National Geographic
cwilcox | May 4, 2009In The Womb: Extreme Animals
Premiering Sunday, May 10th at 9 PM on National Geographic Channel
I first heard about this weekend's amazing special, In the Womb: Extreme Animals way back in October of last year. It was my interest in the incredible images that come from In The Womb that made me stand out to National Geographic in the first place, allowing me to preview all the other awesome specials. So it's with great pleasure that I annouce that finally, after waiting since October, you can see In The Womb: Extreme Animals this weekend, on Sunday, May 10th at 9 PM! The first In The Womb was…
cwilcox | April 30, 2009Parasitic wasps are always an easy target as sci-fi parasites. After all, they were the main inspiration behind the film "Alien" - clearly they're 'sci-fi worthy'. They all do terrible, mean things to their hosts while they eat them alive from the inside out. And, simply, they're just really, really awesome parasites.
This week's wasp, however, is even more special: it's about to be featured in an upcoming National Geographic Channel event called In The Womb: Extreme Animals. Don't worry - I'll give you the down and dirty details on that soon (it premiers on May 10th, just for a head's up).…
cwilcox | April 30, 2009Expedition Grizzlypremiering Sunday, May 3rd at 9 PM ET/PT
Did you know that a full grown grizzly is over 8 feet tall when it stands on its hind legs and can easily move a one ton boulder with its powerful arm muscles?
This Sunday is your chance to learn more about this fascinating animal. National Geographic Channel is premiering an up-close and in-depth look into the world of grizzly bears unlike any I've ever seen.
The special is hosted by biologist and bear expert Casey Anderson, who takes us along to look at what he does every year while tracking and monitoring the grizzly population in…
cwilcox | April 13, 2009The frozen tundra that covers a majority of Russia and northern Asia is a hard place to live. The average winter temperature is 30 below zero, and winter seems to last a lifetime. The short summer, which still gets only glancing rays of sun, barely breaks above freezing. It's so cold year round that part of the ground never defrosts. Without the flowing groundwater and rich sunlight of more southern climates, the tundra cannot support trees. That's its defining trait, really - "tundra" comes from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain.
The dominant plant life, thus, are the grasses…
cwilcox | March 4, 2009Now this is one big baby! It's the youngest blue whale ever filmed. You know you want to check out the upcoming special this weekend!
Kingdom of the Blue Whale this Sunday, March 8, at 8 p.m. ET/PT
cwilcox | February 27, 2009
This giant freshwater stingray was caught as a part of a National Geographic expedition in Thailand this week. It weighed in at a whopping 550 to 990 lbs and was as wide as a full grown man is tall. For the record, that would be one huge, painful barb to be stung by. The expedition was searching for "Megafishes" as a part of a documentary on Earth's 20 largest freshwater fish.
The gargantuan ray is one of the 200 species of rays and is currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN red list. Little is known about their ecology since fishing decimated their populations. The National Geographic…
cwilcox | February 7, 2009Tonight, I presume, you all are going to tune in and check out National Geographic's Morphed series. It was truly a blast to watch!
But, what are your plans for this Tuesday? Because the fun's only just begun, and let me tell you, they saved the best for last.
On Feb 10th starting at 9 PM, the National Geographic Channel premiers two other Darwin special features, and they are AMAZING.
Technically, I watched the second one first, so I'm going to review it that way. You'll just have to deal.
At 10 PM on Tuesday you should tune in to catch Monster Fish of the Congo. It tracks a team of…
grrlscientist | January 3, 2009tags: Iceland, environment, Iceland, nature, image of the day
Iceland.
Image: Orvar Thorgiersson [larger view].
Icelander Orvar Thorgiersson won a Merit Award in the World in Focus competition for this image. He snapped his image just five minutes from his home. "I find this lava-rock cove and old house very interesting," he says. "It was the first time I shot it covered with snow. I like the contrast of the chilled surroundings with the warmth coming from the house windows." An engineer, Thorgiersson says photography gives him a creative outlet.
Go here to see more images. This image…
grrlscientist | December 18, 2008tags: National Geographic, Vanuatu, Pencil Urchin, biodiversity, image of the day
Image: David Lane, University of Brunei.
My friends at National Geographic have provided permission for me to share some of the images from the recent discovery of a huge number of new species on and around the south Pacific island of Vanuatu.
Tiny Tropical Island Yields a Wealth of Species
The thick, solid spines of a pencil sea urchin jut out like the writing instruments that lend this creature its name.
These nocturnal animals hide in coral reef cavities during the day and crawl out after dark to forage…
grrlscientist | December 17, 2008tags: National Geographic, Vanuatu, cockle, biodiversity, image of the day
Image: Delphine Brabant, MNHN.
My friends at National Geographic have provided permission for me to share some of the images from the recent discovery of a huge number of new species on and around the south Pacific island of Vanuatu.
