Life – Insects
You can find insects everywhere. They are in the soil, in the air, in the water, and on plants and animals. As masters of adaptation, the vast variety of insects outnumber all other animal species put together. Many of the insects in Hawaii are especially interesting, since they are mainly endemic and have developed with the islands. This episode of Life
While the female Darwin stag beetle has normal-sized jaws, the male’s mandibles are longer than his body. Serrated and strangely curved, they’re used as a weapon against rival males. Male Dawson’s bees fight to the death over females emerging from their nest burrows. As a result, all will die, but the strongest mate.
Japanese red bug juveniles eat a rare fruit, which their mother collects from the forest floor. It can take her hours to find a perfectly ripe fruit, but if she doesn’t get it back quickly enough, her young will abandon their nest and find a better mother. Grasscutter ants form huge colonies five million strong. They feed on a fungus which they cultivate underground, in nest structures which have natural ventilation. More than a million Monarch butterflies use their wings to power them on an epic migration to their hibernating grounds.
Many insects carry chemical weapons as a form of defence. The bombardier beetle has two chambers within its body to store different inert chemicals. When threatened, the beetle mixes the chemicals in a third chamber, where they react explosively and burst from its rear end, spraying its enemy in a boiling, caustic jet.
The video shown here is the opening sequence of the previously recorded version narrated by David Attenborough.
Chagos Islands Marine Reserve
In a victory for global ocean conservation, the area around the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean has been designated as a marine reserve. The 210,000 square miles that surround the 55 island chain is said to boast one of the richest aquatic ecosystems on Earth. This newly protected area will surpass the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as the largest marine reserve. Taken together, these areas represent nearly half a million square miles of unique ocean ecosystems that serve as nurseries for a broad range of marine life. These moves highlight the increasing emphasis scientists, conservationists, and governments are placing on trying to protect ocean ecosystems critical to the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people as well as to the biological diversity of the oceans themselves.
The biodiversity of the Chagos archipelago and its surrounding waters is one of the main reasons it is so special. The waters around the islands are some of the cleanest in the world hosting the biggest living coral structure, and 220 species of coral including the endemic brain coral. The reefs are also home to at least 784 species of fish including the endemic Chagos clownfish. The Chagos islands have the most diverse breeding seabird community within this tropical region including sooty terns, brown and lesser noddies, wedge-tailed shearwaters, and red-footed boobies. Their remoteness make perfect undisturbed nursery sites for nests of green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles. And the native flora of the Chagos Islands includes forty-one species of flowering plants and four ferns.
Life – Challenges of Life
The opening episode of Life
A pod of bottlenose dolphins has invented a new way of hunting. To catch their fast-swimming prey, one dolphin creates a “mud-ring” by beating its tail in the soft silt as it swims in a circle. As the mud mushrooms in the water, the ring gets smaller and fish become trapped. Panicking, they jump out of the water, and right into the waiting dolphins’ mouths.
In some species, parents go to great lengths to protect their young. A female Pacific giant octopus makes the ultimate sacrifice – tending to her eggs, but not eating during this months-long brooding period, and dying soon afterwards.
Brown-tufted capuchin monkeys demonstrate an extraordinary level of skill when cracking open the palm nuts they love to eat. They pick the nuts, strip them of their husks and leave them to dry. After a few weeks they transport them to a huge anvil-like rock and smash them with a harder hammer stone.
The video shown here is the opening sequence of the previously recorded version narrated by David Attenborough.
