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The Kingdom of the Lion Tailed Macaque – Poorna Kedar (2019)

December 18, 2020 at 11:37 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Lion Tailed Macaques is an endangered primate endemic to the Western Ghats of India with a restricted geographical range. Due to habitat loss and human pressures populations have been on the decline. The filmmaker Poorna Kedar has recorded these vulnerable primates at one of the critical habitats of this species near the town of Valparai. India’s Western Ghats is an ecologically unique biodiversity hotspot recognized by the United Nations as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The exceptionally high level of […]

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Decoding COVID-19 – Sara Holt | NOVA / PBS (2020)

August 17, 2020 at 8:46 pm / Nova Documentaries, PBS Nature, Video

Center for Disease Control (CDC) has been one of the most effective institutions in fight against emerging diseases. Yet, strikingly, the US has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elimination of the immensely important the Global Health Security and Biodefense unit — responsible for pandemic preparedness — established in 2015 is now deemed one of the biggest political mistakes of our time. Unfortunately political interference continued to render experts of this most cutting edge organization largely ineffective and left […]

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Human Bot Fly – Piotr Naskrecki (2015)

August 5, 2020 at 12:10 am / Human Nature, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Piotr Naskrecki achieved what many tropical biologists (including the author of this post) tried but failed multiple times: raising a tropical Human bot fly (Dermatobia hominis). This parasite is frequently covered by major TV channels since it is quite gruesome to the unititiated and most certainly attracts viewers. In my opinion this is the best bot fly documentary ever. In the video Dr. Naskrecki outlines the life cycle very well with the calmness of an entomologist without drama. You can […]

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A Window into the Twilight Zone – Jennifer L. Berglund / WHOI (2020)

August 2, 2020 at 12:51 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Video

The Ocean Twilight Zone is the largest habitat on Earth. It is a vast ecosystem that does not depend on sunlight directly. This is the place where organisms have evolved seemingly bizarre adaptations such as bioluminescence and reproduction modes such as the Angler Fish with a parasitic male. The clues for chemical origins for how life may have started could be there in thermal vents. The discovery of diel vertical migration of fish and zooplankton forming the deep sound scattering […]

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NOAA Hurricane Hunters – PBS NewsHour (2018)

July 31, 2020 at 10:11 pm / Global Patterns, PBS Nature, Video

Every hurricane season a fleet of “Hurricane Hunter” planes are deployed to “airtruth” the atmospheric conditions of storms long before they make a landfall. A pair of Lockheed P3 Orion turboprop planes nicknamed “Kermit and “Miss Piggy” are among them. Hurricane Hunter missions are crucial to verify and fine-tune satellite measurements. Hurricane Hunters fly directly into the hurricanes and traverse the eye of the storm several times in order to collect atmospheric data equipped with airborne Doppler weather radar. During […]

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Observations and Simulations of 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season by NASA

July 25, 2020 at 8:53 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Global Patterns, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

Atlantic hurricane season typically starts from June 1 and ends in November 30 in the northern Atlantic. There’s a noticeable peak from late August through September. Each season peak activity occurs around September 10th. The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season had an unusually high cyclone activity surpassing any other season. The number of category 5 hurricanes, and the most intense hurricane ever measured (Hurricane Wilma) by atmospheric pressure was recorded during this time period. The visualization ’27 Storms: Arlene to Zeta’ […]

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Life’s Rocky Start – PBS/NOVA (2016)

July 12, 2020 at 3:33 pm / Evolution, Global Patterns, Nova Documentaries, Video

Geology and biological evolution of life influence each other tightly. The title of the documentary “Life’s Rocky Start” reflects this relationship superbly. The six stage transformation of our planet from black, gray, blue, red, white to green is a wonderfully concise way of outlining the geological and biological evolution. More than half of the minerals now incorporated into the upper crust of our planet were produced by living organisms. The movement of continental plates has played a fundamental role in […]

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Baby Ground Squirrels Endemic to Anatolia – Hakan Gür (2020)

