The Dark Truth Behind Animals That Broke the Internet

In 2009, a slow loris lifting its arms to be tickled was watched more than nine million times. Nobody watching knew that the slow loris is a venomous primate, and that raising its arms is how it gets its bite ready. We opened seven of the internet's most famous animal videos and looked at what was going on outside the frame: the tickled loris and the pet trade that pulls their teeth out, the elephant that "paints a self-portrait", the hand-holding otters (the one video that's innocent), Japan's otter cafés and a DNA test that traced their otters to poaching hotspots, the Amazon sloth selfie, the Tiger Temple raid, and the "rescue" videos where somebody put the animal in danger first. Sources: Nekaris et al., PLoS ONE 2013, "Tickled to Death" (slow loris video comments); Desmond Morris on elephant painting (2009); Vancouver Aquarium on Nyac and Milo; CITES CoP18, Geneva 2019 (otter Appendix I listing); Fujihara et al., Conservation Science and Practice 2025 (otter café DNA); World Animal Protection 2017 (wildlife selfies, Manaus); Care for the Wild International 2008 and Thai Department of National Parks 2016 (Tiger Temple); Big Cat Public Safety Act 2022; Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition, "Spot the Scam: Unmasking Fake Animal Rescues" (2024). Chapters: 0:00 Seven viral videos 1:38 Case 1 · The tickle 4:24 Case 2 · The painter 6:50 Interlude · The innocent one 8:31 Case 3 · The otter café 11:21 Case 4 · The selfie 13:27 Case 5 · The temple 16:33 Case 6 · The rescue 18:49 Who's guilty? #animals #wildlife #internet