6 Incredible Animal Hunting Techniques

You've seen the most common way on the discovery channel, but what about the animals that have unique ways of killing their food? Claws and teeth are one way to catch a meal, but here are six animals that have evolved some pretty different hunting techniques! Hank Green hosts this fun and informative new episode of SciShow.

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Frogfish

Bolas Spider

Humpback Whale

Pistol Shrimp

Stoat

Human

[buxt-tech]

That's kind of terrifying if you think about it.

"Bob tried to escape, but no matter how far he ran, the human just. . .kept coming. It didn't stop!"

"Was it faster than him?"

"No, it just kept. Following."

"These are truly the end times."

--Conversation between two mammoths, 20, 000 BCE

[EMBer]

So humans are the horror movie monster of the animal kingdom? You run and run but the human just keeps getting closer despite not being all that fast. :)

[nittanyburg]

Imagine being a prehistoric bison and seeing a bunch of humans in the distance jogging towards you

[floof_hair]

Human: *pace walks aggresively*

Prey: what the heck

[tec-jones]

The two cultures that still use endurance hunting are the Raramuri(Tarahumara) of northern Mexico, and the Saan/San(Bushmen) of the Kalahari in southern Africa(Namibia, Botswana, South Africa)

[beirirangu]

Wild KRILL appeared!
HUMPBACK used BUBBLE!
It's super effective!
Enemy KRILL fainted!
HUMPBACK gained 3 EXP. Points!

[woodfur]

I'm so glad you talked about humans! It's amazing how many people think we don't have a specialty!

[bluenimbus]

“The ability to run prey to the point of exhaustion while barely breaking a sweat.”

Me: Gets out of bed in the morning and nearly collapses in exhaustion.

[Lukiel]

No mention of Cuttlefish hypnotizing prey by strobing alternating bands of colors at them?

[karl_alan]

Also, with the stoat dancing thing. Doing something for play does not mean it isn't a hunting technique too. Just look at how dogs play. They often bite and claw at one another and pounce on eachother... cats too.

[Alverant]

Humans can also throw things better than any other animal.

[Rakkis]

I did that last one to my dog in high school. He had a tendency to make a break for freedom at any point someone left the back door open too long. One of those times was around 2am in the summer.

I was trying to sleep. My mother was afraid of him being taken to the pound. Again. Mostly because she didn't want to pay the fee.

I didn't feel like doing the whole "Walking around and calling his name bit" and I couldn't drive at the time. Plus, he wouldn't come anyways. The aggravating mutt (I still love him to this day) was just sitting right outside the boundary of our backyard. Every time I tried to walk close to him, he would go a little further away.

So; I started jogging. He ran and I kept jogging after him with the determination that I wasn't stopping until I had him. It wasn't a hard run and I was in running shape back then. Wow I was young.

He had been outside and generally raising hell for two hours before I had been called to the task so he was already more weary. It took me about a mile and a half and finally he just stopped and lay down.

That was the only time I had ever seen my dog truly afraid of me. Granted, I was pretty upset with him. He had dragged me out of bed after all. It was the only time he had ever tried to actually snap at me.

So I booped him under his snout (gently), and picked him up like a brindle, panting, purple-tongued sheep and carried him home. We both collapsed on my bed after some water and went to sleep.

[sophieekhegfejwgk]

Being run til exhaustion then eaten sounds like an awful way to go tbh

[Master_Therion]

Bears catch their food with their bear hands.

[katyspencer]

I love how sci show doesn't just say "oh whales hunt with bubbles" but actually go into how the anatomy helps and more!

[mikerich]

My personal favorite is when Green Tree Pythons use something called caudal luring. They sit on a branch completely still waiting for a prey to come by, but they can lure prey in by wiggling and moving their tail to look like a worm or tasty treat

[belindaweber]

Wow, early humans are persistent when hungry! It also kinda makes sense that we'd team up with early dogs like wolves because they do a simular hunt at times too. Plus both species are intelligent to use each other for more success.

[veronika]

I really love these episodes about weird animal

[newtscamander]

Child: Why are we such a successful species, Mommy?

Mother: It's cause we sweat so much, honey.

[gamescentralstreaming]

I endurance hunted my rooster, we had just got from somebody for free and we took him home and put him with the hens we had, they got along fine. Then he just took off into the woods, he was in the woods (keep in mind we had no idea where he was as it was large woods) all night, about 7 am I heard him crowing I followed the crowing for about 1/4 of a mile 3 houses away from mine and there he was. For 45 continued minutes I chased him. Even after that he didn't give up it was only until he jumped onto a tree that I was able to grab him. Was terrible