Yosemite's Strangest Love Story | America's National Parks | National Geographic

2m read

·Nov 10, 2024

NARRATOR: From Yosemite's iconic green valley to its secret eastern edge. The little rain reaches this arid landscape, blocked by over 13,000 feet of solid Sierra Nevada. An alien desert-like habitat, home to one of the park's strangest females: a praying mantis.

It's the last days of summer in Yosemite, and she's coming to the end of her seasonal feeding spree. Her main weapons are prominent front legs lined with shark tooth-shaped spikes. The praying mantis is the only insect on the planet with three-dimensional vision. Her lightning fast strike clocks at 1/20 of a second. But this is only a cricket drumstick appetizer.

She releases a concoction of alluring pheromones into the air. Oh do mantis. One lucky guy picks up the signal. Maybe some eye contact can smooth out this first date, or maybe not. In exchange for his would-be wooing, the Casanova is attacked. It's impossible for him to free himself. The male's head is ripped off—the female's final main course.

It's an abrupt end to a first date. Or is it? The decapitated male is still moving. The headless torso of the male praying mantis is still controlled by nerves in the abdomen. In a final mating act, his body completes what his head started. The female, on the other hand, is busy finishing dinner.

She'll mate with multiple males each breeding season. Not all of them will suffer the same fate. But the males who are decapitated may father the most eggs. The ultimate sacrifice in a unique Yosemite love story.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Illustrating the Beauty of a Disappearing World | Short Film Showcase

Space Invaders: Solving the Invasive Species Explosion | National Geographic

View All

Tsunamis 101 | National Geographic

A tragic scene: entire cities flooded, entire towns inundated, an unending stream of floating debris—buildings, cars, people swept away in an unstoppable wave. It’s a brutal reminder tsunamis are dangerous and unpredictable. But what causes these giant w…

Operons and gene regulation in bacteria

So we’re going to talk a little bit about DNA regulation. This is the general idea that if you look at an organism’s genome, not all of the genes are being transcribed and translated at the same time. It could actually depend on the type of cell that DNA …

Conditions for inference on slope | More on regression | AP Statistics | Khan Academy

[Instructor] In a previous video, we began to think about how we can use a regression line and, in particular, the slope of a regression line based on sample data. How we can use that in order to make inference about the slope of the true population regre…

Examples establishing conditions for MVT