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Japan is a crowded country but stull has many diverse wildlife and landscapes. Many of the animals have adapted and continue to thrive alongside humans.  This documentary is a very sweet and beautifully created piece of work and features narration by Michelle Dockery.  You will witness frogs and their amazingly complex nests, the tadpoles feeding off it before they make their way out into the world.  Then there are the macaques raiding the local farms for the fresh produce (well, everyone has to eat, don’t they?).  These and many other animals will thrill and engage you for 20 minutes. I particularly liked the underwater sequences - simply phenomenal.  It leaves me wondering how on earth it was done. Enjoy!

The wonderfully eccentric Snares penguin is always up for a spot of self-care.  In their New Zealand forest habitat they thrive, but there is something that happens in a forest that wouldn’t if they were, say, to live in ice-bound conditions further south.  Mud.  Forests are muddy. 

The clingy mud (which they themselves have helped to generate as they waddle through the forest) could be a threat to them. If the feathers are clogged, regulation of body temperature is very difficult and so this might kill the penguin if they don’t get their feathers clean soon.  So, they go to the baths and give themselves a proper scrub, after which they lay on a special wax to their feathers!

Watch the delightful video below.

There are lots of videos doing the rounds that feeding birds in our gardens helps to spread disease.  Not only that, it favours some of the more aggressive species of birds to thrive to the detriment of others.  What exactly does help the birds in our gardens?

As landscapes changed – bird-feeding spread.  Here, Joel Ashton tells, with great clarity, the steps that can be taken to help stop the spread of disease.  It is also very sensible advice.  For example, the blue-tit is quite an assertive bird and people think that it is hogging the feeding stations – as well as the  nest boxes we place in the gardens, too.  As a fan of the blue tit, I was relieved to find that it is not the thug in the garden that many people think it is.

Bird behaviour changes when resources are limited.  So a lot of birds behave badly – but of course that is a human interpretation of their actions.  Gardens are shared spaces, and competition is normal – the birds don’t quite see things as we do.  A simple tip is to spread different types of feeding stations around the garden to avoid the birds having to feed shoulder-to-shoulder.

Watch the video below – it’s a great watch wherever you are.

You may or may not know this but Ark in Space is curated by just one person – and that person would be me! There are a number of expenses that the site incurs each month and so, with my cap in my hand, I’m going to beg a favor.

If you enjoy Ark in Space, please consider helping out with the cost of running the site.  As you can guess, it takes a lot of time and effort, too!

Below this post you will see a button which will enable you to make a contribution safely and securely. You can give as little or as much as you like – I’m not going to limit your choices! Anything will be gratefully received and will help to ensure that I can carry on bringing you all the great features, photographs and videos about the natural world that makes the site what it is.

So, if you read or watch something that you have really enjoyed, please think about sending us a small donation. Thanks!

Best regards

Robert-John

Geoffroy’s tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi) is a small New World monkey native to Central America, particularly Panama and parts of Costa Rica. This picture was taken at Gatun Lake in Panama. It is easily recognised by its distinctive black-and-white fur and reddish nape. Living in social groups, Geoffroy’s tamarins are active, agile and highly vocal, using a range of calls to communicate. Their diet is omnivorous, consisting of fruit, insects, nectar and small vertebrates. They play an important role in seed dispersal within tropical forests. Although adaptable, they are threatened by habitat loss and deforestation.

They can seem a bit grumpy – like the one in the picture - mainly because of their sharp facial markings and intense expressions. Geoffroy’s tamarins often look stern or suspicious, especially when alert. Behaviour-wise, though, they’re not especially bad-tempered. They’re lively, curious and quite social, but they can be noisy and feisty, particularly when defending territory or competing for food. So while they may look grumpy, it’s more a case of “serious face” than a genuinely grumpy personality.

This picture is by Charles J. Sharp, shared here with a Creative Commons license.

High up in the Ethiopian mountains lives the Gelada.  It lives nowhere else and although its closest living relative is the baboon, with its hairless face and short muzzle the gelada looks more like a chimpanzee.  Isolated in these remote Ethiopian Highlands (often called The Roof of Africa) this primate has developed a way of existence (one might call it a culture) all of its own.

