Category: Featured on Earth-Touch
Warthog chases cheetahs away Jun 9 2008
The Earth-Touch crew witnessed an unusual encounter in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve, in South Africa, recently. They were filming a group of cheetahs resting in the bush, when a family of warthogs arrived on the scene and the female warthog proceeded to chase the cheetahs away.
You can watch the story unfold in the clip, Warthog sow chases off cheetahs.
On another occasion in the same game reserve, the crew themselves were checked out by a female warthog while the rest of the group foraged. For a close-up view of these creatures (Phacochoerus africanus), watch the clip Curious warthogs venture close.
When warthogs run, their tails are held erect, like little radio aerials, which can be seen by the rest of the family when they’re fleeing from danger.
You can also see them in these clips:
Warthogs lounge at a pool
Hot day drives animals to shade and mud
Warthogs and rhino wallow in mud pan
Animals gather on Imfolozi floodplains
Elephant digs up roots
Image © Earth-Touch 2008
Tags: africa, chase, cheetah, feed, forage, hluhluwe, imfolozi, mammal, south africa, vertebrate, warthog
The week’s most viewed stories Jun 6 2008
The most popular stories on Earth-Touch in the past week (from Friday 30 May to Thursday 05 June 2008) were:
Number 1
Dolphins appear out of the blue
Out in the bay where the waves break, a pod of these marine mammals emerges from deeper water.
Number 2
Bottom-dwelling Scorpaenidae species use camouflage and guile to trap unsuspecting prey.
Number 3
Male lions defend territory by roaring in the night
We believe that Gochathebe, the island in the Okavango Delta in Botswana where we are currently based, is an overlapping territory for different lion prides.
Images © Earth-Touch 2008
Tags: africa, botswana, coral, cub, dive, dolphin, fish, indian, isimangaliso, kill, lion, mammal, manta, marine, moremi, ocean, okavango, reef, scuba, sodwana, south africa, sponge, swim, vertebrateSpider and ants at dawn Jun 4 2008
After a good overnight rainstorm in South Africa’s Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve, the Earth-Touch crew set off before sunrise to look for interesting creatures.
As the rising sun turned the edges of the clouds pink and birds began to call, they came upon a large female golden orb-web spider (belonging to the family Tetragnathidae) with a larder full of trapped insects.
On the tips of the grass stems surrounding the web were clusters of large black ants. They appeared to be tending some tiny aphids which were feeding off the grass seeds.
Some species of ant protect aphids from predators and feed on the sweet secretion produced by the aphids. Science Daily reported on findings by UK researchers that chemicals present in ants’ feet could tranquillise aphids and be used to keep them within a certain area.
Watch these busy creatures silhouetted against the fresh morning sky in the Earth-Touch clip, Ants and spider work at sunrise.
Images © Earth-Touch 2008
Reference:
‘Herding aphids: How farmer ants keep control of their food’, 2007, Science Daily. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.htm on June 4, 2008.
Tags: africa, ant, aphid, arachnid, hluhluwe, imfolozi, insect, invertebrate, kwazulu-natal, south africa, spider, symbiosis, web
Macaques at both ends of the tail scale Jun 2 2008
Thailand has six species of macaque, and Earth-Touch has filmed both the stump-tailed macaque (Macaca arctoides), whose tails are so short they are barely noticeable, and the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis), which takes the prize with a tail longer than head and body combined.
The stump-tailed macaque’s fur is longer and thicker than in other macaques and it has a stockier build. The group filmed here were eating flower buds from a tree.
The long-tailed species has a varied diet, ranging from fruit to eggs and crabs, but the group filmed here were resting rather than eating.
Images of long-tailed macaque and stump-tailed macaques in tree © Earth-Touch 2008
Tags: asia, diet, feed, long-tailed, macaque, mammal, monkey, stump-tailed, tail, thailand, vertebrateThe week’s most viewed stories May 30 2008
The most popular stories on Earth-Touch in the past week (from Friday 23 May to Thursday 29 May 2008) were:
Number 1
Dolphins appear out of the blue
Out in the bay where the waves break, a pod of these marine mammals emerges from deeper water.
Number 2
Lions fail to make a buffalo kill during the night, so they’re under pressure to feed the pride, especially their cubs.
Number 3
At a particularly beautiful little reef, decorated with sponges, corals and silvery fish, a manta sweeps overhead as it did on the last dive.
