Every year, researchers and people out in nature capture some aspect of animal behavior that’s unusual or unexpected in some way, changing how we understand the natural world. Here are five such examples that Mongabay reported on in 2025: Massive fish aggregation seen climbing waterfalls in Brazil For the first time, scientists observed a “massive aggregation” of small bumblebee catfish (Rhyacoglanis paranensis) climbing up waterfalls in Brazil in November 2024. Rhyacoglanis species are considered rare and scientists don’t know much about their biology and behavior, making these observation especially valuable. Researchers say the fish were likely heading upstream to spawn. Wolf hauls up crab trap to eat bait In Canada, Indigenous Haíɫzaqv guardians and collaborating scientists set up a camera trap to see who was damaging traps they’d submerged to capture invasive European green crabs. The video showed a female wolf (Canis lupus) swimming with a trap’s rope in her mouth, pulling it to ground once ashore, then opening the trap and eating the herring bait inside. These actions suggest the wolf understood there was food inside a hidden, submerged container, researchers say. This offers a new understanding of wolf cognition, they add. Parasitic ants grab power by turning workers against their queen For the first time, researchers observed queens of two ant species — L. orientalis and L. umbratus — take over other ant colonies by tricking the worker ants into killing their own queen, then accepting the intruding queen as their new leader. The parasitic queen takes advantage…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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