Kid-Friendly Short Films About NJ Wildlife

From filmmaker Jared Flesher (Hundred Year Films), here are some kid-friendly excerpts from a series he had done called The Creature Show. these are great for kinds who have an interest in the outdoors and NJ wildlife, for kids who don't get many chances to be out in nature, and they would be great for teachers as teaching tools or just as a good story for discussion.

They may be a bit creepy in movies, but bats do a lot of good for us. Do you like mosquitoes? Well, bats love them - to eat!

Check out this kid with Bats in the Bedroom Window and also take a trip to see Bats in the Church Attic.

Do your kids like dogs? What kid doesn't like dogs? Here is a short film where you'll Meet Bear, the Wildlife Detection Dog

You will probably never get the chance to be Releasing a Bobcat into the Wild, but you can in this video. Most kids will never have even seen a bobcat in the wild.

I monitor two local vernal (spring) pools. But in any season, you can watch a trip to see Frog & Salamander Eggs in a Vernal Pool. And you won't get your feet wet.

Snakes are another creepy crawler that gets a bad rap in movies and media. Let's go out in the woods and try Radio Tracking Snakes. Spoiler Alert: they do track and find an endangered corn snake (not poisonous). 

There are more videos on his YouTube channel for kids and adults and on his website at Hundred Year Films

Video: Endangered and Nongame Species Program

Watch how the Endangered and Nongame Species Program ENSP staff, along with the help of dedicated volunteers carry out their missions of protecting these species and their habitats.

2023 marked the 50th anniversary of the New Jersey Endangered and Nongame Species Conservation Act, which established laws to protect and restore endangered and threatened wildlife in New Jersey. As a result, NJDEP Fish & Wildlife established the Endangered and Nongame Species Program to carry out the work necessary to restore and maintain these species. 

Rooted; Wild Ginger

 This is Episode 1 of the series ROOTED by Jared Flesher where he visits an isolated patch of wild ginger and ponders the mystery of how it got there. 

Sponsors who make ROOTED possible and free are New Jersey Highlands Coalition, Scott & Hella McVay, and Severine Von Tscharner Fleming.

Division of Fish and Wildlife Videos

The Division of Fish and Wildlife has a growing library of videos depicting the many areas of research, management, and recreation it supports. Videos are hosted on the Department of Environmental Protection's Discover DEP YouTube Channel where visitors will find a range of videos.

Woodrat Research (video) 
Every October, the division's Endangered and Nongame Species Program set out traps to catch the only Allegheny woodrat species left in New Jersey  along the rocky cliffs at the Palisades Interstate Park. Once the woodrat is captured,  a tag is administered, and samples are taken so biologists can accurately monitor this endangered species striving population.

Horseshoe Crab Survey (video)
The NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife monitors horseshoe crab abundance with the Delaware Bay Horseshoe Crab Spawning Survey. The survey estimates spawning densities on Delaware Bay beaches. Our Marine Fisheries staff sample the spawning population on Fortescue Beach and Gandy’s Beach on the New Jersey side of Delaware Bay. Beaches are sampled at nighttime high tides of the new and full moons during the spring months. Data collected is helpful for scientists to track changes in numbers of spawning crabs in the area. DFW continues to work towards protection and improvement of horseshoe crab spawning habitat.

Halloween Bats Are Probably Only on Video in NJ

Bats are part of Halloween lore, imagery and decorations. But while kids are knocking at your door looking for no trick and a few treats, most of New Jersey's bats have moved underground to hibernate or have migrated south for the winter.

You probably won't see any bats overhead tonight, but you can learn about these interesting - and beneficial! - creatures in a video featuring NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife biologist MacKenzie Hall.

Dogs and Bobcats

The Creature Show has been hard at work on an episode about endangered bobcats in New Jersey. As part of that work, the filmmakers are running a Kickstarter campaign to fund its completion:

They have two weeks left to go to reach their goal, so if you can help out, go to:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1480255348/dogs-and-bobcats?ref=project_link



Bobcat Release from Hundred Year Films on Vimeo.

"Dogs and Bobcats" is the name of this short documentary. It features Bear, a wildlife detection dog who is helping New Jersey biologists conduct a bobcat population study.

Bobcats are an endangered species in New Jersey and the study is to create a baseline estimate of how many bobcats are left in the state.

The Creature Show is an ongoing series of short films about threatened and endangered species in New Jersey. "Dogs and Bobcats" is the fifth installment of the series. You can watch past episodes at www.creatureshow.com.

Dwarf Wedgemussel

One of our tiny endangered creatures in New Jersey is the freshwater mussel.

Rarely longer than an inch and a half, they once existed in large New Jersey waterways like the Delaware River, Hackensack River and Passaic River.