To begin with the gelada is a graminivore which means that it only eats grass.  Fortunately, the highlands in which they live are cooler and a lot less arid than many parts of Ethiopia and they rarely experience any kind of food shortage.  They will also become granivorous when the grass is in seed.  In fact, they actively prefer the seed to the grass – it is probably a welcome change.

Chimps love honey – and who could blame them? However, our close relative cannot, as we do, pop down to the shops and buy some over the counter. They have to do it the traditional way – and as such things can get a little messy, not to mention a little dangerous. In this video from the BBC, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, one chimp decides that it must be honey for lunch – and she is willing to go to extremes to get it.

Unfortunately for the bees, the chimp is quite adept at getting what she wants, using a variety of different wooden “tools” in order to extract the honey.  How on earth does she know how to do this? At one point, a chimp did learn and passed it on. Down the generations these skills have been honed until now they make it looks very easy. You can see in this video a young chimp learning through imitation and although he doesn’t seem to be doing too well, I bet in a few years he will have mastered the art.  It’s just a shame that what took the bees years to create is destroyed in minutes.  It seems they are closer to us than we might imagine, after all.

Watch the chimps hunt for honey below.

This is amazing footage.  Occasionally barnacle geese, usually keen to keep to the British coastline when in flight, as forced inland because of poor weather.  When they do, the lucky inhabitants of cities like Edinburgh will be lucky enough to witness the flight of a whole flock as they make their way further north.  The sight is something to behold from the ground, so just imagine if you were in the sky with the geese! Well, imagine no more because thanks to John Downer Productions, you can now see these remarkable  birds doing what they do best.  If this seems familiar, you may have seen it while watching the Earthflight TV series, which was called Winged Planet in the US.  The result is more than a little jaw meets floor to say the least.

Edinburgh’s sites are not the only thing barnacle geese might see as they complete their annual migration. The Svalbard population (the most likely to be in our video) of barnacle geese migrates annually between the high Arctic and western Scotland. They breed during the short summer in Svalbard, where predator pressure is low, then begin their autumn migration in September, flying south across the Norwegian Sea. The geese winter mainly in south-west Scotland, particularly the Solway Firth, with smaller numbers dispersing along the east coast and occasionally over Edinburgh. In spring (April–May), they return north via the Norwegian coast to Svalbard, completing a round journey of around 3,000 kilometres. This remarkable migration is typically undertaken in tight family groups, forming the distinctive V-shaped skeins often seen crossing Scottish skies.

 

Did you know that a new species can be named by qualified scientists all over the world, as long as they follow international rules? Probably, a more amazing fact is that new species are still being discovered on a daily basis.  The Natural History Museum in London helped to identify 262 species in 2025 alone. The global number runs into the thousands.

The species do not have to be around – many of the new species that are identified each year are fossilised remnants.  However, in 2025 the Natural History Museum helped with animals including a toad whose tadpoles skip the tadpole phase, and some dazzling new jewel butterflies (one or two of which were around, but alas may not be any more).

To discover more about how many species were discovered last year, watch the Natural History Museum video below.

In the subantarctic region of the Southern Ocean, roughly halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica lies Macquarie Island. Although it is closer to New Zealand, Australia, in fact, owns the island.  Not that the royal penguin cares – it has called the island its (only) home for tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of years, relying on its rocky shores and tussock-covered slopes for breeding, nesting, and raising its chicks in one of the most remote and windswept environments on Earth.  As such, it is the only place on Earth (apart from two small islets about 30 miles away where around 1,000 breed) that the royal penguin mates and reproduces. Image Credit

Image Credit

So, why the name? This is almost always the first question that people ask when they first come across the royal penguin.  We’re not really sure when they acquired their common name, but it is likely that it was at around the same time that they were first recorded by European sealers in 1810 (and that was an oh dear moment for the species, to say the very least).  The sealers were no doubt struck by the bird’s bright yellow crest, which resembles a crown or royal ornament.  They were also struck (with no doubt at all), by the opportunity the royal penguin presented to make some money. More about that sad chapter later.

Once thought to be functionally extinct, the kākāpō — New Zealand’s iconic, flightless parrot — may be heading for its largest breeding season on record. Image Credit

Conservationists expect all 84 breeding females in the population to lay eggs this season, a remarkable milestone for a species that numbered just 51 individuals in 1995. Today, the population stands at around 273 birds, the result of decades of intensive conservation work.

