march of the penguins

[ladyjanuary]

Originally Posted by koldK

Seal suicide site found in Antarctica
Posted by jh on 15 July 2005

The Press, Christchurch: New Zealand researchers have found a bizarre seal suicide site in Antarctica, where dozens of seals have inexplicably left the ocean, travelled 30km inland and gone over a bluff to their deaths.

it's amazing this happend before the release of this movie rather then afterwords.

I am sick to hear of that. What can we do about it?

[Pirates Armada]

Originally Posted by ladyjanuary

Yes, I agree. They should make many movies especially on the going to be extinct list of animals, mammals, etc. This would be a very good vehicle to inform the public and perhaps one can stop for a minute and think about the creatures in this world we all share and live in and strive to survive in on this planet called "Mother Earth". We need to respect one another.

I was just watching a documentary on all of the many species of frogs going extinct in certain places, i am convinced earths eco systems are not doing so well, they are backwards so to speak. some would argue and say it's natural cycle, but when you look at the consequences from the tropics heating and heating of other places, from the frogs and other bottom food chain creatures dieing i see insect boom, i think insect boom leads to disease. science can only keep up with the degradation of the enviornment for so long.
there are already stakes by different countries for the oil deposits when the north pole melts enough to drill. each county gets a chunk of the ocean floor.
they worry about oil while i worry about wacky weather. not to say i'm some enviornmental hippy or extremeist but more so common sense. if common sense is animal exstinction and big business then we's gots a big problem.

[Pirates Armada]

Originally Posted by ladyjanuary

I am sick to hear of that. What can we do about it?

not much

[Paul Ward]

Originally Posted by ladyjanuary

I am sick to hear of that. What can we do about it?

Does anyone have the link to the original article?

The dry valleys region has many apparent seal "suicides" mainly of crabeater seals. The carcasses just sit around and mummify in the endless drying cold wind (freeze-dry I guess) and can be up to thousands of years old.

When people come across them it seems like some single disasterous event, but in reality each seal probably died tens or even hundreds of years apart from the others and they are rare events. Not sure if this reported event is like that - suspect it might be though.

Why do they do it?

No-one knows, but seals will go surprising distances out of the sea sometimes. It is thought that maybe they get disoriented, losing the direction of the sea. The dry valleys are ringed with glaciers and ice-caps and maybe the seals think they represent the sea and so start heading off towards them getting even further from the sea. Seals don't have great eye-sight out of the water.

[Pirates Armada]

http://www.70south.com/news/1121400680/index_html

[Paul Ward]

Thanks Pirates.

Sounds like I described above. Lost seals over many hundreds or a few thousands of years getting funnelled the same way and then falling over the same cliff to their eventual death - well quick death I guess if they fell.

[ladyjanuary]

Originally Posted by koldK

i believe this was brought up before, but has anyone seen this? it looks good!

Hi! I've just joined in on this last week and yes, this movie is well done.
I've seen it three times and have introduced it other friends who enjoyed it as much. Have you seen it yet?

[Pirates Armada]

i just saw previews for a new antarctic disney flick based on a true story...
for anyone intrested.

[Paul Ward]

The new Disney film is called Eight Below see here:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808750543/web

It's a remake of a little known cult film from a Japanese director Ken Takakura here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/re...&link_code=as3

I've never seen it - the Japanese one - but the Amazon reviews are pretty glowing and not so long ago it regularly sold for $100 on VHS!

[Pirates Armada]

isn't this movie somewhat based on a true story?