Every year, in the middle of Croatia, it’s the same story: after the annual snowmelt, a huge flood wave spills out of the Alps toward Zagreb and Belgrade. This leads to an increase in the River Sava’s water levels of some ten meters. The contents of more than ten billion bathtubs floods an area the size of Lake Constance, often for months on end, yet still the Croatian and Serbian capital is spared a flood disaster. One of the reasons for this is the fact that the Sava is able to flow unhindered. The annual floods not only create a natural retention reservoir for flood control: alongside the Sava lies a natural paradise, unique in Central Europe. In the species-rich, alluvial flood forests of the last major meadow landscapes of the continent, enormous predatory fish like the catfish lie in wait for prey. The fertile floodplains of the Sava are an important resting place for more than 240 bird species, including Hoopoe, great crested Grebe, little Egret, common snipe and pied Avocet. Old, domestic livestock breeds like the Turopolje pig and Posavina horse spend almost the entire year in the floodplains. They appreciate the alluvial meadows, keep puddles and mudholes open whilst wallowing and, as living lawnmowers, they ensure that the moist meadows aren’t transformed into dense oak forests. Thanks to this traditional pasture farming, more than 700 pairs of white stork alone breed in the Lonjsko Polje National Park. The Sava Floodplains allow us to glance into the past of our continent and at the same time, illustrate just how flood protection for major towns can be perfected.
source https://earthonsight.org/earth/wildlife/the-sava-floodplains-croatias-secret-paradise/
source https://earthonsight1.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-sava-floodplains-croatias-secret.html
Originally from across the border in what is now Tuva Republic of Russia, the Dukha are one of the last groups of nomadic reindeer herders in the world. As the reindeer populations shrink, only about 40 families continue the tradition in the year 1998. Dukhas live differently from most other people in the world. The Dukha’s sense of community is structured around the reindeer. The reindeer and the Dukha are dependent on one another. Some Dukha say that if the reindeer disappear, so too will their culture. The reindeer are domesticated and belong to the household. In many ways they are treated like family members and shown respect. The community’s chores and activities are centered around the care and feeding of their reindeer.[7] Dukha communities on the taiga are usually a group of tents of two to seven households that move camp to find optimum grazing for the reindeer. Herding tasks are shared amongst the camp with children at a young age learning to care for the reindeer and keeping them safe. The girls and younger women do the milking and make yogurt, cheese, and milk tea. Young men and women and elders help with herding. A few of the men stay with the reindeer in the winter months, living in the open air with their herds to protect them from wolves and other predators. The men also make and repair their hunting tools and reindeer saddles and carts. Since they rarely kill a reindeer, they supplement their diet of reindeer milk products by hunting wild animals from the forest.
Enter the wonderful world of the woods. Treat yourself to an absolutely fascinating walk in the forest. After watching this film, future visits to the woods will be a completely new experience: insights into the greater and smaller secrets of the forest, the biodiversity of the flora and fauna within the forest symbiosis as it has never been seen before. Viewers virtually accompany a female nature enthusiast who spends every available minute in the forest to be able to observe as many animals in their natural habitat as she can. For more than a year, her hunting trips, full of interesting and exciting observations, are caught on camera. Not only the larger mammals, such as roes, foxes, wild boars and deer are the focus of attention, but also smaller animals like wildcats, stone martens, squirrels or wood mice; but birds too, especially woodpeckers, while ravens, sparrow hawks, chaffinches, robins and black storks, all play an important role.
They are killers. They kill with unbelievable precision. They fight Kung Fu style and are seen in Japan as a symbol of vigilance – the mantises. Their triangular head with its unique flexibility is conspicuous. Two overdimensioned eyes fixate the distance to their prey rapidly and three-dimensionally. The chest segment of the mantis is prolonged and equipped with spiny appendages that can spear their prey as fast as a jack knife. The mysterious aura that surrounds the praying mantis has a lot to do with the fact that they are rarely seen. They have adapted to their surroundings perfectly. No matter whether leaves, blossoms, tree bark, sandy floors or even orchids – the mantis adjusts to all environments. We observe mantises with our cameras whilst they are hunting, when they shed their skin and whilst breeding and eventually the females practicing their cannibalism. We were also on hand when the female produces a nest of foam on which to lay her eggs; all filmed with time lapse and real-time cameras. A film, that comprehensively documents the secret life of the mantises for the very first time and provides us with unique footage thanks to state of the art equipment.
The family of the medusae are not only the most venomous ocean inhabitants but also some of the deepest divers. Medusae have been found as deep as 8.300 meters. Their existence is paramount to the oceans. Many of the large migrations of fish and mammals would not be possible without the existence of jellies. They are a crucial part of the food chain, many fish feed on jellies and in turn mammals or larger migratory predators feed on fish. The scientist Gerhard Jarms of the Zoological Institute of the University of Hamburg takes us on a journey into the exotic world of jellyfish. He is one of the most renowned medusae scientists in the world. Our expedition begins in the northern Atlantic where we will find the mysterious periphylla. We will continue on to the Azores in the Atlantic. There we will search for the XY jellies that seek shelter in caves in rough seas. In the Pacific we will swim with the jellies in the famous Jellyfish Lake and last but not least we will explore some of the world’s most beautiful coral reefs of western Papua. And at the very end danger lurks around every corner as we set out to search off Australia’s coast for the fatal sea wasp – one of the most poisonous ocean inhabitants.
The sea determines the life rhythm of the area between Table Mountain and Table Bay: In Cape Town penguins are reared by hand and sardines are driven in swarms from land into nets. Shark watchers sound the alarm when a “Great White” appears near to the beach. Then, surfers exchange their surfboards for longboards and speed down the steep coastal strip on wheels. Cape Town, once a small trading post in the Atlantic, halfway between India and Europe, quickly developed into a pulsating harbour metropolis. Even today, South Africans refer to their dream town at the Cape as “Mother City”. Via the world famous coastal road Chapman’s Peak Drive, one can reach Hout Bay. The small community in the south has a huge problem: a gigantic sand dune! It’s getting bigger and bigger and is growing into the town itself. The public toilets and the police station have been crushed beneath the masses of sand already. Now the bus-stop is in danger of being “eaten”, too. The citizens of Hout Bay call the threatening dune “Frankenstein”. Amy Davison from the Ministry of Environment has a plan: “Kill Frankenstein!” – she wants to attack the sandy monster with excavators and shovels.
Gauransh Singh 