Some cool animal behavior images:
Hunger, safety and recreation
Image by Pandiyan
Here is a salt water crocodile, one of the most aggressive, powerful and dangerous of all animals, relaxing contentedly while an egret and a pond heron go about their business with little care in the world.
There is a lot of debate on whether man is the only one who kills not only for food and not only on defence. Usually killing and cruelty happens for food or defence and also play. Generally they say animals attack only in self-defence (threat perception) and for food. But I have seen documentaries where animals do certain 'cruel' things in play. Say, orcas tossing around, playing volleyball with seals, or cats traumatising mice etc.
While I am not an expert on animal behaviour, I watch these crocodiles with a lot of curiousity. The crocodiles here are well fed and on schedule. And they do indulge in harsh fighting for mating rights, territory definition etc.
And I have not seen these crocs attack birds as yet. I am sure they are agile enough to lunge at and catch a bird couple of feet away but they show their aggression only against humans or other croc challengers which is due to threat perception. Or is it only higher order animals such as mammals which indulge in play? I am not too sure.
It is not a symbiotic relationship either like that of a nile crocodile and plovers. Nile crocs let plovers get inside their mouth and clean out the scraps. Of course, I am yet to see these birds closer than two feet near a croc.
Let me keep watching.
Cirrus, Aplaca
Image by cliff1066™
Not all alpacas spit, but all are capable of doing so. "Spit" is somewhat euphemistic; occasionally the projectile contains only air and a little saliva but alpacas commonly bring up acidic stomach contents (generally a green grassy mix) and project it onto their chosen target. Spitting is mostly reserved for other alpacas, but an alpaca will occasionally spit at humans that, for example, take away food.
Some alpacas will spit when looked at, others will never spit—their personalities are very individualized and there is no hard and fast rule in terms of social behavior, although there is often a group leader, and a group trailer/runt that is picked on by others.
