🔎Field Notes: Vinegaroons! 🔎

Hey Deep Look fans, have you seen our NEW video, “The Vinegaroon Sprays Acid to Foil Its Foes”? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdxh_M2risw)

In case you haven’t seen the video yet, vinegaroons look like a cross between mutant land lobsters🦞 and scorpions.🦂 And that blast of acid from their rear end reeks of vinegar, but this stuff is 16x stronger than the vinegar in your salad! 🥗

Read on for some behind-the-scenes dirt on how we captured all of that stunning vinegaroon footage.

Josh Cassidy, Deep Look’s lead producer and cinematographer filming a vinegaroon at KQED’s studio. (Mike Seely/KQED)

For this episode, Deep Look producer Mike Seely and lead cinematographer Josh Cassidy worked with several experts who helped them show the vinegaroon’s nocturnal exploits, including its potent acid spray, its burrowing behavior and chowing down on its prey.

   Stephanie Dole positioning a vinegaroon for filming. (Mike Seely/KQED)

On the first day of filming the Deep Look team worked with Stephanie Dole, aka Beetlelady, to film at KQED’s digital production studio. She brought one adult vinegaroon and two juvenile vinegaroons. She helped wrangle the animals during the tricky spray shots. It’s her fingers you see touching the vinegaroon to elicit its defensive spray response.  “The studio had a strong vinegar smell all day long,” said Mike Seely, the producer of this Deep Look episode.

Norm Gershenz and Rachel Miller of Save Nature help Deep Look position a vinegaroon and a cricket for filming. (Mike Seely/KQED)

For the second day of filming, the team headed out to the San Francisco offices of Save Nature where founder and director Norm Gershenz and animal care specialist Rachel Miller helped Mike and Josh capture the vinegaroons’ feeding behavior. “Norm and Rachel were instrumental in helping us get those shots of the vinegaroon hunting and eating crickets!” said Mike.

A special thanks to Stephanie, Norm and Rachel for being our vinegaroon talent handlers!

Have you ever come across a vinegaroon? Tell us all your vinegar-scented stories!