After showing how some dinosaurs evolved into flying birds, Attenborough spends the rest of the episode on those that have returned to the ground. Boobies and kingfishers missile into the ocean, the shoebill lunges at lungfish with its murderous beak, and the black heron draws fish to within striking distance by encircling its head with its wings and creating an attractive patch of shade. Sir David could never be accused of taking the easy option. Highlights: Attenborough offers flowers to a pika, a rabbit-relative that looks like a hamster. and bacteria is a stunning and enchanting addition to the list of best HBO Max documentaries. They walk along on the ground as we do though they are immensely more powerful than we are. Ooh ooh dear. One of the most amazing and impressive things to take away from this five-part series is that plants behave, often in ways comparable to animal behaviour, and this is only possible to witness due to groundbreaking time-lapse cinematography. The storylines interweave animal behaviour and cutting-edge science with intriguing archive material stretching back centuries. Some showers are nicer than others.. Perhaps David Attenborough's most favourite documentary when you talk to fans, Blue Planet focussed on the wonders of marine life and was first released in 2017. This one covers the first invasions of land, from mosses and liverworts to trees, and from scuttling millipedes to flying insects. 61) The Life of Mammals Episode 5: Meat-eaters. Marveling at the flocks, Attenborough says, How they coordinate their flight in these extraordinary concentrations, changing direction within as if with one mind is one of the unsolved mysteries of ornithology. But in the 18 years since, weve come a long way towards solving (or at least better understanding) that. Termites, with neither plan not intellect, build air-conditioning systems. Thisarticlewas originally written and published by Earth.Org and is republished here as part of an editorial partnership. Were so similar. We can imagine the feelings of a cow suckling her new-born calf, of a lion lazily lording it over a his pride of lionesses, of a couple of chimpanzees grooming one another, even perhaps of a whale when it communicates with another across the vast distances of an ocean basin.. By donating us $100, $50 or subscribe to Boosting $10/month we can get this article and others in front of tens of thousands of specially targeted readers. The bats are reciprocally altruistic: If one lacks for blood on an evening, its roost-mate will regurgitate some, on the assumption that the favor will be returned later. 53) The Life of Mammals Episode 6: Opportunists. Highlight: Another tie. The most savage carnivore and the most committed of vegetarians equally owe their lives to plants. As it evaporates, it cools, drawing down stale air from the colony above. They move. I just point at things, he told me. When its touched, its leaves fold awayand an insects meal disappears. It speaks to our deep connection with other animals, and the joy we can find among them. Theyve had a bad press since the Book of Genesis, Attenborough told BBC Wildlife when the programme came out in 2008. But this episode has historical importance because it began the British presss obsession with authenticity in wildlife documentaries. After its weaned they grow rapidly so that by the beginning of the next breeding season, theyre full size, and then they quickly breed againand this time three-quarters of them will produce twins. But even their prolific breeding might not save them from a mysterious disease, which recently killed off more than half of the population. And viewers who are already mewling over the adorable elephant shrew will implode at the sight of its baby. One thing thats apparent throughout the series is that the usual discipline of keeping yourself hidden from the subjects you are filming did not apply much of the time. The dead horse arum imprisons blowflies overnight and releases them covered in pollen. The huge perentie, a type of monitor lizard, runs down a rabbit. Murmurations of starlings ripple over European cities. Savage. Highlight: The tour of Scotts hut at Cape Evans, where everything has been preserved by the cold some 80 years after his ill-fated expedition. I met Attenborough twice. On the forest floor, gorgeous argus pheasants dance, while the Waorani people hunt monkeys with poison darts and stamp messages by kicking tree buttresses. The opening sequence of this six-part series beautifully framed as the camera slowly zooms in on an isolated figure in a field of white is a classic example of what David Attenborough did best: creating drama through his narration. Highlights: The Komodo dragons would be an obvious choice, but Im instead going for the carnivorous caterpillars of Hawaii. When Attenborough went to film mountain gorillas in Rwanda, he originally intended to use them as a backdrop for a lecture about the thumb. In your opinion, what is the best David Attenborough documentary series? And yet, in one or two places, it is astonishingly rich.. Flowers unfurl with urgency, foxgloves yawn, and leaves pulse as they grow. And this produced a titanic explosion. In that sequence, Attenborough used a captive cobra to show how a wild one behaves, and he never made a claim about the wildness of the filmed individual. So, he ditched the script, turned to the camera, and ad-libbed this: There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than any other animal I know. Attenborough count: 14, including hiking the valley of the Kali Gandaki river in the Himalayas; picking up fossils of marine animals at the roof of the world; standing in