Nature Series Life
Discovery Channel will premiere their newest series Life
Episodes will premier:
Challenges of Life (Sunday, March 21)
Reptiles and Amphibians (Sunday, March 21)
Mammals (Sunday, March 28)
Fish (Sunday, March 28)
Birds (Sunday, April 4)
Creatures of the Deep (Sunday, April 4)
Hunters and Hunted (Sunday, April 11)
Insects (Sunday, April 11)
Plants (Sunday, April 18)
Primates (Sunday, April 18)
Behind the Scenes of Life
Each episode tells mind-blowing stories of survival with drama, humor, and suspense. This series focuses in on the survival instincts of creatures, great and small. How they adapt, behave, and live in order to survive. There are heart warming stories that focus on mothers going to great lengths to protect their young. A frog that climbs to the top of a tree, five times, to deposit her tadpoles into a pool where they’ll be safe from predators. An octopus who finds a cave in which to lay her eggs, knowing this will be her final resting spot after she’s spent the next (and her final) six months feeding and fanning her tens of thousands of developing eggs. Each are beautiful stories of sea and land creatures doing what they must to keep their young alive, thus guaranteeing the continuation of their species.
Kauai Endangered Species Additions
Endangered species listings were finalized for 48 species from Kauai along with designation of critical habitat for all but one of them. Two of the species are Hawaiian honeycreepers, one is a Hawaiian picture-wing fly, and the rest are plants. Also more than forty square miles were designated as critical habitat, which will help the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopt a new approach to protecting imperiled species by restoring health to the broad ecosystems they inhabit. Previously, the service tried to protect endangered species by adopting separate plans to revive their respective habitats, which led to disjointed and overlapping efforts. These 48 highly endangered species now have a shot at survival and recovery.
The two bird species added to the endangered species list are both Hawaiian honeycreepers – the akekee (Kauai akepa) and the akikiki (Kauai creeper). The akekee population dropped from 8,000 birds in 2000 to 3,500 birds by 2007. The akikiki population has declined even further, by about 80 percent in the last 40 years, to approximately 1,300 birds in 2007. These two species join 33 other Hawaiian bird species listed as endangered and another listed as threatened. Photo of the akekee by Jack Jeffrey.
Hawaii is inhabited by 111 species of picture-wing flies with colorful wing patterns and intricate mating rituals that evolved from a single female that migrated from the mainland some five million years ago. Drosophila sharpi is a large species of Hawaiian picture-wing fly found in Kauai’s wet forests, and joins 12 other Hawaiian picture-wing flies on the endangered species list.
The 45 plant species now listed as endangered include ferns, vines, shrubs and trees found nowhere else in the world. Twenty-three of the plant species have fewer than 50 individuals remaining in the wild, and some have not been seen for several years, although they are still believed to exist in remote areas. One fern, Diellia manii, was thought to be extinct since the early 1900s, but a single individual was rediscovered in 2002 at Kokee State Park. The addition of these plant species to the endangered species list brings the total number of endangered Hawaiian plants to 309, and another 10 are considered threatened.
The one species that will not receive critical habitat is being excluded for its own protection. Critical habitat for the plant Pritchardia hardyi (loulu) was determined not to be prudent because biologist believe a designation for this rare palm could alert collectors to its location.
State Of The Birds 2009
The United States enjoys diverse landscapes, a wealth of natural resources, and spectacular wildlife, including more than 800 bird species. Birds are a national heritage we share with people around the world, since billions of migratory birds follow the seasons across oceans and continents. They are beautiful, and they reflect the health of our environment. Birds are bellwethers of our natural and cultural health as a nation – they are indicators of the integrity of the environments that provide us with clean air and water, fertile soils, abundant wildlife, and natural resources.
Wildlife agencies and conservation groups have come together to produce the first comprehensive analysis of the state of our nation’s birds. The State of the Birds 2009 report reveals troubling declines of bird populations during the past 40 years – a warning signal of the failing health of our ecosystems. Where we have been negligent too long, such as in Hawaii, we are on the verge of losing unique and beautiful birds and native plant communities. More than one-third of all U.S. listed bird species occur in Hawaii and 71 bird species have gone extinct since humans colonized the islands in about 200 AD. At least 10 more birds have not been seen in as long as 40 years and may be extinct. At the same time, we see heartening evidence that strategic conservation action can reverse declines of birds. This report calls attention to the collective efforts needed to protect nature’s resources for the benefit of people and wildlife.
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State Of The Birds Hawaii
