[HN Gopher] Drone footage of fledging penguins jumping off cliff
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Drone footage of fledging penguins jumping off cliff
Author : tomcam
Score : 143 points
Date : 2024-04-21 10:10 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (petapixel.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (petapixel.com)
| gary_0 wrote:
| This should probably just link directly to the video:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PwDFddpo4c (if you're impatient,
| skip to 1:50).
| Rinzler89 wrote:
| There's times and place when I don't have time, patience or
| can't due to circumstance watch a video so just seeing a couple
| of pictures is enough.
| NullPrefix wrote:
| Here's a timestamped link if you are too impatient to skip it
| yourself
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PwDFddpo4c&t=110
| fsckboy wrote:
| i think you can skip to even deeper
| https://youtu.be/4PwDFddpo4c?t=137
| dang wrote:
| It's borderline I suppose, but the article text does contain
| enough background information to maybe keep it
| somid3 wrote:
| How is this related to tech and hacking or anything with
| innovation?
| Heronymus_Anon wrote:
| It's a great inspiration for linux wallpapers and memes. ; )
| lolinder wrote:
| From the guidelines:
|
| > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting.
| That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to
| reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that
| gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| _a_a_a_ wrote:
| It's a metaphor.
| sbarre wrote:
| The innovative use of drones to capture a never-before-seen
| moment in nature?
|
| Nature/science meets technology/science.
|
| I found this fascinating.
| robador wrote:
| I'd add to the other responses that this footage was the result
| of technical progress and wouldn't have been possible to
| achieve otherwise.
| cypherpunks01 wrote:
| Because eventually it becomes your turn to jump first.
| solardev wrote:
| You never had to YOLO code into production? Pretty much the
| same thing.
| jajko wrote:
| Its interesting how unskilled nature can be and still get away
| with it (here I guess to the thick fur/skin/fat below).
|
| If humans would jump from such height so badly, many injuries and
| possibly few deaths would be happening. I've done my fair of
| jumps in Swiss swimming pools / beaches where 10m jumping board
| is standard equipment, and even slightly incorrect landing can be
| quite brutal on the body. Falling ie on the back badly orientated
| could easily move vertebrae with corresponding consequences.
| wakeupcall wrote:
| Indeed. Not to mention, aside from a few "jumps", most of the
| falls in the video seem unwanted/slips due to pushing.
| Uncoordinated, and hitting the water pretty much randomly.
| the__alchemist wrote:
| It's mainly due to the square/cube law. Small things, including
| animals, can fall from great heights with little damage.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| Add feathers to that, and those heights become really great.
| Someone wrote:
| Or, as Haldane wrote in "On being the right size"
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Being_the_Right_Size:
|
| _"You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and,
| on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks
| away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is
| killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes. For the resistance
| presented to movement by the air is proportional to the
| surface of the moving object. Divide an animal's length,
| breadth, and height each by ten; its weight is reduced to a
| thousandth, but its surface only to a hundredth. So the
| resistance to falling in the case of the small animal is
| relatively ten times greater than the driving force"_
| yosito wrote:
| I'd imagine that jumping so far into such cold water, even if
| your form is perfect, would also be quite shocking to your
| system and probably dangerous in and of itself. I say this as
| someone who went swimming with penguins in Antarctica this
| January. No way I would enter that cold water so deeply and
| quickly.
| sorokod wrote:
| Evolution is big on expending the minimum amount of resources
| to achieve the can-get-away-with-it level.
| brutus1213 wrote:
| It kind of bothers me that animals probably do this stuff because
| they are so freakin hungry. Nature is beautiful but harsh.
| tchbnl wrote:
| Fear not, no penguins were harmed in the making of this film.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| Seems very difficult to explain this as food motivated
| NullPrefix wrote:
| There's edible fish in the water. What other food is there on
| the ice?
| jncfhnb wrote:
| Penguins enter the water all the time to hunt fish.
|
| Not off cliffs.
| NovemberWhiskey wrote:
| For those who might be worried to click: the penguin chicks are
| fledging and going off to swim for the first time; they are not
| jumping to their doom.
