Cool wildlife/nature films

[SilverFly]

Being a nightshift worker, I watch a lot of TV in the wee hours on my nights off. Mostly documentaries and stuff with at least some educational content so I don't feel like insomnia isn't completely wasting my time. As a result, I'm literally running out of interesting educational programming. Recently started watching Disney even though I'm not a huge fan, but they do have some quality content. Mostly after assimilating National Geographic (there should be a day of national mourning for that).

But I digress. The other night I saw what is possibly the most incredible wildlife footage ever. In the Mountains episode of the series "Hostile Planet", there is a sequence filmed in the Himalaya of a snow leopard hunting a blue sheep. I won't even attempt to describe it, but whoever shot this had to be besides themselves with disbelief at what they just saw and recorded.

Edit: Full episode on youtube here, skip to 41:00 to see the entire hunt sequence:



Edit #2: Noticed something even more amazing after watching again. Contrary to Bear Grylls narration, the leopard actually does let go at one point early in the fall when it switched from a grip on the sheep's haunches to the neck. Looks like that happened when they were tumbling through the first snow bank .... incredible.

Feel free to suggest programs and/or add any amazing wildlife/nature footage you come across.

 

[Jim F.]

Wow! I hope that tough cat survived that in the end. Absolutely amazing footage. Mother Nature can be a harsh parent . . .

 

[Zak]

 

[SilverFly]

Wow! I hope that tough cat survived that in the end. Absolutely amazing footage. Mother Nature can be a harsh parent . . .

Amazingly he did. The film maker caught up with it 3 weeks later. It was hunting and appeared to be fully healed.

 

[Cabezon]

Hi SF,
I suggest that you peruse the MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) channel on YouTube. Because the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a non-profit (initially bankrolled by the Packards due to the interests of their daughters who were marine biologists..) and the aquarium brings in huge crowds, they have to have an outlet for the income. That is their research arm, MBARI. They have an amazing team of engineers and biologists and with the Monterey Canyon in their backyard, a major focus of their research has been on exploring the deep sea.
Steve

 

[SilverFly]

Hi SF,
I suggest that you peruse the MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) channel on YouTube. Because the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a non-profit (initially bankrolled by the Packards due to the interests of their daughters who were marine biologists..) and the aquarium brings in huge crowds, they have to have an outlet for the income. That is their research arm, MBARI. They have an amazing team of engineers and biologists and with the Monterey Canyon in their backyard, a major focus of their research has been on exploring the deep sea.
Steve

Thanks Steve. Love Monterey Bay Aquarium. Been a couple times. My only complaint was they wouldn't let me test fly patterns in the big ocean tank. Would've been in the name of research - C'mon!

 

[Jim F.]

Amazingly he did. The film maker caught up with it 3 weeks later. It was hunting and appeared to be fully healed.

Glad to hear that, even if it could no longer claim the full 9 lives anymore . . . surviving that kind of fall is truly amazing.

 

[Cabezon]

Thanks Steve. Love Monterey Bay Aquarium. Been a couple times. My only complaint was they wouldn't let me test fly patterns in the big ocean tank. Would've been in the name of research - C'mon!

My wife and I are huge fans too. When we visited Monterey on our joint sabbaticals, we spent two full days there from opening until closing. When they first opened, you could almost teach a college-level marine ecology / diversity course as you walked from gallery to gallery. But in the last decade or more, they have pitched more and more of their exhibits to kids in the single-digit age range (probably the same age group as most major broadcasters pitch their programming...).
They are just about to open a new deep-sea exhibit that I am looking forward to visiting at some point. One of our favorite sports how many cottid / sculpin species can we find. I think that our record was 8.
Those bluefins in the GOT will pull you in man...
Steve