Nature can be many things: awe-inspiring, cute, majestic, epic and terrifying. Sometimes it’s, like, three of these things at once. But here’s another attribute to consider: sometimes, nature can be straight-up metal . Don’t believe me? Scroll down…
Does that frog have…hair?
I’ve always thought frogs are pretty cute, but I’ll have to revise that after learning about the hairy frog (also known, no joke, as the horror frog ). This freaky frog will break its own bones to use as weapons.
RELATED STORIES
Canada in a nutshell.
Most Canadians don’t live in polar bear country, which is probably a good thing. This pic, which was most definitely taken right in the heart of polar bear country, is a tad unnerving.
Why you gotta be so creepy?
I mean, no one really likes wasps to begin with, then they have to go and build a nest around this spooky old doll in the woods to up the creep factor.
NOPE.
This beetle has a bad case of parasitic wasp larva, making it look like something that belongs in the next Alien movie.
Yosemite has a firefall.
Well, sort of. For a short period each February, the sunset hits the Horsetail Falls just right, causing it to look like it’s on fire.
Grim sheeper.
Most of us think of white, fluffy, harmless puffballs when we think of sheep. But there are a lot of different types of sheep — and some of them come straight from an album cover.
Borat?
We don’t know the exact identity of this poor photographer who set out to photograph an ornery Kazakhstan eagle. But whoever he is, he learned to regret what he was doing.
At least it’s light out.
Because seriously, can you even imagine the terror of staring down this gigantic black timber wolf in the dark? We’re not even seeing the rest of its no-doubt terrifying pack.
He’ll mess you up.
Chimpanzees and humans might share 96 percent of the same DNA, but something in that four percent makes chimps way stronger than humans. When they’re hairless, you can see just how ripped they can be.
This is an album cover.
You might want to tweak the background a bit, but this jagged, waterlogged deer skull is absolutely the perfect accessory for a great album cover, or possibly some kind of pagan ritual.
Blood red.
Alright, it isn’t blood red, it’s more of a flamingo-ish color. Regardless, these weird-looking birds, lammergeiers, will rub soil into their feathers to give them this red hue.
The Lion King prepared me for this.
I knew hyenas could be mean little scavengers, but I never thought they were particularly intimidating. Then I saw the look of raw ferocity in this hyena matriarch’s eyes.
He sees all.
From the looks of things, this harpy eagle has been in a few battles before. Also from the looks of things, this harpy eagle has had enough of your BS and you’d better stop staring.
Honey I Shrunk the Kids will never be the same.
You know the cute, friendly ant they ride part of the way across the yard? Yeah, a real ant is pretty terrifying close-up.
Master of their domain.
I appreciate having a hardworking spider in the house, especially during housefly season. But some spiders are downright prolific, and form an eerie sight when they’re surrounded by dozens and dozens of fly corpses.
It’s just a phase.
Like goth kids, stags will also apparently hang out in the cemetary to look badass and think gothy things. There’s something about the antlers and eyes, juxtaposed against the tombstone, that’s just haunting.
Seal ya later.
I think of seals as adorable big fat chonks that laze around the piers in San Francisco, eating garbage. But they’re predators, and if you had any doubt, just look at those ferocious teeth.
I get it now.
Okay, I no longer think seals are cute at all. This leopard seal, hunting in the water underneath an ice sheet, is about the last thing a water-dwelling creature would want to see.
Beautiful and sort of disappointing.
This is the view of a double rainbow from an airplane. Absolutely gorgeous, but it also proves that there is no end to the rainbow. No treasure?!
This one is actually a literal firefall.
The Yosemite firefall is pretty and all, but this is an actual lava-fall. Also beautiful, but far more destructive.
Life finds a way.
This is why you need to remember to remove the protective cage from around tree saplings. The tree will eventually appear to eat it.
I’d have this same expression if I was stuck in a jellyfish.
He’s still alive and can control the jelly like a macabre submarine. Photographer Tim Samuel told Australian Geographic that he’s not sure how the poor thing got stuck.
Definitely descended from dinosaurs.
This is the claws of a cassowary, often considered the most dangerous bird in the world. Recently, a Florida man was killed by one he kept on his farm.
Last stand.
I don’t know how this iguana died, but judging by the badass pose, he went down fighting to his last breath.
Bend, don’t break.
It doesn’t seem like a direct lightning strike should be survivable. True, it’s often fatal. But there are other times it just leaves a wild scar — and a good story.
Mom of the year.
This eagle mom woke up half-buried in snow from a nasty blizzard. She calmly woke up, shook herself off, and repositioned her eggs so they’d get as much warmth and shelter as possible.
Sort of poetic.
That’s a black widow spider in the eye of a skull. The only thing that would make this pic better would be if the spider was turned so we could see the hourglass. Can’t really blame the photographer for not disturbing it, though.
