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Planet Ant – Life Inside the Colony BBC (2012)

October 2, 2015 at 10:39 pm / BBC documentaries, Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Self-organization skills of ants are impressive. How do they achieve such large-scale project management? Without central control individual behavior of each worker ant contributes to the collective emergent behavior. Once they discover a resource they are extremely efficient in utilizing it. We have a lot to learn from them. This documentary is quite unique in its approach. It documents an entire leafcutter ant colony (Atta cephalotes) re-organize itself from scratch in an artificial nest purposefully built to observe colony-scale behavior […]

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Life in the Universe – The Economist (2015)

October 2, 2015 at 1:53 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

Does life exist outside of our planet? If so, are there intelligent life forms out there? How did life get started on our World? The Economist makes a quick tour of scientists who have been working on such questions. Frank Drake in his famous 1961 “Drake Equation” stated that the number of life-bearing planets must be a function of their host stars. How many planets have formed around those stars, what fraction of those planets are suitable for life, on […]

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What Caused the Cambrian Explosion? – The Economist (2015)

September 3, 2015 at 4:33 pm / Evolution, Global Patterns

It was a big curiosity for early geologists. For roughly 90% of the Earth’s history it appeared as if there was no life. After this long static period at about 542 million years from present life forms as we know of today began to appear bursting over a relatively short time (over 20 million years). Colloquially, this time period is called “Cambrian Explosion”. All of these life forms were of course aquatic: Annelids, arthropods, brachiopods, echinoderms, molluscs and ancestors of […]

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Molecular Model of a Herpes Simplex Virus Protein – Gökhan Tolun (2014)

September 3, 2015 at 1:11 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) every year, 776,000 people in the United States get new herpes infections. Genital herpes infection is common in the United States. Nationwide, 15.5 % of persons aged 14 to 49 years have HSV-2 infection. The virus is also known as common cold sore. Seeing is believing. Researchers from UNC (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) have visualized visualized the structure and action of a key protein in this sexually transmitted virus: […]

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Aristotle’s Silkworm (Saturnia pyri) in Endemic Liquidambar Forest

August 19, 2015 at 10:02 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Filmed in Günlüklü forest, Fethiye, Turkey on May 27th 2015. A Turkish version of this article was published in the Atlas Magazine. Saturnia pyri is the largest moth in Europe. It lives in Southern Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa but it occasionally makes a northward move. It was recorded in England only once in 1984. Its caterpillars are polyphagous and feed on many different tree species such as blackthorn, ash, walnut, poplar, plum, apple, pear and cherry (please […]

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Aristotle’s Silkworm / Great Peacock Moth (Saturnia pyri) Life Cycle – Adam Grochowalski (2015)

August 19, 2015 at 10:01 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Great Peacock Moth / Aristotle’s Silkworm (Saturnia pyri) Life Cycle – Adam Grochowalski, Kraków, Poland (2015). The filmmaker Adam Grochowalski of the Kraków University of Technology found the female butterfly in the Komarno district of Slovakia. The butterfly was attracted to light at night. He brought the female butterfly to his home studio in Kraków Poland and captured almost the entire life cycle in exquisite detail. The observations include emergence from the eggs, larval (caterpillar) stages, pupation (chrysalis) and overwintering […]

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Protecting Appalachia’s Hellbenders – The Last Dragons – Freshwater Illustrated (2014)

August 14, 2015 at 9:15 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The Last Dragons is a part of a series from Freshwater Illustrated including A Deeper Creek: Watchable Waters of Appalachia and Hidden Rivers. The series were screened in EcoFocus Film Festival of Athens GA in 2014. Filmed on location in Conesauga River in Geargia and Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina by Freshwaters Illustrated this short episode focuses on monitoring and conservation efforts on highly endangered hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). The natural history of these elusive giant salamanders has never been subject […]

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Chasing El Niño – Carol L. Fleisher – PBS NOVA (1998)

August 13, 2015 at 9:42 am / Ecological Documentaries, Global Patterns, Nova Documentaries, PBS Nature, Video

