Popular Science·United States·Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 07:00 PM UTC

8 fierce animals show just how metal nature is

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Popular Science Team

Nature. It’s beautiful. It’s awe-inspiring. And it’s really scary. The new book Nature is Metal: It’s A Life-Eats-Life World features full-color photographs and vivid descriptions of the physical features, survival adaptations, and hunting skills innate to 75 of nature’s most metal plants, animals, and natural phenomena.

Browse through some of these raw and real images in the gallery below. (Click to expand images to full screen.)

an eagle eating a very picked apart bison carcass in the snow — A golden eagle (*Aquila chrysaetos*) eating the remains of a bison. They are hypercarnivores whose diets are at least 70 percent meat. *Image: Natasha Mace.*

a small white weasel eating a meal covered with blood — Stoats (*Mustela erminea*) may look pretty cute, but these short-tailed weasels are known for opportunistic and frenzied killing. Image: *Grayson Smith/UWSFWS.*

a giant otter eating an eel — A giant otter (*Pteronura brasiliensis*) holds a swamp eel in its powerful grip. *Image: Parks Marilla.*

a polar bear growls with blood all over its mouth and a carcass at its feet — Polar bears (*Ursus maritimus*) have been known to eat cubs when food is extremely scarce. *Image: Jacob Zoller* Jake Zoller

a large heron with a snake around its beak — A great blue heron (*Ardea herodias*) eating a banded water snake. *Image: Marcos Rodriguez.*

an owl with bright red eyes in a tree — Stygian owls (*Asio stygius*) are found across Latin America and the Caribbean and called *coruja-diabo* or “devil’s owl” in Brazil. *Image: Eigi Iwasaki.*

a hawk eating a rodent — Red-tailed hawks (*Buteo jamaicensis*) help keep small rodent populations in check. Image: *Alexander Collyer.*

Excerpted from Nature Is Metal: It’s a Life-Eats-Life World by Ettore R. Paolucci and Hans Aschim. Copyright © 2026. Available from Workman, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. wherever books are sold on October 13.

About the Author

Ettore R. Paolucci (Rick) is the founder of Nature Is Metal, the viral phenomenon with 7.5M subscribers on Instagram (@natureismetal) and 1.23M on YouTube (@natureism3tal). A self-taught storyteller with a sharp eye for viral content, he’s created his own unique voice that’s defined a new way of seeing nature online.

Hans Aschim is a writer and creative director based in Vancouver, BC. When he’s not at his desk, he’s trail running in the Coast Mountains—always with bear spray.

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