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Slow TV: Bergen-Oslo Train Real Time – Thomas Hellum – NRK (2009)

December 21, 2014 at 11:22 pm / Human Nature, Video

It’s all relative. Slow-TV is not “slow” at all. Events are in real-time. It is perceived as “slow” compared to highly edited conventional TV programs. Why it’s in Nature Documentaries? Slow-TV concept is a paradigm invented by real-time uninterrupted nature observers. The idea was there for quite a while. For years there were live cameras showing bears hunt fish in rivers, birds nesting and rearing their chicks with viewers in the millions. A Discovery Channel series called “Earth Sunrise” recorded […]

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Hawaiian Honeycreepers: Evolution in Hawaii

December 5, 2014 at 11:36 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Untamed Science is a science video blog. In this episode the focus is on the evolution of Hawaiian honeycreepers and the geology of the archipelago. The documentary does an excellent job in describing the formation of the volcanic island chain with a brief animation showing the crossection of the Earth’s crust and the hot molten mantel. In Hawai’i, honeycreepers and a group of plant species called lobeliads belonging to the bellflower family (Campanulaceae) evolved in an intricate interaction involving nectar […]

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Hawaiian ‘I’iwi Bird – The Nature Conservancy

December 5, 2014 at 11:35 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

This short observation was recorded at The Nature Conservancy’s Waikamoi Preserve on Maui. It shows one of the classic examples of co-evolution between a plant and a bird. The long bill of the scarlet ‘i’iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) and the curved, tubular flower of the blue ‘ōpelu (Lobelia grayana), a native lobelia have evolved together due to selective forces that increase the survival success of both species. In Hawai’i, honeycreepers and lobeliads evolved in an intricate interaction involving nectar feeding pollination […]

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Hi-SEAS Mars Mission Simulations

November 17, 2014 at 9:38 pm / Human Nature, Video

Onwards Earthlings! Onwards to Mars! Hi-SEAS stands for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. The project is funded by NASA. It 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 six months to Mars, 500 days on the planet, and then another six months home. An interplenatary mission that […]

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Aquarius the Reef Base

November 11, 2014 at 2:29 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

Aquarius is an underwater laboratory and home to scientists for missions up to 10 days long. Aquarius is made to withstand the pressure of ocean depths to 120 feet deep. The idea is not new. The world celebrity diver who developed the Aqualung SCUBA system Jacques Yves Cousteau turned the idea into a reality by the Conself underwater habitation experiment documented in the award winning documentary World Without Sun in 1964. Cousteau captured activities of six crew members living in […]

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The Great Australian Fly – Tosca Looby (2014)

November 4, 2014 at 10:14 pm / Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

As Aussie as meat pies and footy, the humble fly is Australia’s most annoying yet enduring icon. Ever-present at BBQs, it has even spawned the renowned ‘Aussie salute’. Our battle to zap them has created an entire pesticide industry and kept scientists busy for decades. The fly has influenced everything from fashion to farming and food, and as legend has it, even the Aussie accent. But a closer look reveals the wretched Australian fly is more than just a pest […]

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What Ants Teach Us? – Deborah Gordon TED Talk (2014)

November 4, 2014 at 2:05 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

There’s never enough ant coverage in Nature Documentaries. Ants are a paradigm for self organizing systems. Here you can watch two TED lectures by the prominent ant scientist (Myrmecologist) Deborah Gordon of Stanford University. She has been studying red harvester ants intensely both in the field and in laboratory. Observation of ants in both environments have been very informative in understanding emergent properties of a complex system such as an ant colony. How does a living system with no central […]

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Ants in Space – Stanford University – BioEdOnline.org

November 4, 2014 at 2:05 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video

Teachers! Students! A new citizen science project needs your help! You can help scientists collect data by repeating an experiment that was carried out in space. In January 2014 live colonies of pavement ants (Tetramorium caespitum) were taken to the International Space Station for a curious experiment. The experiment sought to understand whether worker ants change their search behavior in microgravity? The experimental set up was designed by Dr. Deborah Gordon in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine Center for […]

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Red Eyed Green Frogs Mating (2002)

November 4, 2014 at 8:48 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Red eyed green frog (Agalycnis callidryas) mating is an event visible to few visitors of the Neotropical forests. These frogs live high up in the forest canopy and only come down to swamps to breed in large numbers. The economy of nature limits reproductive effort of females. Egg production is costly compared to sperm therefore not all females can be ready to mate when the mating time comes. There’s always less females in a given mating aggregation and males put […]

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James L. Hamrick interview – Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) – (2014)

October 27, 2014 at 7:48 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video

Dr. James L. Hamrick is Regents Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia. He is widely recognized for his work on the genetics and evolution of natural plant populations. The featured video is from a series of interviews for the 50th anniversary of Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS/OET). Dr. Hamrick is also a personal hero of mine and is one of my role models as a tropical biologist. I discovered his work soon after I began to work […]

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How to Maintain an Ant Colony in an Artificial Nest at Home – AntsCanada

October 25, 2014 at 12:15 pm / Natural history, Video

You have seen exciting and interesting documentaries where entire colonies are kept in captivity and their activities are carefully recorded and analyzed. Perhaps you yourself always wanted to keep ants right next to where you lived but always thought terrariums required the expertise and money only available through natural history museums or nature centers. It is indeed an art to maintain an ant colony. If you do it right you can join many people who do just that like Mikey […]

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Raising a Weaver Ant Colony at Home – AntsCanada

October 25, 2014 at 12:14 pm / Natural history, Video

You have seen exciting and interesting documentaries where entire colonies are kept in captivity and their activities are carefully recorded and analyzed. Perhaps you yourself always wanted to keep ants right next to where you lived but always thought terrariums required the expertise and money only available through natural history museums or nature centers. It is indeed an art to maintain an ant colony. If you do it right you can join many people who do just that like Mikey […]

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Cane Toads: An Unnatural History – Mark Lewis (1988)

October 15, 2014 at 11:55 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Cane Toads is one of the classics of nature documentaries that focus on biological invasions. It is a remarkable story of a species being extremely successful in an environment that is free from diseases, parasites and predators. On top of that, cane toad is a predator itself. Feeding on naive prey that have evolved no defenses boosts the reproductive success. Cane toad become a paradigm for invasive species that achieved abnormally high population densities compared to that of it’s native […]

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Cane Toads: The Conquest – Mark Lewis (2010)

October 15, 2014 at 11:53 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Cane Toads: The Conquest is a remake of a hugely successful 1988 documentary that became one of the classics of nature documentaries focusing on biological invasions. It is a remarkable story of a species being extremely successful in an environment that is free from diseases, parasites and predators. Cane Toads: The Conquest updates the status of this biological range expansion after their introduction to Australia in 1935. Interviews with residents newly exposed to Cane Toads as well as follow ups […]

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Cormorant Pursuing a Fish School – Lütfü Tanrıöver (2014)

October 11, 2014 at 1:25 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Lütfü Tanrıöver recorded this short observation in the eastern Mediterranean town of Fethiye. As the camera rolled it recorded some pretty interesting interactions. Most water birds ambush their prey. Cormorants are different. They actively chase their prey underwater. Here you can see one going after a small school of Mediterranean sand smelt (Atherina hepsetus). Predation pressure is intense. If you pay attention you will notice another predator of small fish, a blue-spotted cornet fish entering the screen from the very […]

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