Owner: NHNZ Images URL:http://nhnzimages.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:00:26 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: We show some of the pictures and tell the stories behind the intriguing, inspiring and arresting images from the television documentary film footage that is available from the NHNZ Images stockshot library. Site statistics:Click here
Cough cough splutter splutter 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Cough cough splutter splutter, that's cetainly what you'd be doing if you got caught in the steam and gas from White Island.White Island, is a large active marine volcano lies just off the northern coast of New Zealand. Some 70% of it is below sea-level. It is the "northernmost active volcano in the Taupo Volcanic Zone - a 250km-long zone of intense volcanism that marks the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates.'[quoted from the NZ GNS website]The fires of its birth still smoulder. Small volcanic eruptions are frequent; the air reeks of sulphur from vents and fumeroles. The gases emitted are mostly steam, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide which gives it the smell. In 1914 eleven sulphur miners were killed on the island, when part of the crater wall collapsed. There is no mining nowadays, but plenty of tourists take a helicopter or boat trip out to the island.The New Zealand Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences has a webcam at the crater, and plenty more
An Unusual Little Fish 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is the black angelfish. It cultivates a small garden of red and green seaweed in its backyard. The black angelfish is ecologically correct. It picks but never over crops its plot of sea plants. It is one of only six herbivorous fishes in New Zealand. A continuous fringe of small sharp teeth and a pair of strong jaws means it can keep chomping all day long.It is unusual for a tropical fish to be herbivorous, it is also unusual in that all adults are more or less the same size. About 18 months after hatching it will grow rapidly to adult size, and then stop. Most fish, of course, continue to grow throughout their lives.Unusual too, in how it breeds. Males select a suitable nest site, which it prepares for the female to lay eggs, by biting off all the encrusting gunk, leaving only a nice comfortable bed of green algae. The male will guard the nest against all comers. He may end up with eggs from several females to over see to maturity. The juveniles are coloured very differentl
Cute Furry Marmots 2007-03-05 21:13:00 Himalayan marmots emerge from a six-month hibernation. Marmots are fast breeding rodents. In the warmer half of the year, they're an important source of food for Himalayan carnivores - including snow leopards and wolves.In the first few weeks of spring, marmots breed. They mate underground where it's safer, but hierarchies are established in contests outside the burrows.Marmot battles can be serious, but this match is as much ritual as fight.Marmot burrows honeycomb a sunny slope. Their diggings and droppings encourage grass growth. Despite the risk from predators, they spend most of their days above ground. Marmots must pack a year’s eating into half that time.Marmots are closely related to North American prairie dogs in both species both female and male adults in the colony take responsibility for the young.These sstill frames are taken from NHNZ Images collection of moving pictures availabel for sale for your production. Please check out our demo reels, and our on-line catalogue Read more:Furry
Gooney Birds on Midway Atoll 2007-03-12 23:23:00 Just like you'd guess from its name, Midway
Atoll is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, half way between the US mainland and Japan. That geography made it a strategic outpost during the second world war.The atoll's best known inhabitant would have to be the gooney bird.Over three-quarters of a million laysan albatross or gooneys nest at midway every year, that's seventy one percent of the world's population.From July to October, most birds are out at sea, feeding at night on fish and squid. They come ashore for the breeding season. The chicks hatch around January to February, and spend the next six months practising their take-offs and landings.These still images are taken from movies that NHNZ Images has in its collection, and which are available for sale to include in your production, please check out our website for the on-line catalogue, demo reels, and soon to be launched newsletter.If you'd like to subscribe to this blog, check out the panel on the right, and while you' Read more:Birds
