Meet the Ocean's Wildest Animals! 🌊 | Super Animals Full Episode | 20 Minutes | Nat Geo Kids

Planet Earth is full of some incredible creatures and you have no idea what they're capable of. Because the truth is, there are lots of animals with superpowers. From oceans, to lakes, to rivers, swamps and ponds, water covers more than 70% of our planet. And lurking in these wet environments is a wide range of curious and captivating creatures. Each with its own unique superpower. Say hello to the American alligator. Alligators are enormous animals, ranking among the largest reptiles on the planet. They look like a dinosaur. They get between 12 and 15 feet in length and they can be upwards of about a thousand pounds. That's the weight of a concert grand piano. These mega reptiles live in the southeastern United States, ranging all the way from the coast of North Carolina to central Texas. You can usually find them hanging out in slow-moving water. Alligators are specifically designed to live in the water. They're really clumsy on land, but you put them in the water, they're like Olympic swimmers. Alligators' excellent swimming skills have a lot to do with their tail. The tail of an alligator is extremely powerful. It's pure muscle and can propel them through the water kind of like a boat. In fact, they can reach top speeds of up to 20 miles an hour. They're impressive. As remarkable as their swimming skills are, alligators' real superpower comes out when they're staying much more still. Alligators are ambush predators, so they will lie and wait for prey to swim or walk by. Their eyes, ears, and nostrils are positioned on top of their head, which allows them to be submerged in the water while still being able to see, hear, and even breathe. When an unsuspecting animal comes too close, the alligator will strike with incredible speed. I mean, one minute they can be so still and so quiet, and then all of a sudden, just wham, it's an explosion in the water. While that incredible speed may help to surprise their prey, it's the alligator's colossal bite that really seals the deal. The alligator's superpower is its incredible bite force. It's one of the strongest of any animal on earth. They give about 3,000 pounds of pressure per square inch per bite. For comparison, a lion only gives about 1,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. That means the alligator is three times as strong as a lion. Now that is an impressive superpower. As you've probably noticed, there's something else that makes an alligator's bite so effective. Their mouth contains about 80 razor-sharp teeth, and they are constantly replacing them. As their teeth wear down or fall out, new ones grow in and take their place. So as a result, an alligator can go through as many as 3,000 teeth in their entire lifetime. To think about that as a human, we only have two sets in our entire life, our baby teeth and then our adult teeth. If I had the teeth of an alligator, I would be much more carefree about how much candy I get to eat. There's just one more thing to say about an alligator's mouth, and this fact might surprise you. Even though their mouths look huge and scary, they can be quite gentle with them when they need to be. Mother alligators will actually sometimes carry their babies around in their mouth. I love that an apex predator can also be so gentle. It is kind of cute in a weirdly toothy, still sort of terrifying way. Our next animal can be pretty hard to spot, which is its superpower. Stonefish. You can guess how they got their name. Stonefish got their name because they look like a stone. Their whole goal is to look like one of the rocks they're living amongst, and they do a really, really good job of that. They have different textures and colors on their skin, and they'll even grow algae in order to blend in even more. Stonefish, along with their close relative scorpionfish, are bottom-dwelling creatures that live in coastal waters in the They're not great swimmers, so sometimes they use their fins to kind of walk along the seafloor. They also have a distinctive face. They have this really fun, upturned mouth. They kind of almost look like they're frowning. Stonefish aren't actually grumpy, though. Instead, they use that big, frowny mouth to be skillful predators. Stonefish are excellent ambush predators. Its superpower is its extreme camouflage. If you're a smaller fish and you're swimming by a stonefish, you're just going to think it's another rock. You're not going to think it's anything that could potentially eat you and swallow you whole without chewing, like a stonefish does. Wait, what? Let's back that up a second. First of all, when a stonefish strikes, it does it super fast. Like, one 100th of a second. It's faster than the blink of an eye. Literally. It's also not actually grabbing its prey. What they do is they will pull in all of the water around the fish and suck it into its mouth to swallow it whole. I'm impressed. Here's something else that's impressive. Stonefish can survive out of water for up to 24 hours. As long as their body stays wet, they can actually absorb oxygen through their skin. It's unheard of for fish to be able to survive out of water even for a few minutes, let alone 24 hours. That's wild. There's one more thing you should probably know about stonefish and their relatives. They are one of, if not the most venomous fish in the ocean. They're equipped with spines on their dorsal fin that all have little venom sacs at the bottom. The venom is simply a defense mechanism. So if you were to step on one of these with your bare feet, those spines would deliver this venom that would cause extreme pain and sometimes death. So yeah, if you're ever in the coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific, make sure you don't step on one of these guys. This creature can be found in waters around the world and its superpower is, well, electrifying. Stingrays, like all sea rays, have a unique appearance. They look kind of like a pancake, but as a fish. We like to call them flat sharks because they're closely related to sharks. Even though they look nothing alike, rays and sharks are both what's known as cartilaginous fish. Instead of having bones, their skeletons are made entirely of tough, bendable cartilage. Cartilage is the same flexible material that makes up our nose and our ears. There are more than 600 species of sea rays found around the world. Some have colorful patterns. Some like to hang out on the ocean floor. And some, like the giant oceanic manta ray, can get enormous. These guys can actually grow up to 29 feet across and weigh more than 5,000 pounds. To move through the water, rays flex their bodies and flap their wide, flat fins. Think of a fish that has those pectoral fins onto the side. A stingray has modified pectoral fins. They'll go around their whole body and they're very strong. They kind of almost flap like a bird underwater. It's almost like they're flying. It's effortless. What sets stingrays apart from other sea rays is a