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
Spot the Ghost 2006-12-03 21:49:00 Ghost
pipefish don't just imitate the form and colour of floating leaves - they mimic the dance of leaves stirred by gentle currents.They're so confident in their camouflage and choreography that they leave the original leaf behind, to dance their own way across the sea floor.
They are found in warm tropical seas from Japan to South Africa. Ghost pipefishes resemble outstretched seahorses but have thin bodies and large fins. Female ghost pipefishes brood eggs in a pouch formed by the fusion of large pelvic fins. Pelvic fins which are absent in seahorses, and of course it is the male that broods the young.
These still frame captures from NHNZ Images movie footage, don't really do justice to the floating, dancing, drifting nature of the sequence. Check out other fishy footage that is available to purchase for your production, from our on-line catalogue, or from our demo reels.
Blue Sheep or Bharal 2006-11-28 21:30:00
In the Himalayan mountains predator and prey endure at the vertical limit of mammalian life on Earth. Here, only rock is in abundance. Every Himalayan life is precarious. Bharal (also known as Blue Sheep
) are at home on the shear cliffs where a predator in pursuit of prey risks plummeting to its own death
Bharal are one of six different Himalayan species of mountain sheep and goat. They graze all over the mountains, but the key events in their lives happen in this vertical landscape.
Bharal hooves are soft and rubbery for grip. Short legs reduce heat loss and lower the centre of gravity. To extract maximum oxygen from the thin air, Bharal blood is rich in red cells.
Its gut generates heat as it digests. Hollow hair fibres retain that heat. The bharal's top coat is perfect camouflage.
The major predator of Bharal is the snow leopard, about which I wrote a blog item some weeks ago.
These still frames are taken from NHNZ Images stockshot collections. Check out other intrigui
The Gobi Desert 2006-11-20 03:38:00
The sandy deserts of India are separated from the parched interior by the mighty Himalayas. In their rainshadow lie the deserts and dry grasslands of China and Mongolia. The stony Gobi Desert
is further from the sea than any place on earth. Fierce summers are followed by bitter winters. Gobi means "stony". Strong winds have stripped the soil, leaving only stones, polished to a shine by the fierce heat. Dust storms are frequent occurences and can sometimes be seen from space. The storms that we have on film are, of course nowhere near as big!
NHNZ Images material from the Gobi Desert, originates from Mongolia and the northern extension of the Taklamakan desert, which lies in western China. The Gobi desert mammals we have in the stockshot library include goitered gazelle, mongolian gazelle, bactrian camel, asiatic wild ass, hairy footed jerboa, thick tailed jerboa, great gerbil. Birds include common buzzard and black kites. And amongst the ubiquitous sand dunes agamid lizard and
Egg Stealer 2006-11-14 01:11:00 For six hundred years thick jungle hid the wonders of the great city of Polonnaruwa, in Sri Lanka. Today, the ruins are historical and religious treasures, and a sanctuary for hundreds of macaques, whose ancestors probably lived here when the city was young. They are a common sight and have a nickname of temple monkey.
This is a toque macaque which belongs to one of many troops that live in the sanctuary.
It's the females who know their home range intimately, who lead the group to feeding areas, under the watchful eyes of the males. The macaques can eat only a few kinds of leaves, but almost anything else!
What they can't eat now, they store in large cheek pouches.
It's vital for toques to raise many young - large troops can forage confidently, defend their food supplies, and more easily bring their fragile youngsters to maturity.
Even the youngest of the Polonnaruwa toques has a special link with humans. For thirty years every animal has been identified and monitored o Read more:Stealer
Przewalski's Truly Wild Horse 2006-11-05 23:07:00
A long winter is ending on the steppe grasslands of Mongolia. This is home to a wild animal the Mongolians know as takhi - the spirits. Westerners call them Przewalski's horses. They're the only true wild horses in the world. Other so-called wild horses are domesticated horses which have reverted to a feral existence.
Takhi are distinguished by short upright manes and stripes on the backs of their legs. This still frame is from extensive film footage held at NHNZ Images.They're closely related to the ancestors of domestic horses, but takhi have never been tamed.
Life seems idyllic, but it hasn't always been easy. In 1968, Przewalski's horses were driven to extinction in the wild. Since the early 1990's animals bred in zoos have been released in areas such as here, in Hustain Nuruu National Park, now home to more than a hundred wild takhi.
Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przewalski (1839-1880) was a Russian geographer and explorer in Central Asia, who discovered wild populations of Bactri Read more:Horse
Woody Woodpecker 2006-10-30 21:33:00
Like all woodpeckers the great spotted woodpecker has two toes pointing forward and two toes pointing backwards, which enable them to hop easily up and down tree trunks looking for insects just under the bark. This still from an NHNZ Images film was shot in Japan but could just as easily have been shot anywhere through northern Asia and Europe, as great spotted woodpeckers are widely distributed.
Their characteristic drumming noise can be heard from a great distance. It is caused by repeated strong taps of the beak on branch or tree trunk, and is made by either male or female birds. It is both a method of locating insect prey within the tree, and as a territorial marker for other great spotted woodpeckers in the neighbourhood.
As to the cartoon character, Wikipedia has the following to say about its origins "...the idea for Woody
came during the producer's honeymoon with his wife, Gracie, in Sherwood Lake, California. A noisy woodpecker outside their cabin kept the couple awake Read more:Woodpecker
There's Snow Monkeys, Like Snow Monkeys 2006-10-24 02:33:01
Both the lives of these Japanese macaques, or snow monkeys, and the forests that are their home, are ruled by the timing and the changing of the seasons of the temperate world.
Macaques are perhaps the most adaptable of all monkeys. They colonized many parts of Asia from the tropics to the temperate forests adapting and changing as they went, they first arrived in Japan perhaps half a million years ago. Japanese macaques live in troops and move within a defined territory. Japanese macaques are different from other macaques. They're less inclined to squabble than their cousins who live in tropical forests.
These northern macaques no longer have any natural predators, their biggest threat is winter itself. But the freezing winter temperatures are a hardship their thick fur and larger bodymass have prepared them for.
In the deep snows the macaques move only when they must. Each journey drains heat and costs energy. Over the winter months, a macaque can lose as much as tw Read more:Monkeys
Spot the Lark 2006-12-11 02:12:00 Last week's blog posting was about camouflage, well so too is this week's. I defy anyone to spot the lark's nest in this Himalayan landscape.
In a treeless place all birds nest on the ground. The nest lies just beneath the flat stone in the middle of this still frame taken from one of NHNZ Images movies.
Horned Lark chicks merge with the new grass of the meadows. Like a lot of chicks they are fairly ugly.
Wary of attracting predators, the adult male stops only long enough to shovel in food and clear away the infants' faecal sacs. If they weren't cleared away the sacs would be obvious and show eagles and other predators the way to choice and tasty chicks.
The horned lark is a summer migrant from lower altitude. It feeds on insects that appear during the few weeks of warmth.
Check out other intriguing, inspiring and arresting images available as stockshots for your production from NHNZ Images
Camels at Christmas 2006-12-18 03:08:00
The desolate Gobi is home to the world's only wild camels - the bactrian camels. Little more than a thousand of these two-humped nomads remain, roaming the deserts between China and Mongolia.
Two females and their month old calves have joined forces to be safer from predators such as wolves. The females are shedding their thick winter coats. The summer ahead will be short, but intensely hot.
Camels
are superbly adapted to the desert. Bushy eyebrows and double lashes protect their eyes from sand, and they can clamp their noses tight to keep out dust. Soft padded soles stop their feet sinking into sand.
Camels can go for up to ten days without water. Their humps hold reserves of fat to sustain them while they wander the desert in search of food.
Wikipedia has this to add on camels "according to most forms of Christianity, the Magi were the first religious figures to worship Christ, and for this reason the story of the Magi is particularly respected and popular among many Christians. Read more:Christmas
Hibernating Dormouse 2006-12-27 04:30:00
A Dormouse may only live for two or three years, and whether it survives for another season will depend on how much weight it gains before going into hibernation, a winter sleep that may last five months.
If the dormouse does not put on enough fat, it might never wake up. Deep in the litter, curled like a ball, the dormouse has spent the five months of winter in a sleep which is close to death.
Its body temperature has remained almost at freezing, it has breathed only four or five times an hour. As warmth returns, it stirs and begins to wake. It shivers to regain body warmth.Its heart beat increases from its resting rate of fifty beats a minute to five hundred.