Can we predict El Niño? Moreover can we calculate it’s severity and effects on different parts of the world? On board the research ship Ka’imimoana scientists carry out measurements and then build computer models to understand the climate cycle that produces El Niño. The documentary “Chasing El Niño” was released by the aftermath of an intense El Niño event observed during 1997/1998 measured. In March 2015 climatologists have started to detect early signs of another one beginning to develop. They […]

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The Shape of Life: Sponges – PBS (2002)

August 2, 2015 at 9:30 pm / Evolution, Natural history, PBS Nature, Video

Evolutionarily, sponges are considered to be the oldest and most ancestral surviving species of the multicellular animal lineage going back to more than 750 million years ago. They are notorious filter feeders. Famous German zoologist Ernst Haeckel quite accurately illustrated many sponges as early as 1872. They have an extraordinary capacity to filter dissolved nutrients through a specialized group of cells called choanocyte. Encrusting sponge tissues are made of choanocytes forming canals that converge at the openings called oscula where […]

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Before Mars – Novo Mundo (Episode I) – National Geographic (2016)

June 14, 2015 at 9:40 am / Human Nature, Video

A defining feature of Human nature is exploration. We are hard wired with curiosity. It instinctively drives us to wonder what is behind the next hill. On planetary scale the Moon and the Mars are the nearest objects of interest in this endeavor. In this half-dramatized docu-feature film the National Geographic is aiming to inspire explorers that will colonize Mars. The mini-series takes place both in the future and in the present day. Episodes include interviews with influential people in […]

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Red Goat Moth (Cossus cossus) Caterpillar Searching for Pupation Site

May 16, 2015 at 4:28 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

Recorded on May 4th 2015 at the Atatürk Arboretum of Istanbul University, Bahçeköy, Türkiye. The individual in the recording most probably belongs to Cossus cossus gueruenensis reported from Asia Minor. The caterpillar has reached its final growth stage as a caterpillar and is frantically searching for a place to burrow itself in the forest floor to become a pupa. Pupation is the final stage of a caterpillar before metamorphosing into adult butterfly form. The developmental transformation in these insects has […]

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European Yellow Jacket Wasp vs. Australian Bull Ant (and other ant-wasp clashes)

April 23, 2015 at 9:26 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Ant – Wasp clash is a rather frequent interspecific competitive interaction between the two social insect groups. At first glance wasps may seem to be at an advantage by being aerial. On the other hand, ants can achieve high numbers and squirt formic acid which is a potent neurotoxin for most animals. Wasps and ants both can bite and sting and therefore they are somehow equal rivals. The main footage featured above was filmed in the Kosciuszko National Park of […]

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High-speed Filming of Hummingbirds – Harold Eugene “Doc” Edgerton (1936)

April 12, 2015 at 10:38 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Harold Eugene “Doc” Edgerton (1903 – 1990) was a professor of electrical engineering at MIT. He invented the stroboscopic electric flash to capture events happening at incredible speeds including the explosion of an atomic bomb. Even in today’s standards these images are hard to capture. His uncle was pivotal in beginning of his innovation filled career. He introduced him to the world of cameras. Edgerton invented and developed many different cameras including underwater cameras. One of his cameras was tested […]

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Whale Shark Aggregation in Belize – Cristiana & Alain Bontemps (2009)

March 31, 2015 at 8:28 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

External fertilization is a wasteful process but still enables survival of many aquatic species. For external fertilization to be successful certain prerequisites are needed: high population numbers, aggregation of these large groups and synchronous release of gametes. Animals are great resource maximizers. Once they discover a high value resource they will exploit it as efficiently as possible. Gametes (sperms and eggs) released during external fertilization of large groups of fish such as the Jack are extremely nutritious for filter feeders […]

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Rapid Worker Recruitment in Aphaenogaster Ants

March 27, 2015 at 12:43 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

In this short observation a single worker drags a yellow jacket wasp (Vespula spp.) until a point close to the nest and then switches to a different task. She leaves to recruit more workers as a scout. Until the first recruits arrive two other workers tend the prey. The location of the prey must have been close to the nest because a third worker joins them 55 seconds after the scout leaves. Based on the time stamp of the unedited […]

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