The once-frozen ocean is now bursting with life as all the animals enjoy the summer feast. ibid.
Here on the western coast of North America in the spring of each year one of the Earth's greatest travellers comes home – over half a billion salmon in the Pacific Ocean start on a three thousand mile journey returning to spawn in the rivers they were born. David Attenborough, Nature's Great Events II: The Great Salmon Run
Thousands of bear families are emerging from their winter sleep. ibid.
There are more than two thousand grey wolves in the great forest. ibid.
Killer whales – they eat a lot of salmon. And so do steller sea lions. Salmon sharks are here too. ibid.
One predator they can never see coming: the bald-headed eagle. ibid.
The vast open plains of east Africa: once a year three million animals gather in a small corner of the Serengeti. This is the greatest concentration of grazing animals on the planet. David Attenborough, Nature's Great Events III: The Great Migration
Whenever you find grazers you find predators. ibid.
Lions are territorial ... When the great herds move on, the lions can’t go with them. ibid.
Where there are kills there are scavengers. ibid.
These cool waters create the perfect conditions for a spectacle of epic proportions: and everything revolves around the humble sardine. Each year millions of them are swept up Africa’s coast on a desperate winter journey: following them comes what will become the biggest army of predators anywhere on the planet. David Attenborough, Nature’s Great Events IV: The Great Tide
The greatest shoal on Earth. ibid.
Working as a team the dolphins isolate a group of fish and corral them into a tight ball close to the surface. The gannets can now make their move. ibid.
Astonishing and sustained drama. ibid.
The sardine run: one of Nature’s great events. ibid.
They’ve arrived in their thousands: sharks. ibid.
A beautiful but macabre underwater ballet. ibid.
Once a year life-giving water turns an area of unforgiving desert into a vast watery paradise – known as the Okavango. David Attenborough, Nature’s Great Events V: The Great Flood
On the plains that appeared so lifeless some of the beautiful and colourful changes occur. ibid.
The flooded plains are now a vast fish nursery teeming with life. ibid.
The seas along the Pacific coast of North America can be some of the richest on the planet. These coastal waters create the perfect conditions for the greatest explosion of life on Earth. David Attenborough, Nature’s Great Events VI: The Great Feast
Which in turn provide food for ever larger hunters. ibid.
The humpbacks have arrived. After three thousand miles mother and calf have finally made it to the coast of Alaska. ibid.
As few as a hundred humpbacks have learned how to feed as a team like this. ibid.
I’m not over-fond of animals; I am merely astounded by them. David Attenborough, Independent 14th January 1995
The future of life on earth depends on our ability to take action. Many individuals are doing what they can, but real success can only come if there’s a change in our societies and our economics and in our politics. I’ve been lucky in my lifetime to see some of the greatest spectacles that the natural world has to offer. Surely we have a responsibility to leave for future generations a planet that is healthy, inhabitable by all species. David Attenborough, State of the Planet, BBC 2000
Birds today are the masters of the skies. But they were not the first creatures to fly. And they are certainly not the biggest. David Attenborough: Flying Monsters, Sky 2011
They were reptiles: pterosaurs; they evolved into a huge variety of species, some the size of aeroplanes. ibid.
Why did these magnificent beasts take to the air in the first place? ibid.
Around 250 million years ago: the planet then was a very different place. ibid.
Draco ... It jumps but it does more than just leap; it extends the width of its body by opening flaps of skin along its flanks, and they enable it to glide. ibid.
This is the Jurassic Coast: its rocks are full of fossils of prehistoric creatures. ibid.
Her name was Mary Anning ... She had an almost unbelievable talent for unearthing fossils .. the Princess of Palaeontology. ibid.
The big head and pointed teeth of Darwinopterus makes it clear that this was a predator so it must have been very agile in the air. ibid.
This fossil is 140 million years old: it has the enlarged head of an advanced pterosaur but its tail is different – it has become much shorter. And this short-tailed species wasn’t alone. It was clearly a very successful modification. ibid.
This ability to walk had a profound effect on pterosaur evolution. ibid.
There were several kinds of feathered reptile living about this time. ibid.
The largest creature ever to fly lived 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. It stood twenty feet high, so tall it could look a giraffe in the eye: Quetzalcoatlus. ibid.
Then suddenly they vanished. A meteor that crashed into Earth sixty-five million years ago is often blamed for the extinction of the dinosaurs and the pterosaurs, but the truth is that their fate was already sealed. ibid.
It was the birds who rose from the ashes of that meteor. ibid.
Birds today have evolved into thousands of species. ibid.
The dynasty of the pterosaurs lasted over a hundred and fifty million years. ibid.
There’s a story that unites each of us with every animal on the planet. It’s a story of the greatest of all adventures. The journey through life. David Attenborough, Life Story I: First Steps, BBC 2014
Offspring – the next best thing to immortality. ibid.
The journey towards adulthood, a time when they must strike out on their own, learn from hard experience and develop new skills. David Attenborough, Life Story II: Growing Up
Learning the art of seduction can also be a vital part of becoming an adult. ibid.
Home: somewhere they can find the necessities of life. It can be a refuge from enemies, and a shelter from the elements. David Attenborough, Life Story III: Home
Now they must battle for dominance. Because those with power get privileges. David Attenborough, Life Story IV: Power
Now they need a mate. Competition to win a partner is so intense in nature it has created both the most extraordinary beauty and life-threatening violence. David Attenborough, Life Story V: Courtship
She [Bonobo] shares with many other parents the same great challenge: keeping her offspring healthy and safe. David Attenborough, Life Story VI: Parenthood
Every animal [elephant] in the herd belongs to a family line that stretches back through numberless generations. And each is here because their ancestors were all winners in the game of life. ibid.
The duels between hunter and hunted are as dramatic as any event in the natural world. The stakes could not be higher. For both it’s a matter of life and death. Yet surprisingly, it’s the hunters who usually fail. David Attenborough, The Hunt I: The Hardest Challenge, BBC 2015
The Nile Crocodile – five metre long, seven hundred kilos and very hungry. His last square meal was nearly a year ago. ibid.
The high Arctic in winter. One of the toughest places on Earth in which to live. Only three top predators are able to survive here: the Wolf ... the Arctic Fox ... and out on the sea ice the Polar Bear. David Attenborough, The Hunt II: In the Grip of the Seasons
Adult hares may be easy to spot but they’re far from easy to catch. ibid.
Once the seal is in the water it's as good as lost. ibid.
Thousands of chicks will take this leap ... The majority make it to the water. ibid.
Forests cover one third of the lands of the Earth. Hiding within them are half of all the animal species on the planet. But forests are complex places in which to hunt. There is never a clean line of sight. No room for the chase ... The forest hunter must master the art of ambush. David Attenborough, The Hunt III: Hide and Seek (Forests)
The American marten ... must continually search for food. ibid.