If you ever wondered what it would look like to be mouthed by a grizzly bear, here's proof that it would not be a pleasant experience.
Brad Josephs, a wildlife biologist and expedition leader for Natural Habitat Adventures, got the footage while in Alaska filming "Great Bear Stakeout" which was shown on BBC One and Discovery Channel.
Josephs said that the above video was "filmed with a GoPro camera that I strapped to a rock with a rubber band! The first bear to appear is an older mother, and the second is her 3-year-old cub. The bear only gently mouthed the camera, and didn't even put a dent in it!"
Josephs also shares some other behind-the-scenes footage on his website that was obtained during the making of the documentary.
Stargazing has been taken to brilliant heights, showcased in a new video released this week by Sunchaser Pictures.
Death Valley Dreamlapse 2, above, was shot by Gavin Heffernan and his team of producers, who traveled to Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park in mid-March and over the course of three days caught some stunning time-lapse shots of the night sky.
Heffernan said the new
video includes "plenty of wonder and amazement, including some insane
star trails, a beautiful milky way pass over the lakebed, and an
incredible pink desert aurora."
He added that "no special effects used, just the natural rotation of the earth's axis."
The
crew tried out some new time-lapse techniques, such as moonpainting the
foreground landscapes, and also some experiments merging regular
time-lapse footage with star trails. Sunchaser Pictures also offers up a cool, behind-the-scenes video on their Vimeo page.
They were also in luck and
caught an amazing pink aurora (seen at 1:36 and 2:22), which was caused
by a Coronal Mass Eruption solar event on March 17.
Heffernan suggests that viewers should "watch in HD with headphones on and the volume cranked, if you can."
To all the budding surfers out there who aspire to challenge themselves at Maverick's, Jaws or some ungodly place in Australia called The Right, we share five examples why that might not be such a great idea.
The accompanying video contains footage showing what are deemed the five most savage wipeouts of the past 12 months (video is posted below).
I'd choose either the last clip, involving Chris Shanahan (top image), or the first, involving Brett Burcher.
Both were pummeled unmercifully at The Right, and as viewers can see, the wave is a vicious monster.
Shanahan would definitely win if this were a free-fall competition, and Burcher probably is still having nightmares about his ragdoll-style, over-the-falls body slam.
They're among many elite surfers participating in the yearlong Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards, which will be announced on May 3 at a ceremony at The Grove theater in Anaheim.
Premier categories are Ride of the Year, Best Overall Performance (men and women) and Biggest Wave.
Surfers do not aspire to end up in the Wipeout of the Year category, of course, but most enjoy the ribbing they receive during the awards party.
This year, for the first time in contest history, the public can vote on which surfer endured the most humbling spill.
Will it be Burcher or Shanahan? Or will Joao de Macedo, Tom Dosland or Axi Muniain shine red-faced in the XXL spotlight?
I'm still trying to decide between Shanahan and Burcher.
--Pete Thomas
--Photo showing Chris Shanahan's frightening free-fall is via Darren McCagh/Billabong XXL
A recent video showing two women harassing harbor seals at Children's Pool beach in La Jolla has prompted San Diego Mayor Bob Filner to order the immediate closure of the beach overnight.
“I felt it was important to take this step after evidence of individuals
seen on videotape harassing, taunting and causing stress to the seals,”
Filner said in a statement.
The closure will be enforced until May 15, when the pupping season is expected to end. San Diego Police Department officers have also stepped up patrols of the area.
The video footage, seen above, is from a recently installed web camera put in place so that viewers can watch the seals. The cam includes infrared capability -- which is how the two women were caught on video harassing seals.
"The pregnant seals are giving birth and when they’re harassed, they end up being separated from their offspring, and then the chances of survival for the offspring are very much reduced," Larry Wan, founder of the Western Alliance for Nature, which installed and oversees the video camera, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
"And if they’re forced into the sea when they’re giving birth, that also doesn’t bode well for the seals."
San Diego Police Department Capt. Brian Ahearn, who oversees the department's Northern Division, said that the harassment case involving the two women caught on the video is still being investigated.
One of the questions being asked regarding a humpback whale that had attracted such a large crowd for several days off Redondo Beach was this: What happens if the giant mammal decides to breach? Someone could be killed.
Turns out, the whale did breach, and the event was captured on videotape Saturday by Hermosa Beach resident Marc Racunas. The footage was uploaded Tuesday onto YouTube (pay attention at the 16-second mark).
Fortunately, the whale breached after it had been given at least a little space.
It was first spotted outside King Harbor on Jan. 15. Because of its close proximity and summer-like weather, it was visited daily for six days by people aboard paddleboards, jet skis, kayaks, small boats and big boats. Few paid attention to NOAA guidelines advising people to maintain a distance of 100 yards or more, and many seemed to be in clear violation of a federal law banning the harassment of marine mammals.
NOAA did not maintain any kind of enforcement presence.
The last known sighting of the whale, nicknamed "Stinky," was on Sunday.
Felix Baumgartner successfully completed a test jump from more than 18 miles above the earth Wednesday in his quest to break the record for the highest altitude freefall.
The test jump from 96,640 feet over Roswell, N.M. involved a 3-minute, 48-second freefall during which Baumgartner reached speeds of 536 mph.
