The XO Directory

This one is scarier than paddling from Australia to New Zealand. And you might think that this picture is photoshopped, it's not. This amazing picture of a shark staking a man on a 3.8-meter sea kayak is a real photograph. It was taken by Thomas P. Peschak in south-western South Africa. This picture of an article about great white sharks posted at White Shark Trust’s website.

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The secret romance between a donkey and a zebra has finally resulted to a Zedonk, a Zebra/Donkey hybrid. The unique-looking female zedonk was born at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Georgia, USA. It has stripes in her legs and face, which she inherited from her fathers and a narrow head of a donkey which she got from her mother - a perfect hybrid.

Aside from the stripes, she also inherited the wild instincts her father. Usually, a foal will lay over on its side, sunning itself. But she sits up at all time - like she's on alert looking out for predators.

Officials at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve, where the cute little crossbred was born, are as surprised as anyone by the very rare coupling. It turns out, the zebra/donkey romance has been many years in the making, but somehow the duo managed to keep it a secret. "The animals have been running (in the fields) together for more than 40 years, but this is the first time that this has happened here," says the preserve's founder. "We never suspected that they (had mated), so it was quite a surprise when the zedonk was born."

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No bearjacking today and hikers can let their guards down - it's bear day-off.

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Man's best friends will surely rejoice with this news. The world’s very first ice cream truck for dogs rolled out in London. The ice-cream van will serve canine-friendly flavors such as "Dog Eat Hog World" — a chicken and gammon sorbet. This vehicle was created to celebrate the Boomerang Pets Party.

And also, though their ice cream flavor tastes different than what we're used to, they are safe for human consumption.

"The weather has been so hot, we thought dogs deserved a cooling treat as much as anyone else," said Sally Bezant of event organizer Boomerang Pets Party. She said a team of pet nutritionists had been through a complicated scientific process to determine the tastiest and safest flavors for the dogs' dessert. And although the unusual flavors were tested on a panel of dogs, they can be eaten by humans.

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Madhuri, an Indian elephant, certainly knows how to pass time. When she gets bored her favorite "playmate" is an unlucky lizard. The park where she lives has a good population of lizards and she is known to be an expert in catching these reptiles. She would caught the lizard alive and carried it all the time for few days, tossing it up and even dropping it.

These extraordinary shots were taken by Jagdeep Rajput, 49, from Delhi. He said: ‘She’s known to be quite aggressive so when I did eventually find her I approached carefully.

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You may have seen wild kangaroos but you may haven't seen this one - a Kangaroo boxer.

Move over snakes, your not the only reptile the has white skin as it turned out. Presenting the Albino Alligator. Sure this one can swallow more the three golf balls.

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Despite it's size, the Irukandji jellyfish is believed to be the most venomous creature in the world. What's more disturbing is that this tiny and extremely venomous jellyfish are found the world over. So far, there are two known species of Irukandji, the Carukia barnesi and the recently discovered Malo kingi. It's size is roughly no larger than a centimeter cubed body and four tentacles which range from a few to 35 cm in length

The venom of Irukandji jellyfish results to Irukandji syndrome. This syndrome was first documented by Hugo Flecker in 1952. The symptoms includes severe pains at various parts of the body (typically excruciating muscle cramps in the arms and legs, severe pain in the back and kidneys, a burning sensation of the skin and face), headaches, nausea, restlessness, sweating, vomiting, high heart rate and blood pressure, and psychological phenomena (such as the feeling of impending death). Once a victim is stung, it will take an average of 30 minutes before the Irukandji syndrome sets in.

Here's a documentary of the Irukandji jellyfish.

Have you ever wonder how sharp is the Piranha teeth and whether it can tear flesh of human or animal? Well, watch this Piranha bite test. You can see how it easily breaks a stick in two.



Not convinced? Then try what this man did.

This dog may have been watching the National Geographic channel a lot where he picked up his skills to catch fish like wild bears do.

