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Our are filled with digital depictions of mythical, fictional, and imaginary beasts. But every once in a while, we cover a piece of media featuring a real animal that is so strange looking that viewers have a hard time comprehending that it is truly of this world. Case in point: the shoebill stork. On 1 May 2018, the Twitter account Nature is Amazing posted a video of a large African bird: As the video went viral, many people chimed in with varying degrees of disbelief: The shoebill stork is also known as the whalehead stork, but viewers who think this bird has a distinctly prehistoric appearance will probably prefer its scientific title: Balaeniceps rex. According to the Audubon Society, the shoebill stork is a largely silent bird, but will occasionally engage in bill-clattering, as shown in the video above, to greet other animals. It also offers up a few alternative names: Shoebills are large birds that can grow to nearly five feet (1.52 meters) tall. They primarily live in tropical locations in central Africa, such as Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia. The bird, which is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, subsists on a diet of lungfish, eel, lizards, snakes and even baby crocodiles:
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