The surge in breeding activity is linked to an unusually large crop of rimu fruit, a critical food source that triggers kākāpō reproduction. When food is abundant, the birds are far more likely to mate and lay eggs. What’s particularly intriguing is that the fruit will not be fully ripe until after chicks hatch - yet the birds appear to “predict” the coming abundance and begin breeding in advance.

That said, success is far from guaranteed. Eggs must still hatch, chicks must survive, and juveniles must reach independence - a process that will not be fully assessed until late 2026. The species’ slow breeding cycle and long lifespan mean recovery is measured in decades, not years.

There are also lingering concerns about genetic diversity. The severe population bottleneck has led to fertility issues and increased vulnerability to disease, challenges conservationists continue to manage as best they can.

Still, the outlook is hopeful. If even a portion of this breeding season succeeds, it could mark another significant step away from extinction for one of the world’s rarest parrots - and a powerful reminder of what long-term conservation efforts can achieve.

Will these turtle hatchlings reach the sea without being captured by predators, and will they withstand the power of the waves once they get there?

On the beaches of Africa, a clutch of tiny turtle hatchlings emerges from the sand, driven by instinct alone. The journey before them is short in distance, but immense in danger. Every movement draws attention, and every second increases the odds stacked against them.  Although this video from the BBC does not explicitly state this, I have an idea that these are hatchlings of the Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea).

To say that they have the odds stacked against them is something of an understatement. Above, yellow-billed kites circle patiently, their sharp eyes trained on the shifting sand. Nearby, crows watch from a distance, intelligent and opportunistic, waiting for the moment to strike. At ground level, ghost crabs scuttle across the beach, perfectly adapted ambush predators ready to seize any hatchling that strays too close. Together, these hunters form a gauntlet that few will pass unscathed.

Of course, there is always one hatchling that emerges last. Smaller, slower, just a heartbeat behind the others. Naturally, our attention fixes on this one. We root for it, silently urging it forward, as if encouragement alone might tilt the balance in its favour. But what are the odds?

Even reaching the shoreline is not the end of the trial. The surf itself is a formidable barrier, its waves capable of dragging a fragile body back onto the sand or tumbling it helplessly in the shallows. And beyond the breaking waves, the danger does not disappear. A moment’s hesitation can be fatal, as a shadow passes overhead and a pair of sharp talons plunges down from the sky.

This is nature at its most uncompromising. No quarter is given, no second chances offered. Yet enough hatchlings survive to keep the species alive, just as they have for millions of years. Each successful dash to the sea is a small victory, not just for the turtle, but for life’s stubborn persistence against overwhelming odds.

Narrated in the measured, reverent tones we associate with Sir David Attenborough, this scene reminds us that survival in the natural world is never guaranteed — it is earned, moment by perilous moment.

Watch the video below:

The robin, both European and American is famous for its red breast.  The subject of nursery rhymes and Christmas cards the male of the species is resplendent in red. Australia, too, has a robin.  One might, of course, expect this particular country to produce something a little different: it has form, after all.  So, step forward the pink robin, Australia’s passerine of pulchritudinous pinkness.


Just in case you think this is some kind of practical joke, here's a rare and short video of the pink robin.

This very interesting video is all about the Red Panda and how it got its name.  You might think that it was a straightforward process, but that isn’t really the case with beautiful animal which belongs in a class of its own (quite literally).  Of course, this tells the story of how it got its English name.  And it made me wonder – what do the Chinese call both species of panda?  As you will have seen from the video, panda is not a word of Chinese origin. Image Credit

The answer?  Well the Chinese call the giant panda 大熊猫 (dà xióng māo).  If we break that down, 大 (dà) = big, 熊 (xióng) = bear, and 猫 (māo) = cat. So literally, it means “big bear cat.”  That's a beautifully pragmatic name, even if it is scientifically inaccurate (but they probably didn't care about taxonomy). So what of the red panda? The answer is glorious! 小熊猫 (xiǎo xióng māo), literally means “small bear cat.”  It makes me think that Chinese is a very sensible language, far more so than English.  So one panda is the big bear cat and the other is the small bear cat. Ta da.

I digress – take a look at the video which explains, very humourously, how the Red Panda got its name (and other assorted facts).

