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InformationLife
Four years in the making, Life will set a new benchmark in family entertainment and natural history epics.
Life
is the latest wildlife epic from the BBC’s award-winning Natural
History Unit. It has the revelation, cinematic style, sense of place
and emotionally involving individual sequences that that were the
hallmark of The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, with all the scope,
detail and content of an Attenborough epic, and the addition of
close-up, intensely dramatic new behaviour – all captured by the
world’s top wildlife photographers with the aid of the most
cutting-edge and sophisticated filming techniques.
This ten-part
natural history blockbuster, shot in HD, is the definitive exploration
of the diversity of life on Earth, revealing the most spectacular and
fascinating behaviour driven by the endless struggle to survive. Life
stars a cast of 'box-office' wildlife characters, filmed on every
continent and in every habitat across the world, with each drama-filled
episode entirely dedicated to one of the planet's ten most important
wildlife groups. The series has the revelation, sense of place,
cinematic style and emotionally involving individual sequences
perfected in programmes such as The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, but
with the addition of close-up, intensely dramatic new behaviour - where
the animals are the stars.
Extras include 10 minute making of diaries for each episode.
Part 1: Challenges of LifeIn
nature, living long enough to breed is a monumental struggle. Many
animals and plants go to extremes to give themselves a chance.
Uniquely, three brother cheetahs band together to bring down a huge
ostrich. Aerial photography reveals how bottle-nosed dolphins trap fish
in a ring of mud, and time-lapse cameras show how the Venus flytrap
ensnares insect victims. The strawberry frog carries a tadpole high
into a tree and drops it in a water-filled bromeliad. The frog must
climb back from the ground every day to feed it. Fledgling chinstrap
penguins undertake a heroic and tragic journey through the broken ice
to get out to sea. Many can barely swim and the formidable leopard seal
lies in wait.
Part 2: Reptiles and AmphibiansReptiles and amphibians look like hang-overs from the past. But they overcome their shortcomings through amazing innovation.
The
pebble toad turns into a rubber ball to roll and bounce from its
enemies. Extreme slow-motion shows how a Jesus Christ lizard runs on
water, and how a chameleon fires an extendible tongue at its prey with
unfailing accuracy. The camera dives with a Niuean sea snake, which
must breed on land but avoids predators by swimming to an air bubble at
the end of an underwater tunnel. In a TV first, Komodo dragons hunt a
huge water-buffalo, biting it to inject venom, then waiting for weeks
until it dies. Ten dragons strip the carcass to the bone in four hours.
Part 3: MammalsMammals
dominate the planet. They do it through having warm blood and by the
care they lavish on their young. Weeks of filming in the bitter
Antarctic winter reveal how a mother Weddell seal wears her teeth down
keeping open a hole in the ice so she can catch fish for her pup.
A
powered hot air balloon produces stunning images of millions of
migrating bats as they converge on fruiting trees in Zambia, and
slow-motion cameras reveal how a mother rufous sengi exhausts a chasing
lizard. A gyroscopically stabilised camera moves alongside migrating
caribou, and a diving team swim among the planet's biggest fight as
male humpback whales battle for a female.
Part 4: FishFish dominate the planet's waters through their astonishing variety of shape and behaviour.
The
beautiful weedy sea dragon looks like a creature from a fairytale, and
the male protects their eggs by carrying them on his tail for months.
The sarcastic fringehead, meanwhile, appears to turn its head inside
out when it fights. Slow-motion cameras show the flying fish gliding
through the air like a flock of birds and capture the world's fastest
swimmer, the sailfish, plucking sardines from a shoal at 70 mph. And
the tiny Hawaiian goby undertakes one of nature's most daunting
journeys, climbing a massive waterfall to find safe pools for breeding.
Part 5: BirdsBirds owe their global success to feathers - something no other animal has. They allow birds to do extraordinary things.
