The Ark In Space

The Amazing Hummingbird Hawk Moth

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

It hovers, it hums – but it is not a hummingbird. Take a look at one of, if not the most amazing, certainly the coolest insects on the planet - The Hummingbird Hawk Moth.

Image Credit Wikimedia

The Silver Fox: Vivacious Variant of Vulpes vulpes

Friday, 12 August 2016

If you came to this page looking for a feature on George Clooney, Harrison Ford or Sean Connery then sorry to disappoint you – this is the wrong place! This particular silver fox has been around a good deal longer than the movies though its story could be easily made in to a film without a doubt. You could also be under the impression that the silver fox is a species related to the red fox. There, too, you would be mistaken. They are the same species.

Image Credit Flickr User dbarronoss

The Bobbit Worm Catches its Prey

If you are of a nervous disposition then you may not want to press play. Otherwise, steel yourself for the remarkable site of a bobbit worm (Eunice aphroditois) catching its prey. The worm lives on the ocean floor, burying it body which can grow up to three meters in length in the seabed. It waits and when one of its five antennae is stimulated by an approaching sea creature it attacks. This is done with such speed that it has been seen to slice its prey in half.

You might wonder what the bobbit worm does when the prey is larger than it is. Although it quite often kills its quarry on the first strike the bobbit worm injects a fatal toxin in to the prey animal. This incredible video was shot by Khaled Sultani, filmed with Light & Motion Bluefin pro housing / CX550 with Sola lights.

Island of the Ladies

Wednesday, 10 August 2016

This is a collection of clips captured near Isla Mujeres Island, Mexico. The whale sharks and manta rays in this video gather at Isle Mujeres each year to feed on tuna and snapper spawn.

Sit back and enjoy the wonderful images captured by natural history filmmakers Howard and Michele Hall whose work you may well have seen on Nature and Secrets of the Ocean Realm. It is all quite stunning.

Gibbon Versus Dog

This is a video of my B Leon’s dog Dam, fighting with the neighborhood Gibbon in Thailand near the Mayanmar (Burma) border.

The gibbons's name is Chani (gibbon, Thai), and the dogs name is Dam (black, Thai). Mr Leon did not name the dog, but it is a traditional Thai name for a black dog or cat. He found the majority of pets names in Thailand corresponded to their colors. He did name the gibbon though.

Chani was extremely friendly to B Leon during his stay in Thailand; she would sit on his shoulder and groom his hair, and loved to be swung by her arms or legs. Her strength is phenomenal; yet don't be fooled by how gentle and playful she is with Dam. She was seen to grab birds on the fly with lightening fast reflexes and snap their necks all in a split second. Chani has always been gentle kind and playful and motherly around pets, friends and children. Feeding animals especially monkeys in Thailand is believed to bring a blessing in Thai Buddhism.

The Tortoise Beetle - Amazing Metallic Arthropods

Monday, 8 August 2016

They look almost manufactured. Many tortoise beetles have transparent cuticles, the tough but flexible outer covering which gives the insect family its name protects the delicate creature within. The living tissue is often metallic in color and can in some species even change color. The combination is as diverse as it is extraordinary – many look like tiny robots assembled to infiltrate, the ultimate bug. Take a look in at the amazing variations of tortoise beetle our world holds.

Image Credit Flickr User CharlesLam

Wildebeest Cross the Mara – Amazing Time-lapse Footage

Do you want to see something completely jaw-dropping? You may well have seen the annual wildebeest migration on the TV or, if you are very luck for real. Each year these large beasts take part in what is known as the Great Migration – it is one of the most iconic events in Africa. As the wildebeest migrate they must cross over the mighty Mara River.

Yet have you ever seen it done as a time-lapse? This just made my jaw drop – the wonderful footage captures the sheer scale of the migration in a way that I have not seen before. This amazing film was created by Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas a team of brothers from the UK who specialize in wildlife photography.

