Great Smoky Mountains Synchronous Fireflies in VR
Virtual Reality 360° timelapse video of fireflies under a dense forest canopy in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina border. Make this full screen and choose the highest quality. Move around and explore this June night. This timelapse video is faster than actual time. In real-time the synchronous fireflies glow in sync and then pause for 7-8 seconds. They only sync when there are lots of other lightning bugs nearby. This is the mating habitat for the largest colony of them in the Western Hemisphere.
Fiireflies populations decline worldwide due to light pollution, pesticide, and loss of habitat. The fireflies light is mainly for mating. The signal reduce by about 50% in the presence of bright artificial light. If you live outside of cities you can bring them back by using less outdoor lights, motion-sensor lights, shielded and pointed to the ground. They are least affected by red light.
The Great Smoky is home to 19 species of fireflies. As part of the Life at Night Atlas project with @InsideNatGeo documenting the glow-in-the-dark species and how they are impacted by the artificial light.
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https://nightatlas.org