Watch Salamanders Skydive! | Deep Look
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- When a hungry bird comes near them, wandering salamanders can jump off the tallest trees in the world, California's coast redwoods, skydiving to a safe branch. Researchers decided to put them in a wind tunnel to investigate their daring moves in slow motion.
SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! www.youtube.co...
Please join our community on Patreon! / deeplook
DEEP LOOK is an ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.
---
The wandering salamander lives at the tops of coast redwoods in California, which can grow as tall as 30-floor skyscrapers. The salamander can spend the entirety of its 20-year-long life up there, never once touching the forest floor. But the tiny salamanders have a special trick up their sleeves for evading danger. When predators get too close, the wandering salamander goes skydiving up in the trees, controlling their pitch, roll and yaw midair to more safely navigate the skies and prepare for landing.
--- How big is the wandering salamander?
The wandering salamander is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) long, just a little longer than a credit card.
--- Can the wandering salamander really spend its whole life up in a tree?
Yep! Researchers tracked salamanders over a 20-year span and found they were often in the same trees year after year.
--- How long can these giant California coast redwoods live?
The towering evergreen trees can live for 2,000 years or longer! Some of the oldest coast redwoods were thought to be around during the Roman Empire!
---+ Find additional resources and a transcript on KQED Science:
www.kqed.org/s...
---+ For more information:
Dive into researcher Christian Brown’s oeuvre of research and discoveries here!: skydivingsalama...
Researcher and filmmaker Will Goldenberg has met and studied a lot of animals in his career! Check out more of his work here: www.willgolden...
---+ More great Deep Look episodes:
What Makes This Frog’s Tongue So Fast AND Sticky?
• What Makes This Frog's...
How Can These Flies Live in Oily Black Tar Pits?
• How Can These Flies Li...
This Incredible Little Starfish Has a Secret
• Watch This Starfish Pr...
---+ Shoutout!
🏆Congratulations🏆 to the following fans on our Deep Look Community Tab for correctly answering our GIF challenge! The answer is pitch, roll and yaw.
@MoltedFeathers
@Unknown-bt2yr
@matthewnardin7304
@sharpshooter._.b
@zooemperor3954
---+ Thank you to our top Patreon supporters ($10+ per month)!
Wised1000
Susan Fuhs
Hank Poppe
Walter Tschinkel
Marco Narajos
H.M. Andrew
Joan Klivans
STEPHANIE DOLE
Kevin Sholar
J Schumacher
Lily, Vinny, Izzy Altschuler
Drspaceman0
R B
BulletproofFrog
The Mighty X
LAUREL PRZYBYLSKI
Kevin William Walker
wormy boi
Jessica Hiraoka
Laurel Przybylski
吳怡彰
Jeremiah Sullivan
Mehdi
Mark Jobes
Carrie Mukaida
Cristen Rasmussen
Wade Tregaskis
Burt Humburg
Noreen Herrington
Roberta K Wright
xkyoirre
Louis O'Neill
Jellyman
Titania Juang
El Samuels
Laurel Przybylski
Companion Cube
Chris B Emrick
KW
Karen Reynolds
SueEllen McCann
David Deshpande
Daisuke Goto
Elizabeth Ann Ditz
Levi Cai
---+ Follow Deep Look and KQED Science on social:
TikTok: / deeplookofficial
Patreon: / deeplook
Instagram: / kqedscience
Twitter: / kqedscience
---+ About KQED
KQED, an NPR and PBS member station in San Francisco, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, radio and web media.
Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios and the members of KQED.
#salamander #redwoods #deeplook
Things I didn't know I'd see today: Salamanders flying in a wind tunnel.
Same
Yep this was kind of a mind-blowing moment tbh. Fabulous little critters.
Thx Deep Look for the discovery 😊
If you like mind-blowing stuff subscribe to our free newsletter called Nature Unseen www.kqed.org/newsletters/nature-unseen And thanks for watching!!!
yawwww
@@TubeofH2O she might be fed up with floating in the for long, never be allowed to land! Thanks to her collaboration, we can observe her dexterous behavioral singularity in the air!
Salamander came home after wind tunnel experiment:
"You will not believed what I just experienced"
😮
Hard to articulate how intensely satisfying it was watching that little guy falling with style
Right?
Not only is the narrating so appealing, the important part is that we hardly know about these tiny treasures, thanks so much!!! 😊
Hi @Tyrantrum858 Thank you! We love making Deep Look!
That is what most of the world think about
So I actually just moved to humboldt this week for college, and have been obsessed with these little guys. After spending hours looking for them i actually found one yesterday, they're some of the most interesting salamanders I've had the privilege of encountering. Thanks for posting this great video on these little skydivers at such a perfect time!
It's a beautiful place! Best of luck with your studies, @thechickenwizard8172
Your chances of getting whapped on the head by a skydiving salamander is low.
But never zero.
Thankfully for the salamanders, they're not aiming to skydive all the way down!
@@KQEDDeepLooksome unfortunate redwood climber might have some trouble though
My friend asked what I was watching, so I replied with:
"Uh... skydiving salamanders."
