Foxes Use Earth's Magnetic Field to Hunt Mice - Jaroslav Cerveny

With its exceptional hearing, the red fox can detect when a small animal is scurrying around up to 3 feet under the snow, and their high jump to surprise and catch that animal — called “mousing” — is pretty spectacular. But even more spectacular is what we can’t see: the possible influence of magnetic alignment.

Jaroslav Červený and a large research team observed almost 600 mousing jumps by 84 foxes, and based on the data, they proposed that “…mousing red foxes may use the magnetic field as a ‘range finder’ or targeting system to measure distance to its prey…” From Ed Yong in 2011:

If they pounced to the north-east, they killed on 73% of their attacks; if they jumped in the opposite direction, they success rate stayed at 60%. In all other directions, only 18% of their pounces were successful… 

Many animals have magnetoreception capabilities including birds, bats, mice, mole rats, fruit flies, honeybees, turtles, lobsters, sharks and stingrays.

If Červený is correct, then the red fox is unique in many ways. It would be the first animal known to use a magnetic sense to hunt, and the first to use magnetic fields to estimate distance rather than direction or position.

Wild Life (Short) - National Film Board of Canada

Nominated for an Oscar® for Best Animated Short at the 2012 Academy Awards This animated short tells the story of a dapper young remittance man, sent from England to Alberta to attempt ranching in 1909. However, his affection for badminton, bird watching and liquor leaves him little time for wrangling cattle. It soon becomes clear that nothing in his refined upbringing has prepared him for the harsh conditions of the New World. A film about the beauty of the prairie, the pangs of homesickness and the folly of living dangerously out of context.

When I Grow Up - Jasmin Lai

A smart young girl starts thinking about what she wants to be when she grows up. How will she decide? When I grow up by Jasmin Lai.

Dolphins Communicated with Ecolocation

At the Kolmården Wild Animal Park, dolphins like young Luna can now aim their echolocation beam at shapes on an underwater screen to indicate their choices and answer questions. The project is called ELVIS (The Echo Location Visualization and Interface System) and it’s currently being used to help the dolphins choose the types of fish they want to eat. Research Director Mats Amundin hopes that the system can someday help dolphins make more choices about toys or music, or even use it to express their emotions.

Celebrating Crystallography - The Royal Institution

One of the great innovations of the twentieth century is likely not well-known, but this video from the Ri Channel is looking to change that:

This is X-ray crystallography. 

Discovered in 1913 by William and Lawrence Bragg, x-ray crystallography is a technique that reveals the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal. When a narrow beam of x-rays is shown through the crystal, it diffracts into a pattern of rays through the other side. 

“To date 28 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to projects related to the field” and 100 years after its discovery, the Curiosity Rover is using x-ray crystallography to analyze soil on Mars.

Russian Winnie the Pooh - Fyodor Khitruk (1969)

Comparing different versions of familiar stories can be a great example of how many ways there are to see the world.  The video above is a fascinating example: Winnie-the-Pooh or Vinni-Pukh (1969) by Russian animator Fyodor Khitruk.

Created between 1969 and 1972, Khitruk's three films star a bear named "Vinni-Pukh" who looks nothing like the Winnie the Pooh that Westerners grew up with.  But viewers will certainly recognize the storyline and spirit of the original Pooh in the Soviet adaptations.  For decades, these films have enchanted Eastern European viewers, both young and old.  And they still occasionally appear on Russian TV.

Watch Winnie-the-Pooh Goes on a Visit (1971):



And Winnie-the-Pooh and the Day of Concern (1972) in two parts:





Via Open Culture

An Anglerfish's Last Meal - Natural History Museum

In 1999, near the Cape Verde Islands, “an unusually large Caulophryne pelagica, a fanfin or hairy anglerfish, was captured in perfect condition, due perhaps to a lethargy induced by a prodigious meal which had expanded the stomach in excess of the standard length.” Not long after, the rare, deep-sea specimen was a part of the Natural History Museum‘s collection in London.

Only 17 examples of the hairy anglerfish have been discovered thus far, and this was the largest, so scientists were reluctant to cut it open for examination. However, a 3D scan of the fish could easily reveal its huge last meal.

Hummingbird Frenzy

Turn up the volume and listen to this Hummingbird Frenzy around a cluster of eight hummingbird feeders on a back patio. The happy swarm was filmed by YouTuber Duane Reid in Valley Center, California in August. How many hummingbirds can you count? Reid writes of his wife’s hobby:

Lunchtime for Cheryl’s Hummers! Enjoy the frenzy. Over 150 hummingbirds feeding at the same time. Starts out with only one or two, then builds up to a swarm, so view it thru till the end to see them all. Notice the different colors and markings?

Star Trek Double Knit Scarf

Colosse - A Wood Tale

Collosse – A Wood Tale, directed by Yves Geleyn: a short film about the meeting of a robot marionette and a little bird.