It has survived on the reserves of fat from the previous autumn, but has lost much of its body weight. With a metabolic rate so fast it must eat, or die.As soon as it wakes, it returns to a forest that is exploding with colour and life.
Check our other intriguing, interesting and arresting moving images - the dormouse is a f
Dance of the Cranes 2007-01-03 23:57:00
Demoiselle cranes have their own strategy for surviving the extremes of the Mongolian steppe. They escape every winter, and return in spring to re-establish breeding territories.
The arrival of a male joining his mate ruffles territorial feathers. During the breeding season each pair defends an exclusive territory a few hundred metres across, to ensure they get the food and water they'll need to raise a family.
Once they've agreed on boundaries, the couples turn their attention to each other.
Cranes are long-lived, and often pair for life. Before they breed they renew their bonds in a demoiselle's pas de deux. Like all demoiselle cranes, this pair have returned to breed in the valley where they were born. To get back from their wintering grounds in India, they have flown three thousand kilometres over the Himalayas.
The still image is taken from an NHNZ Images movie clip. Check out other inspiring, intriguing and arresting moving images from NHNZ Images. Read more:Dance
Serow Goat - a Japanese National Treasue 2007-01-08 23:41:00
In spring and summer when the trees are in leaf, it's very rare to see this animal, the Japanese
Serow. It is an ancient species endemic to Asia, it's closest relatives are members of the goat family. The Mainland Serow is a larger animal and found in more tropical latitudes.
Calves stay with their mothers for a year or so, but as adults they are mostly solitary.
In winter the Serows move out the forest and forage on the southern slopes warmed by the winter sun. On these slopes, where there is slightly less snow, they dig for whatever they can find to eat.
They have regular pathways through their territory which they mark by glands just below the eye - a strong smelling vinegar scent is used. Both males and females mark objects. There are spots in the territory reserved for resting and for defecation.
Japan has given the animal 'national treasure' status, which has meant that population numbers have increased.
Check out other intriguing, interesting and arresting moving i Read more:National
Coral atoll 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Reefs are the largest living structures in the world and the work of animals scarcely visible to the naked eye. Built on the slopes around the exposed peak of an underwater mountain, layer upon layer of coral skeletons accumulate, building a reef that can surround the island enclosing a lagoon. Coral
animals play a great role by enlarging an island, consolidating its presence. The tentacles and mouths of polyps by the million strain the food from the sea, and secrete hard calcareous skeletons below and around themselves. Side by side and linked by flimsy tissues, they sit in tiny hollows into which they can withdraw, and in a concerted effort they build the magnificent edifice of a coral reef. If the sea level rises, or the seamount subsides, the island may sink from sight leaving only an atoll - a ring of coral. It may seem little more than a beach alone in an ocean, but it is a living memorial to the vanished island.Check out other interesting, intriguing and arresting images f
Kagu - your questions answered 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The Kagu ... this male is defending its own piece of island. Seeing another male, he is fluffed up to appear larger and stronger. The intruder is attempting a challenge, but the defender is a formidable spectacle and soon the crest falls and both get on with being their secretive selves in the forests of New Caledonia.But what is the kagu? No one is really sure. At a glance it might be a kind of rail - they certainly flick their tails like one. They also behave a little like cranes, but despite having wings are unable to fly. As yet, scientifically, the kagu stands alone - unique to New Caledonia and with few fossil clues to its ancestry.There are several curious features of these tiny outlying islands, and of New Caledonia itself, which suggest the ancestors of the kagu may have walked here. The idea that islands, and whole continents, have moved over the surface of the globe has become well accepted, and New Caledonia is still making such a journey. One hundred million years a Read more:questions
Langur Monkey Business 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Not far beyond Jodphur's dusty sprawl lies the semi-desert, Rajasthan of India. It's not the sort of place one expects to find monkeys. But they can live here because the sandstone landscape, with its natural hollows, traps and ponds, the life-giving monsoon rains. This ground water allows several species of cacti and thorny bush to grow here. The monkeys utilise flowers, leaves, seed pods, almost anything. But life isn't easy for them. They live on the edge of an expanding sea of desert where there's little to eat during the dry months of the year.Grey langur monkeys are also known as Hanuman langurs, after the Hindu monkey-god Hanuman, and live in large groups.Check out other interesting, intriguing and arresting images from the NHNZ Images Stockshot Library. Read more:Business
