Animals have interesting ways of interacting with the world. Because most creatures haven’t mastered the art of speaking (in the popular sense of the word), most have developed complex systems of body language that they use to communicate with the animals around them.
But this bizarre tiki dancing? This isn’t a form I’ve seen yet.
In an amusing video uploaded to the National Park Service (NPS) social media pages, we get to see what looks like a rare tiki dance performed by some bizarre, nocturnal creature.
The video was uploaded to the NPS Facebook and Instagram pages roughly two weeks ago. It was captured by a wildlife camera installed at Saguaro National Park, Arizona. Alongside the video, NPS wrote:
“Dance like no one is watching… except the wildlife camera.”
In the short video, you see what appears to be a figure ambling back and forth in a robotic, jerky way.
As it wobbles back and forth, its “arms” are locked and extended horizontally at its sides. A huge poof of soft-looking, white hair bounces as it takes its bizarre steps.
While, at first glance, this creature may appear to be something out of a Hawaiian horror film gone wrong, it’s actually a common animal engaging in an amusing display of body language.
What you see captured by the cameras is a spotted skunk doing a handstand. NPS explains:
“Spotted skunks will sometimes go into a handstand and move around in an attempt to intimidate any would-be aggressors… like this camera at Saguaro National Park.”
If you take a few minutes and reorient the image, you’ll see the little guy’s head between his arms on the bottom of the picture. The rest of his body his held upright. What looked like arms are actually the skunk’s back legs. What looked like hair is really its splayed, fluffy tail.
Yup! This bizarre, little dancer is really an adorable little skunk!
The spotted skunk is a species of skunk with a recognizable black-and-white, spotted pattern. According to Bio Expedition, spotted skunks have a very short lifespan, only living until one or two years of age. In the safety of captivity, however, they can sometimes triple that length to six years.
When the spotted skunk sees an aggressor, it will often flip into a handstand and perform its tiki dance to try and scare it away.
The position makes the skunk look bigger and scarier to any predator that may be approaching.
Unfortunately, most humans find the dance more adorable than threatening!
People are amazed by the spotted skunk’s little optical illusion! Comments on the video read:
“I thought this was a costumed dancer at first”
“this bends my mind”
“thought this was some kind of fancy turtle for quite a while.”
“woah! Amazing! I didn’t know this but it’s pretty cool to see”
See it for yourself below!
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