Digitial Release of Bjork, Dirty Projectors Collaberation to Benefit Nat Geo’s Ocean Initiatives

Bjork and the Dirty Projectors (a band that’s garnered some buzz  last year with their release Bitter Orca) have re-released a recent collaborative effort of theirs in digital form, this time to benefit Nat Geo’s Ocean Initiatives.

The original work, dubbed Mount Wittenberg Orca, was originally composed and preformed to benefit the homeless and an AIDS advocacy group.It’s fitting however, that the songs are being re-released to provide further assistance to a slightly different cause. According to the nat-geo article on this recent news item, the work was actually inspired by the ocean:

“Together they wrote and performed a new suite of songs called “Mount Wittenberg Orca,” which was inspired by Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman sighting of a family of Orcas on the California coast, and features Björk singing the part of the mom whale.”

Purchase and download the EP here.

Nat Geo Repost: New Leviathan Whale Attacks

Illustration by C. Letenneur, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

Evoking the poster for the original summer blockbuster, a new species of killer sperm whale attacks a baleen whale in an illustration.

Dubbed Leviathan melvillei—an homage to Moby-Dick author Herman Melville—the recently unearthed fossil sea monster lived about 13 million years ago in waters atop what’s now a Peruvian desert, according to a study published by the journal Nature on Wednesday.

Living alongside the largest sharks ever known, the raptorial—meaning actively hunting—whale measured about 60 feet (18 meters) in length, about as big as a modern male sperm whale.

But whereas modern sperm whales feed primarily on squid, Leviathan’s large teeth—some of which measured more than a foot (36 centimeters) long—suggest the whale hunted more challenging prey, including perhaps its close whale relatives.

“It was probably a very powerful and frightening animal, so it fits well with the description Melville made of Moby-Dick,” said lead study author Olivier Lambert, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

(Related picture: “Whale Found in Egypt Desert.”)

—Ker Than

Published June 30, 2010

Frogs shake it like a polaroid picture…

In yet another late-night bout of animal voyeurism, male red-eyed tree frogs have been discovered to shake their rumps when entering into a show of dominance with another male.

read a National geographic release about the strange behavior here.

An excerpt:

No, they’re not shivering. And no, they’re not getting shocked. These red-eyed tree frogs in Panama have been recorded shaking their behinds to send a message.

This shaking, known as tremulation, is a form of communication between male tree frogs.

The males are tremulating to establish which is the dominant male. They’re claiming territory for their ‘calling area’ where they spend the night calling for a female mate.

Sometimes, the shaking leads to wrestling among males… and maybe even more shaking, until the loser retreats.

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On the other hand, my aimless poking around on the interwebs has led to my discovery of other frog related items including videos of the Surinam toad whose offspring are born out of pockets in the toad’s back. it’s sort of distressing to watch:

And also that Germany and Denmark suffered a strange bout of exploding toads in 2005. Who knew?

He didn’t even have a chance – Sea lion attacks octopus

In yet another interesting nat geo crittercam reveal, a sea lion was captured eating a large octopus. This and other video footage proves the animals utilize the seabed as a feeding ground rather than focusing on pelagic (open ocean) species of fish. This helps verify that the designation of marine parks which protect seafloor habitat will serve to benefit sea lions.

Black Penguin is a Rarity

The content for this post has been circulating on Nat Geo, Yahoo, and TreeHugger among other places. This  strange soot-colored King penguin took both researchers and Nat Geo contributing editor Andrew Evens by surprise:

“Our group from Lindblad Expeditions spotted this very unique bird at Fortuna Bay on the subantarctic island of South Georgia. Out of several thousand pairs of king penguins, this was the only individual that was entirely black although earlier in the morning I had spotted another that showed muted coloration. Recent science papers (PDF) show that the trait has been documented only a handful of times in South Georgia. Some fellow travelers recall seeing a melanistic penguin at St. Andrew’s Bay, also on South Georgia.”

The black penguin was shown to Dr. Allen Baker, ornithologist and professor of Environmental and Evolutionary Studies at the University of Toronto and head of the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum for further feedback. When he recovered from his initial astoundment, he noted the most unusual aspect  of the bird’s coloring was the areas of a King Penguin that are white/light colored generally are so because they lack melanin, the pigment that allows for skin, feathers, and fur to take on color. This presumable mutation has in a sense allowed the penguin’s natural pigmentation to go beserk. Dr. Baker also noticed this particular bird appears to have notably over-sized legs as compared to a normal specimen (you can see this in the photograph if you compare our black penguin with the normally colored penguin in the background).