Penguins with Parrots on the side 1970-01-01 00:59:59 You don't normally expect to find penguins which are essentially a cold water species to mix with parrots which are essentially birds of tropical climes. However, on a lot of New Zealand's sub-antarctic islands such a mixture is relatively common. Red-crowned parakeets are found widespread on many Pacific islands, including the main islands of New Zealand itself. Here they make companions for rock-hopper penguins. On the Antipodes Islands can be found the Antipodes Island parakeet which has lost it's red-crown, and is endemic to the island group. The Antipodes Islands lie some 650 kilometres to the southeast of the southern extremity of the South Island - Stewart Island - of New Zealand. They were first charted in 1800 by Captain Henry Waterhouse of British ship HMS Reliance. Like many other sub-antarctic islands a castaway depot of supplies was established. But it's existence was unkown by the survivors of the shipwrecked crew Spirit of Dawn,who spent nearly three months in Read more:Penguins
, Parrots
Cool Liquid Lava 1970-01-01 00:59:59 An oceanic island is conceived deep in the ocean abyss. Lava spews from within the earth, solidifying, building a mountain under the sea. Across the immense basin of the Pacific, submarine mountains rise from the ocean floor. Moulded in dense black basalt oozing from fractures in the oceanic crust of the planet. Their hidden majesty dwarfs that of many of the greatest volcanoes on land.Only when such a seamount aspires to break the surface does the elemental clash of fire, water and wind begin. The tumult that may bring forth an oceanic island. There are perhaps as many mounts below the sea as the thousands that have won this battle to stand above the waves, but the attack of the sea is relentless. An embryo island may vanish in days or may establish well enough to survive a few thousand years, or even as long as ten million.The volcano throws out coils of ropy lava consolidation the new won ground.Modelled in lava these are the foundations of a Pacific Island paradise - in this Read more:Liquid
Mount Cook, New Zealand 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Mount Cook is New Zealand
's highest mountain. At 3754m it, like the rest of the Southern Alps, is a young mountain and is still growing at a rate of about 10mm a year. In 1981 a massive avalanche rock-fall knocked 20m off its height. There are 27 other peaks over 3050m in the eponymous National Park, which form the spine of the Southern Alps.This still from an NHNZ Images movie clip shows the almost always present clouds. The prevailing westerlies are squeezed up by the mountains causing them to dump their rain load on the western side and accelerate down the eastern side of the Alps to produce very dry blustery gales across the Canterbury Plains.Did Captain Cook ever see 'his' mountain? Probably not. He passed by twice in 1770 and 1773 but on both occasions southwest gales or drizzle and haze kept him well out to sea.The mountain was first climbed on Christmas Day 1894 by three local 'amateur' climbers Tom Fyfe, George Graham and Jack Clarke. Fyfe had also recorded first ascents Read more:New Zealand
Wide Mouthed Frog - not a joke 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Argentinian horned frogs or toads are also called wide mouthed frogs. No, not because of the joke (which I'm not going to tell here), but because they indeed have a very wide mouth! It's a nickname that applies to several different species of Ceratophyrs genus. They breed in seasonal pools in the Chacoan desert of Argentina, are voracious predators, and will eat anything that is smaller in size than they are; this includes members of their own species. (This image is taken from an NHNZ Images movie clip). Indeed, if they weren't ambushing other passing frogs they would eat out a territory and the end result would be a sterile environment with nothing but the predator. They have been known to cram in so much food that their stomachs literally rip from overeating. In this "frog eat frog" world, not every victim goes down without a fight. By inflating its lungs for added bulk, it stalls the attack, but it must breathe sometime and then it's history! Becoming a cannibal means fas
Devil in the trees 1970-01-01 00:59:59 'Devil
in the trees' is the local New Caledonian name for the giant gecko because of the growling noises that it makes. On the island of New Caledonia the giant gecko has grown larger, up to one foot long, because here no other animal competed with it for food or space - and it had few predators. New Caledonia was originally part of the super continent Gondwana until about 60 million years ago when it broke apart and remnants drifted to their current positions. On mainland Australia (the nearest Gondwana remnant) a pouched mammal occupies the place of the giant gecko in the forest. It is only because marsupials did not cross to New Caledonia that these geckos have been able to live here and grow as big. Confined to this time capsule in the Pacific, it's been able to evolve to great size - for a gecko. Such gigantism is a common result of isolation for millions of years.The giant gecko is mostly nocturnal and lives high in the trees. It is unusual to see it in