Jawsfull of teeth 2007-03-20 04:51:00 The jaws of the great white shark have a deadly reputation but it takes a high-speed camera to show how beautifully designed they are. These images are still frames from an NHNZ Images film clip.When a white shark attacks, it comes in a rush fast enough to push its one ton body half way out of the water. It doesn't simply open its mouth and bite. At the moment of strike the top of jaw actually extends forward for maximum chomp. Just one bite can cut you in half or leave you bleeding to death. The eye of the shark is rolled backwards into the eye socket so that it is protected.That's why we call them the ultimate predator.Over 120 million years of evolution has created those jaws, sharks have been around much longer than the dinosaurs. The lower jaws act as a holding tool, which enables the shark to hold the prey whereas the upper jaw throws out from gums and acts as a cutting tool. Inside those jaws the implement of destruction are these teeth
. Big triangular teeth ith lots of s
Tuskers and Timber Elephants 2007-03-27 06:26:00 Great civilisations to flourished here, in Sri Lanka, over a thousand years ago. But it might never have happened - without the help of elephants. Their feet pounded the foundations of the cities. Their strength hauled millions of tons of stone for the dams and temples. They harvested timber from the forests.In Sri Lanka only a very few male elephants carry tusks - and they're usually larger than other males. The bright red patches near his eyes show he's in musth, the male breeding condition, when his testosterone level soars to sixty times normal.Some of these youngsters may be his offspring from earlier visits. Now, the large groups of elephants which come here (Uda Walawe National Park) to feed include females who are ready to breed. He's probably mated already, and now he's keeping other males at bay by guarding the herd. But soon he'll leave them, perhaps for many months.Males take no part in rearing their offspring - their youngsters are raised in the stable matriarchal
Pink Maomao 2007-04-03 03:49:00 Schools of pink maomao Caprodon longimanus congregate during the day where they have herded their plankton prey (tiny red euphausid shrimps or krill) near the surface and where escape is limited. Here in the Poor Knight's Islands Marine Reserve off the northern coast of New Zealand they mostly live where there is a moderate current, and the areas natural archways, tunnels and cave entrances seethe with them.They are usually found in water between 15 and 60m deep, but occasionally will school nearer the surface. Their extremely long pectoral fins suggested the species name longimanus and these help the fish to manoeuvre accurately and rapidly. Their deeply forked tails and elongate body-plan (they can grow to 50cm) is typical of open ocean species.However, there is less co-ordination in the maomao schools than amongst silery fish schools of the open sea, which swim in schools for protection. 'Pink maomao swim in a more casual type of school, turning and twisting as individuals and pe
Poor Knights Dolphins 2007-04-09 23:35:00 The Poor Knights
Islands are a small group of unihabited islands about 12 miles off the northern coast of New Zealand. They were designated as New Zealand's second marine reserve in 1981, and managed by the Department of Conservation. Permits are needed to land (usually only granted for scientific research purposes), but there are several tourist operations that conduct scuba dive operations. The Poor Knights is reckoned to be one of the top ten dive locations in the world.Schools of bottlenosed dolphins(Tursiops truncatus) and common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) can be seen feeding on shoals of fish, which they may well have herded to the surface, in this location. The general surface commotion which ensues, attracts flocks of seabirds - mostly southern black backed and red billed gulls. Herding behaviour has been seen in both species, as well as dusky, spinner, white-beaked and spotted dolphins.The common dolphin has 180 teeth in its jaw which it uses to hold the fish fast while it Read more:Dolphins
