It’s no secret humming birds beat their wings fast, but it’s also nice to catch one in the act.
I snapped this Allen’s Hummingbird (Selaphorus sasin) yesterday at a shutter speed of 1/800th second (0.00125 s) and his wings are still a blur.
Humming birds can beat their wings at up to 200 beats per second – the wing completing its travel in 0.005 s. I reckon the blurred area above represents about a quarter of a full beat, which is just what we’d expect if this guy were flapping near the max. (i.e. 4 x 0.00125 = 0.005).
Look how the body stays almost perfectly still; it reminds me of those stories about being able to balance a coin on the bonnet of a Rolls-Royce. There is a slight wobble: if you compare his head to his foot (and the pictures below where he’s settled down) the head shows a slight shimmer.
With the sun catching him like that, we’re also getting a good demonstration of the iridescent color effects humming birds exhibit due to interference of light within the microstructure of their feathers.
You may be aware of the mini-controversy around what was initially thought to be a ‘mystery missile’ launch earlier this week off the California coast. This clip sums it up:
The official line now seems to be that it wasn’t a missile at all, but the vapour contrail from a passenger jet, the sunset and viewing angle making the event look like something it wasn’t. Last time I looked, NASA were reported to be supporting that view based on satellite imagery, and a specific aircraft has been correlated with the event.
The incident reminded me that things are indeed not always as they seem, especially in the sky around sunrise and sunset. And to illustrate, I’ve dug out a few pictures – all taken in the last three months.
One thing that really struck me in the mystery missile film was the ‘solidity’ and volume of the plume. Aircraft contrails are more wispy aren’t they? But then I looked at this picture I took just before sunrise, which includes a contrail every bit as bushy as the one in the film:
Perspective too is a funny thing. Take a look at this picture I took of a passenger jet near Heathrow Airport in London just as the sun was setting.
It’s not immediately obvious, to me at least, whether this plane is coming at me or flying away. There’s a Gestalt Switch moment when the eyes confuse the rear of the fuselage for the nose end. Things don’t get much clearer when we zoom in:
A few seconds later and the setting sun catches the plane’s tail, making the direction of flight more obvious. At a distance, could such a bright reflection isolated to one part of an aircraft be confused with a rocket nozzle – especially if you’d already got the idea in mind?
It’s easy to be fooled by bright objects catching the sun. Helium filled toy balloons are favourite UFO candidates. I’ve more than once rushed into the house for camera and binoculars when something fast and bright has appeared in the sky. The motion of a rising balloon is very smooth, and viewed from the right angle the mystery object can appear to travel horizontally across the sky faster than it really is. The last one I saw reminded me of an International Space Station (ISS) pass, only in daylight. Again, one of the issues I have with the mystery missile film is that I can’t tell how fast the missile / aircraft is moving – vertically or horizontally.
Here’s another example of skyward things not being all they at first seem. To the naked eye, we see a typical multi-engine passenger jet flying at high altitude.
But with the benefit of a telephoto lens, it turns out to be three (presumably military) jets flying in formation:
Something else that isn’t clear from the mystery missile footage is the absolute and relative position of the helicopter that took the pictures. Again, perspective can be confusing. Take a look at this shot I took looking down on a plane in the clouds. Obviously I took this from the air, right?
Wrong. I was standing in the local park (and it’s not a hilly region) when I took this. A bird flying into the frame puts some limits on the likely altitude, but it’s still ambiguous if you don’t see the full context:
To finish off, here’s a picture I took only a couple of weeks ago from mountains over-looking Los Angeles and the bay area. It was twilight, and that lump above LA Downtown is Catalina Island. Perfect missile-spotting conditions. Maybe I’ll catch the next one.
UPDATE 13/11/2010
Comprehensive analysis of this event and discussion of previous missile/aircraft contrail confusions here at Contrailscience.com.
Just a few photos of dragonflies taken in and around the San Gabriel foothills. There are three individuals here: the first golden-colored guy was taken in the hills; the other two were buzzing round a pond in Pasadena. I believe the red colored one is a Flame Skimmer or Libellula saturata, the blue one is a Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis, and I’m still working on the first guy.
(Update 4th November 2011.We were very sorry to hear of Alan’s death earlier today. A fantastic guy and unmatched friend of gibbons. Rest in peace Alan.)
What better way to spend Christmas than in the company of your favourite gibbons? That’s exactly what my wife Erin and I did on the 26th December 2008, on our second visit to the Gibbon Conservation Center at Santa Clarita, California – home to some of the world’s rarest gibbons.
