The caterpillar of the peppered moth has one of the most impressive natural camouflages in the animal world. Not only do they look like lifeless twigs, but they can also change color to match their background.

Over the past 17 years, we’ve featured some of the world’s most incredible camouflages. From caterpillars that position themselves perfectly on mango leaves to blend in, to butterflies that look like dead leaves and moths with flies feeding on bird droppings on their wings, we thought we had seen it all. And then along comes the stick caterpillar to blow our minds once again. Found in different regions of the Northern Hemisphere, like Asia, Europe, and North America, the caterpillar of the peppered moth is a master of mimicry. Not only does it have the shape of a twig, complete with all its natural imperfections, but it can also sense the color of the branch it is resting on with its skin and change its color accordingly to protect itself from predators.

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An Indian dog breeder recently paid 500 million rupees ($5.81 million ) for a unique cross between a real wolf and a Caucasian Shephard, making it the most expensive canine in the world.

Named Cadabomb Okami, the pricy canine was reportedly bred in the US and purchased by S. Satish, a Bengaluru-based dog enthusiast and the president of the Indian Dog Breeders Association. He is renowned for his collection of over 150 dog breeds, including some of the rarest in the world. Satish told Indian reporters that he felt the 500 million rupee price tag was worth it for Cadabomb Okami because he is literally one of a kind. Plus, he is an impressive specimen; at just eight months old he already weighs 75kg and stands 30 inches tall.

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Chilean-born artist Marco Evaristti has come under fire for trying to starve three little piglets to death as part of a controversial art installation meant to raise awareness about animal welfare.

Marco Evaristti sparked controversy when he originally announced plans for his “And Now You Care?” exhibition, but he really attracted criticism both from animal rights activists and the general public when it actually became a reality. Located in a former butcher’s warehouse in the Meatpacking District of Copenhagen, “And Now You Care?” featured three little piglets on a pile of hay, trapped in a cage made up of two metal shopping carts and surrounded by paintings of slaughtered pigs and the Danish flag. It was already an unsettling display, but it was his plan to only give the piglets water and let them starve to death that really shocked everyone.

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Standing 185 cm (6 feet and 0.8 inches) tall from hoof to withers, 3-year-old King Kong is the world’s tallest water buffalo.

Water buffalos are among the biggest bovine species, but even among them, King Kong, a 3-year-old specimen born on a farm in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, stands out as exceptionally tall. Measuring a whopping 6 feet and 0.8 inches from hoof to withers, he is about 20 inches taller than the average water buffalo, according to Guinness World Records. Owner Suchart Booncharoen said that the animal’s name is no lucky coincidence, as his potential to grow into a huge frame was obvious from birth. Still, despite his massive size, King Kong is a gentle giant who loves playing and being around people.

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An Italian doctor is currently being investigated for using hospital equipment to diagnose his injured pet cat and then operating on her in order to save her life.

Gianluca Fanelli , head of the simple structure of Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology at the Parini Hospital in Aosta, Italy, recently split his home country into two camps – one that considers him a hero who values life over rules and regulations, and another that thinks he should face the consequences for knowingly breaking the rules of his workplace. On the evening of January 27, after taking his injured cat to a veterinarian and receiving a dire diagnosis, the radiologist took his feline, Athena, to Parini Hospital and put in the CT scanner to get an idea of the internal organ damage she had suffered. He then performed pneumothoracic surgery on her in the unit’s angiography room in order to save her life.

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A veterinary clinic in Turkey recently shared the touching story of a stray dog who carried her unconscious puppy in her mouth and left it at the clinic door as if begging for help.

If not for the viral video footage captured by CCTV cameras, most people would probably think this story too heartwarming to be true. A vet clinic in the Adnan Kahveci neighborhood of Beylikduzu, in Turkey’s Istanbul Province, recently reported one of its most incredible cases. On January 13, an animal lover brought a young puppy they had found on the street, claiming it was the only survivor of a stray’s litter. The clinic rushed to treat the pup only to then have its mother show up on the doorstep with another unconscious puppy in its mouth. A technician noticed the desperate animal and rushed to tend to its offspring, which suffered from hypothermia and had a very low heart rate.

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There are around 45,000 species of spider in the world, all of them carnivorous, with one exception – Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping spider known for feeding almost exclusively on plants.

Native to the forests of Central America and Mexico, Bagheera kiplingi is only 5-6mm long and spends most of its time on the old leaves of acacia trees, waiting for their opportunity to snatch their favorite meal – the Beltian bodies that grow on the very tips of young acacia leaves. There is only one problem, in order to gorge on their meal of choice, these tiny jumping spiders need to go through a gauntlet of aggressive ants that also feed on Beltian bodies, quickly clip it off with their fangs, and then run away to a safe place to feast on it. Rich in lipids and proteins, Beltian bodies are very nutritious for insects, but extremely unusual for arachnids,  the vast majority of which are carnivorous.

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Pet vending machines have been sparking heated online debates in China for months, but this controversial “unmanned economy” model seems to have an even darker side than meets the eye.

We first featured China’s live pet vending machines back in May of this year when they were spotted in busy cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Back then, people were furious about having cats displayed in transparent containers barely large enough for them to turn around in, but according to recent reports by several Chinese news outlets, this business model has an even darker side. It’s hard to resist an adorable kitten meowing at you from inside one of these vending machines like it’s begging you to take it home, but it’s even harder when doing so costs nothing. That’s right, the cats in these ‘adoption boxes’ are free, even specimens of coveted breeds that would otherwise cost a few hundred dollars. But there’s a catch!

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China’s Guangzhou Zoo Has come under fire after videos of a shockingly thin crocodile housed there went viral online.

Photos and videos of a crocodile so skinny that you can literally see its spine and count its ribs have been doing the rounds on Chinese social media and sparking a heated debate around the treatment of animals. Reportedly located at Guangzhou Zoo, the reptile looks more like a fossil than a living animal, but one clip shows it moving slowly in its enclosure. The person who shot the video and posted it online expressed concern for the crocodile and many have accused the zoo of animal cruelty for either starving it or just ignoring its condition.

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A middle-aged Russian man suffering from diabetes and poor blood clotting tragically lost his life after being scratched on the leg by his pet cat.

On November 22, Dmitry Ukhin, a 55-year-old man from the Kirishi district, in Russia’s Leningrad region, went looking for his pet cat Styopka around the neighborhood. The feline had an independent streak and liked nothing more than to walk around the neighborhood freely. Eyewitnesses later told police that Ukhin found his beloved pet and took it home with him, but couldn’t really explain why or how the cat scratched his leg so badly that he bled to death in a matter of minutes.

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A fluffy Pomeranian is lucky to be alive after miraculously serving a fall from the 12th floor of an apartment building in Cali, Colombia, onto the roof of an adjacent three-storey building.

On November 19, a Colombian family experienced moments of terror after realizing that their pet Pomeranian was nowhere to be found in their 12th-floor apartment in the city of Cali. They looked everywhere for him, and when it became clear that he was not in the house, they decided to check the windows, and that’s when they spotted a small hole in the roof of an adjacent building, three floors below. Using a pair of binoculars, the desperate dog’s owners could spot their beloved Paris through the small hole. The floor that Paris had been spotted on was locked, so his owners immediately called the local fire department to have the pooch rescued. Miraculously, he was found alive and well, with not so much as a scratch on him.

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The owners Ricco, a Bantam rooster from Bourgoin-Jallieu in France’s Isère department, are scheduled to show up in Court following a neighbor’s complaint regarding the bird’s loud crowing.

“Difficulty concentrating, sleep deprivation, hearing fatigue,” these are just some of the symptoms cited by the plaintiff who summoned Ricco’s owners to Court in January of next year. The person, who prefers to remain anonymous, is one of the owners’ neighbors and they claim that the rooster’s crowing is unbearable both at night and during the day. However, the owners of the 5-year-old bird have always disputed these claims, insisting that the door to Ricco’s chicken coup is operated by an automated system programmed to open the door only at 8:30 am during the winter and at 9:00 am in summer. They insist that the rooster crows about fifteen times in a quarter of an hour in the morning, and then a few more times during the day.

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A man flying a paramotor over the Giza Pyramid Complex on the outskirts of Cairo spotted a stray dog barking at birds from atop the 138.5-meter-tall Great Pyramid of Giza.

Marshall Mosher, a “pro adventure athlete” who travels around the world,  was flying his paramotor over the pyramids of Giza on October 14 when he came across a very peculiar sight – a lone canine chilling on top of the Great Pyramid, seemingly barking at the birds flying overhead. Not exactly the kind of thing you expect to see while flying over one of the Seven Wonders of the World, so it’s no wonder that the clip he posted on his Instagram went viral almost instantly. Some users of the popular social network joked that the pooch must have been the Egyptian God Anubis, while others were worried about its well-being.

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A Washington state woman ended up calling emergency services after having her property invaded by around 100 raccoons acting aggressively and expecting to be fed.

Police in Poulsbo, a small town in Washington State, get calls about animal-related incidents all the time, but last week was the first time a local phoned 911 to report dozens of aggressive raccoons converging on her property and preventing her from entering her own home. The woman, whose name has not been revealed, had been feeding a family of raccoons for about 35 years, but about six weeks ago, their number started growing until it surpassed 100 hungry rodents all waiting to be fed. The animals started becoming aggressive if they didn’t receive food, and things got so bad that the woman couldn’t leave her house or move around her property freely.

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A popular mountain scenic spot in China’s Sichuan Province allegedly allows visitors to chase after wild boars and even take them home for free if they can catch them with their bare hands.

Wild boars are some of the strongest and most dangerous animals one can find in the wild. They can weigh up to 300 kg (660 pounds), reach speeds of up to 70 km/h (43 mph) and can tear through almost anything with their sharp tusks. Boars are particularly vicious when cornered, so a tourist attraction where you can pay to risk your life trying to catch these animals using only your bare hands sounds nothing short of insane. However, it turns out that the Jiuhuang Mountain Scenic Area in Sichuan, China has been letting people chase after boars and keeping whatever they catch for at least a decade.

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