Here, through a combination of telephoto video clips and wide-angle time-lapse sequences, they aimed to illustrate the scale and drama of this incredible spectacle. They had never before seen a wildebeest river crossing recorded in this way and as far as they know, this could be the first time that time-lapse has been used to reveal the dynamics of a wildebeest river crossing.

It is, I hope you will agree a simply stunning piece of work.

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper – Last Ditch Attempt to Save the Species

Saturday, 6 August 2016

Image Credit Flickr User nkenji

You are looking at pictures of an incredibly rare bird. This is the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. It is thought that less than one hundred and fifty breeding pairs are alive today. In the next fifteen years this amazingly adapted bird may well slip quietly on to the ever increasing list of species whose extinction has been caused by humans.

Yet if a group of bird experts succeed the spoon-billed sandpiper may pull back from the brink.

Image Credit Flickr User Kentish Plover

Virgin Mothers – The Aphid and the Food Chain

Aphids may be the bottom of the food chain but if they were to suddenly disappear so, quite likely, would a host of other species. One of the more unusual aspects of the life of the aphid is that (apart from a handful of species) are all female. This means that reproduction is parthenogenetic and viviparous. That means that growth and development of the embryo happens without fertilization. It also means that the embryo develops inside the body – in fact the females are born with them.

You can see this happening in the above video, an amazing piece of work by John Dunstan. You will also get to see some of the aphid’s many enemies as well as its sometime caretaker, the ant. The camera work here is worthy of a BBC documentary – I was particularly struck by the shots of the insects struggling with single drops of water. Who would have thought that something that is wet to us could be downright sticky to our much smaller neighbors?

Dogs in Shades

Thursday, 4 August 2016

Image Credit Flickr User Corsner

Let’s face it – dogs are cool. Yet every so often even our canine friends need a little more protection for their eyes. So, out comes the sun and on go the sunglasses. Your average dog suddenly becomes super cool. Let’s take a look at a bunch of dogs in shades. Why? Because we are just as daft as they and their human companions are, probably!

Image Credit Flickr User Randy Son of Robert

Image Credit Flickr User Sister72

Potty Training at the Sloth Orphanage

That must be one of the weirdest post titles ever but it does exactly what it says on the bottle as it were. This is part of a documentary being made by Lucy Cooke about a sloth sanctuary and orphanage in Aviarios del Caribe in Costa Rica. It does extremely important and serious work but there are lighthearted moments to be had. One of them is ensuring that baby sloths learn how to poo (as the lady puts it in the film!) properly.

One of the funniest things I have heard for a long time is the sound of the baby sloth crying on this video - even tho that does sound a little cruel of me. The main subject of the clip brings a smile to the face as the whole process of sloth bowel evacuation is one that seems to end in something close to orgasm for the animal - the blissful look on their faces make them look like teenage stoners after the munchies have been satisfied.

Absolutely Cuckoo Cats

One cat can be a handful, but three altogether?

Here are Lelo, Nega, Cinzy who are just about to show the world exactly how cuckoo cats can actually be.

With a more than appropriate soundtrack to go with it, if you are a cat lover you will love this two minute look in to the lives of three head shaking mischief makers!

It is great to see a bunch of cats just getting on with being cats!

Cheetahs On The Edge

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

The votes were in a long time ago when it came to voting the cheetah one of the most magnificent animals on the planet.

However, you are about to see them in a way which has never been done before. This short film by Gregory Wilson is a combination of the resources of National Geographic and Cincinnati Zoo – using a Phantom camera they caught Cheetahs running at 1200 per second.

Not only that but they did it while driving at speed beside and in front of the cheetahs. In this way they captured every shade and degree of the big cat’s movement even when it was moving at its top speed of sixty miles per hour. The vast amount of frames per second then allowed the filmmakers to create one of the most breath-taking pieces of slow motion footage you are ever likely to see of a cheetah.

If you are interested about learning more about cheetah conservation, please visit Cause An Uproar.

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