Did you know that there are over 50,000 spiders on planet Earth today?  Just imagine if there were that many different species of human on the planet.  Good grief!  As well as being one of the most successful types of animal of all time, there are many questions the average person in the street couldn’t answer about arachnids.  For example, were spiders around at the time of the dinosaurs? When did the ability to produce silk happen and was it used in the same way as spiders use it today?  Where on the planet did spiders first emerge?  And are there any species of spiders that have weathered the millennia and are still with us today after millions of years?

All these questions and many more are answered in this fantastic video from Animated Earth (otherwise known as Peter Schumaker and Tristan Reed).  It really is one of the best natural history animations that I have seen over the last few years.  As such it answered a few questions about spiders for me that I didn’t even realise that I wanted to ask – such as how likely are spiders to survive an extinction event?

Watch the video below:

Dogs like nothing better than when something a little out of the ordinary happens. So, when the world has turned white one morning and the water has gone hard and slippery, you can’t blame a dog for getting a little excited, can you?

At first you might be a little unsteady on your paws but when there is a new and interesting experience to be had then a few slips and slides hardly matter.

Take a look at the picture of an ant, above. Yet, this is not a photograph of an ant: it isn’t even a photograph of an ant attacking an insect.  It is in fact the ant-mimicking treehopper (Cyphonia clavata) which keeps itself safe from predators by pretending to be an ant.  What looks like an ant here is actually extension growths on its body - which most other insect species are incapable of creating.

The plan is that any predator looking down will only see what looks like an ant.  The rest of the treehopper’s body will blend in with the foliage. What seems, at first, strange is that the body of the ant is positioned backwards on that of the treehopper. Take a look at the abdomen of the ant and you will see the tiny green eyes of the treehopper.  Why is this?  It is because when it is in defensive mode an ant will move backwards.  In this way, the ant-mimicking treehopper (which can be found in in Middle and South America) has, in fact, got this right too.

Just when you think it’s safe to go back in the garden, the natural world pulls another fast one on us. The picture above is a snail infected with a parasitic flatworm that goes under the (rather menacing) name the green-banded broodsac.  Found mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, its binomial scientific name is Leucochloridium paradoxum which translated means “strange little white-green creature”.  Isn’t that just the understatement of the decade?

Image Credit

Some might be inclined to exchange paradoxum with nauseosum (nausea inducing) because although it looks strange in a photo, you should see this creature in… motion.  So, if you are even remotely squeamish by nature, don’t read on. And certainly, don’t play this video (definitely not narrated by David Attenborough). Don’t say you weren’t warned…

Spiders have been studied for centuries.  In Middle English the name for spider was coppe and they built coppewebs, a word still retained in the language as cobweb. Yet despite our familiarity with these enigmatic air-breathing arthropods, scientists are still discovering new facts about them – and not necessarily about newly discovered species either.  Here are ten amazing recently discovered facts about spiders.

10. Electrostatic Webs that Suck in Prey
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In 2013 students at the University of California, Berkeley, discovered that the web of the garden spider (or common cross spider) is attracted to charged objects. When a charged object is held next to a garden spider web, its threads arc towards each other. Many insects produce a charge when flying – the honeybee, for example, can generate a charge of up to 200 volts as it moves its wings.  So, if one gets close to a web, the threads arc, effectively sucking the hapless creature in to the web.

We often read about people taking over the natural habitat of other species but it is rare to come across a case where the animals come back and reclaim their territory from us.  Yet this is exactly what has happened in San Francisco.  Local Californian Sea Lions have always been present in the city’s bay but had been pushed out to Seal Rocks, a small formation at the north end of the Ocean Beach.  Pier 39’s K-Dock was developed and opened in 1978.  Little did we know that the sea lions also had their eyes on this particular piece of seaside real estate.

They bided their time but their opportunity to move in (or back, if you argue that their presence along the Californian coastline predates human occupation by tens of thousands of years) came just over a decade later in 1989.  It was then that it was decided that the docks needed refurbishment.  In order to facilitate this all the boats had to be removed from Pier 39.  This left large open spaces inside the Bay.  A small number of sea lions saw their opportunity.  They metaphorically weighed anchor from the stony slopes of Seal Rocks and began to arrive at Pier 39.