Debris, Garbage and Rubbish 2007-04-17 04:53:00 This week's posting is not about cute, cuddly or other interesting bits of wildlife. This is the natural history of waste. While filming in waters off the Philippine island of Cebu, the crew encountered a typhoon, a common enough experience for that part of the world, and in itself not very remarkable perhaps. Though it did create some interesting rain drops on sea water effects, as you can see from this still image taken from the film.No, the point of interest in this week's posting lies with the amount of debris which the winds and currents churned up, to produce a long slick of flotsam and jetsam.What astonishes me is the sheer amount of true debris, garbage, and rubbish that you can see, hidden amongst the uprooted and broken bits of seaweed. Most obvious is plastic, plus other unidentifable things, the origins of which I don't really want to guess. Of course I know that the oceans are polluted, and have been for decades, but it's not until you have close personal experience t Read more:Debris
, Garbage
Black Robin: back from the brink of extinction 2007-04-23 23:49:00 This week no apologies for bringing you a success story which although enacted through the 1970s and 1980s still manages to amaze and awe. I'm talking about the rescue of the black robin from the brink of extinction
by the NZ Wildlife Service team led by Don Merton. The still images come from the NHNZ classic film BlackRobin
a Chatham Island Story (1990) - itself a compilation of three documentaries, Black Robin, Seven Black Robins and The Robin's Return which were made during those decades and which were the founding films upon which the formation of NHNZ (formerly TVNZ's Natural History Unit) was based."When Europeans first arrived on the Chatham Islands the black robin (Petroica traversi) was relatively widespread. But in the all too familiar pattern, its numbers dwindled as European settlement progressed. By late last century it had become restricted to a bleak pocket-handkerchief of stunted forest on top of Little Mangere Island. Here it struggled with its impoverished habita
Sea Nettles 2007-05-01 05:46:00 Aptly called nettles these jellyfish sting! They hunt by drifting in the open ocean. When small prey items like crustaceans, larval molluscs, fish eggs and other smaller jellyfish are sensed in the tentacles, hundreds of stinging cells (nematocysts)are fired, which paralyse the prey. Other tentacles then pull the item up into the jellyfish mouth area where it is consumedSea nettles swim continuously with tentacles and oral arms extended. They are common of the Californian and Oregon coastlines, and occasionally to British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska northwards, and have been collected as far south as Mexico.The group (Order Semaeostomeae) that contains sea nettles, also contain other large jellyfish including moon jellies and the largest of all the lion's mane (which can grow to more than 6 feet across at the bell). They typically have four or more frilly oral arms that can be quite long, and a scalloped bell margin.Like all gelatinous sea creatures their bodies are 99 percent wat
Galapagos sharks 2007-05-08 06:11:00 Galapagos sharks are so little studied because they are only found in remote places like the Islands they're named after, the only twist is, this is not the Galapagos Islands, but Midway Atoll.Midway Atoll is a Pacific atoll that lots of us are familiar with, but it's been pretty well off limits to all but government and military personnel for about the last sixty years. Just like you'd guess from its name, Midway Atoll is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, half way between the US mainland and Japan. That geography makes it a strategic outpost.Because public access has been restricted since the war, Midways reefs have grown a healthy population of Galapagos sharks and now that Midway has opened up to tourism, more people are going to meet these sharks than ever before.The Galapagos belongs to a branch of the shark family called whalers. They mainly eat small fish and squid, but they are known to have killed at least one diver in the Virgin Islands.The Galapagos shark is a kind Read more:Galapagos
Monkey Dance 2007-10-01 16:56:00 The island of Bali. A bewildering patchwork of colours and contrasts. An intricate Hindu civilisation prospers based on a strong belief in the cosmic cycles of the gods. Temples dominate the Balinese landscape. Strangely these places of worship are protected by troops. Troops of monkeys the sacred descendants of an all powerful monkey god named Hanuman.On Bali's rugged west coast at the temple of Ulawatu, the monkeys take human form, they are the chorus and heroes of the Kechak or monkey dance. In the monkey dance the divine Prince Rama and his beautiful wife Sita are the central characters of the great Hindu epic the Ramayana.
