15 Craziest Nature Photos and Videos Caught on Camera

If you consider yourself an outdoor enthusiast, than you know how absolutely vital the right camera is. Whether it’s a trail cam for deer season or something you slap to your forehead on your latest foray through the wilderness, cameras record memories that should never be forgotten. Here are 15 reasons why the camera on your smartphone just won’t cut it.

1. When you get knocked off your paddleboard by a spinner Shark, be glad that at least your GoPro stayed on.

2. This footage is of the last and only jaguar in the United States. It must be pretty lonely.

El Jefe, or “the boss” in Spanish, was first detected in the Santa Rita mountains in 2013. Biologists say the seven-year-old male is only one of perhaps five jaguars spotted in the US since the 1990s. The last verified jaguar, a cat known as Macho B, was euthanized in 2009.

3. This velvet buck may not understand what a trail cam is, but it certainly seems interested.

4. It’s probably safe to say that this is the first reported case of a pronghorn antelope knocking a drone out of the sky.

An amateur wildlife photographer was filming a pronghorn somewhere in Clarendon, Texas when the unexpected happened. The pronghorn was startled by the drone flying near by and it started to run away. After realizing the drone was still following it the animal stood its ground and the drone continued closer. Finally the drone was within striking distance and the pronghorn headbutted it out of the sky.

5. Action cameras are great for the range too!

Okay so we might be cheating a bit with this one, since it is not so much “nature” but “outdoors.” However, it is just so interesting that we had to include it.

In normal circumstances, shooting 20 rounds from a 1911 in less than 1.5 seconds—on target, no less—is absurd. Even when you throw in a second 1911, it’s still a tall order for speed shooter Jerry Miculek. He may be a wizard on the firing line, but there’s only so much he can do to challenge the laws of physics.

So in comes the double-barreled 1911 from Arsenal Firearms. Introduced roughly 100 years after the original, this “Second Century” 1911 from the Italian gun maker offers shooters twice the firepower and twice the fun. After all, who needs four arms when you can just make your guns shoot more bullets?

6. This is one cross-species conflict we don’t want to get in the middle of.

According to the owner of the trail cam, the eagle was the first to arrive but had to fight off the attentions of a coyote. Meanwhile, a raven sneaks in to enjoy the spoils.

7. A National Parks service trail cam captured this incredible footage in Arizona’s Saguaro National Park.

The spotted skunk in this video is most likely trying to intimidate a potential threat. Oftentimes when a skunk is threatened they will position themselves to spray a potential attacker. While this may be an effective intimidation strategy for skunks it’s certainly entertaining from a human perspective.

You never know what you are going to see at America’s #publiclands. Case in point: A spotted skunk doing a handstand at #Saguaro National Park in #Arizona. This strange interaction was captured by Saguaro’s wildlife camera in Happy Valley. Like the other three groups of skunks, spotted #skunks are capable of spraying a strong unpleasant scent as a form of defense. But before spraying, spotted skunks will sometimes go into a handstand and attempt to intimidate any would be aggressors like this skunk is doing with the #wildlife camera. Video by #NationalPark Service.

A video posted by U.S. Department of the Interior (@usinterior) on Nov 4, 2015 at 11:28am PST

8. They may not have antlers, but that doesn’t stop these deer from duking it out old school.

It’s rarely seen, but boxing matches are often used to settle grudges during the warmer months.

9. With a title like “lion whisperer,” animal behaviorist Kevin Richardson has seen his share of hair-raising adventures.

The latest of which appears to be the South African being stalked by two lions in the wilds of Africa. They quickly approach and leap onto the zoologist for…hugs?

10. Silly deer, that’s not how you do a selfie.

11. When a shark steals your fish.

Isaac Brumaghim is a former Hawaiian canoe racer and the founder of the kayak fishing club Aquahunters. Although already well known on the islands of Hawaii, Isaac exploded onto the world stage earlier in 2013 when a video of the kayak angler and a shark went viral. At the time he was fishing from his 16-foot kayak roughly two miles from Oahu, Hawaii. Isaac had just landed a nice-sized mackerel tuna when he had a close encounter with the shark he affectionately nicknamed “Chompy.”

“The kawakawa [tuna] jumps and the shark jumped after him, and misses him like a scene from The Matrix,” Isaac told OutdoorHub. “The shark was so aggressive I knew if I brought the tuna aboard it would swing right around and bite my kayak. The kawakawa is about 20 pounds and it’s trying to get loose. At that point I thought about my gaffing it but then I see the shark, out of my peripheral vision, coming right at me. Its hits the underside of my kayak and takes the kawakawa. That was it. I ended up just laughing because I looked at the camera and I knew I had it recorded.”

12. This trail camera footage taken in Pennsylvania’s Tuscarora State Park shows a black bear seemingly unafraid of the eight-foot-long trap set for it.

Instead, the bear almost intentionally rubs its back on another trail camera and then leisurely swipes a doughnut from the trap. Tuscarora State Forest officials shared the humorous video on its Facebook, titling it “No Respect.” The roguish bear even later returns and rolls around on the ground near the trap, no doubt mocking any attempts to capture it.

Bears in the park are trapped, tagged, and released on site for research purposes.

13. Wildlife photographer Chris Weston mined a river in Alaska’s Katmai Peninsula with cameras hoping to get a closer look at its denizens, but one bear decided it was time for a close up—and a snack.

Caters News Agency reported that an estimated 500-pound grizzly began chewing on one of Weston’s expensive GoPro cameras after it mistook it for something edible. It didn’t take long for the bear to realize the camera was anything but a tasty treat, but that didn’t stop it from tearing the camera off its flexible tripod. Luckily for the photographer, the camera survived with footage captured from inside the bear’s mouth.

14. Have you ever seen a ghost deer before? It may just be a glitch in your trail cam, but this ethereal photo is well worth saving.

15. A trail camera captured this strange scene of two deer running from something just out of sight. The less we say the better.

This article was produced in cooperation with Cabela’s.

Daniel Xu

I'm the knife nut that everybody is ashamed to know. My love of sharp things extends to all kinds of edged weapons, be they small, large or on a stick.