For
the first time, a slow-motion camera captures the unique flight of the
marvellous spatuletail hummingbird as he flashes long, iridescent tail
feathers in the gloomy undergrowth. Aerial photography takes us into
the sky with an Ethiopian lammergeier dropping bones to smash them into
edible-sized bits. Thousands of pink flamingoes promenade in one of
nature's greatest spectacles. The sage grouse rubs his feathers against
his chest in a comic display to make popping noises that attract
females. The Vogelkop bowerbird makes up for his dull colour by
building an intricate structure and decorating it with colourful
beetles and snails.
Part 6: InsectsThere
are 200 million insects for each of us. They are the most successful
animal group ever. Their key is an armoured covering that takes on
almost any shape.
Darwin's stag beetle fights in the tree tops with
huge curved jaws. The camera flies with millions of monarch butterflies
which migrate 2000 miles, navigating by the sun. Super slow motion
shows a bombardier beetle firing boiling liquid at enemies through a
rotating nozzle. A honey bee army stings a raiding bear into
submission. Grass cutter ants march like a Roman army, harvesting grass
they cannot actually eat. They cultivate a fungus that breaks the grass
down for them. Their giant colony is the closest thing in nature to the
complexity of a human city.
Part 7: Hunters and HuntedMammals'
ability to learn new tricks is the key to survival in the knife-edge
world of hunters and hunted. In a TV first, a killer whale off the
Falklands does something unique: it sneaks into a pool where elephant
seal pups learn to swim and snatches them, saving itself the trouble of
hunting in the open sea.
Slow-motion cameras reveal the star-nosed
mole's newly-discovered technique for smelling prey underwater: it
exhales then inhales a bubble of air ten times per second. Young ibex
soon learn the only way to escape a fox - run up an almost vertical
cliff face - and young stoats fight mock battles, learning the skills
that make them one of the world's most efficient predators.
Part 8: Creatures of the DeepMarine
invertebrates are some of the most bizarre and beautiful animals on the
planet, and thrive in the toughest parts of the oceans.
Divers swim
into a shoal of predatory Humboldt squid as they emerge from the ocean
depths to hunt in packs. When cuttlefish gather to mate, their bodies
flash in stroboscopic colours. Time-lapse photography reveals thousands
of starfish gathering under the Arctic ice to devour a seal carcass. A
giant octopus commits suicide for her young. A camera follows her into
a cave which she walls up, then she protects her eggs until she
starves. The greatest living structures on earth, coral reefs, are
created by tiny animals in some of the world's most inhospitable waters.
Part 9: PlantsPlants' solutions to life's challenges are as ingenious and manipulative as any animal's.
Innovative
time-lapse photography opens up a parallel world where plants act like
fly-paper, or spring-loaded traps, to catch insects. Vines develop
suckers and claws to haul themselves into the rainforest canopy. Every
peculiar shape proves to have a clever purpose. The dragon's blood tree
is like an upturned umbrella to capture mist and shade its roots. The
seed of a Bornean tree has wings so aerodynamic they inspired the
design of early gliders. The barrel-shaped desert rose is full of
water. The heliconia plant even enslaves a humming bird and turns it
into an addict for its nectar.
Part 10: PrimatesIntelligence
and adaptability allow primates to tackle the many challenges of life,
and this is what makes our closest relatives so successful. This
resourcefulness has enabled primates to conquer an incredible diversity
of habitat.
Hamadryas baboons live on the open plains of Ethiopia in
groups up to 400 strong. Strength in numbers gives them some protection
from potential predators. But, should their path cross with other
baboon troops, it can lead to all-out battle, as males try to steal
females from one another, and even settle old scores. Japanese macaques
are the most northerly-dwelling primates and they experience completely
different challenges. Some beat the freezing conditions by having
access to a thermal spa in the middle of winter. But this privilege is
only for those born of the right female bloodline. For western lowland
gorillas, it's the male silverback that leads his family group in the
rich forests of the Congo basin. He advertises his status to all with a
powerful chest-beating display. Most primates are forest dwellers, and
one of the strangest is the tarsier – the only purely carnivorous
primate. As it hunts for insects the tarsier leaps from tree to tree in
the dead of night, using its huge forward-facing eyes to safely judge
each jump.
Good communication is essential for success in primate society.