sharp barb on their tail. The barb is basically a modified scale. But it is serrated, so there's hundreds of points on it. And at the base of that barb, there's a venom sac. That allows the stingray to defend itself, and it's a very painful sting. That's why when you're at the beach, you want to do what's called a stingray shuffle. Stingrays spend a lot of time on the seafloor buried in the sand, which makes them pretty hard to spot. If they get stepped on, their first reaction is going to be whip that tail up and sting you with their barb. But if you shuffle your feet along the seafloor, then that stingray is going to get the hint and get out of there. Good to know. The reason why stingrays spend so much time on the seafloor is because they're searching for food. A stingray's mouth is located on the ventral side or the underside of the body, and that allows them to get prey that they like, including crabs and snails and other mollusks. But when you flip a stingray over and you actually see the mouth, it looks like they're smiling, which is really funny. They're such a happy little fish. Silly as it may appear, the underside of a stingray is where its superpower comes from. See all those tiny little pores? They're called ampullae of Lorenzini, and they give the stingray an incredible ability. They use this ampullae of Lorenzini to detect electrical currents in the water. You see, all living creatures emit tiny amounts of electricity. Every muscle movement or tiny twitch creates a faint electric charge. Stingrays' specialized sensory pores allow them to actually feel this energy. The stingray's superpower is their ability to use electroreception. It helps them to find prey, to navigate, and also to stay away from predators. That, to me, is really interesting because it allows them to see the world in a totally different way than we do. It's amazing. This animal is definitely more at home in the water than out of it. But its large, awkward appearance is all part of its superpower. Walruses can reach up to 4,000 pounds and up to 12 feet long. They are large and interesting-looking mammals. Walruses have massive tusks, fat bodies, and a lot of blubber. So you see them kind of like jiggling around on land. They have an almost like jello appearance. Walruses have all this blubber for a good reason. They live in the freezing cold Arctic, one of the harshest climates on Earth. In the places they inhabit, the temperature can plummet to around 40 degrees below zero. A walrus's layer of blubber can get to be about four inches thick. It's like wearing four thick down coats. That keeps them nice and warm. Walruses' big, heavy bodies make them pretty awkward on land. But once they get into the water, it's a totally different story. Walruses spend most of their time in water. In fact, two-thirds of their lives are spent in the ocean. They're able to move through the water so effortlessly. Walruses usually cruise at a comfortable speed of about four miles per hour, but can shockingly reach speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. They are actually incredibly agile and graceful when they're in the water. Walruses are what's known as pinnipeds, which are flipper-footed marine mammals. Aside from walruses, this group also includes seals and sea lions. But walruses are the only ones with a defining facial feature. Walruses are known for their tusks. Both males and females have these giant, enormous canines that protrude out of their mouths. And believe it or not, those tusks never stop growing. Walruses use their tusks for a few different things, like displaying dominance or breaking ice for breathing holes while swimming, which is pretty important because walruses spend a lot of time underwater. Walruses can stay underwater for up to 30 minutes, which is really helpful because walruses forage for food and they love stuff that's at the bottom of the seafloor. They'll eat shellfish, they'll eat crustaceans, mollusks, and even some small fish. Once they find food, they use their lips to slurp it up off the seafloor, almost like a vacuum. It's an effective way for them to get food. When you see a walrus, you can tell that they're really proficient eaters. They don't miss a meal. Between the blubber, the tusks, and the surprisingly skillful swimming, walruses have certainly found a way to conquer the cold. A walrus's superpower is definitely their ability to survive in cold temperatures. It is such a unique animal. There's not many animals that are able to survive in the climate that the walruses do. Our last animal is known for its love of the water and its iconic pouch. Pelicans. There are eight different species. All can be found living around coastal waters, lakes, and rivers. And all share an iconic feature. A pelican has a very distinctive large pouch under their beak. My reaction to seeing a pelican, it's so strange and it's so beautiful at the same time. Pelicans feed on a variety of small critters. However, their favorite food is one that's swimming around in the water. Pelicans love fish. They're all fishers. And the pelican superpower is that pouch. I mean, it's a built-in fishing net. What could be better than that if you're fishing? Different species of pelicans use their pouches in different ways. Some, like the American white pelican, scoop up fish in shallow water. Others, like the brown pelican and Peruvian pelican, take a more dramatic approach. When these pelicans are hunting, they will soar above the water until they spot a fish. But then they have this amazing ability to dive bomb right into the surface of the water. That's crazy. Brown pelicans will dive head first into the water from up to 60 feet above sea level. That's like diving off a six-story building. To protect themselves from breaking bones, they are built to almost become like a torpedo. They tuck their wings really far back so that they don't fracture their wings when they're hitting the water. They also have a network of special air sacs under their skin. These work kind of like a protective layer of bubble wrap. And then that large beak breaks the surface tension of the water, allowing them to dive in there without any negative repercussions. It's amazing to watch. Just so you know, they're not actually catching the fish when they dive in. Instead, smashing into the water stuns the fish, giving the pelican a chance to scoop it up with its pouch. Once they catch the fish, the pelican will actually kind of push the pouch down against their chest, and that allows the pelican to swallow their food, but also expel any of that extra seawater that they wouldn't want to swallow. This is a vital step because a pelican's pouch can hold up to three gallons of water. That is two to three times larger than the capacity of a pelican's stomach. So it literally cannot swallow that water. Again, nature has figured out everything. It's just incredible. That's it for this episode of Super Animals. Join us again to find out more about Mother Nature's most remarkable and amazing creatures.