geekosystem

Think humans are special because we can show one another how to do things? Think again. According to a study published this week in the journal Science, humpback whales not only developed new ways to hunt different prey -- they also shared that information with other whales, teaching one another new hunting techniques.

With the holidays still fresh in our mental rearview mirrors, most of us have some fairly fresh memories of sitting down to meals so big we had no business trying to consume them. All of our piled plates have nothing on this pike, though, which died in a valiant, if misguided, attempt to consume an entire zander -- a fish almost as big as the pike itself.

We'll admit it -- we've never really gotten the point of hunting. Driving way out into the woods to kill a thing when there are any number of fine grocery stores and restaurants just a short walk from home never really made much sense to us, and the sporting aspect always rang false because, well, you have a gun and the animals, by and large, do not. We do know one thing about hunting, though, neophytes though we may be: If you shoot a bear, you had best make certain it's dead, because if it's not, well, then it's just an angry bear. That's a lesson Oregon deer hunter Alex Machavo learned the hard way this weekend, when he was mauled by a bear he was pretty sure he'd killed.

Pelvicachromis taeniatus may sound like an exotic name, but you've probably seen these dwarf cichlids in your local aquarium before. The fish normally dwell in African rivers, but are also popular as fish in domestic aquariums. When they're being fed floating food pellets, though, one of their most interesting evolutionary developments is going to waste. It turns out these cichlids hunt with a highly developed sense of infrared vision.

In an act of cartoonish, anthropomorphic revenge, a fox, after being shot by a hunter, somehow managed to slip its paw into the trigger and pull it, shooting the hunter in the leg. From The Daily Mail:

The bizarre incident happened as the unnamed 40-year-old hunter tried to kill the fox with the butt of his gun after shooting it from a distance. The fox made its escape while friends took the injured man to hospital.