) is a volunteer group aimed at protecting wild horses in Alberta, Canada. Their work includes setting up surveillance cameras. As a result, a terrifying reality was brought to public attention: Alberta’s herds are on the menu for grizzly bears.

In 2023, HAWS released a clip showing horses fleeing from a trail camera with a bear on their heels. Since grizzly bears can run at speeds of 25 to 28 mph (40 to 45 km/h) for a distance of up to 3 km, these predators can and do take down horses. However, all the horses were subsequently found, meaning that this time the grizzly bear hunt was unsuccessful.

This was not an isolated incident. A year earlier, another HAWS camera had filmed a similar scene. The footage shows horses and foals running straight towards the camera in panic. Once again, a frighteningly fast grizzly bear was not far behind.⁽⁷⁾

3 A grizzly bear and wolves hunting together

In 2022, a herd of elk in Yellowstone National Park was watched over by park workers, a pack of wolves, and a bear. While the crew was filming, a rare event involving the predators began to unfold.

The grizzly teamed up with the wolves, who appeared to accept the bear’s help during the hunt. But once the wolves killed a female elk, the partnership ended abruptly. The grizzly bear betrayed its canine companions and quickly disappeared with the carcass.

It is not uncommon for bears to use their power and size to steal food from wolves. However, it is almost rare for the two species to hunt together. According to the National Park Service, they generally ignore each other and interactions are limited to bears trying to steal prey stalked by wolves.⁽⁸⁾

2 A family of crocodile-killing tigers

If a tiger and a crocodile faced each other, which apex predator would emerge victorious? Many people could bet on the crocodile. However, a family of tigers in Ranthambore National Park in India is known for killing these fearsome reptiles.

It all started with a female called Machli, who became famous after park visitors witnessed her long battle with a 4.3m long crocodile. In the end, Machli walked away with plenty of crocodile meat and the title of the park’s resident crocodile killer.

Machli died in 2016, when she was 19 years old. However, her granddaughter, a tigress named Riddhi, passes on the profession of crocodile hunting to her own offspring. In 2024, the tigress and her trio of one-year-old cubs were filmed feasting on a huge crocodile that they had ambushed and killed together.

These incredibly rare images are fascinating to look at. It’s not every day that you see a land mammal fighting and eating a powerful prehistoric beast like a crocodile.⁽⁹⁾

1 A killer turtle

In 2021, Anna Zora was on the island of Frégate in the Seychelles archipelago. As deputy head of conservation and sustainability at the Frégate Island Foundation, she was probably delighted when a large turtle appeared. She started filming the Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea), unaware that the animal’s leisurely pace was a hunt in progress.

At one point, Zora noticed a bird sitting on a log. The chick was a little tern (Anous tenuirostris), a flightless species. She watched in amazement as the attack unfolded in slow motion in real time. The turtle chased the chick for seven minutes, catching, killing and ultimately consuming the bird.

The gruesome images, the first to show a turtle deliberately attacking and eating another animal, left biologists and other researchers speechless. This is definitely not normal behavior for a turtle, especially coming from A. giganteawhich is largely herbivorous.^(ten)