As well as catching up with gibbon families first met in September and described in this earlier post, I recorded the gibbons singing, and an extended interview with the Founder and Director of the Center, Alan Mootnick.
Much of what Alan has to say about working in gibbon conservation with various institutes, authorities, and peoples around the world, and particularly in Asia, is also relevant to other species.
Each recording lasts between 3 and 10 minutes, with the entire interview as one edit included at the end.
Part 1 – Arrival
An early morning tour ends in a noisy chorus.
Part 2 – Introduction
Alan introduces the aims of the Center, the various gibbon genera and species, and gives a disturbing account of the threats facing wild gibbons.
Part 3 – Breeding Program
Alan describes the breeding program for the Javan gibbon – of which only 4000 remain in the wild, the Center’s collaboration with zoos – including in the UK, and the challenges of finding gibbons for study in the wild.
Part 4 – Taxonomy
Gibbon genomics, taxonomy, and a showcase of mistaken identity. The challenges of moving gibbons and their DNA around the world, and the role of faeces in working out bloodlines.
Part 5 – Behaviour
Including apparent similarities with man, and discussion around gibbon song and brachiation (swinging arm to arm). The highlight is Alan’s empirically supported theory of hostile genital or anal presenting – ‘gibbon mooning’ in other words.
Part 6 – Volunteer Program
Including the possibility of joining the Center from the UK.
Part 7 – Threats
Discusses issues around land management and deforestation in Indonesia, the illegal trade in gibbons, and the impact that’s having on the gibbon population. Also some tips on how to work to best effect when dealing with zoos in Asia.
And this is the entire interview as a single edit:
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60Mb. Approx. 1 hour. Copyright, all rights reserved, 2009, Tim Jones communicatescience.com
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If you enjoyed hearing about – and hearing ! – the gibbons of Santa Clarita, and would like to make a donation, you can do so here.
(Update 4th November 2011.We were very sorry to hear of Alan’s death earlier today. A fantastic guy and unmatched friend of gibbons. Rest in peace Alan.)
What better way to spend Christmas than in the company of your favourite gibbons? That’s exactly what my wife Erin and I did on the 26th December 2008, when we made our second visit to the Gibbon Conservation Center at Santa Clarita, California – home to some of the world’s rarest gibbons.
As well as catching up with gibbon families we first encountered in September, and described in this earlier post, I made some sound recordings during this visit, including an extended interview with the Founder and Director of the Center, Alan Mootnick.
I hope you’ll find the resulting podcast, which you can stream or download below, gives an in-depth, candid, yet often humorous insight into the mission of the Gibbon Center, the plight of the gibbon, and the work of a dedicated scientist and hands-on conservationist.
(Please note, a later edit with the interview split down into six shorter sections can be found here)
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60Mb. Approx. 1 hour. Copyright, all rights reserved, 2009, Tim Jones communicatescience.com
*********
If you enjoyed hearing about – and hearing ! – the gibbons of Santa Clarita, and would like to make a donation, you can do so here.
WONDERING what the world will look like when the heat is on?
A newly discovered micro-fossil of an organism that lived during a previous global warming is helping researchers understand how aquatic life could adapt to the warmer, lower oxygen, waters that may accompany radical environmental transformations.
Dubbed the “Magnetic Death Star”, due to its round and spiky magnetite structure, the fossil was found among sediment deposited 55 million years ago during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), when surging atmospheric carbon drove temperatures 9 degrees Fahrenheit higher. CalTech and McGill University workers believe the single-celled eukaryote evolved during the PETM, only to be out-competed and disappear again when conditions cooled off (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, DOI:10.1073 / pnas.0803634105).
Last month, the International Primatological Society reported that nearly 50% of the world’s 634 primate species and subspecies are in danger of going extinct, with more than 70% of species in Asia coming under near term threat. Reading this on the way out to the USA earlier this month set a grim backdrop to an encounter I had very much been looking forward to.
Gibbons are found in three places: the jungles of Asia, the zoo, and, the subject of this post – a gibbon conservation center.
It was with bleary eyes that Erin and I arrived at the Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita, California, at the virtuous hour of 7.15 a.m. Erin had arranged the visit with Director and founder Alan Mootnick, as an anniversary present (I am a lifelong fan of these hairy cousins). Not an all-comers zoo, the Gibbon Center welcomes groups and serious researchers by appointment, so the personal tour was a bonus; a little politeness and a sensible donation helps.
