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Also, be sure to check out our blog, Pets and the Planet.

This week on Pets and the Planet: Working dogs, elephant songs, whale songs and more.  Check out the latest entries below.

Superheroes Revealed by Science

This story is one of the reasons I mix science and nature on ThisWildLife.  Without new high speed photography and thermal imaging tools, and without the scientists doing work in the field, this Nature film on hummingbirds could never have been made.

Filmmaker Ann Johnson Prum calls hummingbirds nature’s heroes.  This would not have been news to Alexander Skutch, whose brilliant book on hummingbirds explained how hummingbird’s unique method of trapline feeding works and discussed the consumption of insects by these tiny creatures.  Much of what the film shows was known, but was difficult to show.  Science of photography and computing technology has made this possible. 

When you have nine minutes, please watch this feature about the making of the Nature program.  The secrets of how the photographs were made are revealed.  Then, you can catch the video itself on Nature.

Video: Feeding Rarest Baby Parrot

The Spix macaw is extinct in the wild.  Here a biologist at Loro Parque hand feeds a newly-hatched Spix chick.  For severely endangered birds, biologists raise the young through the first critical days to avoid accidental death in a nest.  Are you surprised at how the brand new chick looks?

Dr. Matthias Reinschmidt hand feeds a newly hatched Spix’s macaw chick at Loro Parque