Babelgum Film
Login | Sign up
Logout Facebook Connect
ProfileName |
GOOD: Animal Superpowers
expand

Babelgum

GOOD: Animal Superpowers

[ 02:26 ]
From cicadas who hibernate for 17 years to checkerboard-camouflaged cuttlefish, some animals have powers that border on the super. Artists Kenichi Okada and Chris Woebken have created three devices designed to give children a chance to experience heightened animal senses. For example, their Bird Device consists of a GPS that vibrates when oriented towards home, simulating the instincts of migratory fowl. Personally, we're hoping the adult models will be on the market by year's end. LEARN MORE Chris Woebken; Kenichi Okada
Show similar clips

Similar videos
| 10 videos
 
51:14
Animal Language
An Indonesian legend claims that monkeys can speak but they prefer to stay quiet. Do animals have languages that we don't understand? Is it just a question of getting the right dictionary or is language the one thing that separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom? Birds sing, lions roar and chimpanzees chatter but do these noises mean anything? This one-hour documentary takes viewers into the wild to listen to nature's noisemakers and meet some of the scientists who spend their days trying to have conversations with animals. From parrots to killer whales we find out who is saying what to whom and explore whether there is such a thing as animal language. www.saint-thomas.net.
51:36
Animal Adoption
Altruism, an act that bestows a benefit on the recipient while conferring a cost to the actor, is one of the central paradoxes of evolution. In the wild, where only the fittest survive, adopting other animals’ offspring is not really in line with Darwin’s theory of evolution. And yet, amongst bees, dolphins, lions and several primate species, altruism may go as far as adoption. In the case of social insects, parent substitution was a flaw in Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection: the biologist noticed that non-reproductive insects who adopted and helped young ones, brought a large portion of genetic baggage from their parents. Darwin had to broaden his theory to the family group. For mammals, including men, what advantage is there in the act of adoption? In the years following the adoption, does the adopted individual contribute to the foster parents’ survival and vice versa? The controversy at the heart of this documentary continues to be debated in today’s scientific world. While raising these different questions, this documentary will study each case separately because each adoption behaviour has evolved independently forming its own pattern, its own benefit and even…its own disadvantages. www.saint-thomas.net
50:18
Animal Politics
Man is not the only social animal. At the beginning of 2001, Franz de Waal published his work on a group of chimpanzees in the Arnhem zoo, in the Netherlands. He showed the existence of elaborate and subtle rites, which, according to him, revealed a political organization. This fuelled the foundation of an argument much debated in today’s scientific world. Man would therefore no longer stand as the only «political animal » as defined by Aristotle. Schemes, coalitions, and mediation are all aspects of chimpanzee behaviour. Long before man took hold of the political domain, nature had provided other animal species with a whole array of political stratagems, from the most cunning to the most egalitarian: polyergus ants have been practicing slavery for millions of years, hamadryas baboons have a right of veto and deer on the Isle of Rum have established their own democracy. Biologists have even realized that some traits of character used by politicians to fulfill their ambitions (and reach their goals) can be found in other animal species. Domination, alliance-building, seduction and manipulation are forms of intelligence no longer monopolized by man. Barriers continue to fall as discoveries on animal societies throughout the world progress. www.saint-thomas.net.
49:25
Animal Play
As children we learn more about life through playing games than we do in any other way. It is the ability to play that enables us to develop into well co-ordinated, adaptable, highly social individuals. But we are not alone, animals play also. For many years this animal play was thought to be somehow 'different' to human play, but this is proving not to be the case. Why do animals indulge in play, what are the functions of these energy draining and often dangerous activities? This interdisciplinary programme will explore the reasons that play is so important to development: by describing social, locomotor and object play behaviour in animal as diverse as reptiles, birds and mammals, it will find out the benefits it does provide. Finally it will look at the shocking evidence of what happens to young animals who are prevented from playing. In a startling parallel to humans, animal deprived of play, develop into dysfunctional adults, and even serial killers. www.saint-thomas.net
51:12
Animal Culture
In the 1950s, rhesus macaques living on the island of Koshima in Japan started to wash the sweet potatoes researchers gave them to eat. This observation could have remained anecdotal if the Japanese primatologists had not given this innovation the name of: “preculture”. Culture, always considered as a distinctive feature of the human race was being put into question. The study of the most evolved primates, our cousins the chimpanzees and bonobos, has since then enabled us to give a more precise definition of animal culture: habits acquired through a learning process leading to distinct traditions in different animal communities. Progressively other species have joined the culture club: elephants, dolphins, killer whales and even ravens…Through precise examples and never before seen footage, this documentary fuels the old debat of “nature versus culture” and sheds new light on the paradoxical question:“Is culture natural?”. www.saint-thomas.net
05:09
Chris Bangle: Car Designer
InFrame.tv: A short film on the iconic car designer and ex-Chief of Design at BMW Chris Bangle.
05:44
Elephant Communication
From the Oakland Zoo to a watering hole in Namibia's Etosha National Park, host Boyd Matson discovers that elephants are picking up some good vibrations. A new study by National Geographic grantee Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell suggests that an elephant's big feet aren't just made for walking: they're good for listening with as well.
52:02
Animal Tool Use
Recent discoveries have shown that hundreds of animal species use tools. New Caledonia crows, for instance, use twigs to remove insect larvae from their galleries; sea otters use flat stones to break open urchin shells or ear shells. Until recently, it was believed that the human tool was different from the animal tool, which is neither transmitted nor accumulated. Several long-term studies on animal populations have proven quite the contrary. Supported by these observations, this comprehensive documentary will be structured around three central questions: how does the tool-using animal transform the world? And by extension the others? And how does the tool transform the animal’s behaviour? www.saint-thomas.net
52:05
Animal Homosexuality
For years, scientists ignored or denied that homosexuality occured in the animal world. But recent scientific research has revealed that more than 450 different kinds of animals engage in homosexual activity. Saint Thomas Productions has taken the results of this research, and combined it with never-before-seen footage, to produce this compelling and groundbreaking documentary. This film explores the various ways homosexuality is expressed in the animal kingdom through courtships, affection, sex, pair-bonding and parenting among many species including dolphins, killer whales, seals, penguins, Japanese macaques and many more. It is also revealed that in the natural world homosexuality does not necessarily cause marginalization. Within some species, most notably dolphins, same-sex pairs often mate for life. With the help of scientific research, international stock footage and location shoots all over the world, this film exposes a phenomenon that has gone unnoticed until now and re-examines the fundamental paradigms of nature. www.saint-thomas.net
52:49
Animal Business
« Give me this, I will give you that ». This universal definition of trade finds an equivalent in nature in a phenomenon call « mutualism ». Shaped by evolution, it describes all long or short-term exchanges and cooperation between animals to survive. It turns the traditional host-parasite relationship in a beneficial alliance for both partners. To describe mutualism, this fascinating and well-documented episode travels from the cold ocean depths to the heat of summer corn fields where unexpected couples have formed: manta rays and remoras, sea cucumbers and shrimps or else butterflies and ants got married for better or for worst. www.saint-thomas.net
 

Recent posts

Street Art Central

            Street Art is the biggest global art movement in history. With over 100 shorts and features...

Read More »
 

Editor's picks

24 videos
Celebrity never sleeps. Neither do they.

Go behind the camera and into the lives of photographers who work in the lucrative trade of tabloid journalism.

 

My Playlists

Maximize Playlist

Create a new playlist
(you must login to create one)