Even the Wildlife Isn’t Real

This interesting story (Wildlife filmmaker Chris Palmer shows that animals are often set up to succeed) just came out in the Washington Post in response to environmental film maker Chris Palmer’s new scandalous (you can tell this word has various degrees of seriousness for the average reader) tell-all about the fakery that goes on in capturing the natural side of wildlife.

I was a little distraught to find out my own idol, David Attenborough (I will forever observe interesting moments of animal behavior in nature with an astute British man’s voice narrating the action in my head) has even indulged in staging a moment of coital bliss between a pair of scorpions in a studio. However, one would have to be a bit thick (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) to realize the scene in Blue Planet where they show deep sea fish and plankton zipping about involves souped-up sound effects. First of all, the nature of sound in the sea means we hear ocean audible in a very distorted manner, but I hardly think minute little ctenophores sound like 80’s influenced sci-fi spaceships.

But perhaps the most horrifying part of the article is this little clip:

“The lemmings that plunge to their deaths in the 1958 Disney documentary “White Wilderness” were hurled ingloriously to their doom by members of the crew, as a Canadian documentary revealed.”

I will not be able to watch an animal documentary for a bit yet without thinking there may perhaps be an over-worked wildlife cinematographer roughing up the baby seals before the next take so they look nice for the camera…

And on the same type of note, the photo featured above was taken by wildlife photographer José Luis Rodriguez, recently stripped of his National History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year title. Tiger Woods ain’t got nothing on being a wildlife documentarian….

From MSN: Volcano Traps Attenborough in Frozen Arctic

Volcano traps Attenborough in frozen Arctic

13:30 AEST Sat Apr 17 2010

1 hour 57 minutes ago

By ninemsn staff

//

Veteran broadcaster David Attenborough has found himself trapped in the freezing Arctic Circle as airspace remains closed following Iceland’s volcano eruption.

The 83-year-old BBC presenter took a private plane to a remote part of Norway to film melting polar icecaps before the ash-spewing Eyjafjallajokull volcano grounded all European flights.

Britain’s national broadcaster reportedly holds fears Attenborough and his small team will run out of food if the crisis continues much longer.

Attenborough is at the Arctic filming more episodes of his popular Frozen Planet series.

TV industry rumours have abounded that this was already going to be Attenborough’s final foray into an extreme environment before retiring from his more gruelling adventures.

Just six weeks ago he was at the South Pole following in the footsteps of one of his boyhood idols, explorer Captain Scott.

A spokesman for the BBC said Attenborough was currently holed up in a hotel.

“They were unharmed and their schedule has not been affected,” he told the Daily Mail newspaper.

“They are expected to be in Norway for some days to come.”

New Dolphin Feeding Strategy – Mud Rings

This has been posted multiple other places but seemed interesting enough to post here. The clip is from the new Attenborough series “Life”:

This is yet another case of clever animals quickly adapting their behavior in beneficial, clever ways (see my earlier post on orcas to see another example).

Check out the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary newsletter from spring of 2002 that first reports this behavior.

Ocean Acidification – The “Other” Inconvenient Truth

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has just produced a film called “Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification.”  The short film, which clocks in at about 21 minutes, features narration by Sigourney Weaver who also lent her voice to the recent Planet Earth series (although I happen to have the David Attenborough version, as I have a great deal of reverence for him and his narrative skills).

Most of us think of “carbon” as a buzzword intimately connected to the concept of global warming (the more apt word really is “climate change” as increased CO2 can, through complex and interesting ways, actually lead to cooling trends; but that’s a whole other topic…) but in terms of the ocean can lead to other unfortunate repercussions. The ocean has always been a major sink for CO2 and for quite some time has resisted strong ill effects due to its natural buffering system. A buffering system in chemistry terms allows a liquid (in this case, our “liquid” would be the entirety of the world’s oceans) to resist changes in pH when either acids or bases are added…. to a point. At some level, the system becomes “overwhelmed” and can no longer resist radical changes in pH.

The phenomenon’s name, “ocean acidification”, indicates the oceans are dropping in their pH, increasing in Hydrogen ions, and becoming more acidic in their composition. As more carbon pours into the sea, free carbonate ions (CO3) which are part of the oceans buffering system end up being tied up by the addition of extra CO2 (for the chemistry of this, check out the Center For Ocean Solutions’ Ocean Acidification page – the link is provided in resources at the end of this post). Unfortunately, carbonate is also a very necessary ingredient for the formation of the shells of a variety of organisms – corals, shellfish, pterapods, some types of plankton, etc. The lack of a supply of these carbonate ions actually can cause the shells of these creatures to dissolve, greatly increasing these species’ mortality.

The decalcification issue is also thought to be a stressor in what has been suggested as the return of the ocean to a primordial state, marked by a decrease in marine biodiversity and among other things, an increase in gelatinous marine organisms, most notably jellyfish. There are certainly a mix of reasons for the increase of jellies, but the decrease in shelled organisms helps release their gelatinous counterparts from competition for resources.

According to the Center for Ocean Solutions, other negative impacts include acidosis (a build-up of carbonic acid in marine organisms’ tissues leading to decreased immune response and other health consequences) and changes to the way sound travels underwater, resulting in the absorption of low frequency sounds which can inhibit communications and other uses of sound between sea creatures.

It’s yet another real and present danger we’re facing in today’s oceans.

Resources:

Chemtoons: Animations about how acids, bases, and buffers work

Center for Ocean Solutions: Decalcification

Center for Ocean Solutions: Ocean Acidification

Karl Grossman: The Jellyfish Revenge

NRDC – Ocean Acidification: The Other CO2 Problem

Epic Humpback Whale Battle Filmed

Here is the video containing said footage for the BBC “Life” series, narrated by David Attenborough (one of my favorite people, really):

I’ll let the BBC news article do the excellent job og explaning this:

It is the greatest animal battle on the planet, and it has finally been caught on camera.

A BBC natural history crew has filmed the “humpback whale heat run”, where 15m long, 40 tonne male whales fight it out to mate with even larger females.

During the first complete sequence of this behaviour ever captured, the male humpbacks swim at high speed behind the female, violently jostling for access.

The collisions between the males can be violent enough to kill.

The footage was recorded for the BBC natural history series Life.

“Even though this is one of the most common of the large whales, very little is known about its actual sexual behaviour,” says Life producer Dr Ted Oakes.

“One of the most interesting things is that humpbacks have never been seen to mate.”

But what has been filmed is the epic battle between males to get mating access to the female whales.

Up to 40 males swim behind a single female at speeds of up to ten knots, each jostling to obtain a dominant position.

“It’s the closest we’re ever going to get to dinosaurs fighting. It’s the largest battle in the animal kingdom and it feels like something out of Jurassic Park,” says Dr Oakes.