It was the second and final test jump for the Red Bull Stratos mission, during which the 43-year-old Austrian hopes to successfully jump from 120,000 feet -- a distance of nearly 23 miles -- and break the current record of 102,800 feet set in 1960 by U.S. Air Force Col. (Ret.) Joe Kittinger, who is now Baumgartner's mentor.
Baumgartner also hopes to become the first person to break the speed of sound in freefall.
Wednesday's test jump, tentatively scheduled for Monday, was twice delayed due to thunderstorms, wind and rain.
"It was a rough couple of days and an exhausting endeavor. I am now really excited," Baumgartner said in a news release issued after the successful landing. "It has always been a dream of mine. Only one more step to go."
The date for the final jump is now subject to favorable weather conditions but may likely take place within the next month.
A Michigan State University researcher has discovered an interesting phenomenon: sea lampreys go into what appears to be a panic-mode when exposed to the smell of their dead.
Dr. Michael Wagner found that when a mixture which included the putrefying carcasses of sea lampreys was poured into a tank of live ones, the lampreys’ frantic efforts to escape were dramatic.
"It’s kind of like a stop light, a noxious odor that causes them to run away from its source," Wagner said.
While it makes for some rather freaky videos, it turns out that this reaction may be key to better controlling one of the most destructive invasive parasites found in the Great Lakes.
Sea lampreys live off of the blood and body fluids of adult fish, including lake trout and whitefish. During its life, each sea lamprey can kill 40 or more pounds of fish.
"Sea lampreys are one of the most costly and destructive Great Lakes' invaders," said Wagner, whose results were published in the July issue of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. "The effectiveness of the odor combined with the ease in which it’s obtained suggests that it will prove quite useful in controlling sea lampreys in the Great Lakes."
Currently, pheromones -- the same chemicals the lampreys rely on to attract mates and find spawning grounds -- are used to lure the creatures into large cages where they can be destroyed or sterilized and released back into the wild.
Wagner believes that repellants could be a better alternative since even small quantities can elicit a response. The smell of death could be used to steer lampreys away from waterways or corral them into groups, making them easier to eliminate.
"By blocking certain streams with these chemical dams, sea lampreys can be steered away from environmentally sensitive areas and into waterways where pesticides could be used more effectively to eliminate a larger, more concentrated population of sea lampreys."
Snowboarding superstar Lindsey Jacobellis has an Olympic silver medal in the rollicking sport of snowboard-cross, and has dominated the event at the Winter X Games. She has loads of talent while on her board, but what else can she do?
Sing. (Well, you be the judge.)
Above is her remix (or parody) of Disney's "Tangled," which she titled "Curled." It takes viewers through the curly-haired athlete's summer, in anticipation of winter snow. It's creative and amusing, and probably not something her fans would have expected, but she will not be appearing on "American Idol" anytime soon. As a much older song goes, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."
An understandable reaction for people who may find themselves in the water close to a great white shark, without the protection of a boat, would be fear, perhaps followed by panic.
But Chris Fallows, who runs Apex Shark Expeditions in South Africa, has taken extreme measures to prove that the world's most fearsome-looking marine predator may investigate but will not attack a human except in very rare cases during which a human is mistaken for a shark's natural prey.
Most recently, Fallows paddled a stand-up surfboard alongside a 14-foot great white inside a clear-water bay (see photo and video). The footage is part of an episode called " Great White Invasion," which will air during the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" at the end of the month.
Fallows, a renowned photographer who is regarded as an expert in shark behavior, described the experience as "fantastic and exhilarating."
Great White Invasion, produced and directed by filmmaker Jeff Kurr, will attempt to explain how large white sharks do come close to shore in all parts of the world "but that they actually have far more to fear from us than we do from them," Fallows said.
To illustrate this point Fallows appears to have tempted fate on behalf of a predator responsible for the deaths of 26 people worldwide since 1990, according to the Florida-based International Shark Attack File. (That's a tiny number considering that millions of people swim or surf in the oceans every year.)
Said Fallows: "To prove this point I have free-dived, paddle-boarded, body-boarded and kayaked with them, as well as being dragged on a sled less than 15 feet from a breaching great white. In essence, I have done pretty much everything that a shark is likely to encounter in the form of a human. In virtually all instances the sharks chose to ignore me and it was often a battle to get them to come close."
That's good for Fallows and, of course, for the reputation of the sharks.
-- Images showing Chris Fallows paddling near a great white shark and filming a shark while free-diving are courtesy of Discovery Channel
It's being called "the theft of the century" and at first glance it seems to have been a clever heist indeed by a giant Pacific manta
that swooped in to snatch an unsuspecting videographer's expensive gear and steal
away into the dark nighttime waters off Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
At
second glance, however, it seems the gentle giant might simply have
swum too close and been snagged by part of the camera's lighting
apparatus. Fortunately, the evidence was recently made available for
all to inspect, thanks to another alert videographer.
The incident occurred as the crew of the travel show, "Into the Drink,"
was wrapping up a nighttime shoot. Travis Matteson was beneath the
surface aiming upward to obtain footage of a plankton bloom.
Johnny
Reidt was filming his partner when the plankton-eating manta approached
swiftly from the side, snatched the camera, rolled over backwards and
swam off as the camera was still filming.
Matteson was sure his
$5,000 camera and other gear, with an overall value of nearly $10,000,
was lost. But the manta eventually returned to the dive boat and
released the equipment, which was retrieved undamaged. The Kona episode
will air next year.
-- Pete Thomas
Editor's note: This post also appears on the GrindTv.com outdoors blog
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