Recent Videos

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  Parasitoid Wasp (Labena grallator) Ovipositing

  July 20, 2017 at 11:09 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Recorded at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD, USA on July 18th 2017. Here you can see a parasitoid Ichneumon wasp (Labena grallator) searching for a prey living inside a dead branch. She uses her antennae to locate the prey and sets out to drill with her ovipositor straight into the wood. She does a few exploratory oviposition exercise before committing to a full injection. At multiple instances the wasp is chased away by ants. Indeed, in the last […]

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  Hover Fly (Spilomyia longicornis) on Eupatorium altissimum (Asteraceae)

  June 29, 2017 at 10:33 am / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

  Hover Fly (Spilomyia longicornis) visiting Eupatorium altissimum (Asteraceae) filmed in Georgia State Botanical Gardens, Athens, GA, USA on September 16th, 2012. Submitted as a short observation. When we talk about pollination bees immediately occupy our imagination almost as a cerebral Pavlovian reflex. Flies are big component of the insect pollinators yet they rarely get peoples attention. The insect family Syrphidae (aka syrphid flies) has more than more than 6000 species categorized in 200 genera worldwide. They stand out with their […]

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  A Deeper Creek – The Watchable Waters of Appalachia

  June 28, 2017 at 10:55 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Ecofocus Film Festival of Athens GA featured a number of short documentaries including Hidden Rivers of Appalachia filmed on location in Conesauga River by Freshwaters Illustrated. Like birdwatching, riverwatching could be a great immersive activity and have the potential to become a citizen science project. A Deeper Creek shows us how this could be done. Similar to organizing a BioBlitz, snorkeling in a river can generate a lot of informative observations. Rivers have a rich body of natural history and […]

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  Open-air Processional Column Termites in Bukit Timah Nature Preserve, Singapore (2016)

  June 17, 2017 at 5:05 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Social insects are a major force in land habitats. A mature leaf-cutter ant colony can consume leaf material equal to a weight of a cow every day. Termites are another insect group (related to cockroaches) evolved independently to achieve sociality. Their effects on ecosystems in terms of material and nutrient cycling can rival those of ants. Higher termites (family Termitidae) feed on a wide variety of plant-based material, including decaying wood, leaf litter, humus, fungi, lichens, dung, and grasses. Non-wood-feeding […]

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  The Diatomist – Matthew Killip (2014)

  June 17, 2017 at 12:00 am / Natural history, Video

  Klaus Kemp, is a self-taught master of the Victorian art of diatom arrangement. After his first exposure to the intricate patterns of algae by the German microscopist J.D. Möller (1844 – 1907) he was completely hooked. Diatoms are single celled algae. They are the most common form of phytoplanktons and form the base of the aquatic food chains. They represent the earliest plant lineage long before land plants evolved at about 700 million years ago. Their cell walls are made […]

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  Seed Dispersal and Habitat Fragmentation | HHMI BioInteractive – Danny Schmidt (2017)

  June 10, 2017 at 7:06 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Forests are under intense pressure. In the tropical forests, between 50-90 % of the canopy trees depend on animals for seed dispersal. Even in temperate forests animals such as deer, moose, boar and even bears disperse seeds. Today due to hunting for bush meat many tropical forests are becoming depleted of their seed dispersers. Here in this HHMI documentary, the researchers Andres Link and Carolina Urbina Malo of Los Andes University in Colombia in Colombia track brown spider monkeys to […]

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  Keeling’s Curve: The Story of CO2 – Science Bulletins – AMNH

  June 7, 2017 at 10:09 pm / Global Patterns, Video

  Keeling’s Curve: The Story of CO2 was produced by Laura Allen for the Science Bulletins of the American Museum of Natural History. Science Bulletins is a production of the National Center for Science Literacy, Education, and Technology (NCSLET), part of the Department of Education at the American Museum of Natural History. Ice cores drilled from the glaciers, Greenland and the Antarctic have shown that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is tightly linked to the average temperature of the Earth. […]

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  The Cuckoo – Artur Homan (2013)