The declared mission of the Center, established in 1977, is to help ensure the survival, preservation, and propagation of all gibbon species in the wild and captivity, to provide a captive haven for gibbons as a complement to protecting them in the wild, to educate the public and to further our knowledge of gibbon care, and to support ongoing field projects.
Alan warmly welcomed us at the gate and introduced our feet to a tray of disinfectant. Gibbons are highly susceptible to human disease and, with forty in residence, precautions are essential. It is unsettling to learn that more than 75% of Americans have oral herpes but downright scary that the gibbons who contract it will be dead within four days. Volunteers are the lifeblood of this Center, but medical tests are a pre-qualification.
The wire fenced compound houses several individual cages of gibbon family units – typically a male, a female, and one or two offspring. The family theme is very strong and not artificial – this is how gibbons live. One group we became absorbed with comprised a darker haired, white-bewhiskered male, a golden female partner nursing a gangly infant of 1yr, a hyperactive younger son, and an older sister – visible to, but separated from, the group; the consequence of uncontrollable spats at meal times. Anthropomorphising animal behaviour may not be in vogue or politically correct with some, but after three hours close to these families the parallels in behaviour to our own are obvious – whether we like it or not.
A successful breeding programme is essential to meet the Center’s conservation goals, and there was evidence aplenty of this during our visit. Between the five families on which we focused, we saw three recent offspring (including the acrobatic ‘Canter’ in the photo above) and two evident pregnancies. Such prolific reproduction is one indicator that the animals are relatively happy in their captivity. Also, while the chainlink fencing looks intimidating to us, its regular geometry and strength makes it popular with the gibbons, who strangely have spurned more sophisticated apparatus provided for their brachiating delight (that is their characteristic swinging from arm to arm). We certainly saw no evidence of the repetitive and obsessive rocking behaviours characteristic of bored, disturbed or mistreated animals. With no less than nine separate feedings a day, there is little chance of gibbon ennuie setting in within this community.
While Mootnick clearly cares deeply about his charges, he is not overly sanctimonious in pursuing his task. He delights in the gibbon’s hesitant yet rapid two legged walk, likening it to a man walking on hot coals. Indeed, the gibbons’ entertainment value may be their salvation; during the tour a call came in from a major TV company keen to film at the Center, and its not the first time, as this sequence for the L.A. Times and this half-hour interview with Alan Mootnick shows.
Inevitably, the conservation business has its own politics. The main players are zoos providing a more corporate approach; then the ‘activists’ – who seem driven mostly by the principle of keeping gibbons in their countries of origin; then groups like Alan’s (his model is not unique) – which, while a team effort, is also personally inspired with a flexibility that I sensed is not always endearing to more regimented interests. But from the recent visits and best practice exchanges that Alan described – not to mention gibbon exchanges – the Center is an important part of an informal network that essentially pulls together. 2% of donations to the Center go to support projects devoted to conservation of wild gibbons.
Despite the Center’s success, encroaching humanity from an enlarging Santa Clarita is threatening the gibbons and driving the current imperative and funding appeal to relocate and expand operations. Details are on the Centre’s website.
I will be following the fortunes of these California residents with interest, and plan to call in at the Center again over the new year. In the meantime, I would encourage anyone to learn more about the plight of primates, and especially gibbons, and consider supporting the Gibbon Center if you are able.
Other Links
BBC online article by Russell Mittermeier of the International Union for Conservation of Nature
Despite being a regular visitor to California over the last couple of years, I’ve only today made the two hour drive from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara; and a beautiful and interesting place it turned out to be.
Santa Barbara’s Museum of Natural History may be smaller than its South Kensington or Los Angeles cousins, but its collections are comprehensive and its situation enviable . Sitting atop a shady gully in a forest setting, the museum, like so much of the understated value in this city, nestles in suburban anonymity. Through the front door, all the expected departments – from mineralogy to dinosaurs – spar off from a central courtyard.
There is a complete blue whale skeleton in the front parking lot and a tranquil nature trial in the ajoining forest. The current special exhibition is a collection of dinosaur finds from Paul Sereno and teams’ dig in Africa, including whole skeletons which tangibly illustrate the simultaneous but geographically isolated (post Pangaean break-up) evolution of Africa’s version of the T-Rex.
I found the range of exhibits truly diverse and a little surprising, particularly with slices of Von Hagens’s ‘6 metre woman’, (on loan from Bodyworlds in LA) suspended nearby a more traditional collection of 1920s stuffed mammals. Well worth the $10.
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