The Ark In Space

Badlands National Park

Saturday, 12 March 2022

Badlands National Park, in southwest South Dakota, United States preserves 242,756 acres (98,240 ha) of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. Bizarre and beautiful formations jut out of the fractured prairie in various shades of pink, red and yellow. Bison and bighorn sheep are a few of the parks multiple inhabitants.

Sit back and take in this glorious landscape with its wildlife through this short film created by Matt Brass. The music is The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan" by Chris Zabriskie.

Great Egret Rising

Wednesday, 13 January 2021

Image Credit Flickr User Wolfpix

With its all white plumage that can often reach a meter in height, the Great Egret is a sight to behold as it soars up in to the sky. Considered safe, only a century ago the species was highly threatened. Read on to discover how and why the species was able to make a dramatic come back.

Image Credit Flickr User Mike Baird

The Bobcat – Resilient Predator of North America

Sunday, 9 December 2018

While many wild cat species around the world have suffered dramatically through loss of territory and a lot have become endangered species, there is at least some good news. The Bobcat, a wild cat synonymous of America has proved a resilient survivor. With a stable population this whiskered warrior persists and thrives in much of its original terrain.

Image Credit Flickr User ucumari

The Birds of Troup Head

Sunday, 10 February 2013

In June 2012 Cain Scrimgeour visited RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) Troup Head in Scotland, to produce a short promotional film for the RSPB. A week was spent filming on the high sea cliffs of the reserve, where he was privileged to be in the presence of the beautiful and prehistoric Northern Gannet, Morus bassanus. The close proximity allowed him to delve into the Gannets lives, witnessing the complexity of their behavioural traits.

Cain takes up the story: During the week the weather was by majority hot and sunny with flat seas, this proved to be challenging in terms of exposure whilst filming these large white birds, but it also meant that the majority of the Gannets kept to the cliff edges, never venturing above the cliff tops. Only two days did I experience wind which provided some interesting photograph and filming opportunities. The waves picked up, and began crashing into the base of the rocky cliffs, whilst the winds updrafts allowed the Gannets to gain height, congregating at the uppermost parts of the cliff face, gliding effortlessly above the horizon.

Man and Beast

Sunday, 11 November 2012

We have never had movie time on Ark in Space, but this is a brilliant point at which to start. Directed by Dante Ariola, it tells the story of Dr Alan Rabinowitz – who is one of the leading experts on big cats in the world. We are shown his childhood and his visit to the Bronx Zoo in his youth: yet Alan was different as a child.

He had a major stutter which meant that he found difficulty in expressing himself to people. Yet like many stutterers he discovered that when he spoke to animals, it disappeared.

In this beautifully made short film (which should really be made in to a full length movie)we follow his life through his formative years and in to adulthood where he overcomes his stutter and finally gets to study jaguars in the wild. Today Dr Rabinowitz is CEO of Panthera, a nonprofit organization devoted to saving the world’s wild cat species. He has devoted his lifetime to charting the world’s last wild spaces, with the aim of preserving wild territories and safeguarding homes, on a massive scale, for many of the world’s most threatened mammals.

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