Picture Winged Flies 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Two kinds of fruit fly accidentally arrived in Hawaii long ago when these oceanic islands were young. From them more than 800 species known as picture wings are believed to be descended, some well known, others awaiting investigation or even discovery. Picture
wing flies have striking black and white patterns on their wings, and are larger than many of the others.Several different kinds of picture wings live together in the same patch of forest. So what stops them interbreeding? The answer lies in their bizarre courtship rituals and contests, for which males of each kind have their own special body design and behaviour.These males are fighting for the right to mate with a female of their type. In this trial of strength each contestant recognises the body and body language of its rival. Some kinds struggle on tip toe, wing tip to wing tip. (Seen here in a still taken from a movie clip from NHNZ Images.)Others will head butt rather in the manner of rutting rams. The biggest head gets th Read more:Winged
, Flies
Birds of Paradise 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The most astonishingly dramatic and colourful birds of the air are with out doubt the birds of paradise, from Papua New Guinea and northern Australia. This still of a lesser bird of paradise Paradisaea minor is from an NHNZ Images movie clip.It's the males that dazzle with song, colour and acrobatics, much as those picture wing flies of Hawaii impress their females, which I wrote about last week. These plumed birds of paradise assemble at display grounds, called leks, to entice a female with their spectacular advertising. Her eye is most likely to be caught by the most flamboyant of these extravaganzas.They are the very opposite of discrete, but attract no predators. Very few ever existed in the treetops of New Guinea. For millions of years the 28 kinds of birds of paradise evolved in comparative safety. On this island there were few birds to compete with them and no monkeys or squirrels after the fruits and nuts these birds can handle with their strong manipulative beaks. In a way, t Read more:Birds
, Paradise
Mollymawks on the Bounty Islands 1970-01-01 00:59:59 In cold southern seas mollymawks roam great distances. They are small albatrosses and nest in very crowded colonies. They cram onto the BountyIslands
four hundred miles east of New Zealand's South Island. Seven hundred and fifty thousand gaze out from this tiny outpost of continental granite jutting from a stormy sea. They are strong fliers and quite often find landing difficult, this still from an NHNZ Images movie clip shows one just beginning to land.There are no plants other than seaweeds, lichens and such on any of the Bounty Island group. They seem to have rejected any colonisation by grasses, bushes and trees. Only seabirds cling to the ledges of their city without flowers. What more security could a mollymawk have than this fortress of a nursery? Other than mollymawks and penguins, little has made use of the Bounties. The mollymawks return each year, bringing nothing in, taking nothing away.The twenty or so islands and rocks which form the Bounties group were discovered by Ca
Popsicle, Sapsicle 1970-01-01 00:59:59 In a northern Japanese forest in early spring as the days begin to lengthen some trees begin to pump sap. But the air temperature is still many degrees below freezing, cold enough for icicles to form.Where maple branches have broken in a storm, icicles of sweet sap take shape; creating a tempting delicacy for small birds. As these still frames from an NHNZ Images film show a long tailed tit hovering under the sapsicle.Each icicle may last only a few days.The rising temperatures mean that even as a Japanese white eye licks at it, the frozen delicacy is already melting. The white eye has a curious piece of philatelic history associated with it. The Japanese white eye, Zosterops japonica, featured on a definitive stamp. The very closely related New Zealand silvereye Zosterops lateralis lateralis also featured on a NZ definitive stamp, at about the same time. I think I'm right in saying that it's the only time members of the same genus have featured on ordinary (definitive) stamps of Read more:Popsicle
Mourning Gecko 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This baby mourning gecko has hatched from an egg that was never fertilised. The female reproduces asexually, laying two eggs without a male gecko participating. Indeed, male mourning geckos have never been found. Young geckos are genetic replicas of their mothers. There is no particular season for breeding as the geckos are able to lay eggs at any time through the year. (This still is from an NHNZ Images movie clip).Mourning
geckos are found closely associated with humans, and have often been accidentally moved from island to island throughout the Pacific in luggage and household effects. At night they are seen commonly scampering around the house looking for cockroaches, beetles and other insect prey. But where there are populations of the larger house gecko, or the house gecko moves in, the mourning gecko moves out. The distribution of mourning geckos is wide, from mainland tropical Australia throughout islands in the Pacific to western Central America, India and the Indian Oceans. Read more:Gecko