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| Thanks, that exactly was why I didn't want to click.
| asystole wrote:
| Wow. Phrasing!
| dang wrote:
| Thanks, we've put that word in the title above, in place of the
| 'baby' bit which is baity anyhow.
| trebligdivad wrote:
| 'We can do this, we're birds, just flap...'
| smusamashah wrote:
| Given this video is taken by a drone, and drones are very noisy,
| are the splashing sounds and sounds of penguins chirping added
| later?
| gnomesteel wrote:
| Yes
| Waterluvian wrote:
| Sounds in almost all nature documentary videos are added later
| from separate sources.
| Terretta wrote:
| Two dimensions to this question: first, drone noise; second,
| audio track.
|
| On the noise:
|
| > _" Given this video is taken by a drone, and drones are very
| noisy..."_
|
| Here's from National Geographic's press release on this video:
|
| _"Through the harnessing of new technology and pushing the
| boundaries of polar filming, Bertie utilized a newly released
| camera drone equipped with a telephoto lens allowing him to
| capture animal behavior from the air like never before without
| disrupting or impacting the penguins."_
|
| https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240411040454/en/Nat...
|
| So they were aware of the noise and other disturbance to the
| penguins, and were far enough away its unlikely these sounds
| are recorded from the drone itself.
|
| On the audio track:
|
| Mics and recorders could have been placed in advance. Given the
| level of preparation described, this is a possibility.
|
| Audio of a given action or situation could have been captured
| separately elsewhere and dubbed. This seems most likely, and if
| natural sounds were captured on location from the same flocks,
| wouldn't generally carry a disclaimer.
|
| In either of these cases, the drone doesn't need a mic, or can
| carry one just for sound sync purposes, but the sound is done
| in foley with or without a field recording.
|
| To use drone audio without it audible to the viewer, shotgun
| mics with a sound pattern that picks up far point noise
| (imagine a teleaudio mic to go with the telephoto lens) could
| be used.
|
| Drone noise is distinct, and can be removed, firms and software
| specialize in this: https://www.sound2design.com/online-sound-
| restoration-and-dr...
|
| One way is to point the shotguns at silence, record drone noise
| alone, then invert it, something like "speech transparency"
| mode in noise cancelling headphones.
|
| Today's audio processing is relatively magical when it doesn't
| have to fit in an earbud.
|
| I haven't researched this case, but it sounded like foley.
| davidguetta wrote:
| Thats a lot of word to say you dont know beyond the sentence
| you quote
|
| Its likely fake like most NatGeo vids (not that it takes away
| any of the visual awesomeness)
| Terretta wrote:
| > _Thats a lot of word to say you dont know beyond the
| sentence you quote. Its likely fake..._
|
| And a lot of words to agree that _"it 's unlikely these
| sounds are recorded from the drone"_?
|
| The additional words are to share the most common industry
| ways it can be done if it's not foley.
|
| OTOH, if you're "the" david guetta, my words certainly
| wasted your time. :-)
| ml-anon wrote:
| The audio track in nature documentaries is unfortunately almost
| entirely foley.
| mikhailfranco wrote:
| First drone footage of _x_ is becoming a little rarefied, not to
| say boring and predictable for some values of _x._
|
| So I expect this to be the peak of consumers buying little mavics
| to film their trips to Mont Blanc or the Amalfi Coast. Honestly,
| their friends are not interested. It was sad and ridiculous while
| it lasted, and now I hope it's over.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| Seems like a stupid take to me. The fact that it is drone
| footage is not why it's interesting. It's merely indicating
| that it's drone footage because that implies a novel ability to
| film something interesting from a good angle.
| ryukoposting wrote:
| Why should they care what their friends think? Can we not take
| pictures and videos of things for our own enjoyment of that
| act?
|
| FWIW I don't own a drone nor have I ever considered buying one.
| I do have a horde of 35mm film cameras though.
| mikhailfranco wrote:
| If it was really enjoyable, you will remember it. The human
| memory is designed to fix emotional experiences. No need for
| celluloid or pixels. If you were with a loved one, your
| future conversations about that time will keep the memory
| alive.
|
| There is a certain value and excitement in showing personal
| photos or videos to grand-children. But their children will
| not even know your name.
|
| The vanity and self-importance of youthful experiences will
| wane with age, reflection, wisdom, and a certain acceptance
| of our transient existence.
|
| Yes, I left many meaningless 35mm negatives, in a long
| forgotten attic, of a distant house, which I used to inhabit.
| Nobody will miss them. Not even me. If they are, perchance,
| discovered by a future owner of the house, they will be
| excited, for about 10 minutes, then throw them away.
| ryukoposting wrote:
| > If it was really enjoyable, you will remember it. The
| human memory is designed to fix emotional experiences. No
| need for celluloid or pixels. If you were with a loved one,
| your future conversations about that time will keep the
| memory alive.
|
| Words to live by.
|
| My point is this: the act of capturing photo and/or video
| is _itself_ the draw for some people. It 's an art form -
| beauty isn't just captured in a photograph, it's created
| through composition. A great photo is never just a photo of
| a great thing.
|
| Why should the transience of my art deter me, if _I myself_
| am also transient?