One day while in the forest a golden deer appears before them. Rama sets off stalking it through the forest. But Sita left alone in a magic circle of protection r Read more:Dance
Oomurasaki Butterfly 2007-09-25 21:56:00 Oomurasaki, the Japanese Purple Emperor, is the National butterfly of Japan.A tiny caterpillar climbs up from the leaf litter where it hibernated over winter.But the colours that were a perfect camouflage in autumn will soon be dangerously conspicuous, for the caterpillar is climbing back into a changing world.To survive, the caterpillar must follow suit.Responding, like the forest, to the lengthening hours of daylight and the rising temperature, it sheds the skin that looks like a dead leaf and assumes the colours of a spring leaf. The caterpillar mimics the leaves on which it will keep feeding until it undergoes its final transformation into a butterfly of summer.The caterpillar that emerged from the leaf litter has grown large and plump. Triggered by a combination of the rising temperat Read more:Butterfly
Tapa: To Wear or Not to Wear? 2007-09-18 18:15:00 Tapa cloth (or simply tapa) is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga and Samoa, but as far afield as Java, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. In French Polynesia it has completely disappeared, except for some villages in the Marquesas.The cloth is known by a number of local names, although the term tapa is international and understood throughout the islands that use the cloth. The word tapa is from Tahiti, where Captain Cook was the first European to pick it up and to introduce it to rest of the world. In Tonga, tapa is known as ngatu, and here it is of great social importance to the islanders, often being given as gifts. In Samoa, the same cloth is called siapo. In Hawai'i, it is known as kapa. In Rotuma it is called uha and in Fiji it is cal
Meadows Under the Sea 2007-09-05 18:32:00 The only flowering plant that can live underwater are appropriately called seagrasses. This means that even flowering and pollination occur under the waves. Most species have distinct male and female individuals. But they can reproduce vegetatively and can form large meadows.These meadows in the Solomon Islands, are grazed by dugongs and green turtles. They form a habitat for a myriad of small fish, prawns and other invertebrates. Worldwide seagrass communities are important nursery grounds for fish. They are typically found in shallow sheltered sandy or muddy areas. They can be monospecific or have a range of different sea grass species. The depth at which they grow is usually controlled by the amount of light available for photosynthesis. They survive in the intertidal zone and will surv Read more:Meadows
Japan's Chilly Northern Forests 2007-08-27 18:46:00 In northern Japan
, beech trees dominate the forest. They've evolved a strategy of living long, growing taller than the other trees, and reacting quickly to the lengthening days of spring.Throughout the forest winter begins to lose its grip. But this interval between seasons is still dangerous for the trees. Forest birds like this dusky thrush have remained active throughout the winter, and while pickings may be lean, nothing goes to waste.With the orchestrated precision of a symphony the forest reacts to spring. Dog-tooth violets bloom just in time to attract their pollinator - a butterfly.These images are taken from NHNZ Images, movie clips which are available for you to purchase for your production. Read more:Chilly
, Northern
Guess What? Sand Hoppers Hop! 2007-08-20 18:35:00 The beach is more than just a playground. For a special group of plants and animals it's home.Best known of these are the sand-hoppers. Related to crustaceans they are in fact amphipods. They hide during the day under seaweed and driftwood on the beach.As its common name suggests it leaps by first flexing its body than quickly straightening it whilst thrusting its hind limbs against the sand.If disturbed, their instinct is to burrow into the safe embrace of the sand where they wait until nightfall. They use the same rear legs to clear away the sand as it is pushed aside by the head when burrowing.Then the sand hoppers turn out in force to clean up the beach, scavenging on kelp and dead animals. They do not survive long in direct sunshine, and provide tasty pickings for gulls, oystercatche Read more:Guess
Prickly Sharks 2007-08-13 18:40:00 Until remote cameras were invented, no-one had ever seen the mysterious Prickly Shark in it's own deep-sea environment. This is a shark that lives way beyond human dive range, but recently scientists have discovered them in shallower water. Prickly Sharks