What else?!
The part showing the salamanders in the wind tunnel absolutely made my day. Thank you!
that's so cool, they have way more control than I expected.
Nothing could prepare me for how adorable the salamanders look while they're in the wind tunnel.
As a Californian, part of what I love so much about this series is that you focus on creatures that are native here. I've seen plenty of great nature documentaries about Antarctica, The Amazon, and the Serengeti, but it's extra special to see videos about my own backyard!
Producer for this episode here! Thanks for supporting our show! We're based in San Francisco out of KQED and wie feel lucky to have so many creatures to feature with the diverse climates nearby. Many of our episodes are filmed in the Bay Area!
Props to the musician(s) for these videos, it is always a delight to hear whimsical instrumentation accentuate the footage!
Producer for the episode here! The musician is and has always been the inimitable Seth Samuel! www.sethgsamuel.com/
Scientists will see a tree climbing salamander and say: “put that creature in a situation”
Seriously! We also made a video about what scientists discovered when they put a hummingbird in a wind tunnel: ua-cam.com/video/JyqY64ovjfY/v-deo.htmlsi=D3Cs8cb6X8pHqS2W The same scientist who studied the hummingbirds, Victor Ortega-Jimenez, later put *springtails* in a wind tunnel! And we made a video about that too: ua-cam.com/video/H94mzOt6nKc/v-deo.htmlsi=xLpPxmRyEtZIr3Mn Enjoy!
I love the pattern on its skin, so pretty!
Seeing the blood cells in the 2:55 shot was insane 😯. Great video btw
I can't wait to show this to my 7 yr old daughter. She absolutely adores salamanders and will be so amazed to learn about one that glides in the treetops! Thanks for being my favorite channel on youtube!
Producer for the episode here! Thanks so much for watching! I have a 6-yr-old myself and she's a superfan and also so well-versed in small creatures.
@@mimischiffman626 Amazing! Thanks for all y'all do! I grew up loving reptiles and amphibians and my daughter has fallen in love with them too! She loves learning about all the new and interesting creatures we discover through Deep Look :)
@@dustykeebs87 🥰 I love this!!!
that salamander is having the time off his life
The little guy's literally falling with style.
I hecking love salamanders
THIS IS HOW FLIGHT EVOLVED!!! so cool
give the music guy a raise, they always capture the "mood" of the animal perfectly!
Tom Petty's Free Fallin would be good too if royalty free...
Scientist: "What is your secret?"
Salamander: "There is no spoon."
I have no idea why these short videos only get a few thousand views.
Same
I love watching Deep look as it shows the deep scenes of organisms. It's so satisfying for me when I see closer look of animals and their activities and also it's narreting voice and music.❤😊❤
This is by far the best channel I have ever subscribed.
Thank you folks at DeepLook❤
The fact a salamander has better piloting skills than me makes me feel some type of way
wow, what a wonderful video! thanks for another quality episode!
That salamander in the wind tunnel was hilarious. 😂
2:06 I’m flying I’m really flying
Weee!
DEEEEep LooooOOOOOKK
That salamander in the wind tunnel must’ve felt like the coolest salamander ever. He achieved sustained flight.
I’ve been interested in them I wanna learn more about them
What an incredible animal!
It's a good day when Deep Look posts a video and we are blessed by yet again supreme footaget and a nice voice
Im always extremely happy when I see a new episode 😊
Evolution can be so subtle sometimes. These just look like normal salamanders but under the surface they're really special.
Good vid like always 😊
The salamader in the wind tunnel was locked in😂
The Skydiving Salamanders is my next band name. That wind tunnel video was incredible!!
Hell yeah another mythical creature from the home state! Go California & all the other places that also have mythical little creatures. 😊
Beautiful! Images of a salamander in wind tunnel (tube?) are exquisite, showing clearly how she manages roll, pitch & yaw: "See? Easy! Do as I do!" Dexterous maneuvering! Without noticeable morphology aerodynamically helpful, behavioral adjustment only does the job! Flying reptiles & frogs, why not salamanders (urodeles )? A remarkable point by Deep Look is in revealing a secret of how to challenge gravity. Secretion of slippery substance can only contribute to increase difficulty in climbing up. Nothing could be oversighted in Deep Look, which pinned down an anatomical trick! Excellent!
By the way, can she swim?
Skydiving Salamanders, not a thing I'd have thought to learn about today but alright...
OK, that was really awesome, and the aeronautical terminology was a cool bonus.
Double learning!
Have you all ever considered doing an episode on soft shell or snapping turtles? They are so cool!
They are cool, but they're not in California, where we're based. That makes it a bit harder for us to make a video about them. We did make an episode about efforts to return western pond turtles to a lake in San Francisco: ua-cam.com/video/YTYFdpNpkMY/v-deo.htmlsi=c9LT149cfso2JKBa Enjoy!
@@KQEDDeepLook Thanks so much for what you do. Do you worry about featuring a rare animal, in case it may be further endangered by bringing ti to the attention of the public?