Images © Earth-Touch 2008
Tags: africa, botswana, coral, cub, dive, dolphin, fish, indian, isimangaliso, kill, lion, mammal, manta, marine, moremi, ocean, okavango, reef, scuba, sodwana, south africa, sponge, swim, vertebrateSeals crowd onto rocks May 29 2008
Earth-Touch filmed thousands of Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) packed into the rocky outcrop that is the Cape Cross seal reserve in Namibia.
There are more than 300 000 seals in colonies along the Namibian and South African coasts.
While some adults rested on the smooth, warm rocks, occasionally scratching themselves sleepily, others swam in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, some of the seal pups moved about in the crowd, calling for their mothers. Apparently they recognise each other’s individual voices and smells.
In the Earth-Touch clip, Seals bask on warm rocks, you can hear the din they make and see how the animals are transformed from streamlined swimmers, rolling, diving and floating in the water, to fat, awkwardly waddling creatures on land.
Image © Earth-Touch 2008
Tags: africa, atlantic, call, cape fur seal, colony, mammal, marine, namibia, ocean, pup, rock, scent, sea, seal, smell, swim, waveFusiliers feed in sunlit water May 27 2008
When the Earth-Touch crew visited Aliwal Shoal, a popular dive spot off the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, they found plenty of activity just beneath the surface of the water, with small fish swimming around frenetically.
Species like fusiliers (Caesionidae), which feed on plankton, like these murky water conditions. Swimming in shoals, they provided a vivid display of colour, predominantly iridescent blues and golds, in the sunlight at this depth.
You can see them in the Earth-Touch clip Colourful fusiliers feed near ocean surface.
They also put in an appearance in the clip A rainbow of reef dwellers.
Image © Earth-Touch 2008
Tags: africa, aliwal shoal, caesionidae, feed, fish, fusilier, indian ocean, marine, plankton, reef, shoal, south africa, swim
The week’s most viewed stories May 23 2008
The most popular stories on Earth-Touch in the past week (from Friday 16 May to Thursday 22 May 2008) were:
Number 1
Dolphins appear out of the blue
Out in the bay where the waves break, a pod of these marine mammals emerges from deeper water.
Number 2
Wildebeest and other animals graze in magical light
A wildebeest, a giraffe, impala and birds feed in the soft light of a rainy afternoon in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Number 3
Male in musth acts aggressively, uprooting a tree.
Images © Earth-Touch 2008
Tags: africa, black rhino, blue, botswana, cub, dolphin, elephant, encounter, female, fluke, indian ocean, kwazulu-natal, leviathan, lion, mammal, okavango delta, popular, rhino, sodwana bay, south africa, western cape, whale, wildebeest, youngChocolate dip on coral reef May 22 2008
Not many divers get to see this small reef at Sodwana Bay, part of South Africa’s Isimangaliso Wetland Park, because its uniform coral (Plasticeris) is so fragile.
The lettuce-like folds of coral provide a sanctuary for small fish like the chocolate dip (Chromis dimidiata). As the name suggests, the first two-thirds of this fish’s body is chocolate brown to black, while the remaining third is pale cream to white. These little members of the damselfish family feed on tiny organisms called zooplankton.
You can see the chocolate dip and other small fish species – as well as the world’s largest fish species, a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) – in the Earth-Touch clip, Delicate coral on tiny reef.
Image © Earth-Touch 2008
Tags: africa, chocolate dip, chromis, coral, dive, fish, isimangaliso, lettuce, reef, sodwana, south africaCormorants roost on shipwreck May 21 2008
As the sun began to set at Melkbosstrand on the West Coast of South Africa, close to Cape Town, the Earth-Touch crew filmed cormorants flying in to roost on an old shipwreck.
The last, golden light was catching the deck of the ship and the sky turned orange above the sea – a peaceful scene.
The wreck keeps the birds relatively safe from predators such as jackals and seals. The crew identified white-breasted cormorant (Phalacrocorax lucidus) and Cape cormorant (Phalacrocorax capensis) jostling for space. Watch the clip, Cormorants roost in shipwreck.
White-breasted cormorants also live inland. You can see a breeding colony in South Africa’s Blyde Canyon in the Earth-Touch clip, Cormorants breed in a quiet spot and in Botswana’s Okavango Delta in the clip, A commotion in the colony, which also features reed cormorants and darters.
Image © Earth-Touch 2008
Tags: africa, bird, blyde canyon, botswana, cape cormorant, cormorant, darter, okavango delta, reed cormorant, south africa, western cape, white-breasted cormorant
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