The probability of finding a King penguin illustrating some kind of non-typical coloration is approximately 1 in 250,000. Because this is such an unusual mutation, the likelihood of finding more of these jet-black birds is anticipated at far, far less.  Read the blog post at National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel Blog.

Giant Redwood is Nat Geo’s Miss October

This amazing composite image of a tree three hundred some-odd feet tall was featured as a centerfold in last year’s October edition of National Geographic. Nat Geo sent their photographer, Michael Nichols, to live among the redwoods for a year. Read NPR’s article about the process of taking the photo which proved challenging and arduous:

“In a recent lecture at National Geographic in Washington, D.C., Nichols described his frustrations. Eventually, though, he devised a way to do redwoods justice. It involved three cameras, a team of scientists, a robotic dolly, a gyroscope, an 83-photo composite and a lot of patience.”

Michael Nichols work provided the see-it-to-believe it visuals the associated Redwood article needed. I also love the on-line format of National Geographic because of the full use of the medium to provide amazing content associated with their features, like the interactive maps and wildlife atlas of the Redwoods featured here. Also see more of Michael Nichol’s photo work by clicking on his photo of the white rhinoceros below:

Tree Kangaroos – Another Unsuspecting Recipient of Crittercams

Tree kangaroos are just one of the latest type of animal to be subjected to critter camerization. While there may be some stunned and confused tree kangaroos walking around initially, the act of attaching cameras to these fuzzy mammals may give researchers some insight into their behavior. The critter cams used for this specific venture were developed and provided by national geographic. See the video describing the research below:

There are approximately 12 species of tree kangaroo, but the focus of this particular effort is the Matschie’s Tree-kangaroo, resident of Papua New Guinea, and as described in the related article, decidedly similar in appearance to a plush toy. They are considered critically endangered, but are targeted by conservation efforts that include locals who highly value these animals.

See Through Creatures – I can see your… AHHHH

So the creation of see-through organisms is fast becoming an interesting new addition to scientific progress. The newest development is a Japanese-developed see-through goldfish. You can see its organs working in concert while viewing it’s teeny tiny brain that accounts for its notoriously supposed seconds-long memory span. (Previously, other sp of fish had been bred to be clear, such as zebrafish, a research favorite, allowing scientists to do things like watch cancer cells grow.)

This fast followed the fairly recent unveiling of a see-through frog, also developed in Japan. The ultimate goal was to breed organisms that would eliminate the need for dissection in science classrooms. Many of us were not fast fans of the sweet, unpleasant smell of whatever preserving agent the dead frogs (or what have you) were pickled in, and while scooting the various little blobs of organs around the dissecting tray rarely obtained a keen sense of how everything worked in synergy. So I definitely have to applaud the new additions to the world of translucence…

However, no one can really beat that exhibitionist, nature, at producing organisms that have no issue letting it all hang out…

A naturally translucent family of frogs, commonly called glass or crystal frogs, already exists; and are found mostly in Central to South America, including a recently discovered species in Ecuador:

Another terrestrial example, the glass-winged butterfly:

Translucence in the ocean is nothing new, and can essentially produce a way to “hide” from other visual predators (which would presumably be the same reason it appears in terrestrial creatures)

National Geographic - Translucent Shrimp catching a ride on a clear jelly

Natural Geographic photo gallery – Translucent Sea Creatures

But, I shudder to think about the day they manage to create see-through people…

Paul Nicklen’s Brush with the Leopard Seal

Paul Nicklen is a breathtakingly talented nature photographer:

Check out more of his stunning photographs at his website: Paul Nicklen photography, and read about his upcoming book: Polar Obsession

But the purpose of this post is to highlight a clip that’s garnered alot of attention:

I certainly didn’t realize leopard seals were considered a danger to people but apparently their attacks have resulted in the death of at least one marine researcher, making this particular interaction all the more amazing.

National Geographic recently did an excellent article on leopard seals using the photo contributions of Paul Nicklen. Click the picture below to access the feature:

 

The Whale That Ate Jaws

Nat Geo clip:

The Farallon islands are a group of jagged islands off the coast of California. They’ve become an area of great interest to shark researchers as great whites choose to spend time aggregating there. Author Susan Casey wrote a book about this called Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks (the book is well worth a read but take heed that the story is just as much about the author as about the sharks). Peter Pyle, a shark biologist on the islands, is referenced in the book as well as the clip.

I find this incident interesting on a couple different levels. First, we don’t often think of great whites succumbing to other predators, which seems to have fed into our fear of this creature.

Also, if you watch an associated clip: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/wild/4669/Overview#tab-Videos/07504_00, it appears the orca may have exploited the phenomenon of tonic immobility, which I wrote a blog entry on previously. I’ve also written on the differing hunting behavior of orcas. Nature likes to keep us guessing….