Or perhaps I have a low opinion of my fellow humans.
The salamander in this video looks like an Arboreal Salamander with all those dots. I wonder if the two are closely related or if the patterns on these types of salamanders are highly variable. I love amphibians, they were my first native vertebrate
introduction to California.
Always so interesting, thank you!
I wish to for my next life to be a Salamander in a wind tunnel
3:10 Hey, this sentence is from Spiderman multiverses.
I’m almost more amazed that they remember? see? save landing spots
"I'm watching a salamander maneuver in a wind tunnel" what a wonderful world 🤣
I love watching your videos because I fall asleep to them and most youtubers are rilly loud
Have kept various reptiles over 40+ years and thought I knew a lot about North American species. Didn't know the Wandering salamanders did this. This channel has led me down many such paths.
My boi looks so comfy inside that wind tunnel. 😅😊
Skydiving salamander is the cutest thing ever!! 😭💕
One more of those things hard to imagine the evolution to do.
Love the vids :D
Thank you!
And here I thought my commute was bad.
hey some folks enjoy skydiving
especially compared to being stuck in traffic for an hour each way
it's worse
We love a risk taker❤❤❤
Really crazy species
So glad that these wonderful animals live near me. Crazy that I didn't know about them until now. Thanks!
This genuinely is very interesting to me, a flying/gliding animal that is not an avian or a bat? Sure, whatever. No skin flaps?!? This definitely was no waste of time to watch.
The swimmers in the sky
Honestly are you guys making video about Coastal giant salamander or any another Dicamptodon soon? I love your videos and how in depth they are.
Thanks for the tip, @wtf27pl12 We did make a video about another amphibian that remains aquatic in adulthood, the axolotl! ua-cam.com/video/tBEf7wqbroM/v-deo.htmlsi=EhdDoE31euYUk-fu Enjoy!
@@KQEDDeepLook I love the axolotls. But then, I grew up in the fifties, along with Mad Magazine:
_" I wandered lonely as a clod, Just picking up old rags and bottles,_
_When onward on my way I plod, I saw a host of axolotls..."_
Watching how the Wandering Salamanders twist, float, paddle, and land in the wind tunnel really helped understanding these creatures remarkable survival abilities.
i thought all slimy skin amphybians had to live near water but this one lives on top of trees :o
Very interesting and informative. I never knew salamanders were so cute !!! Thank you for sharing.
0:07 this is cool and all but I think nothing can top the baby barnacle goslings jumping off a cliff (like a non metaphorical giant cliff) and somehow coming out unscathed…sometimes…
But I will say the salamander sure knows how to fall (with style)
Well that added a new wrinkle to my brain! Cool!
He's a little airplane! ❤
K this channel is my childhood I remember one time I watched on of ur guys video with my sister and loved it
"Dipped out on the yaw-pitch, the longest definition.. gives da whole new meaning to falling with style"
That was GREAT. Thank you. I learned something today. It doesnt happen often after you hit a certain age.
excellent, as always
Their so adorable!
Flying what?! Presupposition for that is a salamander should be, or climb, at height! Deep Look did it again! Caught off guard! For most of us viewers, salamanders are either aquatic or terrestrial. Arboreal! Anatomically, the salamander appears agile in neither locomotion. How does she do it? Here's the answer! Excellent!
Yay! I just visited your page, you must've saw my IP address and knew what was up.
Amazing.
I love your videos!😊
Producer for this episode here! Thanks for watching!
Bro I thought I know like ALOT about animals! But flying salamanders? U got me
so intresting!
Those banked turns are called power slides in skateboarding lingo, the technique was absurdly proper 🛹🪂
Amazing footage of the blood flowing through their feet
Never even imagined a salamander in a wind tunnel, but gosh darn it are they so cute in it 😭
Thats my uni! Univ of South Florida!
I love salamanders ^_^
these salamanders are awesome
We should learn skydiving from this salamander.
So adorable
I’m going up to the sequoias this weekend, I’ll definitely keep and eye out for these guys (and be super lucky if I get to see one)!
Dropping that non arboreal salamander in the wind tunnel seemed like bullying more than anything.
Epic video
Always waiting for your videos ma'am 🙂❤️ love from INDIA❤️
That was beautiful to say the least
Producer for the episode here! Thanks for watching!
0:21 I thought this was a picture at first😅 3:10 I got fooled here again🥲
Great video as always !
Hello friend thanks you that you showed insects 🐜 🎉❤
these can be found on campus at UCSC, though I only found one once while hiking to one of the tunnel systems in between rain storms. I found it on a big patch of moss that covers the mouth of the cave, no idea he had come from so high up!
Here's a salamander joke!
Why did the salamander bring a ladder to the bar?
Because it heard the drinks were on the house!
I didn't expect them to be able to do this.
Wow now I know how to control my body during a sky dive without the tail...Liked:)
Omg it looks exactly like indoor skydiver. Though I guess these little guys were the OGs haha
I love the little salamanders but finding out about tine fern islands in red wood trees i amazing