Freshwater mussels in general are considered "canaries in the creek" because they are indicators of good water quality, and so their disappearance indicates problems in the way that canaries were once used to test the air quality in coal mines.

Now, the only known locations of the mussel are in New Jersey are the Paulins Kill, the Pequest River, Big Flat Brook and Little Flat Brook. The dwarf wedgemussel occurs only in Sussex and Warren Counties, but it had formerly occurred in Morris, Essex, Bergen, and Mercer Counties too.

The species was listed as endangered in New Jersey in 1990.

SOURCE:  https://www.fws.gov/northeast/njfieldoffice/endangered/dwarfwedge.html

Bald Eagle in Winter

Some snowfall and a bald eagle and other birds as we enter December and prepare for winter.

via the daily videos at http://nature365.tv

Racing Extinction

Film director Louie Psihoyos has gone undercover again, this time to bring attention to an overlooked crisis threatening the planet. He is best known for his Oscar-winning documentary, The Cove, in which he covertly captured the slaughter of dolphins in Japan.

His new film, Racing Extinction will be aired on the Discovery Channel in 220 countries and territories in December.

He infiltrates black markets in China, revealing shocking images of thousands of dead animals for sale — manta rays, whale sharks, and piles of shark fins. the film's targets are overfishing, wildlife poaching, and a climate warmed by carbon emissions.



As frightening as the film's message is, Psihoyos says there's reason to be hopeful.

"When we started The Cove, they were killing 23,000 dolphins a year.Now they're killing less than 6,000. Change can happen, and it can happen almost overnight."

Read an interview with the director: www.mensjournal.com/magazine/louie-psihoyos-witness-to-extinction

Official film website: racingextinction.com

A Real Halloween Bat Tale

Still frame from The Creature Show on bats - see below

As Michele Byers reminds us, those bats that are popular as Halloween decorations, are in reality very misunderstood. They won't suck your blood, fly into your hair or spread disease. Those are just a few common myths.

Bat Bits

Bats eat thousands of insects a night and reducing our need for chemical insecticides. Just one nursing female can eat more than her weight in bugs (up to 4,500 insects) in a night.

There are no vampire bats in New Jersey or anywhere else in the United States.

Bats rarely attack unless disturbed and are actually shy and will move away if you approachi their roosting area.

Just like raccoons, squirrels and other mammals, they can carry rabies BUT less than one percent of bats carry rabies.

White-Nose Syndrome, a disease caused by a fungus, has entered their NJ winter hibernation caves (hibernacula). In New Jersey, we’ve lost 98 percent of our cave-hibernating bats, according to the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program.

This new episode of The Creature Show, a series focusing on the state’s rare and endangered species, features NJ bats and researchers including the northern long-eared bat, a newly-listed federally threatened species.

From The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Bird Song Hero is a sound matching game that helps you appreciate & visualize bird song from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Lab is a world leader in the study, appreciation, and conservation of birds and a great source online to advance the understanding of nature and to engage people of all ages in learning about birds and protecting the planet.

At www.birds.cornell.edu, you can find lots of information about birds.

From their YouTube video channel, here is a view you don't usually get a chance to see up close 

Curbing Invasive Species by Eating Them

Following the traditions of her Chinese and Japanese ancestors, Tama Matsuoka Wong learned how to forage wild plants for food. She was surprised to learn how many plants in New Jersey's meadows are delicious.

They can also be harvested without limit because they're invasive. How to curb invasive species? Eat them! She teams up with chef Mark Drabich on some gourmet recipes.

Tiny Tymbals, Big Sound

Want to know why cicadas can get so loud? Biologist Kelly Rypkema and her Nature Minute video ventures into the thick of the 2013 appearance of periodical cicadas to show you the answer to the questions of why, who, and what body parts they use when they raise the roof after taking to the trees.

Cicadas -- Tiny Tymbals, Big Sound

School Greens: Garden in the Sky

Students from the School Greens Club at North Star Academy in Newark are on a mission to educate their school and community about healthy eating and more sustainable sources of food. But first they have to educate themselves.

Nature in a New York Minute's Kelly Rypkema follows these enterprising teens on their journey from the farm and kitchen of Stone Barns Center to the grand opening of their own rooftop garden in the middle the biggest city in New Jersey.





"Nature in a New York Minute" is a video series that showcases the wildlife, plants, and geology of the city environment.
NatureMinute.com

Facebook.com/NatureMinute

@KellyRypkema

Amphibian Crossing Project on Video

An American toad gets some crossing protection

This year, the Amphibian Crossing Project again helped migrating amphibians cross busy roads. Among the species identified were Jefferson salamanders, a New Jersey species of special concern.

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ and their partner in the Amphibian Crossing Project, the NJ Endangered & Nongame Species Program, placed a particular location at the top of their survey list. The project activity was captured for a special episode of Nature in a New York Minute.

