They can eat even the thickest of bones. ibid.
Swallows have successfully nested and raised their young in this barn for several years … In a few weeks’ time they will suddenly vanish ... Early in the 20th century the study of migration really took off. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities s2e10, Magical Appearances
The Painted Lady [butterfly] seems to appear magically out of nowhere … Painted Ladies do indeed cross the sea: they were found to fly all the way from north Africa to Britain. ibid.
Some animals can perform amazing physical feats. A flea’s jump is said to be the equivalent of a man leaping over St Paul’s cathedral. And it’s famous quoted that cheetahs can run at speeds of 70 miles per hour. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities s3e1: Impossible Feats
There are more than 2,500 species [fish] worldwide. ibid.
They can leap a respected thirty-eight times their bodies. ibid.
The top speed of a chase was calculated to be 58 miles per hour. ibid.
Orangutans have an extraordinary ability to use tools … Surprisingly, crows also make tools. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities s3e2: Curious Minds
Orangutans are only found in the rainforests of Indonesia, one population in Borneo, and another slightly different one in the island of Sumatra. ibid.
Wild chips use tools in a quite complicated way. ibid.
Ravens are cheeky, self aware and socially intelligent. They are part of the big crow family … Their brains are twice as large as other birds. ibid.
The bodies of some animals stretch and shrink in extraordinary ways. Constrictor snakes can swallow prey twice their own size. While the camel’s hump can almost double in weight giving it the energy to travel huge distances across deserts. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities s3e3: Expandable Bodies
Camels: in the wild today it’s rarer than the giant panda. ibid.
An anaconda or a python can kill prey that is not only twice its own body size but many times bigger than its head. ibid.
Two animals whose extraordinary body-shapes are determined by their diets: the blue whale grows enormous by feeding on tiny shrimp-like creatures while flamingos spend their lives eating with their heads upside down, and yet both ways are curiously similar. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities s3e4: Curious Feeders
The blue whale weighs almost two hundred tons; it’s the largest animal on Earth. ibid.
They were indeed mammals that had taken to living in the sea. ibid.
For a long time the flamingos are birds of myth and mystery. ibid.
Some animals have intriguing ways of protecting their skin. The hippopotamus lives in Africa under the hot tropical sun yet it doesn’t get sunburnt. And capuchin monkey live in insect-infested jungles but hardly ever get bitten. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities s3e5: Curious Cures
Hippos are large land mammals who weigh up to three tons and they need to keep their huge bodies cool and protected from the sun. To avoid the heat they spend much of the day swimming. ibid.
The clever moneys know exactly how to make the best use of nature’s remedies … the capuchins anoint themselves far more in the wet season when mosquitoes are more abundant. ibid.
Salamanders can regenerate entire legs and tails to replace ones they lose. And moose can regrow their enormous antlers every year. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities s3e6: Remarkable Regeneration
There are more than 600 species of salamander. ibid.
Moose and other possess huge antlers that shed and regrow each season … their amazing powers of regeneration. ibid.
Two animals that owe their existence to human interference: killer bees that were created accidentally when a well-meaning breeding experiment went wrong and Pizzly bears – the result of polar bears and brown bears interbreeding. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities s4e1: Animal Frankensteins
The Polar bear is a relatively new species of bear. ibid.
The temperament of a bee colony is determined by that the queen bee. ibid.
The aggressive Africanised bees swept their way through South America and headed up into North America. ibid.
In the vastness of the Pacific there’s a place unlike any other: enchanted volcanic islands that are home to a remarkable collection of animals and plants. Here, evolution is proceeding with spectacular speed. Black lizards that swim in the oceans and spit salt from their noses. Penguins thousands of miles from Antarctica. And an abundance of unique plants. David Attenborough’s Galapagos: Origin, Sky 2013
Life has evolved in isolation. ibid.
There are sixteen of them and a multitude of small islands … the biggest island is Isabela. ibid.
A sanctuary for … Giant Tortoises … How for example did these enormous beasts get to the islands in the first place? ibid.
Different islands have different kinds. In their heyday there were fifteen species. ibid.
Galapagos was born of fire … they lie plum on the equator. ibid.
Some of the first animals here were species. There are some 150 different known species of them in the Galapagos today. ibid.
Beetles are Nature’s great recyclers … Once here, these beetles began to change. ibid.
Carpenter Bees are still the main pollinators on the islands. And the plants have adapted accordingly. ibid.
Blooms of phytoplankton grow and shrink over the seasons. ibid.
Hammerhead sharks … the red-lipped bat fish … the sun fish … sea-lions … hump-back whales … the twenty-ton whale shark … a great variety of sea birds. ibid.
In effect the cormorant flies under water. ibid.
Behold the marine iguana! … They simply sneeze the excess salt from their blood. David Attenborough’s Galapagos: Adaptation
El Nino: as many as 90% of them can perish. ibid.
Waved Albatrosses are monogamous – they mate for life. ibid.
The remains of ancient Galapagos islands stretch for hundreds of miles across the Pacific sea-bed. ibid.
The largest fish in the world – the whale shark. ibid.
The Giant Tortoise is the very emblem of the Galapagos. ibid.
The most spectacular explosion of biological diversity in the world. David Attenborough’s Galapagos: Evolution
On September 16th 1835 HMS Beagle arrived in the Galapagos Islands. ibid.
Each [island] is a separate evolutionary community. ibid.
All the animals here are amazingly tame. ibid.
Fernandino’s iguana colony – with no significant predators around, these herbivores produce lots of young … they ventured into the sea itself to graze seaweed on the sea floor. ibid.
30,000 people live here in three small towns. ibid.
The presence of human beings has stopped this Finch from evolving. ibid.
Once-threatened species [tortoise] have been brought back from the brink. ibid.
A pink iguana … a hundred or so individuals … Nobody knows why it’s pink. ibid.
Each new discovery we make give’s Darwin’s discovery a new relevance. ibid.
David Attenborough has travelled the globe countless times to film the living world in all its wonder. In a career that spans the age of television itself he has pioneered new filming technologies, produced some of the most iconic moments in broadcasting and inspired a generation. Now in his eighties he is on the road again. Attenborough’s Journey, BBC 2010
Trilobites are principle characters in the story of the first life on Earth. They were one of the most successful kinds of animal in history. There are fifty thousand species that we know of. And probably many more undiscovered. They were the first animals to see a fully formed picture. Using lenses in their eyes made of rock. And in their heyday they dominated the globe for two hundred and fifty million years. Humans have been around for just two. ibid.
The power of the Sun drives the seasons transforming our planet. Vast movements of ocean and air currents bring dramatic change throughout the year. David Attenborough, Nature's Great Events, BBC 2009
Here in the Arctic each summer the Sun begins to melt the winter ice. ibid.
He [polar bear] must catch a seal about once a week. ibid.
For polar bears it’s the survival of the fattest. ibid.
The frozen sea begins to melt. Pools form across the surface. ibid.
A thousand freshwater cascades plummet into the sea. ibid.
Walrus are year-round residents of the Arctic. ibid.