Check out this amazing butterfly wing patterns that make butterflies stand out from it's surroundings. Nature really has it's ways of showing off it's beauty.

Zebra Winged butterfly
Swallowtail butterfly
Peacock Pansy butterfly
Callicore Neglecta butterfly
Blue Morpho butterfly
Australian Birdwing butterfly
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This is an amazing footage of a bear attacking a woman and host in a TV show. If not for the bear's mouth guard and the trainer, it would have been worst.

Who says a pet dog is vulnerable when it's away from it's home. Well, this one not the case. Sophie, a pet dog survived in island eating baby goats for four months. While her owners was, Dave and Jan Griffith, was on a sailing trip off the coast of Australia, Sophie fell into the water and was never found. Four months later, she was discovered in an island four miles from where she fell and was reunited with her owners.

Sophie’s mind-boggling survival story, chronicled on TODAY Tuesday, began as Jan and husband Dave took their pet along for a sailing trip off the coast of Australia last November. When the sea grew rough, Sophie dropped into the water.

“We searched well over an hour,” Jan Griffith told the Brisbane Times. “We thought once she hit the water she would have been gone because the wake from the boat was so big.”

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Snailfish is the world's deepest living fish. In this video, scientists were able to film several snailfish nearly five miles below the surface of Japan Trench in the Pacific ocean. This is the first time snailfishes are filmed at this depth.

This video was taken by the a UK-Japan team using a remote-operated landers designed to withstand immense pressures to comb the world's deepest depths for marine life.

Hippopotamus is considered as Africa's deadliest animal. This seemingly gentle giant of the river has killed more humans than all of Africa's most dangerous mammals combined. Hippopotamuses are very violent-tempered animals specially when there are calves around. Crocodiles are no match to this river giant.

Hippos are very aggressive towards humans and are often considered one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. It is claimed that they kill more people than any other animal except mosquitos.

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Marsupial mammals like Kangaroo carry their young through early infancy in their distinctive pouch (called the marsupium). Babies are born blind, underdeveloped and very delicate and immediately after being born, they need to climb to their mothers pouch or they will die. This video shows the babies extraordinary journey of a new-born Kangaroo from it's mother's birth canal to it's pouch.

With body length ranging from 14-to-16-centimeters, the Pygmy Marmoset is the world's smallest monkey. This tiniest of all monkeys is a native of the rainforest canopies of western Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, and eastern Peru. The males of the specie weigh around 140 grams, and females only 120 grams.

The Pygmy Marmoset has a tawny coat, and a ringed tail that can be as long as its body. In common with other Callitrichinids, it has claws instead of nails on all its digits except the big toe. They are omnivorous, feeding on fruit, leaves, insects, and sometimes even small reptiles. Their small weight allows them to reach the very highest leaves of a tree, and to exploit the otherwise little- used food sources there.

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If you think cows are pure vegetarians and eat only grass, this video proves otherwise. It shows a cows eating a chick.



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Hercules, is the world's biggest dog ever according to Guinness World Records, weighing 282 pounds with a 38 inch neck. In this picture, this massive pet is almost as big as his owner's horse. This makes the daily task of walking the dog like walking the donkey.

The name Hercules has always been synonymous with big. Earlier this year, we posted Hercules, the world's largest Lion-Tiger breed.

With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's standard 200lb. limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: "I fed him normal food and he just grew".... and grew. and grew. and grew.

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The Kitti's Hog-nosed bat is considered as the world's smallest mammal as of today. It's length is about 29–33 millimetres and weight approximately 2 grams. It is also know as the the bumblebee bat due to it's size. This bat specie is a native of western Thailand and southeast Burma. They live in limestone caves along the rivers.

Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat is the smallest species of bat and one of the world's smallest mammals. It has a reddish-brown or grey coat, with a distinctive pig-like snout. Colonies range greatly in size, with an average of 100 individuals per cave. The bat feeds during short activity periods in the evening and dawn, foraging around nearby forest areas for insects. Females give birth annually to a single offspring.

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