  June 7, 2017 at 12:42 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  In the James Bond movie Spectre there’s a reference to the cuckoo bird in two scenes. The evil villain Spectre leers: “I see you! Cuckoo!” when he detects Bond in the classic evil assembly room scene. In the other scene towards the end of the movie Spectre reveals why he considers Bond as a cuckoo. In order to understand the reference we must know the biology of the Common cuckoo bird (Cuculus canorus). The European common cuckoo is a well […]

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  Cameras Reveal the Secret Lives of a Mountain Lion Family – Sharon Negri (2013)

  May 29, 2017 at 10:01 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Mountain lions were once thought to be solitary animals. They are feared and hunted by humans. New footage captured by motion-triggered cameras in secluded areas deep in the Wyoming Wind River range shows a mountain lion family and the animals’ previously unknown social bonds. In this short documentary produced by WildFutures, we also learn about how hard it can be to be a mountain lion. They face an increasing loss of habitat, harsh winters, trophy hunters and even predators. Like […]

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  Some Animals Are More Equal than Others: Keystone Species and Trophic Cascades – HHMI (2016)

  May 29, 2017 at 5:39 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  On a field trip with students to the Pacific Coast, ecologist Robert Paine discovered a thriving community of aquatic organisms at Mukkaw Bay, at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula. The tide pools were full of green anemones, purple sea urchins, pink seaweed, bright red Pacific blood starfish, as well as sponges, limpets, and chitons. At the low tide rocky surfaces exposed bands of small acorn barnacles, and large, stalked goose barnacles, beds of black California mussels, and some very […]

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  A Wolf’s Place – Annie White (2013)

  May 29, 2017 at 5:26 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Ecological theory predicts that by keeping herbivore populations under check predators can indirectly enhance growth of vegetation and can even alter local climate. The influential ecologist Robert Paine has demonstrated this phenomenon of keystone species on predatory starfishes and sea otters maintaining species diversity in coastal rocky communities in Washington. Directed and produced by Annie White, “A Wolf’s Place” tells the story of wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone national park in 1995. Wolves became locally extinct in much of the United […]

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  Otters vs. Climate Change – KQED/QUEST (2014)

  May 29, 2017 at 4:35 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video

  Presence and absence of keystone species in a biological community have significant effects. To cite a few examples: Tropical fig trees form abundant food resources for many animals in times of scarcity. Bluechub fish in Eastern North American rivers construct rock nests which form a critical spawning area for many other fish in the same habitat. Beaver activity slows down hydrology and enhances water retention capacity of the ecosystems. Increased water table invigorates vegetation. At the same time reduced sun […]

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  The Man Who Planted Trees – CBS – (1987)

  May 24, 2017 at 8:15 am / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

  Forests are under intense pressure. The story by the French author Jean Giono published in 1953 is one of the most poetic depiction of landscape restoration that has touched feelings of so many people. The story inspired many restoration projects around the world. When read it for the first time many thought it was real. In fact, there are genuine independent reforestation projects impressively achieved by determined individuals and NGOs such as Plant a Billion and People and Reforestation in […]

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  Protecting Forests – Equator Initiative (2015)

  May 23, 2017 at 8:52 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

  Under the umbrella of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Equator Initiative supports the work of local and indigenous communities worldwide in creating sustainable development solutions. In 2015, the Equator Prize was awarded to 20 communities in recognition of their efforts. This short film highlights the work of five of the recipients of the Equator Initiative Prize protecting forests around the world. These include Wanang Conservation Area in Papua New Guinea, Prey Lang Community Network in Cambodia, Mtandao wa […]

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  Forest Man – William D. McMaster (2013)

  May 23, 2017 at 8:39 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

  Since 1979, Jadav Payeng has been planting hundreds of trees on an Indian river island threatened by erosion. Payeng is truly the embodiment of the protagonist in the famous story “The Man Who Planted Trees” published in 1953 by the French author Jean Giono. The photographer Jitu Kalita guides us through Payeng’s home the Majuli Island. This is the largest river island in the world located on Brahmaputra River. Floods generated by monsoon season threatens the Majuli Island by rapid […]

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