live in the Pacific Ocean at depths between three-hundred and thirteen-hundred feet, well out of reach of the average diver, but recently scientists have found them in much shallower water, in an underwater canyon at the head of Monterey Bay off the central coast of California.Monterey Bay is well known for it's marine life. The food-rich upwellings from the nearby underwater Canyon support an ecosystem that sustains creatures like harbour seals, sea lions, thousands of pelicans and, of course, the famous sea otter. But it's the only p
Mud Glorious Mud 2007-08-06 22:24:00 Mangrove swamplands, or mangrove forests are tropical places where the sea meets the land, but in an ill-defined sort of way. No nice beach with high and low water marks, rather a muddy expanse of trees and shrubs.There are about twenty different families of plants that have somehow managed to invade the sea's edge. Twice a day, every day the tides drown, then expose the tangled mass of roots.Mangrove plants much be able to cope with the high salinity of sea water, each species has its own tolerances and differing methods of coping with the harsh environment.Snorkel roots rising from the thick mud provide a continuous air supply to the main roots buried deep below. One problem for mangrove trees that snorkel roots help solve is the poor oxygen level in the waterlogged muddy soil.Once es
Cute and Cuddly Sea Otters 2007-07-30 18:09:00 Cute and cuddly they may be, but sea otters are voracious predators of shellfish, sea urchins, crabs, octopuses and fish and any other smallish morsels they can find. They forage underwater usually for about one to two minutes, but can remain submerged for up to six. Prey is located by vision or touch, which is then brought to the surface by the front paws.On the surface the otter can feed in a leisurely fashion whilst floating on its back, using its belly as a table. They are one of the few creatures that exhibit tool-use. Some otters carry stones which they use as anvils to smash open the shellfish or sea urchins.Otters will often wash their food by turning over in the water time and time again. Sea otters are diurnal, and have bursts of foraging activity at dawn and dusk. These stil
A Simple Grain of Sand 2007-07-23 18:46:00 "To see a world in a grain of sand" wrote William Blake, I think he knew a thing or two. Sand certainly takes on menacing form when the wind launches its savage attack.Tiny splinters of quartz are whipped in to a frenzy, slashing everything in their path. The process that takes place here has a fancy name - saltation, which basically describes how sand grains move either in the wind, or underwater.For plants and animals who live in the dunes, these battles are a way of life. It is the challenge they accepted when they colonised the sand.Where sea meets land, the forces of nature stage some of their most violent battles.Sand is the aftermath. It's been here since the sea began storming the coast and it combines the properties of its markers: fluid as the waves, resilient as rock.Magnified, Read more:Simple
, Grain
Shovel of the Sea 2007-07-16 21:46:00 Despite its looks, sea cucumbers, or beche-de-mer, are related to starfish and sea urchins. Basically an elongated leathery tube, is held in shape by an endoskeleton, at one end are tentacles which the sea cucumber uses to forage in the sea floor mud and sand for plankton and decaying organic material. They are good scavengersAt this lagoon, a programme of research has been carried out which includes measuring the sea cucumbers, some of which can grow up to two feet (50-60cm).The name sea cucumber derives from their shape, and beche-de-mer means shovel of the sea, both appropriate handles for this squidgy tube.Last week I wrote about traditional harvesting of taro in Ontong Java, in the Solomon Islands. This week's posting concerns the same location, and another traditional method of catch Read more:Shovel
Tropical Taro, the Tropical Spud 2007-07-09 18:00:00 Taro, or the potato of the tropics, is a staple food crop throughout the Pacific. Here, at Ontong Java in the Solomons it is culitvated in the traditional way, by villagers still living a traditional lifestyle. It is grown all year round, and every part of the plant provides food.As the corm is lifted from the ground, any extra 'waste' is dug back into the soil to provide fertiliser for the new corms. New corms are formed by vegetative propagation from portions of the parent plant.The wild plants have lost their ability to flower and set seed, so this is the only way to produce taro crops. This fact suggests that taro has been in cultivation for a very long period, and some claim it to have been grown since 5000BC in tropical wet India.In Ontong Java, taro is harvested regularly from indiv Read more:Tropical