front of an Icelandic volcano (There are gusts of choking poisonous gases, and its so hot that this is about as close as I can get to it); and visiting hot springs, volcanic flats, and an underground lava cave. The Blue Planet fits into the latter category, but is included here because it was such a game-changer the first-ever, comprehensive account of the natural history of our oceans, frequently breaking new territory in terms of animal behaviour. This Sunday, Sir David Attenborough, naturalist, maker of wildlife documentaries, snuggler of gorillas, wielder of That Voice, keeper of the blue shirt, and Most Trusted Man in Britain, turns 90. To feed themselves, acorn woodpeckers store acorns in holes they drill into trees; oxpeckers eat ticks off giraffes but also sip blood from wounds that they keep open; and crossbills prize open pine cones with beaks whose halves can move sideways. I can assure you that in the British Isles, as well as astonishing scenery there are extraordinary animal dramas and wildlife spectacles to match anything I have seen on my global travels.". Attenborough count: 3, including cautiously approaching cantankerous fur seal bulls (You have to be fairly cautious how you approach---now, now, nowthese big bulls). Also notable are torrent ducklings negotiating rapids, and a duck that behaves like a cuckoo. Attenborough count: 4, including sitting by a bat cave and watching them rush past him. In those days, zoos did that sort of thing. A squid uses his color-changing skin to display different patterns on each half of his body: courtship colors to the female on one side, and threats to the rival male on the other. 52) The Living Planet Episode 12: New Worlds. Attenborough count: 10, including sitting on low-lying cushion plants on Tasmania, which produce 100,000 shoots per square meter; watering a clump of dessicated white spheres in the desert, and watching it transform into the green nubbins and pink flowers of a conophytum; and being drenched with rain on the enormous sandstone plateau of Mount Roraima, and marveling at the carnivorous plants that live there. , originally aired on BBC in September 2020, depicts how the world is, Take action and strive for a better future. Service information and feedback: http://bbcworldwide.com/vod-feedback--contact-details.aspx Attenborough count: 9, including watching sunbathing meekats; worrying about the arboreal safety of rock hyrax; stretching out his hand to show how bat wings evolved; and grinning like a kid while gibbons swing around him. Mount Kenya moss survives a lethal night frost by rolling into a ball and bouncing along the ice. The gorilla sequence has become synonymous with Attenboroughs name, and an icon of British television. Then, it makes a clicking, whirring noise. While Deep Blue is more visually striking than it is informative compared to its original series, it is nevertheless an effective movie showcasing important marine animals and their behaviour within one sitting. ); descending into the deep ocean in a submersible. Featured image by: Karwai Tang/ UK Government/Flickr. The other eight all had the luxury of filming animals, and these do something that plants, largely, dont. What they end up with is a truly magical light show. Another has a trigger that causes a pollen basket to fall onto a bee. He talks about nice, cool showers, and thensplash! Frozen Planet (2011) This series focuses on life and the environment in both the Arctic and Antarctic. 60) The Trials of Life Episode 11: Courting. Britain and Ireland have some of the most diverse wildlife and beautiful landscapes on Earth. An oddly uncaptivating episode even though its ostensibly The One With All the Baby Chicks. Attenborough count: 6, including being startled by a trapdoor spider; looking at the triangular bungee web of Hyptyotes; and standing in a cave lit by thousands of glow-worms. Episodes 1-4 cover volcanoes, sunlight, weather and oceans, while the final episode explores a new force: humanity. SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/29qBUt7About Netflix:Netflix is the world's leading streaming entertainment service with 193 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Highlight: Attenborough hikes up the seemingly lifeless slopes of Mount Rainier and exposes red algae growing beneath the snow; even here there is life. On his tour of the monkey world, Attenborough explains why the guenons of Africa have such colorful and diverse faces, watches a finger-sized pygmy marmoset as it gnaws at bark and eats the gum that oozes out, and reveals the intricate social lives of a troop of Sri Lankan macaques. When most people think about birds, they think about animals that can fly, but this is not what distinguishes them many insects can fly too, as do bats and as could pterosaurs and pterodactyls. Star: David Attenborough Votes: 46,891 2. You can count me out, friends would say to him, Im not watching anything on spiders.. Highlight: In Peru, Attenborough explains how overfishing anchovies slashed the populations of cormorants, which no longer dropped nutritious guano into the sea, which reduced the numbers of plankton, which brought low the anchovies. And, once again, we have Attenborough to expound on these wonders. 