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Triptych

At the Start
Joined
Jun 2, 2003
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Did anyone else see this last night?

I really enjoyed it and thought a lot of the shots were amazing. I particularly liked the elephants playing in the water and that funny little black bird doing his mating dance. Meanwhile the poor lost elephant going in the opposite direction to the rest of his herd was heartbreaking. I'm not sure if its repeated this week, but if it is I'd recommend it to anyone who missed it. Mountains are the topic next week.
 
I saw it - wonderful stuff, thanks especially to the first time use of heli-gimbal camerawork in the natural world. Amazing that film being shot from over a kilometre away should be able to zoom in and retain the most amazingly crisp, clear details. The lost elephant was a tragic sight - why on earth don't the crews of these series intervene to turn them in the right direction?

I didn't watch the Great White killing seals, although with the Hunting Dog squad it was worth watching to see how they worked as a team, each dog knowing exactly how to work the trap - and then their target impala sprang about 20 ft into a lake and swam to safety! Incredible stuff - it's shown earlier on Saturday, around 6.00 pm, so kiddywinkles can watch it, though I'd suggest the shark and the dog sequences might upset the tender hearted.
 
Originally posted by Triptych@Mar 6 2006, 09:20 PM
. I'm not sure if its repeated this week, but if it is I'd recommend it to anyone who missed it.
Click to expand...
6.30PM BBC2 on Saturday
 
why on earth don't the crews of these series intervene to turn them in the right direction?
Click to expand...

Because they're there to observe, not interfere. Where would they draw the line?

It was brilliant stuff, the polar bears emerging from hibernation being the highlight for me.
 
The shark leaping out of the water was something else. Surely that took more energy than it was about to ingest from the seal it had caught?

The dogs sequence was interesting as well. It seems they allowed the impala in the water to escape because they were invited to a guaranteed meal elsewhere, which they proceeded to eat in rather calm and orderly fashion. They came across as more sophisticated and less greedy than I would have imagined.
 
Gareth, I knew someone would say that, but as Grey makes the point below that a rather 'instant impala' dinner was ready for the dogs, I have no doubt that there's plenty of interference when it makes for a better shot. Just like cameramen filming sharks will chuck out chum to attract them, rather than wait for years and hope they come anyway!

Grey - they're very neat and tidy, aren't they? I think their table manners contrast nicely with those of hyenas - surely the worst type of guests you'd ever invite round?
 
I'll take your word for it about the hyenas, Krizon. I don't know any well enough to invite for a meal.
 
Is everyone still enjoying this series? My favourite bits so far were the Snow Leopards and the very small piece on Giant Pandas. I missed the first episode, now I am hooked.
 
Dims - didn't you put up the link to San Diego Zoo's panda house? I saved it to my Favourites and look in every day (as well as their Polar Bear, Apes, and Elephants areas). It's wonderful and charming to see how sweet little Su Lin is coming along. She's climbing trees now!

Missed the last one, but am hoping to see replays later. I hope they bring out a DVD, I'd like to have it to look at from time to time.
 
They sometimes change the enclosures, Dims, so just now I got Gao Gao or the other adult male, sitting and stripping bamboo. Given the hours and hours they just do that, you'd think the zoo would teach them a bit of basketry weaving, wouldn't you?
 
I couldn't believe the photographer who went diving in the river with the piranaha fish and cayman crocs. I haven't decided if he's brave or insane. You certainly wouldn't catch me doing it anyway.

It was another excellent episode though. The theme next week is caves, so I'd expect to see a lot of bats and I don't really know what else. :rolleyes:
 
True, never thought of those, I was thinking along animal lines.

I always remember the little quote I learned as a child about how to remember the difference between stalactite and stalagmites. It went something like 'Stalactites have to hang tight to the ceiling while stalagmites might one day reach the ceiling'.
 
The cave episode will be about.....


The Cave of Swallows in Mexico is a 400m vertical shaft, deep enough to engulf the Empire State Building. The Lechuguilla cave system in the USA is 193km long and 500m deep with astonishing crystal formations hanging from its chambers.

Although often overlooked, caves are remarkable habitats with equally bizarre wildlife. Cave angel fish cling to the walls behind cave waterfalls with microscopic hooks on their flattened fins. Cave swiftlets navigate by echo-location and build nests out of saliva. The Texas cave salamander has neither eyes nor pigment. Unique access to a hidden world of stalactites, stalagmites, snotites and troglodytes brings a wealth of surprises.
 
Snotites are revolting!!

From www.everything2.com

Snotites are slimy, dripping cave formations that resemble stalactites but look and feel like snot. They are actually enormous colonies of bacteria (often chemoautotroph extremophiles) that metabolize sulfur-containing minerals in groundwater known as Thiobacilli.

The cave environment rich in snotites usually contains an abundance of hydrogen sulfide gas, creating a smell of rotten eggs. The area in which the bacteria thrive is so acidic that pH readings are often negative; drops of liquid that fall from the ends of snotites are acidic enough to dissolve clothing. The cause of this acidity is a combination of the formation of sulfuric acid through the reaction between hydrogen sulfide gas and oxygen gas as well as the releasing of sulfuric acid as a waste product of the bacteria.

The bacteria eventually form thick sheets of slime which gradually begin to drip from the ceiling. As the colonies grow, they release more and more sulfuric acid, which gradually begins to eat away at the rock. These tiny microbes are often responsible for carving out vast underground labyrinths; geologists believe that some cave networks were first formed by bacteria thriving deep underground, feasting on oil reserves and releasing hydrogen sulfide.
 
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