These Animals Eat Their Partners Alive | Weird Animal Facts #3

Hello and welcome to Natural World Facts, in this episode of wierd animal facts Leo will be talking about the the praying mantids who eat their partners after sex, the drongo birds who trick meerkats, the manakin bird who's courtship display resembles a moonwalk, the ocean crop circles made by an unexpected little fish and the suriname sea toad which rears it's young in it's back. - Number 5: Insects that eat their partners A strange behaviour has been observed in mating pairs of Praying Mantids where, after mating, the female seems to attack and eat her partner alive. This may seem a very alien behaviour to us but it is not uncommon for mantids. The male is simply a high energy meal which the female eats to ensure that the eggs in her body mature faster. It has also been witnessed for the female to bite off and eat her partner’s head whilst she is still mating with him, and the mating process continues undisturbed. - Number 4: The trickster bird Drongos are the Kalahari’s most mischievous bird. First, he gains the trust of a pack of meerkats by calling a warning when he spots a danger such as an eagle, sending the meerkats scurrying for safety. Once they begin to trust him as their lookout, he sounds another warning; but it is a false alarm. With the meerkats abandoning their prey and scuttling off to their den, the drongo will swoop down and snatch the insects or scorpions they had found from the ground. A free meal in return for warning of danger. However, the meerkats will only fall for this trick once, yet the drongo has another trick up it’s sleeve. It can imitate the call of the meerkats own lookout guard, which they can not ignore, allowing him to snatch up their meal once again. - Number 3: Manakin bird Another bird species has also displayed a very unusual behaviour. The manakin from Brazil has a, let’s say unique approach to attracting a mate. The males put on a courtship display which appears to be a sort of moonwalk, sliding backwards across a branch. If the female manakin is satisfied with a male’s dance, she will mate with him. The competition between males is a fierce dance-off and only the best dancer will get to mate. - Number 2: Ocean crop circles In Japan, strange crop circle patterns have been found on the sandy seabed, resembling closely sci-fi crop circles thought to be left by alien spacecraft. It was discovered, however, that these patterns were actually made by small fishes, closely related to puffers. The males create these pieces of art to attract females. Fish as small as thirteen centimetres long manage to create patterns up to two metres in diameter. They create them by swimming along the bottom and shifting the sand with their lower fins. - Number 1: Surinam sea toad The surinam sea toad from south America has evolved a very rare way of rearing young. Rather than laying frogspawn and allowing her young to develop into tadpoles like most other frogs, this toad instead has laid her eggs in pockets on her back for extra protection. Her young develop there fully, emerging not as tadpoles but as fully formed frogs. When they emerge, they burst out from the skin on her back. Natural World Facts is a channel dedicated to bringing you fascinating facts about our natural world, and the wonderful animals that we share it with. Subscribe for more videos! Leave a suggestion in the comments for what animal you would like to learn about next. OUR WEBSITE: http://goo.gl/Ngj5V6 TWITTER: http://goo.gl/U4T8JX #weirdanimalfacts #surinamtoad