10) The Life of Birds Episode 10: Limits of Endurance. This Peabody award-winning documentary series took three years to make and visits to 42 countries, but what the filmmakers ended up with are rare but extensive footage showcasing the different aspects of the birds day-to-day existence, from ways of communications to family structures. Here, we see the challenges that plants face as they grow. Highlight: On Queen Charlotte Island, the chicks of ancient murrelets hatch within inland tree hollows. Highlight: The gorillas, obviously. In which dwarf mongooses cooperate, lions take turns at a kill, swan gangs defeat solo swans, and naked mole rats take on a snake. Highlights: Lions hunting at nighta stand-out sequence because theyre mostly nocturnal and almost all prior series had shown them hunting by daylight. The scene that sticks in the mind from Our Planet II, Netflix's new Attenborough-voiced opus, is of an albatross chick on the tiny Pacific island of Laysan, fighting for life without any . Vervet monkeys tell each other about danger with alarm calls that are specific to either leopard, eagles, or snakes. Also, I think this episode might feature the first appearance of Attenborough in a blue, short-sleeved shirt, which would later become almost a uniform. In which Attenborough shows how humans have affected wildlife by giving them cities to inhabit, domesticating them, moving them about, and killing them. Attenborough count: 9, including watching ants farming aphids; seeing a feather-legged bug impale the ants that it attracts; and uncorking a vial of minuscule fairy wasps, whose wings look like hairy paddles. But Springwatch presenter Martin Hughes-Games said the programme had been a disaster for wildlife, because it beguiled the public into believing all was well with the planet. 38) Life in the Undergrowth Episode 5: Supersocieties. For those looking for a documentary that encapsulates Attenboroughs decades of work and an insightful examination of humanitys impact on planet Earth, look no further thanA Life on Our Planet. The presenter himself was undeterred by any phobias relating to this notorious group of creatures. A seemingly drab bush is actually in full bloomits flowers are hidden at ground level because theyre serviced by mice not insects. Originally released on Netflix in 2020, the 85-minute documentary presents some pretty grim predictions for the future should humanity continue on its current path, including a sixth mass extinction and a 4C global temperature rise that will render large parts of the Earth uninhabitable. Its a staggeringly beautiful and unlikely animal. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet: Directed by Alastair Fothergill, Jonathan Hughes, Keith Scholey. As Attenborough observes, Wherever you look, you will see one. Planet Earth II (2016) The world is an amazing place full of stories, beauty and natural wonder. It seems doubtful. The time to make such a series had come, not because time-lapse photography was new, but because computer control of cameras meant you could track a plants progress millimetre by millimetre over periods of days and weeks. Thats especially so for underwater celebrities like the bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales of this episode, which appear murky and occluded. Skomer Island: HELLO! The ogre-faced spider holds its web in its legs and throws it onto passing insects. The filmmaking is, as usual, stunning, but production was fraught with challenges, taking place as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only the toughest can survive here. Attenborough grew up in Leicester, England, where his father was principal of the local university; his older brother, Richard Attenborough, later became a . Best David Attenborough documentariesto watch and stream: unmissable wildlife television at your fingertips, Editor of BBC Wildlife and discoverwildlife.com. In this film, David shares first hand his experience how he's seen the planet change over the years due to humanity's impact. Viewers will discover all types of animals, fungi and bacteria that are able to create light and glow in the dark including the luminous plankton that light up coastal waters, as well as rarely seen deep sea fish. Highlight: The arduous crawl of a kangaroo embryo. Highlight: I can see its tail just under my boat here. Highlight: His sole object in life at the moment is to make quite sure that he and he alone mates with every single one of them, says Attenborough, next to a bull elephant seal, which then turns around and charges him. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural history documentary series forming the Life collection, a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth. That was a camera shutter, says Attenborough, blowing my mind. Its not only that if you get less anchovies, you get less cormorants, but if you get less cormorants, you get less anchovies, he says. is more visually striking than it is informative compared to its original series, it is nevertheless an effective movie showcasing important marine animals and their behaviour within one sitting. Here we take a look at his incredibly impressive career presenting and narrating some of the best natural history documentaries to have been made, from 1954, right the way through to 2023. Attenborough also tackles issues closer to home such as the need for the UK to provide environmental labels in their food products to reduce peoples carbon footprints. Highlight: A male pipa toad clings to a female. Related: The Best Documentaries About . 