The BBC brings world’s largest zoo to you – online

Of all of the traditional media trying to get online in a useful way the BBC has to be one of the best examples of how it can be done. Their latest effort is to bring to you the world’s biggest zoo and all from within the comfort of your web browser.’

After all the BBC has to have one of the largest video libraries of animals, insects, and birds in the world so why not put it all together in such away that we can all enjoy all that information. In order to do this the BBC spent many years planning such a thing and once the funding and technology made it possible they started putting thought into action.

As a result we have the BBC’ Wildlife Finder where you can go to once videos and learn about 370 animals. This is only a start however as staff are toiling the hundreds of wildlife programs to add new videos daily.

BBC staff are combing through hundreds of wildlife programmes, from spectaculars such as Planet Earth to regional TV news items, to create an unprecedented collection. Early stars in terms of hits online include Darwin’s frog, a tiny resident of forests in Chile, which gives birth through the mouth of the male. The process is repeated in slow motion – another feature of the archive’s ability to spy on Earth’s wild creatures to an unprecedented extent.

A New Guinea jumping spider has also leapt into the popularity charts, soaring from a leaf on to the cameraman’s lens. He carries on filming, as a commentary tells us about the exceptional size of the spider’s jaws. “Its jump is only used,” the film explains, without the slightest wobble as spider legs skid on the glass, “as a means of getting on to its prey.”

Source: The Guardian – BBC opens world’s biggest online zoo