It's Behind You! 2007-07-02 18:39:00 That's the cry that goes up in pantomime when the villain sneaks up on the hero or heroine, the audience can see what's happening but the hero can't. This must be what it feels like to be a young laysan albatross. Lurking beneath the waves, out of sight, is a deadly foe - a tiger shark.The young birds do not have the skill to take off from the surface of the water, which as you can see from these series of still images, taken from NHNZ Images video, is not an easy task for such a large bird as an adult albatross.There's considerable wing flapping, and running along the surface of the water before final take-off.The plumage of young birds is not quite so water-proof, and once they land of the sea surface they can quickly become bedraggled.Crash-landings in the sea are quite common amongst
Thrashing Thresher Sharks 2007-06-25 21:49:00 This pelagic thresher shark, is from the island of Cebu, in the Philippines. Life here can be a real struggle, and too often, nature comes off second best. It's the last place one would expect to find a rare species of shark. Pelagic thresher sharks are occasionally caught in isolated parts in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but a resident population has recently been discovered in Philippine waters. They're a pelagic species, which means that they roam the oceans. At Cebu, there's an undersea mountain where they're found all year round. From the large size of those eyes it is immediately obvious that this is the type of animal that hunts in deep water or hunts at night.Threshers perform spectacular leaps out of the water, but you've got to be lucky to catch one on film. They are very ap Read more:Sharks
How Paddle Crabs Burrow 2007-06-18 20:06:00 Paddle crabs are found throughout New Zealand, from almost semi-tropical Northland beaches to the very much colder beaches of Stewart Island in the far south of the country. They live on sandy bottoms in estuaries and surf beaches alike.During the day most crabs remain hidden in temporary burrows emerging soon after sunset to hunt for bivalve molluscs. In turn they are eaten by over 30 different species of fish. Living as they do in an open environment the crab can either swim for cover (not often its first choice), stand and fight, or burrow out of harms way. Larger crabs (that is those with shells more than 7cm wide) are quite aggressive, and will confront their enemies and lunge upwards with the long chelae (claws) held upwards and outwards. But smaller crabs will burrow backwards qui Read more:Crabs
Successful rhesus macaques 2007-06-11 22:23:00 Many ancient cities, like Bharatpur in Northern India, are a home for rhesus macaques. Since the city's first foundation, generations of these wild animals have lived side by side with people.To be so successful, they've had to be adaptable and aggressive, as individuals and as a tribe. But even in this robust society, youngsters are well protected in early life. Individuals can live as long as twenty five years.The daily routines of Bharatpur's people shape the lifestyles of the macaques. They know that wherever humans go, they leave a trail of feeding opportunities. In some colonies the majority of food items are sourced directly from human sources, either as direct handouts or from the monkey's ability to forage, amongst garbage. And by raiding crops macaques have access to a large ran
Big Sharks with Tiny Teeth 2007-06-04 18:18:00 In one of the March postings, a great white shark was shown leaping up out of the water, with teeth bared, ready to chomp down on hapless prey.However, not all sharks have huge teeth, though all do have sharp teeth. This whaleshark is no exception as it has about 300 rows in each jaw. But each tooth is a minute single hooked cusp, which are pretty much harmless.The super large mouth, opens and water rushes in, and along with it a wide variety of planktonic and nectonic prey, including small crustaceans, small schooling fishes and occasionally on tuna and squid. Unlike other filter feeders it does not rely on forward motion for filtration, the act of opening the mouth is enough to force water over the filtering screens of the gill slits.Every summer, hundreds of these sharks gather off the Read more:Sharks
A Wonderful Bird is the Pelican... 2007-05-29 22:27:00 ...His mouth can hold more than his belly can. He can hold it in his beak, enough food for a week! I'm damned if I know how the helican. So wrote Dixon Lanier Merrit in 1910, a Southern newspaper editor and President of the American Press Humorists Association.Like all large sea birds, they sometimes have difficulty taking off, and these Australian pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus) are no exception.Pelican
s are gregarious, are quick to exploit any resource, and can live on fresh or salt water. If fed regularly they can become quite tame.I am reminded of Storm Boy the 1977 feature film, where a boy rescues three orphaned pelican chicks. Although he and his father set the adult birds free, one returns to become Mike's pet Mr Percival. All of a sudden there are intruders in Mike Read more:Wonderful
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