We know that nature has its adorable side and its scary side and we can appreciate both of them in different ways.
What seems the most beautiful to us can inspire us to love the natural world, but its brutality is also there to ensure that we respect it. But just when we think we’ve got a handle on how it works, it throws us a curve ball.
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Sometimes, this becomes clear when scientists discover a species that we somehow never encountered until recently, but we may not know the rest of them as well as we think.
If you’ve watched enough nature shows, you’ll likely feel a sense of dread creeping in whenever a skua shows up.
And images like this serve as a perfect example as to why.
When they’re not picking on baby penguins, they’re not even giving them a chance to become babies before they swoop down and carry them away.
Do yourself a favor and don’t out your money on the praying mantis in this fight.
After all, the fight is already over and the fact that the ant is actually carrying the mantis’ body in this photo makes it very clear who won.
When we see impalas, they’re usually running from a hungry predator. But they can cause some gnarly situations on their own.
Here we see one actually managing to impale another creature with its antler. Even it looks a little surprised at how this situation turned out.
There’s a lot going on in this picture, but it’s unfortunate enough to make us nostalgic for when we were just confused.
Despite its best efforts, it seems this langur monkey couldn’t outrun the leopard, which means both it and its baby now face a grim and probably hopeless situation.
Unless it’s poisonous, it seems difficult to picture a caterpillar that we shouldn’t mess with.
But if the dark aesthetic of the horned caterpillar doesn’t inspire that reaction, its array of fearsome-looking spines ought to do the trick.
Some animals will toy with their prey before they finish it off, but this way of doing it seems particularly cruel.
It’s hard to tell from this distance, but we’re looking at a hawk drowning a smaller bird in the gutter after some rainfall.
That antelope hasn’t spent long in this world, but it’s already facing an adult-sized challenge.
And given that this challenge takes the form of one of the world’s fastest predators, it’s hard to be enthusiastic for the little one’s odds of making it out of this.
Unfortunately, it’s arguably even harder to find your way in this world when your pursuers can fly.
Because even if this duckling was able to escape from this red-shouldered hawk’s clutches, it would likely be a long way from the ground.
In case we haven’t already made it clear how dangerous wildcats can be, here we see one dominating a caiman on its own turf.
You’d think a relative of the alligator would have an advantage in the water, but that didn’t seem to matter to this jaguar.
It’s always hard to tell whether to feel relieved or even more afraid when a fearsome animal is taken out by a larger one.
For instance, it definitely looks like this tiger fish could do some damage if it bit into us, but this crocodile was able to turn it into dinner before it even realized what was happening.
It may seem that this owl didn’t enjoy its meal, but it’s likely feeling pretty satisfied right now.
That’s because owls eat their prey whole and have a way of only digesting what they actually need from the animal.
Everything else, which includes the bones and fur, gets compressed into this “owl pellet” and regurgitated back up. It’s a little gross, but very efficient.
Not everyone is afraid of lightning, but everybody is likely to feel a little intimidated by this.
We’re used to bluish-white lightning, but with the right location and time of day, this ominous red is also a possibility.
This frog may have a very filling lizard in its clutches, but it didn’t get to enjoy it for long.
Whether it’s because it choked on its prey or whether some other unknown fate befell it, it had already died in this position before the uploader discovered it floating in their pool.
This picture does a pretty good job of demonstrating how the cicada killer wasp got its name.
But neutralizing this cicada wasn’t the end goal for the bug because we’re now seeing it in the process of dragging the cicada home.
Once they arrive, the wasp will lay its eggs on the cicada.
If there’s any comfort to be gained from this disturbing image, it’s that we’re not looking at some monstrous new species.
Instead, this is likely the head of a bobcat midway through breaking down into a simple skull.
If you don’t live near beavers, you may not be aware that these orange teeth aren’t out of the ordinary for them.
According to Scientific American , the orange coloration is an indicator that the beaver’s teeth are rich in iron. This makes them acid-resistant, but also ensures that they don’t get cavities.
After all, beavers kind of need their teeth.
If we find ourselves in the wrong kind of winter wonderland, this might be the last thing we see before the end.
It’s hard to tell what has this tiger so irritated, but I certainly don’t envy the photographer in this situation.
This tree had to be uprooted, but it was powerful enough to take a pretty solid prize with it.
It’s unlikely that this face was drawn on the rock before it became entangled in the roots, but I guess we don’t have an answer for why someone would draw it afterwards either.
If weed pulling gets you down, it might help to remember that you likely won’t have this waiting for you when you do it.
Again, it’s hard to tell how this plant’s root ended up pushing through this animal skull, but there’s probably a long, unnerving story behind it.
This photo makes it very hard to imagine a surface that an ibex can’t keep a steady hold on.
Because unless you somehow covered this wall in grease, the sure-footed mountain-climber will probably fund a way up it.
