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An Agouti Eating Pulp of the Dipteryx panamanensis Seed Coat

April 14, 2018 at 2:27 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

Agoutis are rodents exclusive to forested and wooded lands of the American tropics. Their habitats include rainforests and savannas. Some species have even adapted to live in cultivated fields. They are active during daytime. At night they hide in hollow tree trunks or in burrows among roots. Here in this short observation recorded at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Barro Colorado Island, Panama you can see an agouti feeding on the outer pulp of the one of the […]

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Climate Science in Action – Earth Focus / Link TV (2014)

March 17, 2018 at 8:12 am / Ecological Documentaries, Global Patterns, Video

We have a very dynamic planet. Throughout it’s geological evolution ice sheets grew and shrunk many times. This process still continues each year through a number of rather complex interactions between land, atmosphere and ocean. Climate science is working hard to measure, document and understand these interactions both on land and from orbit. Satellite missions launched in 1990s produced some very informative estimates about polar regions. Scientists are now collaborating to detail these observations from land measuring the mass balance […]

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Hungry Polar Bear Ambushes Seal | The Hunt | BBC Earth (2017)

March 9, 2018 at 10:55 am / BBC documentaries, Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Short Observations, Video

Being a predator is very difficult. The “one in twenty” success rate is almost a universal rule of thumb to describe predator hunting efficiency. Prey defines the terms of engagement. Predator has to play catch up and therefore has to be stronger, faster more agile and perhaps more clever in planning a successful attack. We know this relationship from studies that have exquisitely measured predator-prey related physical parameters in Cheetahs and Lions hunting Impalas and Zebras. Connections between apex predators […]

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David Attenborough: Joseph Banks – Endeavor / Philip Stevens (2014)

March 9, 2018 at 9:41 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video

The year 2018 marks the 250th anniversary of the legendary first voyage of Captain James Cook on board the collier frigate ship Endeavor. The voyage was a first in that science didn’t loose against the call of the adventure like many others did. The Endeavor established the fundamentals of scientific research on a vessel and set the pace for many other long distance expeditions including the voyage Darwin took on board the Beagle. Endeavor earned its place in history as […]

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Anatomy of a Hunt: Speed, Strategy and Survival / Nature (2018)

March 7, 2018 at 1:00 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

As predators chase down their prey on the open savanna it’s a race for survival. Lions and cheetahs are some of the most athletic animals on the planet but strength and speed aren’t everything. By precisely measuring the movements of predators and prey during hunts, researchers have now modeled the optimum strategy of both hunter and hunted, unpacking the subtle details of this evolutionary arms race. During a typical run, a Cheetah can leap 25 feet on a single stride […]

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A Sunfleck Over a Sapling in Barro Colorado Island

January 19, 2018 at 10:25 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

Recorded during the dry season on Jan 26th 2017 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Barro Colorado Island, Panama. A short duration sunfleck passes over a sapling of Nectandra cissiflora (Lauraceae). Plants growing in the forest understory habitats can be exposed to fast microclimatic changes. Although light is essential for plants, sudden exposure to high light can be detrimental to shade adapted leaves. Sunflecks can be destructive for the photosystem II (PSII), a component of the photosynthetic apparatus […]

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A Chimpanzee’s Tale – Pierre Stine (2002)

January 16, 2018 at 9:26 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Illegal chimpanzee trade has been a big problem. Pet and animal circus industry has been trafficking these endangered animals by using brutal ways. Many lost their lives caught in snares. Naive pet owners eventually learn that chimps become very strong and hard to maintain in a Human-scale habitation. The organization HELP Congo has been combating the illegal chimpanzee trade and habitat loss through deforestation in Congo for many years and the film covers what happened after their first successful attempt […]

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Humpback Whales Bubble Fishing – BBC Earth (2015)

January 15, 2018 at 4:38 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video

Cetaceans are the largest animals on our planet. Whales could evolve into such enormous sizes only very recently through the geological time. This became possible due to pulses of nutrients coming from a cycle of glaciations fertilizing the seas for plankton growth. Feeding efficiency is a prerequisite for gigantism to evolve. Truly gigantic animals have always been close to the base of trophic levels and have found a way to maximize feeding on a rich food resource. Sauropod dinosaurs for […]

