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‘It’s not often that you get to see something that has disappeared forever.’
First taxonomised by Europeans exploring the seas between New Zealand and Australia in 1885, the Lord Howe Island stick insect (also known as the ‘tree lobster’) was presumed extinct around 1920 after predatory rats were introduced to the only small island it was known to inhabit. Slow, wingless and up to six inches in length, it was easy prey for the new invasive species. However, some 80 years later in 2001, a team of scientists made a startling discovery when they found several of the insects living in a single bush during an excursion at Ball’s Pyramid – a largely barren sea stack roughly 14 miles from Lord Howe Island. Marvellously recounted using rotoscope animation, Sticky is the story of this amazing discovery and the successful captive breeding programme that followed at Melbourne Zoo. While enchanting and uplifting, the Australian animator Jillie Rose’s film is also a mournful reflection on the vast number of extinctions that humans have caused over the past few hundred years.
Director: Jilli Rose
Producer: Katrina Mazurek
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War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
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Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
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Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
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Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes
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History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
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Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 minutes
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
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Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
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Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes