100 and 100,000

The Water Bear Web Base is getting older, well, not 100 years but 100 issues.

The second number in the title is referring to a new page click record: 100,000 pages per month. Thank you for your continued interest!

Of course, all microscopy amateurs and nature photographers dream to become witness of something rare, never photographed or filmed before. With respect to the tardigrades our favourite would be some strange miracle like a tardigrade with green eyes or with ten legs.

In the meantime we will spend our time on less dramatic filming, keep our camera lenses clean and try to master those myriads of camera battery loading devices and storage cards.

But, sometimes, when waiting we will come across situations in which the everyday tardigrade existence with its numerous constraints and challenges becomes more obvious and visually understandable. For example, every time when a tardigrade falls into the dry state it does not know whether its current position will receive some water in the future, essential for its survival. Furthermore the tardigrade has to undergo many moultings, each of which being linked to the danger of starving or being devoured during the complicated process. In particular the maritime tardigrades appear to live in a certain haste. As a consequence, we will have to wait patiently before the sand grain until the moment of moulting will come. It will be finished in seconds! In this case, shown below we were lucky to have a moulting tardigrade in focus reach on a sand grain, mastering the challenge - undisturbed by us:

Video (1.7 MB): moulting of a Batillipes female, clinged to sand grain. Actual speed. Size of the tardigrade ca. 0.2 mm.

Please remember: this is a 1 millionth gram body mass individuum striving for improved life conditions.

© Text, images and video clips by  Martin Mach  (webmaster@baertierchen.de).
Water Bear web base is a licensed and revised version of the German language monthly magazine  Bärtierchen-Journal . Style and grammar amendments by native speakers are warmly welcomed.

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