Recent Videos

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  Picture Wing Fly and Ant Competing for Nectar

  January 27, 2015 at 1:01 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  A picture wing fly (Delphinium picta) and an ant (Formica palidefulva) are competing for nectar secreted from the extrafloral nectaries of the Passiflora vine (Passiflora incarnata). This short observation was filmed on August 25 2014. Georgia State Botanical Garden, Athens, GA, USA. Here we see multiple overlapping natural history stories. A passiflora vine is being defended by workers of a Formica palidefulva colony. A picture wing fly is sneaking around the vine looking for an opportunity to sip sweet nectar […]

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  Seed Dispersal Under the Threat of Mustard Bomb – Michal Samuni-Blank (2012)

  January 27, 2015 at 11:35 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video

  Plants evolved diverse ways to disperse their seeds using animals. To give a few specific examples Long-wattled umbrella birds, Toucans and fruit eating bats are known for effective dispersal of palm tree seeds by eating the fruits. These dispersers regurgitate or defecate seeds after flying far away. On the other hand, most fruit eaters are also seed predators. Unlike birds and bats other animals such as agoutis, monkeys, peccaries and tapirs can chew and destroy the very same palm seeds. […]

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  The Making of a Theory: Darwin, Wallace, and Natural Selection – John Rubin – HHMI (2014)

  January 20, 2015 at 2:36 pm / Evolution, Video

  This documentary does it right. The theory of evolution was co-discovered independently by two biologists that lived within the same time period. Darwin and Wallace were well known in their time but Wallace’s name gradually has been overshadowed by Darwin. Today we rarely (almost never) hear the name Alfred Russell Wallace. This documentary does a good job to revive Wallace’s name. Wallace was quite an impressive personality and his life most certainly was inspirational. He knew what “survival” really meant. […]

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  The Forgotten Voyage: Alfred Russel Wallace and His Discovery of Evolution by Natural Selection – Peter Crawford (1983)

  January 20, 2015 at 2:33 pm / Evolution, Video

  The theory of evolution was co-discovered independently by two biologists that lived within the same time period. Darwin and Wallace were well known in their time but Wallace’s name gradually has been overshadowed by Darwin. Today we rarely (almost never) hear the name Alfred Russell Wallace. In this documentary Peter Crawford directs a dramatization of the events showing the interaction between the two influential scientist. We see Wallace as a determined resilient young naturalist without formal education build a respectable […]

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  The Ladder of Creation – Jacob Bronowski – BBC (1973)

  January 20, 2015 at 2:33 pm / BBC documentaries, Evolution, Video

  The theory of evolution was co-discovered independently by two biologists that lived within the same time period. Darwin and Wallace were well known in their time but Wallace’s name gradually has been overshadowed by Darwin. Today we rarely (almost never) hear the name Alfred Russell Wallace. In this documentary Jacob Bronowski makes a rare attempt to focus on the biography of this very influential scientist. He tells Wallace’s story beginning from the early years of his childhood. We see a […]

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  A Phorid Parasitoid Fly Attacking Carpenter Ants Tending Aphids

  January 9, 2015 at 2:19 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

  Recorded at the Georgia State Botanical Garden of Athens, GA on August 17th 2014. A carpenter ant (Camponotus spp.) colony nested at the base of a young beech tree (Fagus grandifolia) were tending aphids on the same tree. There is an interestic four level trophic interaction at this one spot forming a food chain. The parasitoid fly feeding on ants who feed on aphids sucking carbohydrate rich sap out of the beech tree: Beech tree > Aphids > Ants > […]

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  How to Pin a Butterfly – Anshul Fernando (2010)

  January 8, 2015 at 4:15 pm / Natural history, Video

  Pinning insects is a craft perfected by early natural historians. Here you can find five instructional videos recorded by individuals and institutions from different parts of the world. Every recording shows slightly different tools employed but the overall procedure remains the same. Anshul Fernando is a nature artist who has butterfly farms in many countries such as Sri Lanka and India. He cultivates rare butterflies and sells them after pinning. He uses a standard traditional insect pinning set up that […]

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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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