Results tagged “fly” on Earth Touch Blog
Did You Know? Vultures May 7 2008
White-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) are aggressive scavengers and can fill their crops with up to a kilogram (2.2lb) of meat in less than five minutes.
Tags: bird, cape, carcass, feed, fly, lappet-faced, scavenge, vulture, white-backedThe Earth-Touch baby album Apr 30 2008
Over the months, Earth-Touch has been privileged to witness the early days, survival struggles and playful moments of many young animals. Here is a selection of these video clips.
Tags: africa, baboon, baby, bath, bird, botswana, burrow, calf, cape, chick, coast, colony, cub, delta, den, dog, egg, elephant, endangered, fish, fly, foal, giraffe, herd, hluhluwe, imfolozi, juvenile, karoo, kite, kwazulu-natal, lion, mammal, meerkat, monkey, moremi, mud, okavango, piglet, reef, sodwana, south africa, thailand, tree, trunk, video, warthog, water, western cape, whale, young, zebraDid you know? Symbiosis Apr 29 2008
Symbiosis can easily be understood and explained as two organisms living together. There are various sub-divisions of symbiosis, though, and that is where it gets a bit tricky. As a student of biology, I always felt it was easier to understand these complicated scientific relationships when I put them into practical situations.
Tags: anemone, animal, benefit, clownfish, commensalism, egg, fly, hermit crab, immune, interact, mutualism, parasite, parasitism, plant, poison, predator, protect, relationship, shell, sting, symbiosis, tentacle, woundWildlife news from around the world
Bat fossil settles it: first flight, then steering Mar 24 2008
The journal Nature reports that a new bat fossil seems to have settled a debate about what came first in bat evolution: flight or echolocation.
Tags: asia, bat, echolocation, flight, fly, fossil, mammal, thailand, wrinkle-lipped bat, wyomingBats emerge at dusk Mar 20 2008
With a sound like rushing water, overlaid by squeaking, thousands of bats pour out of a cave and into the evening sky. In flight, they look like a whiplash across the sunset.
Tags: bat, bird, cave, fly, hunt, khao yai, mammal, thailandDid you know? Bee-eaters Feb 28 2008
Bee-eaters belong to the family Meropidae. There are 25 species in the family and they are found throughout tropical and subtropical Eurasia, Africa and Australasia.
Tags: bee-eater, bird, botswana, fly, hunt, little bee-eater, okavango delta, southern carmine bee-eaterFledglings prepare for flight Jan 30 2008
Yellow-billed kites (Milvus migrans parasitus) are opportunistic feeders. They glide through the air, scanning the ground for carcasses of dead animals, or for small live prey such as lizards, locusts and frogs.
The adult kite that Earth-Touch has been tracking attends to its chicks’ needs, but soon it will be vital for these young fledglings to learn the ultimate survival skill, flight.
Tags: amphibian, bird, carcasse, chick, fly, frog, glide, kite, kwazulu-natal, lizard, locust, nest, prey, reptile, south africa, wing, yellow-billed kiteDid you know? Oxpeckers on the back of mammals Jan 30 2008
Oxpeckers are often seen on the backs of animals like hippo, buffalo and kudu. They feed off parasites such as ticks and bloodsucking flies that live on the mammal’s skin. These birds have a mutual relationship with mammals, removing parasites in exchange for observing the surroundings from an aerial viewpoint and alerting them of danger.
Tags: adaptation, bath, bird, bloodsucking fly, buffalo, cattle egret, ear, egret, elephant, fly, groom, hippo, kudu, oxpecker, parasite, red-billed oxpecker, skin, south africa, tail, tick, trunkThe week’s most viewed stories Dec 14 2007
The most popular stories on Earth-Touch in the past week (from Friday 07 December to Thursday 13 December 2007) were:
Number 1
Masters of the sneakZambezi sharks swim close to the lens, as their activity heightens ahead of the arrival of a cold front.
Did you know? Banded blowfly Dec 11 2007
In the Earth-Touch clip, Flies and maggots consume tsessebe carcass, flies are seen on the remains of a tsessebe that has been killed and eaten by a nearby pride of lions in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.
Tags: banded blowfly, carrion, decay, flesh, fly, maggot, tsessebeAnts on the go Sep 20 2007
The creatures in the Earth-Touch clip The march of the leafcutter ant are truly amazing.
Leafcutter ants cut up leaves with their jaws, which act like miniature power tools and vibrate at a thousand times a second.
Tags: ant, ecuador, egg, fly, fungi, jaw, larvae, leaf, leafcutter ant, south americaWildlife news from around the world
Collective suffocation method unique in bees? Sep 19 2007
Cyprian honeybees (Apis mellifera cypria) protect themselves against their archenemy, the Oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis), by smothering them to death, National Geographic News and LiveScience report.
Wildlife news from around the world
Small godwit makes longest-recorded non-stop flight Sep 12 2007
RECORD HOLDER: A bar-tailed godwit, which is capable of flying from Alaska to New Zealand without stopping. Image: Courtesy Tim Bowman, US Fish and Wildlife Service.
A bar-tailed godwit has set a bird flight record by making the longest recorded migratory flight in the world, from its breeding ground in Alaska to its summertime home in New Zealand in 10 days, the BBC News has reported.
Did you know? Bird bones Sep 10 2007
To be able to fly, a bird‘s skeleton needs to be lightweight and strong. To achieve this, nature has endowed birds with several adaptations for flight. They have fewer bones than mammals. Many of their bones, such as the middle and lower vertebrae, are fused together, and some tail, finger and leg bones are missing. Some of their bones are hollow, with internal struts for reinforcement, much like the lightweight wooden struts in early aeroplanes.
African skimmer chicks hatch Sep 6 2007
In the past few days Earth-Touch has broadcast footage of this season’s first African skimmers being born in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.
African skimmers are an endangered species. They are striking black and white birds, with large, orange beaks, which they use to skim the surface of the water for fish, as they fly along. Their chicks are the colour of tortoise shell, and they have yet to develop their iconic beaks.
Tags: african skimmer, beak, bird, chick, colour, fly, skimmer, threatenedHiding out Aug 27 2007
By Andy Crawford, field crew
Filming wild animals is often difficult as they tend to react to a human presence. In order to capture their ‘natural’ behaviour, one often has to find inventive ways of going unnoticed.
Tags: african skimmer, bird, buffalo, cage, carcasse, catfish, crew, donkey, fly, footage, graze, herd, hide, hyena, skimmerDid you know? Skimmers Aug 8 2007
An African skimmer fishes by flying close to the surface of the water, scooping up unsuspecting prey with its lower beak. Watch the first of Earth-Touch’s coverage of these endangered birds this season: African skimmers return to Nxamaseri.
The early birds Jul 19 2007
By Andy Crawford, field crew
The skimmers have arrived! This probably doesn’’t sound like a significant event to the non-twitchers amongst us. Those in the know, however, will find it very peculiar.
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