Drone Surveillance of the Best Kind: Stunning images of a dolphin ‘stampede’ & Grey Whales captured by ‘drone cam’!

Another video doing the rounds is this one [Camera Equipped Drones Capture Stunning Footage of Stampeding Dolphins and Migrating Whales] where:

“Camera-equipped drones launched by Captain Dave Anderson of Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari captured stunning footage of stampeding dolphins off of Dana Point, California and migrating whales in the waters of Maui, Hawaii.”

I must say I agree with National Geographic who like seeing drones being used this way:

“Whatever you think of drone technology, this may be one use that we can all agree on.”

This birds-eye view of a  a pod of hundreds of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) which typically live and play togther in large ‘super-pods’,  and three grey whales (Eschrichtius robustus) demonstrates what can happen when technology is innovated and adapted. 

Imagine the potential in addition to observation….. Management of marine mammals and other large fauna? Monitoring of endangered species? Population studies?

I am thinking New Zealand Sealions here 😛

Flight of the Pelican: Beak-mounted GoPro camera shows a young pelican taking its first flight!

This video has been making the rounds…. Of course it has! It is one of the internet videos that makes one smile.

Stuff described it:

“Learning to fly . . . spreading your wings . . . letting your spirit soar . . . birds give us our metaphors for realising potential. Perhaps that’s why this video, that looks right into the eyes of a pelican taking wing for the first time, feels so good.“

The Back Story

According to the Greystoke Mahale Blog the young orphaned pelican [named “Big Bird”] was saved by staff at Greystoke Safaris in Tanzania after being washed ashore after a storm on Lake Tanganyika.

“He [Big Bird] was young but already large, maybe 3 months old then. He couldn’t fish without his flock. This species doesn’t dive for fish, instead they corral the fish co-operating with each other and then scoop the cornered prey into their large stretchy pouches below the bill. So we have been given permission from Tanapa, the park authority to feed him…

He didn’t fly for some weeks but with encouragement he got the idea. We aren’t sure how much flying he may have already done before arriving here but he was pretty shaky in his next attempts on the beach. We would run up and down flapping our arms and simulating flight for him. He would look on curiously until one day he showed us how it was done!“

“Big Bird”: The orphaned pelican who was filmed from the moment the giant bird first took flight.
Source: Grey Stoke Mahale Blog
http://www.nomad-tanzania.com/blogs/greystoke-mahale/flight-of-the-big-bird