“The surveyors were out until 4am this year to collect the data they needed on the amphibian population and traffic rate at the site,” said Kelly Rypkema who filmed the team’s efforts. “Helping amphibians across was icing on the cake. Instead of feeling tired, I felt a real tangible sense of accomplishment which spurred me on.”



This year, the surveyors were challenged by the sporadic nature of the nighttime rain showers during which the amphibians cross. “Most times, the rain hit very late at night or before dawn – a great situation for frogs and salamanders that have to cross otherwise busy roads,” said MacKenzie Hall, the biologist who coordinates the project, “but tough for us to keep tabs on.”


Nature in a New York Minute is a series about nature in urban environments. From communicating with ants to interpreting the secret life of squirrels, biologist and host Kelly Rypkema showcases in each episode ways to be actively involved with the nature of the concrete jungle. You can follow the series on Facebook.

Kelly holding a spotted salamander

Turtle: The Incredible Journey

Turtle: The Incredible Journey - Trailer from Rockfish on Vimeo.

The Silence of the Bees

via http://www.colonycollapsedisorder.net

In the winter of 2006, a strange phenomenon fell upon honeybee hives across the country. Without a trace, millions of bees vanished from their hives, leaving billions of dollars of crops at risk, threatening our food supply. The epidemic set researchers scrambling to discover why honeybees were dying in record numbers - and to stop the epidemic in its tracks before it spread further.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) has wreaked havoc on U.S. beekeeping businesses (and the agriculture industry) since its devastating arrival five years ago.

One of the causes may be the impact of neonicotinoids — a class of widely used pesticides — on honeybees and other pollinators. Scientists have not come up with a definitive answer to the the problem. Possible factors besides pesticide exposure include: invasive parasitic mites, an inadequate food supply and a new virus that targets bees' immune systems.

Bees are the most important pollinators in the Northeastern U.S., and there are hundreds of species of bees that live in New Jersey.

Bees are one of the issues for the Natural Resources Defense Council  when seemingly healthy bees were abandoning their hives. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), as it became known, may have caused an estimated one-third of all honey bee colonies in the country to have vanished.

You can watch a very good program on this from PBS Nature free online called "Silence of the Bees."

There are hundreds of hours of award-winning feature films, documentaries, and television shows available at http://video.pbs.org including DVDs whose purchase helps support PBS and their programs.

Sampling a Stream

Here's a video of a NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife biologist entitled, "Electrofishing a Small Tributary to the South Branch of the Raritan River".

The video follows division biologist Shawn Crouse as he and a team of co-workers sample a 150-meter segment of stream for fish. The technique uses a backpack battery unit and hand held probe to deliver electrical current into the water. Fish near the probe will feel the electrical shock and temporarily lose muscle control. Workers with nets can then collect the fish more easily for the study before they are returned to the water.

The species being targeted are trout since they are an excellent indicator of the health and condition of a stream. The findings of such studies help determine stream classifications, which can influence land-use decisions, in addition to providing valuable biological data for fisheries managers.

Scientists study fish to help determine the health of area streams

To view the video, visit
http://videos.nj.com/star-ledger/2009/09/scientists_study_fish_to_help.html on the NJ.com website.

Watching Wildlife Online

If you want to get out of NJ via the Web to see some wildlife, try these.

Forest Animals in Pennsylvania
http://www.wildearth.tv/static/wildearth/channels/we_penn_woods.html

A Raccoon cam http://www.raccooncam.com
and an Eastern Gray Squirrel in Tennessee
http://www.123-cam.com/live-webcam.php?var=http://www.squirrelcam.com

Rainforest Cam at the Buenaventura Reserve in Ecuador
http://www.123-cam.com/live-webcam.php?var=http://www.wildlifefocus.org/webcam/

A Safari Cam in South Africa
http://www.wildearth.tv/static/wildearth/channels/we_safari.html

Watch the NJ Peregrines

Visitors to the NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife web site are probably familiar with the Peregrine Webcam. You can view the Jersey City nestbox at http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/peregrinecam.

But there are about 20 peregrine nests found throughout the state, from river bridges to coastal nesting platforms to the Palisades and beyond.

A Star-Ledger videographer, Andre Malok, went along with NJDEP biologist Kathy Clark on banding day in Atlantic City. Peregrines have been nesting on a ledge outside a Hilton Casino penthouse suite for about 20 years and his video gives you a view of the nest area, biologists at work, and the reactions of hotel staff.

Peregrine falcons nesting on top of Atlantic City casino hotel

State-endangered peregrine falcons have adapted to their urban surroundings.

Urban Falcons

Check out the video at http://videos.nj.com/star-ledger/