The Ark In Space

The Billion-Bug Highway You Can't See

Friday, 24 April 2020

Look up at the sky and what do you see? Well, blue, yes. And maybe a plane or a bird, but otherwise ... nothing. Or so you think. It turns out that right above you, totally invisible, is an enormous herd of animal life -- tiny bugs riding the wind currents.

According to research done by British scientists in a six mile square space about our heads there can be as many as three billion insects.

That is quite some figure. This amazing animation takes you through the reasons why. Some of the heights that these insects reach is pretty spectacular to say the very least. It certainly answers the question how high can insects fly?

The Hidden Life of the Burrowing Owl

Sunday, 13 January 2019

We don’t usually stray away from live action on Ark in Space, but this is really something rather wonderful. Mike Roush, an animator living in California, has created this animated record of the life and loves of the Burrowing Owl. Although it does veer in to the anthropomorphic it also faithfully records many of the details of how burrowing owls survive in the wild. If this wets your appetite for the real thing then why not take a look at our feature article on the burrowing owl.

Breaking the Rules: Pollen Thieves!

Sunday, 19 March 2017

This is a pretty amazing animation which shows that nature was many millions of years ahead of us when it comes to some traits that we consider human. In this case, it is theft. Some plants have evolved so that a particular insect can take its pollen from it flowers and so further the species. However, there are a number of species out there who pay little or no attention to the ‘wishes’ of the flower. They sense pollen and they want it!

What do they do? They grab hold of the flower and rip it open, so gaining access to the corolla tube and then they access the precious nectar from there. However, sometimes their act of desecration will still result in pollination, as this amazing video shows. Breaking the Rules was created by Divulagare.

Monster Fish - In Search of the Last River Giants

Saturday, 11 April 2015

Are there still enormous fish swimming in our lakes and rivers?

To find out the answer you will have to watch this short film animated by Daniel Gies.

It was made for the National Geographic Museum.

This is a beautifully made piece. I am sure you will enjoy this.

Quagga

Friday, 28 June 2013

You may not have heard of the Quagga and you might suspect that it never really existed. However, it did but the last of its kind died in the 19th century. It joined an ever growing list of animals made extinct by our direct intervention in its habitat.

This animation by Olga and Tatiana Poliektovs re-introduces us to the quagga and some of his friends by way of a little boy having an adventure with his camera in his woods. He manages to capture a picture of these shy animals but when he shows it to his mother the animals have all disappeared from the picture. Take a look at the animation: it may make you sad but hopefully it will encourage you to help those species that we still can save!

The Sloth Life, It Can Changes

Saturday, 11 June 2011

When I first saw the title of this (very funny) animated short I thought that perhaps it was a typo made by someone who does not speak English very well. After all, The Sloth Life, It Can Changes is poor English, innit?

I wasn’t far wrong but the words are from the mouth of the hero of this piece, a slow moving (and perhaps even more slow witted) sloth. Perhaps the age of the lolsloth is upon us?

Or perhaps not. This animation allows you to get to know the sloth and get to like him a lot too – and then drops one almighty bomb on you. Perhaps one of the silliest starts to an animation I have ever seen leads to something quite jaw-droppingly sad – and an important environmental message is imparted too. Great work from all involved at Slothvision.

Loom

Saturday, 28 May 2011

This is simply stunning. Loom tells the story of a successful catch. A moth inadvertently flies in to a spider’s web and its fate is sealed. As it disturbs the web with its struggles so its nemesis advances upon it from behind. This will – hopefully – blow your mind, as it did mine!

It is the creation of Polynoid, the design and storytelling loving collaboration of Jan Bitzer, Ilija Brunck, Csaba Letay, Fabian Pross and Tom Weber.

Founded in 2007 as a creative platform and playground for their own films and experiments, Polynoid today uses that same spirit but combines it with the resources of a production studio. It looks, from this superb animation, to have a very bright future ahead of it.

What is Biodiversity? Cool Animated Explanation

Sunday, 22 August 2010

What is biodiveristy? That is a very good question and it demands a good answer. So, no doubt that is why many teachers and parents alike have shrink away from answering this and point to the internet for an answer. Well, they came to the right place.

Help is at hand and what is even better - visual help. If you are asked what biodiversity is, you can simply point your interrogator to this very cool explanation. The animated short film was made by students of the Vancouver Film School.

The students involved in the project were Amanda Healey, Jesse Lang, Juan Carlos Arenas and Robert Ramalho and they created it through the VFS Digital Design program. Congratulations to all of them - this animation should be sent out to schools immediately! What about a text based explanation, however?

Wikipedia defines biodiversity like this:

Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or on the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems. The biodiversity found on Earth today consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The year 2010 has been declared as the International Year of Biodiversity.

It certainly makes sense, but which explanation do you prefer?

Yup. File under better explanation than Wikipedia.

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