Recent Videos

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  Great White Shark Pup off the Northern Aegean Coast of Turkey

  April 23, 2013 / Video

  Be prepared to hear a fascinating piece of natural history about the Mediterranean great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). Story is fascinating for multiple reasons. First, great whites are one of the most charismatic, vulnerable, cryptic and misunderstood predator fish species. Second, the story takes place in a quite unexpected location. Altınoluk is a town on the northern Aegean coast of Turkey. It is located to the south of Troy on a legendary sea route known as the Argonaut route where [...]

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  Plants are Cool Too! (All Episodes)

  April 15, 2013 / Video

  In the first episode of the “Plants Are Cool Too!” series covering “The Pale Pitcher Plant” hosted by Dr. Chris Martine. Featuring Dr. Maggie Koopman our botanists explore the habitat, life cycle, morphology and ecosystem of Sarracenia alata, a species of carnivorous pitcher plant. The series is supported by the Botanical Society of America (BSA). The second episode of the series was filmed in Idaho in August 2012. It covers exquisitely preserved fossil remains of a long-vanished forest from 20 [...]

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  Sponge Bob or Sponge “Poop”

  April 14, 2013 / Video

  It is ironic that biologically diverse habitats are usually rather poor in nutrients. Coral reefs are one of them. Crystal clear waters of the tropical seas is a “clear” indication of nutrient poor environment. Because nutrients in the water column are scarce microscopic plants and animals (planktons) that form the basis of food webs cannot maintain high numbers and the water column remains clear. Dissolved organic carbon is a nutrient that is inedible for most organisms living in a reef. [...]

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  A Cannibal Caterpillar?

  April 11, 2013 / Short Observations, Video

  On September 22 2012, I encountered this caterpillar eating another fuzzy insect part along the White Trail of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, GA. While the munching was going on, a familiar bully of the bushes the ground beetle (Calleida punctata) came in. The beetle harassed and eventually forced the caterpillar away from the leaf. I desperately needed help in explaining the sequence of events happening in this video. Why was the ground beetle so interested in [...]

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  Cornell University Heron Nest Camera (Live)

  April 10, 2013 / Video, webcams

  Nobody knows if it is the same female from last year’s breeding season but a female great blue heron (Ardea herodias) arrived to join the male heron on the evening of April 8th. Sexes are very similar to each other but here the male can be easily identified because he is missing his right hallux (the rear facing toe on his right foot). The two have been incubating 5 eggs which are expected to hatch around May 13th. Nest is [...]

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  Empire of the Desert Ants – BBC (2011)

  April 3, 2013 / Video

  BBC Wildlife Division’s Natural World series tells the natural history of the honeypot ant (Myrmecocystus mimicus) in the Arizona desert. This is the first footage to show honeypot ant queens co-operating in the wild. Filmmakers spent 150 days in the deserts of Arizona, US to capture the behavior of the ants. Filming the foundation of a new colony was a considerable challenge because the insects rarely ventured above ground. The team’s chance came following a mating swarm that happens only [...]

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  Nanook of the North – Robert Flaherty (1922)

  March 20, 2013 / Human Ecology, Video

  In the days long before the term “documentary” had even been coined this full feature movie did it all. The filmmaker Robert Flaherty (1884-1951) had an early exposure to people of the Arctic. Born in Michigan, he spent quite a bit of time traveling with his father in northern Canada. He developed an ethnographic eye and casually filmed many short sequences of the daily lives of Inuit people. He later decided to put all these clips together to create a [...]

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  American Eagle – PBS Nature (2008)

  March 6, 2013 / 2008 Documentaries, PBS Nature, Video

  This PBS Nature documentary outlines the life cycle and biology of the iconic Bald Eagle. The plot is centered around two breeding pairs in Iowa and Minnesota. Both nests were installed webcams and have attracted millions of viewers from all over the world. The nests are still active and pairs are now preparing for the breeding season. The nest in Iowa is next to Decorah Fish Management Station. As a top predator highly adapted for fish prey the location provided [...]

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  Bald Eagle Cam – Live from Minnesota

  March 6, 2013 / Video, webcams

  Stream videos at Ustream A pair of iconic Bald Eagles is preparing to raise their chicks in Central Minnesota for the 2013 breeding season. They are moving twigs around and laying fresh material on the snow covered nest. They also bring prey and consume on the nest. On 9th of March Mom got into labor at 3:53pm and laid her first egg. From now on parents will take turns to incubate and hunt: Nature Documentaries has been following a number [...]

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  Revealing the Origins of Life – PBS (2011)

  March 6, 2013 / Nova Documentaries, Video

  How life began is a very fundamental question. This short documentary is an outstanding primer for scientific explanation of the origin of life. Featuring Nobel prize winner Jack Szostack of Harvard University and John Sutherland of University of Manchester, it explains the chemical evolution leading to the formation of RNA. Scientists all agree that formation of basic building blocks of life is suprisingly very easy. The burning question is how do they react to form complex molecules? RNA world hypothesis [...]

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  Hammer Eyed Fly (Richardia telescopica)

  March 6, 2013 / Short Observations, Video

  On September 9th 2001, I encountered this hammer-eyed fly (Richardia telescopica) on STR trail (~600m mark) at La Selva Biological Field Station in Costa Rica. I was rushing on my bicycle to my field site one morning. I had to make an abrubt stop because my path was blocked by a tree fall which I believe was a Hampea appendiculata (Malvaceae). I noticed the fly on one of the branches of the downed tree. I rushed to get the camera [...]

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  Decorah Eagle Cam – Nesting Season 2013

  March 6, 2013 / Video, webcams

  Free live streaming by Ustream The nesting season of 2013 has begun for Decorah bald eagles. Established by the Raptor Resource Project in 2007 this breeding pair has been under intense observation Bald Eagles in Decorah, Iowa. The pair became famous after the PBS Nature Documentary “American Eagle” in 2008. At one point in 2012 the viewer numbers reached 250 million making the project the most heavily viewed webcam of all times. The total number of unique viewers is approaching [...]

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  Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air – PBS (2010)

  March 6, 2013 / 2010 Documentaries, PBS Nature, Video

  Hummingbirds. Today they are strictly found on American continent but there are hummingbird-like fossil specimens from Germany hinting that this group might have been more widespread in its evolutionary past. More than 8000 species of plants have evolved to get their pollination services from hummingbirds. With a heart beating at 600 beats per minute hummingbirds are champions of survival. The PBS documentary explores a rich repertoire of their natural history including evolution, diversity, flight dynamics, feeding preferences, metabolic economy, mating [...]

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  Phoebe Allens Cam – Nesting Hummingbird in California (Live)

  March 3, 2013 / Video, webcams

  Phoebe has successfully raised many babies since she became reproductively active in 17th December 2012. As of this week we don’t know whether she will lay a fourth clutch. The whole community is holding breath to see new eggs. Welcome to the busy and productive nest of the famous hummingbird known as Phoebe Allens from Orange County, southern California. Since 2007 this nesting location has created a web-frenzy of natural history lovers from all over the world and formed a [...]

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  Bald-face Hornet Worker Collecting Nest Material

  January 25, 2013 / Short Observations, Video

  A female bald-faced hornet worker (Dolichovespula maculata) was stripping the surface of a wooden fence post to collect nest building material. While stripping with mandibles the cellulosic material gets rolled up under her thorax. She strips a piece as long as her body and then climbs up again to strip another. Two consequtive strips must have been the optimal load size to carry into the nest. Leaf-cutter ants of the neotropics also use their bodies as yard sticks. The motivation [...]

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