July 10, 2020 at 8:09 am / Natural history, Short Observations, Video

They indeed are Meerkat look-alikes. But no they are not Meerkats. Locally they are known as “Gelengi”. Scientifically, they are the Anatolian ground squirrels (Spermophilus xanthophrymnus). In this short observation you can see 5 juveniles that are reported to be approximately 5-6 weeks old hanging out in their nest entrance. A Turkish research team lead by Dr. Hakan Gür who studies their population dynamics recorded the observation on May 8th 2020 near Ankara. Female ground squirrels mate soon after they […]

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A Red Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

July 7, 2020 at 4:41 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

It appears like nothing too exciting is going on in this short observation but in reality there’s a lot happening inside that brain of this bird perfectly chilling with the self confidence of a top predator. The confidence is well earned: they are the descendants of dinosaurs. Looking and seeing are two separate actions. In order to “see” a higher order brain function called “attention” is needed. Scientists define the foundation of attention with two concepts called Context Generalization and […]

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Plants are Cool Too! (All Episodes)

May 20, 2020 at 10:27 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The “Plants are Cool Too!” series is supported by the Botanical Society of America (BSA) and hosted by Dr. Chris Martine. Here you will find all episodes of the series in reverse chronological order (last-in-first-out). Ecologists have hypothesized that there has to be a level of disturbance acting pretty regularly on communities. The intensity of disturbance has to be “mild” so that it doesn’t wipe every living thing but clear out some habitable zones for re-colonization by some species that […]

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Return of the Cicadas – Samuel Orr (2013)

May 19, 2020 at 12:44 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Cicadas are Hemipterans (true bugs). The genus Magicicada groups 13-year and 17-year periodical cicada species of eastern North America. The Spring of 2020 corresponds to the emergence of Brood IX of periodical cicadas in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Such emergences are spectacular feats of nature. After living underground feeding with tree roots for 13-years or 17-years (depending on the brood type) the adult insects dig themselves out synchronously in massive numbers to change their exoskeletons, mate and die. […]

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Mars on Earth – The Guardian (2015)

May 16, 2020 at 9:07 pm / Cosmological, Human Nature, Video

As the Mars Curiosity Rover is scouring the planet surface and expanding our knowledge NASA is working on ways to help prepare future colonists using an experimental enclosure called Hi-SEAS which stands for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. Hi-SEAS is an exploration of Human nature. How will a small group of space travelers cooperate and solve problems external and internal inside a confined habitat? A return mission to the red planet will be long. It will take about […]

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Rosewood: The Tree that Bleeds – BBC (2020)

May 16, 2020 at 12:14 pm / BBC documentaries, Human Nature, Video

The investigative journalism by BBC Africa Eye summarizes the plight of one of the most trafficked species the Rosewood tree. This tree is distinct for when it’s cut it bleeds a blood red sap. The tree belongs to Dalbergia genus nested within the legume family. Dalbergia species can have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antimicrobial, antidiarrheal, anti-ulcerogenic, anti-spermicidal, larvicidal and mosquito repellant properties used in traditional medicine.The genus has a wide pantropical distribution, native to the tropical regions of Central and South […]

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The Ancient Oak Tree that Taught the World a Lesson – BBC (2020)

May 14, 2020 at 1:39 pm / BBC documentaries, Natural history, Video

The Turner’s oak is a hybrid of the European oak (Quercus robur) and the Mediterranean holm oak (Quercus ilex). It is a prime example of a hybrid that exhibits blended characteristics of its progenitors: a semi-evergreen tree. Grown out in the open field for centuries, this tree experienced no competition from others and developed a dome shaped canopy. The tree was grown at the Holloway Down Nursery of Spencer Turner, Leyton, Essex, UK. In 1783, it caught the attention of […]

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Mediterranean Stony Corals (Phyllangia americana mouchezii) – Mert Gökalp (2018)

May 6, 2020 at 9:56 pm / Natural history, Short Observations, Video

When we talk about corals we always conjure up the iconic image of highly fragile tropical reef-building symbiotic organisms in crystal clear shallow waters. The stony corals living in cold waters are striking in this matter. They show that this symbiotic relationship between the two evolutionarily distant partner organisms can break down (coral bleaching) or never evolve when conditions are less than optimal. The Mediterranean is a rather nutrient poor sea with low productivity. Lacking a photosynthetic partner stony corals […]

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