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Mudskippers of the Tidal Mangrove Mudflats at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Singapore

August 9, 2024 at 10:23 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Habitats along the land-sea interphase provided the setting for evolution of vertebrate adaptations needed to move onto the land. Mangrove mudflats formed within the intertidal zone provide a fantastic array of habitat qualities that enable selection of amphibious traits. These gently sloping habitats can extend hundreds of meters between the land and the sea and are exposed to air on a regular basis following tides. The extensive root systems of the semi-aquatic mangrove trees stabilize the coasts, providing a dependable […]

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A Yellow-throated Warbler Collecting Nesting Material

May 7, 2024 at 6:41 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

In this short observation recorded on May 19th 2012 you can watch a a yellow-throated warbler (Setophaga dominica) collecting plant fibers for nest construction. This bird constructs cup-shaped nests very high up in the canopy of mature forests. As can be seen in this recording, it particularly developed a search image for collecting fibers of specific quality used in a two-layered nest architecture. Nest construction in birds is not all instinctive and has a consirable learning component. Urban birds can […]

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Cornell University Hawk Camera

January 27, 2024 at 10:42 am / Natural history, Video, webcams

Everybody is excited for the 2020 breeding season of the famous Cornell University campus hawks Big Red and her new mate Arthur. Unfortunately Big Red’s partner Ezra reportedly has died. Last year Big Red laid her first egg at about 11:38 ET on March 28th. The breeding season 2015 started with a surprise. Big Red and Ezra moved to their nest to the light pole they used in 2012. There were no longer cameras installed at this nest so some […]

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Albatross Nest Live from New Zealand

January 26, 2024 at 9:57 am / Natural history, Video, webcams

If you see a dark screen, bear in mind that it might be night time in New Zealand. Breeding season 2019 has ended happily. See y’all in 2020! We have previously relayed broadcast from Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) nest from the island of Kauai, geologically the oldest island of the Hawaiian archipelago. The webcam is operated by the Bird Lab of Cornell University. The Laysan Albatross gets its name from its Laysan breeding colony in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where […]

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Decorah Eagle Cam – Nesting Season 2024

January 24, 2024 at 1:23 am / Natural history, Video, webcams

Live feed has begun from the new nest named N2 for Decorah bald eagles. Decorah Eagles 1-28-24 HM perches on the Y, visits N1. The pair known as “Mom” and “Dad” are visiting and maintaining the nest occasionally. Established by the Raptor Resource Project in 2007 this breeding pair of Bald Eagles in Decorah, Iowa has been under intense observation. The pair became famous after the PBS Nature Documentary “American Eagle” in 2008. At one point in 2012 the viewer […]

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Eyed Click Bug (Alaus oculatus) Ovipositing

January 20, 2024 at 10:01 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Molecular Nature, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

On May 26th 2012, this click beetle began laying her eggs on a log along the Orange trail of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, GA. These beetles are quite noticeable due to their large size and distinctive eye patterns on their pronotum. At the beginning of the video (while she is stationary), you can see some very tiny red mites walking across her body. She wondered around on a downed tree and assessed possible egg laying sites. […]

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Cannonball Tree – Couroupita guianensis (Lecythidaceae) – Singapore Botanical Gardens

June 28, 2023 at 9:59 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Filmed on location at the Singapore Botanical Gardens on Nov 22nd 2016. The cannonball tree (Couroupita guianensis) from the Lecythidaceae (Brazil nut family) family is native to Neotropical forests. Its flowers are adapted for bat pollination possibly from an ancestral state of euglossine bee pollination. Here far away from its natural home, the flowers are being visited by stingless Meliponini bees. The flowers produce impressive levels of fragrance but yield no nectar. Therefore the reward for its visitors comes in […]

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Into Peru in Search of Plants – NYBG (2018)

October 22, 2022 at 12:20 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video

Dr. Fabian Michelangeli is a curator at the New York Botanical Garden. Here in this short documentary, we see snaphots of phases of an expedition he organized to the Yanachaga–Chemillén National Park located in the cloud forests of Peru located in search of plants that help us better understand the state of global biodiversity, climate change, and other factors that contribute to far-reaching conservation efforts. The Andes mountain range of South America is a geological marvel that initiated the speciation […]

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Exploring the Amazon – Kew Botanic Gardens (2016)

October 20, 2022 at 1:33 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video

This short documentary outlines a joint expedition to the Parc Amazonien de Guyane organized by CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), the French Foreign Legion and Kew Botanic Gardens. The area could be rather hostile to scientists where illegal gold mines are in operation in remote and unexpected places along French Guiana-Brazil border. As the prominent tropical biologist Stephen Hubbell described in the foreword of his book Neutral Theory of Biodiversity the state of tropical biology is still resembling […]

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The Passionate Wait

October 6, 2022 at 12:23 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

This short documentary highlights events before the opening of the passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) flowers. Drought conditions during the summer of 2011 increased the activity of many insects and spiders around the extrafloral nectaries of the plant. The water budget of the plants is strongest early in the morning. Flowers do not open until the middle of the day. At first, passion flower is generous especially to the ants in the morning providing ample volume of nectar. Ants provide protection to […]

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Acid Attack

September 22, 2022 at 10:22 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Nectar is an effective concoction for establishment and maintenance of plant-animal interactions. Using nectar, plants can build a community of allies for defense and even manipulate the behavior of pollinators. We are accustomed to nectaries found in flowers. Plants however, have evolved nectaries in other locations in their above-ground parts including the base of the flowers and petioles. These are called extrafloral nectaries. The sugary reward coming from the extrafloral nectaries invites ants to defend them. Here we can see […]

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Prominent Features of Leaf-footed Stinkbugs

August 5, 2022 at 8:18 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video

The leaf-footed stinkbugs have quite a few eye-catching body features including highly specialized mouthparts, offensive and defensive adaptations. This is an order of insects on which evolutionary pressures are visibly active shaping their morphologies. The evolutionary trade-offs underpinning these structures are an active research subject by biologists. Here, three characteristic body parts in leaf-footed stink bugs are highlighted: The labium, the pronotum and the components of the hind leg (femur and tibia). Entomologically, the femur and the tibia are the […]

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Great White Shark Pup off the Northern Aegean Coast of Turkey

April 6, 2022 at 1:03 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Be prepared to hear a fascinating piece of natural history about the Mediterranean great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). The story is fascinating for multiple reasons. First, the great whites are one of the most charismatic, vulnerable, cryptic and misunderstood predator fish species. Second, it 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 […]

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A Frequently Yawning Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys aestivus)

March 4, 2022 at 8:25 am / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

This beautifully bright green snake is a master of disguise. Although they are fairly long (can be up to 81 cm) it is almost impossible to notice them unless you have been curiously scanning the vegetation with a purpose. The Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys aestivus) is behaviorally very docile. It must be a slow day for this particular individual since s/he was frequently yawning. The observation was recorded on 9th of September 2012 at the Georgia State Botanical Garden in […]

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Grey Reef Sharks Mating – Yann Hubert

March 1, 2022 at 1:11 pm / Natural history, Short Observations, Video

Shark life cycle has many elusive stages. Mating is one of these secretive moments. Here in this short observation filmmaker Yann Hubert captures a pair of Grey Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) during copulation. Characteristic clasper organs used by the male to latch onto the female during copulation is very striking. The location and time of the year in this extremely serendipitous encounter is not specified perhaps to avoid disturbance from many curious divers. Grey Reef Sharks are common and live […]

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