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World Without Sun – Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1964)

May 15, 2012 at 9:50 pm / Human Nature, Video

World Without Sun is perhaps the most progressive documentary in Cousteau’s filmmaking career. Produced in 1964 it captures activities of six crew members living in Continental Shelf Station II at 10m depth for 30 days in Red Sea. The undersea colony was the forerunner of other human habitation experiments such as Biosphere2 or Mars500 and even the International Space Station ISS. It also inspired other film makers like James Cameron. The film must be watched considering the context of its […]

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What is A Species? Christina Choate (2011)

May 8, 2012 at 6:37 pm / Evolution, Video

How did diversity of life on our planet form? How does it maintain itself? Species concept is most certainly a very convenient construct for biologists who are trying to understand life. Rightly so, Charles R. Darwin titled his masterpiece as On the Origin of Species for the concept was crucial in developing a theory that is central to biology. The species argument is quite parallel to that of transitional fossils. Both terms are plastic and represent data points along a […]

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Nesting Chestnut Mandibled Toucan (Ramphastos swainsonii)

April 9, 2012 at 11:27 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Filmed and edited by by Jean and Phil Slosberg in 2010 the captured footage reflects a slice of natural history of chestnut-mandibled toucans. Slosbergs were able to record the nest preparation, parental care and nest maintenance phases from their home in Costa Rica. They note that after a successful breeding season the pair tried to nest in the same tree again in 2011 but were not successful because meliponid stingless bees have taken over the cavity. They attempted to clean […]

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A Glimpse of Human Ecology Through the Nomadic Life of Netsilik Inuit – Quentin Brown & Asen Balıkçı (1967)

March 28, 2012 at 4:13 pm / Human Nature, Video

The Netsilik Series is very successful in documenting the lives of Netsilik Dr. Asen Balikci of the University of Montréal it became one of the ethnographical masterpieces belonging to a genre called course material for school children. Dr. Balikci has since produced many high quality documentaries. In the beginning, we are reminded of the fact that although it is an accurate depiction of Inuit way of life some parts had to be enacted. It has no narration or subtitles. Hearing […]

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Urban (NYC) Hawk Nest – Live 24-Hour Stream

March 16, 2012 at 9:27 am / Video, webcams

Welcome to breeding season 2014! You are watching a pre-recorded livestream of a hawk nest from the 12th-floor window ledge of New York University’s Bobst Library overlooking Washington Square Park. The now famous father hawk Bobby will probably be back for another year, with his new mate, Rosie. We are eagerly waiting for their return from their winter migration. Breeding season 2014 will be the fourth year of live-streaming on a red-tailed hawks nest outside of the New York University […]

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When and Why We Lost Hair?

March 9, 2012 at 1:16 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, Nova Documentaries, Video

When and why our ancestors began to wear clothing is a curious story. Clothing may have emerged for insulation of body heat. Similarly it also have provided a means to carry things and improve mobility. Cold snaps engulfed the earth many times. Using ice cores from Antarctica scientists identified 8 glacial cycles within the last 800 thousand years alone. An archaelogical site from Israel provides the earliest evidence of controlled fire by humans spanning the same time period. We know […]

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Why Societies Collapse? – Jared Diamond (2003)

February 28, 2012 at 1:22 pm / Human Nature, Video

Jared Diamond examines how societies collapse in a five-point framework: [1] Impact on environment, [2] Climate change, [3] Relations with friendly neighbors, [4] Relations with unfriendly neighbors, [5] Perception and resolution of environmental problems. Diamond is the author of a Pulitzer prize winner book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, published in 1997. He seeks to explain Eurasian hegemony throughout history. Using evidence from ecology, archaeology, genetics, linguistics, and distinct historical case studies, he argues that the differences in social structure and technology among human societies do […]

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The Botany of Desire – Michael Pollan – PBS (2009)

February 15, 2012 at 10:40 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, PBS Nature, Video

Domestication is a defining feature of recent human evolution. In animals first trait selected by humans was behavior. In plants harvestability through selection of non-shattering seeds was the first trait of domestication. Plant domestication paved the way to agriculture which enabled highly specialized sedentary human societies. Domesticated plants differ from their wild ancestors in distinct ways that can be categorized under a term called as the domestication syndrome. Domestication syndrome includes reduced shattering of seeds (seeds don’t separate from the […]

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Ants – Nature’s Secret Power (2006)

January 29, 2012 at 11:23 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Ants, bees and wasps make up only 3 percent of animal diversity yet they may constitute up to 50 percent of the total animal biomass in land habitats. Bert Hölldobler is a leading entomologist (scientist who studies insects). He collaborated with ant biologist E.O. Wilson and developed the field of Sociobiology. The documentary does an excellent job introducing us observations coming from both natural and laboratory setting. First observation comes from the European red wood ants (Formica polyctena). These ants […]

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Nesting Nightjar in Camouflage

January 16, 2012 at 11:25 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

This is an excellent footage capturing the behavior of a ground nesting nightjar. These birds are night-flying aerial insectivores active during dusk and dawn. It is almost impossible to see them during the day because of their camouflage. Nightjars are also known as goatsuckers which has no biological basis. If an intruder comes dangerously close to the nest, adults perform a well-known “broken wing” display. It is an excellent visual distraction. The bird will easily disappear soon after the intruder is at a […]

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Red wasp hunting grasshopper.

January 16, 2012 at 10:43 pm / NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

These sequences were captured on May 14th 2010 in Athens, GA, USA. Young grasshopper nymphs (Romalea microptera) all emerged together as a brood were hanging out on a plant (Galium spp.). There were 17 of them. Red wasp (Polistes carolina) began hovering over for a couple of minutes and attacked one of them. The wasp began eating by chewing the abdomen first and later flew over to the top of a kudzu vine (Pueraria montana) to eat the rest. Although […]

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Daytime Hunting of Barred Owl (Strix varia)

January 16, 2012 at 10:42 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

On April 16th 2011, a barred owl glided over my head while I was filming something else along the Orange Trail of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, GA. Hunting during daytime indicates that this individual has extra mouths to feed. You can hear the altruistic alarm calls of other nervous birds and rodents. The high pitched alarm call (of a chipmunk?) is particularly audible immediately before each move of the owl. I deliberately kept the scenes long […]

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