Tiny Tropical Island Yields a Wealth of Species
A cockle's large, muscular foot juts through an opening in the mantle supporting its shell.
The cockle bends and straightens the foot to jump away from predators in its shallow-water ocean habitat off the island of Espiritu Santo,…
grrlscientist | December 16, 2008tags: National Geographic, Vanuatu, sundial snail, biodiversity, image of the day
Image: Annelise Fleddum, University of Oslo.
My friends at National Geographic have provided permission for me to share some of the images from the recent discovery of a huge number of new species on and around the south Pacific island of Vanuatu.
Tiny Tropical Island Yields a Wealth of Species
Scientists sampled some 4,000 different mollusk species in Espiritu Santo. Mollusk expert Philippe Bouchet speculates that as many as 1,000 of these could be new species.
Among the finds: this sundial snail, already…
grrlscientist | December 15, 2008tags: National Geographic, Vanuatu, lobster, biodiversity, image of the day
Image: Dr Tin-Yam Chan, University of Keelung.
My friends at National Geographic have provided permission for me to share some of the images from the recent discovery of a huge number of new species on and around the south Pacific island of Vanuatu.
Tiny Tropical Island Yields a Wealth of Species
November 24, 2008--Even on tiny remote islands, scientists can find an impressive array of life.
During the Santo 2006 biodiversity survey in Vanuatu, 153 scientists from 20 countries fanned out across the remote South…
zooillogix | October 3, 2008
Zooillogix has a lot of Belgian readers. This makes us uncomfortable. One such pale reader, Thomas Cordie, pointed us to some beautiful photos of right whales on National Geographic. Despite my temptation to just copy them all for you to enjoy, I'm posting one, and suggesting you take a look over there.
More NGC stuff below the fold:
A lion rides a horse in China for some reason.
Thanks goatrodeo.
grrlscientist | September 22, 2008tags: ornithology, birds, avian, National Geographic
A dragonfly has no stinger, but a European bee-eater, Merops apiaster, will beat it senseless anyway, the same way it handles its namesake prey. If the fly's wings break off, they are discarded, not eaten. The insect is then devoured as a single morsel, not as a mini-buffet of bite-size bits.
Image: Jözsef L. Szentpéteri/National Geographic online. [larger view].
I mentioned this last week, but I think it deserves a second mention: My contact, an editor at National Geographic, just sent me a link to a story and photoessay that…
grrlscientist | September 16, 2008tags: ornithology, birds, avian, National Geographic
Painting the Sky
A brilliant blur as it plucks a butterfly from the air, the European bee-eater, Merops apiaster, leads a colorful life on three continents.
Image: Jözsef L. Szentpéteri/National Geographic [larger view].
My contact, an editor at National Geographic, just sent me a link to a story and photoessay that details the courtship and breeding of European Bee-eaters, Merops apiaster. The story is fascinating and well-worth reading and the photographs, as always for National Geographic, brings tears of wonder to one's eyes.
grrlscientist | July 30, 2008tags: flamingos, baboons, nature, streaming video
This streaming National Geographic video shows a group of hungry baboons in Kenya's Lake Bogoria that find themselves surrounded by a million unsuspecting, and unprotected, flamingos. I am sure you can guess what happens next. [2:40]
zooillogix | July 21, 2008Two doozies in a row brought to you today by our good friend Kevin Zelnio of Deep Sea News and The Other 95%. The first is this awesomeness:
Amazing video of a giant freshwater stingray caught in Thailand and covered as part of National Geographic's Megafishes Project. This specimen measured 14ft long but fisherman in Thailand and Cambodia claim they can grow many times larger. Little is known about these freshwater giants but if the fishermen are to be believed (and why would a fishermen ever exaggerate a fish's size?!), these stingrays, also known as whip rays, could be the world's largest…
awild | April 15, 2008
Forelius mccooki (small ants) & Pogonomyrmex desertorum
Tucson, Arizona
In last August's National Geographic, photographer Mark Moffett has a controversial photo essay depicting a large, motionless harvester ant being worked over by smaller Dorymyrmex workers. Moffett's interpretation of the behavior is this:
While observing seed-harvester ants on the desert flats west of Portal, Arizona, I noticed workers would approach a nest of a tiny, unnamed species of the genus Dorymyrmex. A harvester would rise up on her legs with abdomen lifted and jaws agape, seemingly frozen in place. Soon…
zooillogix | October 12, 2007We were sent a link to this vid by a promotions guy working for National Geographic hoping we would bring some grass roots attention to a new show they have coming up. Well we will, but only because it's great watching this moron get what he deserves.
Hopefully we will see more of Brady Barr getting bitten in the future on National Geographic's new show, Dangerous Encounters.
sb admin | August 9, 2006The mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with similar energy. It would not perhaps be too fanciful to say that a new idea is the most quickly acting antigen known to science. If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated. -Wilfred Batten Lewis Trotter (1872-1939) English surgeon. [via]