Nilgai Antelope 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The reserve near Bharatpur, India was first created for hunting, then became a bird sanctuary, and a refuge for nilgai - large antelope whose raids on crops made them a pest to farmers.Although never domesticated nilgai have been successfully introduced into Texas, and now there are more living there than in their native India.Only male nilgai have horns. Males are solitary except during the rut when they establish territories and gather breeding herds of up to ten cows. Nilgai cows and calves tend to stay in herds.Grzimek's Encyclopaedia of Mammals (vol.5 p.359) recounts that 'grazing nilgais sometimes lower themselves to their "knees" and when eating leaves they can stand up on their hind legs for a short time.' Sadly the film that NHNZ Images has of nilgai does not show this behaviour.Check out other inspiring, interesting and arresting moving images from NHNZ Images. As regular readers can judge from the tenor of the posts on this blog, we have a great deal of footage from all Read more:Antelope
Giant Salp, yes ... salp not slap 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A whole sequence of stills this week, taken from an NHNZ Images video.A giant salp has drifted in from the deep and provides a banquet to which most fish invite themselves. Even staunch defenders of territory take time to enjoy this festival of food.The salp isn't greatly nutritious but offers a treat like jelly, or candyfloss at the fair. So what is this rare curiosity of the deep?It's an ocean going colony of sea squirts that filters plankton and ejects water through a tapering body that's as long as a whale. Sea squirts have adopted a very intimate and co-operative existence. There's a good description of the filming of this giant salp written by Wade Doak in the New Zealand Dive Magazine. Check out other inspiring, interesting and arresting moving images from NHNZ Images. If you'd like to subscribe to this blog please check out the panel at the right hand side.
Face to face encounter 1970-01-01 00:59:59 We stick with an underwater theme this week, as we take a close-up view of this scorpion-fish, from the Poor Knights Islands off northern New Zealand. A nocturnal feeder, the scorpion-fish ranges out over the rocky bottom and up and down cliff faces at night, when many of the daytime feeding fishes seek rest and shelter among holes and crevices.Scorpion-fish can be aggressive towards people particularly if the diver ventures into its territory. At the approach of a small fish, it makes a short swift rush, propelled by its fanlike pectoral fins. The huge mouth yawns open to engulf the prey with a combined sucking and grasping action and the victim is swallowed whole.Check out other intriguing, inspring and arresting images from NHNZ Images, where you will find moving pictures available for sale for your production. If you would like to subscribe to this blog, please check out the panel on the right-hand side.
The Sting in the Tail - Scorpions part one 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This week NHNZ Images brings you a tale of stinging scorpions, and next week we will bring you a tale of where else scorpions put their stinging tail - in other scorpions! Yes, we promise you cannibals next week. Nobody is sure why scorpions glow under ultraviolet lamps - but this curious fact enables scientists to spy on their monstrous nocturnal deeds.When two adult scorpions meet head to head, a trial of strength could lead either to courtship or confrontation. These are both female, so a battle with deadly stinging lances looms. As they are of equal size they soon declare a truce...Smaller desert inhabitants are not so lucky. Scorpions will attack almost anything smaller than themselves, paralysing their victims with steely cool efficiency. Crickets are not the only course on a sand scorpion's menu.Check out other intriguing, interesting and arresting movie clips of things that crawl, slither and creep around by watching our demo reels.If you'd like to subscribe to this blog pl Read more:Sting
Sting in Tail - Scorpions part two 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I have written about cannibalism in frogs before in this blog, but as promised, here is the second part of the scorpion story, and their intriguing cannibal habits.Crickets are not the only course on the menu for Arizona sand scorpions. Young sand scorpions were often hunted by their own elders, as well as by rival scorpion species.In the very common sand scorpion, a full twenty five percent of all the energy it ever takes in, of every gram it ever eats are individuals of the same species, a pretty amazing fact. Such astonishingly high figures have led biologists to examine the logic of cannibalism. They've discovered that there are both benefits and risks in attacking members of your own species.The obvious benefit is a sizeable meal - but the cannibal also removes a rival in its search for other foods. And that's a major bonus in this harsh desert environment.For other intriguing, inspiring and arresting facts about the footage that NHNZ Images holds in its stockshot library and Read more:Sting
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