39) The Life of Birds Episode 1: To Fly or Not to Fly. David Attenborough is a British naturalist and media personality best known for writing and presenting programs that have inspired the modern format of nature documentaries. David Attenborough once again dazzles audiences with his narration, helping us understand how the ocean is the beginning of life itself here on Earth. A writhing ball of blister beetles gathers on a blade of grass and releases the smell of a female bee, prompting a male to pick them up. In many ways, it is odd that The Life of Mammals wasnt made earlier than 2002 preceded as it was by series on both plants and birds because theres something very compelling about mammals to humans. The Life of Birds takes the viewer along an evolutionary path, from the first bird, archaeopteryx, 150 million years ago, to the diversity of creatures we see today. A probing camera reveals the never-before-seen presence of muskrats, lodging inside the lodge. Attenborough count: 11, including twanging a rattan cane to summon its defendersangry ants, which then sting him painfully; standing in the hollow interior of a still living oak; walking among orchids in a greenhouse, each of which depend on its own special root fungus; and pointing out the buds and blooms of Rafflesia, a fly-pollinated parasite that has the worlds largest flowers and that stinks of rotting meat. In one thrilling sequence, a pair of mating green turtles is harassed by one male after another, until the duo risk drowning because their weighed down by so many would-be suitors. Defending themselves are a salamander that sticks its own ribs through its skin; a caterpillar that mimics a snake; and a frog with a face on its bum. But its the Panamanian golden frog, which signals by waving its front legs in a froggy semaphore, that makes the most impact. Aired on 16 January 1979, this is chronologically the first episode in this list. Highlight: An unforgettable time-lapse shot shows parasitic dodder vines writhing over nettles like a swarm of serpents. And continuing the theme of this series, in which plants are the protagonists and animals their sidekicks, Attenborough portrays tree-demolishing elephants as the means through which grasses outcompete bigger plants. Experience nature in a whole new light quite literally, in this case in this visually stunning documentary film that explores the life of bioluminescent organisms. Attenborough count: 9, including visiting Beidha in Jordan, where one of humanitys earliest villages was formed; walking along a British garden and pointing out where all the plants originally came from; and beholding the construction of a titanic dam. But the stars of the show are the Nile crocodiles, which show the most tender care towards their eggs and hatchlings, moving them about in bone-crushing jaws. Attenborough count: 8, looming over snails and earwigs; prodding springtails with a pin; and watching scorpions fluoresce under a blacklight. Attenborough calls it almost beyond imagining. Following a year like no other due to the coronavirus pandemic, David is exploring how lockdown impacted the environment, and what we can learn from this. Sequences such as the one on racer snakes ambushing just-hatched Galpagos marine iguanas led some critics to describe Planet Earth II as the greatest wildlife documentary ever. Highlight: A lyrebird mimics birds in the local area. The camera pans along a cross-section of its trunk as Attenborough points out growth rings that it laid down when Columbus reached the New World, when Egyptian pharaohs were building pyramids, and when humans were inventing agriculture. Attenborough count: 5, including dropping a pig-nosed turtle shell into a jar of water and watching it hatch; antagonizing an American alligator which antagonises him back; and once again catching up with those Galapagos tortoises (I bet the leafcutter ants are jealous). Both behaviors highlight the intelligence of these hunters and both are testament to nature red in tooth and claw. By the time the episode aired in 2008, a doomsday fungus had wiped out all the golden frogs. What I didnt know was that they do this really, really fast. Sir David Attenborough has had a career so prolific, presenting and narrating BBC natural history documentaries across decades, that he has undoubtedly reached legendary status. A Weddell seal, the worlds most southerly mammal, gives birth onto the iceImagine a shock of leaving the womb at 37 degrees Celsius and being dropped into a world of minus 20. Mesmeric jellyfish and globular stalk sponges thrives beneath the ice. By entering your details, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. It focussed on how climate change is impacting the ice caps and glaciers. This Sunday, Sir David Attenborough, naturalist, maker of wildlife documentaries, snuggler of gorillas, wielder of That Voice, keeper of the blue shirt, and Most Trusted Man in Britain, turns 90 . Attenborough count: 8, including rowing along a Brazilian river in search of a potoo, camouflaged as a tree branch; trolling a Magellanic woodpecker by thumping a tree trunk; ascending to the rainforest canopy to hear the piercingly loud bare-throated bellbird and screaming piha; and listening to a British dawn chorus. Running around 75 minutes, Attenboroughs commentary in this movie varies between comical and educational, but still manages to create an emotive story against a stunning visual backdrop of the icy environs of South Georgia. Highlight: The mating embrace of the leopard slugs, which really has to be seen to be believed. No, this list focuses on the big series that he himself wrote and presented, the ones that are most marbled with his influence, the ones that feature his beaming face along with his velvet voice. Instead, he found a female gorillas curious hand on his head. In October 2021, fivewinners ofEarthshot Prize, an award spearheaded by Prince William recognising and championing solution-based projects that are helping solve global environmental problems, were announced. Attenborough count: 5, including getting vomited on by an open-billed stork thats trying to cool its chicks.
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