Two Decades of the Crittercam

The National Geographic Society recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the debut of the crittercam, a camera originally strapped to the back of a loggerhead turtle.

Marine biologist Greg Marshall, who thought up the idea while SCUBA-diving when he spotted a sucker fish hanging to the body of a shark, now leads a team of researchers that has rigged Crittercams to penguins, sharks, seals, whales and other species, in hundreds of projects. Just a few years ago, they deployed the first Crittercams on land to study wild lions in Kenya. They've also added new instruments, and the latest cams can capture images down below 3,000 feet. Recently, scientists have also begun trying to strap tiny cameras to crows as well.—Gregory Mone

Check out Crittercam footage here

Via NYTimes

(Image credit: National Geographic Society)