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Largest Egg Mass Ever Observed – Lütfü Tanrıöver (2015)

January 9, 2018 at 12:55 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations

On July 9th 2015, a Turkish underwater videographer Lütfü Tanrıöver encountered a curious semi-transparent gelatinous mass at a depth of 22 meters (72 feet) while diving with his friends near his hometown of Fethiye on the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia. As every citizen scientist instinctively would, he explored and successfully recorded this observation of huge biological importance on film. It didn’t take long before the BBC Wildlife Service reached out to him about the observation. According to Dr. Michael Vecchione […]

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Sharing The Secrets – Drew Perlmutter (2015)

January 7, 2018 at 10:11 am / Ecological Documentaries, Video

Caves are powerfull places. Our ancestors were inevitably attracted to these geological formations. Prehistoric cave art that has flourished within the last 50 thousand years is an exciting demonstration of our ancestral relationship with these places. The filmmaker Drew Perlmutter brings the story of cave explorers in “TAG” region to the surface. The geology of the Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia is quite unique that has lead to many cave formations. In fact, the region is home to the highest concentration […]

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Forest Elephants – The New Yorker (2015)

January 4, 2018 at 10:00 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

African forest elephants have been featured in quite a few documentaries including the tropical rainforests episode of the Planet Earth series. Here in this short documentary we listen to Andrea Turkalo’s wonderful lecture on behavior of these charismatic megafaunal animals. She has been observing the elephants in Dzanga Research Camp at the Dzanga-Sangha National Park in Central African Republic for more than two decades. Andrea Turkalo is Associate Conservation Scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and cofounder of Cornell […]

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What is the Tragedy of the Commons? – Nicholas Amendolare | TED-Ed (2017)

January 1, 2018 at 8:46 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

The tragedy of the commons is an economic hypothesis popularized in 1968 by ecologist Garrett Hardin. The concept was examined in a 1987 BBC documentary called “Nice Guys Finish First” by Richard Dawkins with a game theoretical framework. The Tragedy of the Commons predicts ecological degradation due to human conflict of self-interest over the long-term well-being of their community. There are many examples of common resource exploitation such as destruction of cashew trees in Mozambic. However, this theory was heavily […]

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The Lichenologist – Matthew Killip (2017)

November 28, 2017 at 7:56 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video

This is the second installment from the filmmaker Matthew Killip following the “-omist/ogist” theme. Evolution of cooperation is a curious subject for biologists. The evolution of cooperation is investigated within the framework of game theory and has been encapsulated in a 1987 BBC documentary called “Nice Guys Finish First” by Richard Dawkins. How do organisms belonging to different kingdoms coordinate to live together? What are the rules of symbiosis? Lichens provide this type of study system where algae and fungi […]

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The Anomalies: Acorn Woodpecker – Nate Dappen & Neil Losin (2017)

November 28, 2017 at 11:48 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Wildlife Documentaries

Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) are quite distinctive from other woodpecker species: They are communal. How did the cooperative behavior evolve? Biologists are working on answers for this curious question. Evolution of cooperative behavior is a matter of game theory and has been encapsulated in a 1987 BBC documentary called “Nice Guys Finish First” by Richard Dawkins. One of the most ubiquitous example for cooperative behavior comes from ants. Why do certain individuals altruistically give up their reproduction and help others? […]

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Chain Forming Leptogenys Ants from Cambodia – Stephane de Greef (2014)

November 15, 2017 at 10:00 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The ant behavior described in these observations were first recorded by citizen scientists in Cambodia (see the original recording at the end of this post) where ants have been shown to form chains to transport large prey. The level of cooperation is so striking that myrmecologists scrambled to find out whether it is genuine. Two researchers have successfully documented the behavior by filming them in Angkor Thom, Siem Reap, Cambodia. Self-assembling cooperation in ants is known to take many interesting […]

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