A rather beautiful depiction of the interconnected networks and cycles of a natural ecosystem, illustrated by Katie Scott, animated by James Paulley, and directed by Azuma Makoto.
Category Archives: Nature
A varispeed 4K montage by filmmaker Tyler Fairbank combining time lapse and flow-motion to stitch together highlights – from Okavango to Chobe to the Kalahari Desert – of a recent trip to Botswana.
An extraordinary display filmed at Jemeluk Bay in Bali by Abyss Dive Center Bali instructor Marie-Laure Vergne: juvenile striped eel catfish (Plotosus Lineatus) forming a dense mass, mimicking a much larger single creature to ward off predators.
Behold: vivid iridescent nacreous or ‘mother of pearl’ clouds over Tandalen in Sweden late last week. To wit:
…they are rare. This northern winter season they have been making unforgettable appearances at high latitudes, though. A type of polar stratospheric cloud, they form when unusually cold temperatures in the usually cloudless lower stratosphere form ice crystals. Still sunlit at altitudes of around 15 to 25 kilometers the clouds can diffract sunlight after sunset and before the dawn.
Image: P-M Hedén (Clear Skies, TWAN)
The Deep Sea: a fun web toy where you can scroll down through the living depths of marine species from the shallows to the Challenger Deep.
Explore it here.
Halo You
at
A spectacular (and very rare) ice halo photographed (on an iPhone) by Michael Schneider this month in the Swiss Alps. According to Schneider, the phenomenon developed gradually as fog dissipated at the top of a ski resort.
The annotated overlay (using information from this site on atmospheric optics) was created by Mark McCaughrean.
Previously: Dublin Rainbow
A short film by cinematographer Chris Bryan, who worked on BBC’s ‘Blue Planet II’, showing the mesmerising crash and surge of ocean waves in slow motion. Sez he:
I love filming in the ocean more than anything, its not just a job, its a passion. And sometimes its nice just to document waves without surfers riding them. The feeling of jumping off the rocks in the dark by myself just to capture the very first rays of light hitting the ocean without another sole in sight is unexplainable, its one of the most amazing feelings ever, its like my own personal therapy.
Another descent into the natural world by zefrank. This time, the odiferous, asphalt-cracking mycology of Phallaceae, or Stinkhorn mushrooms.
Previously: True Facts About Plant Hoppers
Crabbit
at
The Desert Rain Frog or Boulenger’s short-headed frog (Breviceps macrops) – under threat from habitat loss in its native Namibia and South Africa.
Understandably pissed off about that.