| mikhailfranco wrote:
| I think the value of photography is in teaching how to
| really _see_ and appreciate the world, not in any
| artifact you may have created (at least not very often,
| unless you are a genius).
|
| It is similar to the way learning a musical skill
| (instrument, composition, production) teaches you to
| really _hear_ music, which is probably more valuable than
| any particular sounds you created (again, geniuses
| excepted).
|
| There is a similar formula for other artistic and
| professional practices. No graphic designer just reads a
| web page. No cabinetmaker walks into a room and sees it
| the way you do. No architect or town planner ever just
| walks down an anonymous street in a strange city...
| patall wrote:
| I think you may be speaking from an affluent bubble. None of my
| friends ever approached me with their drone footage. And my
| grandma would absolutely be stoked if I did show her something
| like this from myself. Yes, drone video have become a bit too
| much of a thing in any kind of documentary (and it can be a tad
| boring for at least 5-10 years now). But that is just how it
| is, colored video (or HD etc) is also not novel anymore, yet we
| keep doing it.
| krallja wrote:
| First written account of x is becoming a little rarefied, not
| to say boring and predictable for some values of x. So I expect
| this to be the peak of consumers buying little bics to write
| about their trips to Mont Blanc or the Amalfi Coast. Honestly,
| their friends are not interested. It was sad and ridiculous
| while it lasted, and now I hope it's over.
| mikhailfranco wrote:
| Assumed to be obvious before it was observed (how else?).
|
| Seen and filmed many many times for adults leaping into the
| water.
|
| Already documented: 'witnessed by scientists'.
|
| Published by a site called _petapixel_ with breathless words
| like 'astonishing', 'unprecedented', 'enormous cliff', 'huge
| jumps', 'rare and heart-stopping', 'extraordinary footage',
| 'huge ice cliff', 'brave chick' ... in an effort to create
| buzz for their sponsor _National Geographic._
|
| The only mildly interesting phrase is: 'Scientists who
| monitor penguins from satellites'. Sounds like a fun job and
| I'm sure AI can help. I didn't know that (although I once
| helped the BAS effort to monitor elephant seals diving deep
| in the S.Atlantic, using radio transponders glued to their
| backs, with _burst-transmit-on-surfacing_ via satellite, so I
| should not have been surprised, had I thought for a second).
| But then they spoil it by adding 'satellites...in space'.
|
| If the chicks were drawing lots to see who had to jump first,
| then I might be interested.
| mannykannot wrote:
| These juveniles are lucky to not be in a place where the ice
| melts before they have their water-resistant feathers. This
| possibility is becoming an existential threat to some penguin
| colonies.
|
| https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-08-24/record-...
| Anotheroneagain wrote:
| I wonder if this is how birds learned to fly.
| Jerrrry wrote:
| This is a (now 'deprecated') evolutionary artifact from that
| process, yes.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| Very odd footage imo.
|
| * most of the birds are falling in because they're pushed, not
| because they're jumping
|
| * most of the birds are belly flopping hard rather than diving in
| with any sort of graceful entry
|
| * most birds don't appear to ever jump. I refuse to believe the
| camera wouldn't have shown the whole population in the water if
| they had
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| Maybe it's some sort of weird social test like baby cowbirds.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| > most of the birds are falling in because they're pushed, not
| because they're jumping
|
| It's the same as every other bird? It surprised me that it
| isn't their parents pushing them.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| Like out of the nest? That doesn't really track with the mass
| movement towards the cliff edge as a precursor.
| VoodooJuJu wrote:
| For something so interesting, the title is extremely
| inappropriate clickbait.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| Jumping in is the easy part. How do they get back up on land?
| RichardCA wrote:
| They are capable of fast swimming, enough to gain momentum so
| they can pop back up onto land or an ice floe.
|
| https://youtu.be/_OHDYS8qTzQ?t=935s
| christophilus wrote:
| Yeah, but that cliff was around 40ft, according to the
| narrator. They aren't swimming fast enough to hop back up
| that.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| Clearly, they beach elsewhere.
|
| Penguins migrate 100s to 1,000s of km, and can swim great
| distances. They need not beach near their entry point, and
| are in the water to feed.
|
| That said, where _these_ penguin fledglings beach would be
| interesting to see.
|
| <https://animalatlantes.com/how-do-penguins-migrate/>
| neglesaks wrote:
| Overheard in the flock:
|
| "nee nah, I bet you dare not to jump!"
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| Sounds like they dropped rocks into a swimming pool for their
| sound effects.
| UberFly wrote:
| Interesting how they know not to jump off onto an ice sheet
| below.
| seydor wrote:
| Could be a parody video clip for "I believe I can fly"
| notatoad wrote:
| skip to 3:00 if you just want to see them jump...
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