Chimpanzees hunt monkeys by using the most complex and intelligent ambush of all. ibid.
The ant raid is an unequalled phenomenon. Over a million hunters chasing hundreds of species of prey animals. ibid.
The open ocean – it covers more than half the surface of our planet. Yet for the most part it is a watery desert ... Hunters here spend their lives in a constant search. David Attenborough, The Hunt IV: Hunger at Sea (Oceans)
The largest hunter of them all – the Blue Whale. Weighing two hundred tons and thirty metres long these are the biggest animals ever to have lived. ibid.
They are flying fish ... With a good wind they can glide for hundreds of metres. ibid.
Lantern fish – they are the most numerous fish on the planet. ibid.
The albatross have the longest wingspan of any bird. ibid.
Nearly half of the world’s land surface is covered by desert or grassland. These are the most exposed habitats on our planets. Nowhere else is the tension between predators and prey more obvious. Out here the element of surprise scarcely exists. David Attenborough, The Hunt V: Nowhere to Hide (Plains)
The honey-badger ... is a digging machine ... to get to highly nutritious rodents ... Honey-badgers have over fifty known prey. ibid.
There is safety in numbers: flocking is a key defence strategy for birds that live out in the open. ibid.
The coast: Nature’s most demanding hunting ground. So hazardous that few predators stay here all year. This frontier between sea and land is continuously changing. Opportunities never last long. To hunt on the coast you have to be in the right place at just the right time. David Attenborough, The Hunt VI: Race Against Time (Coasts)
The octopus’s suckers enable it to move just as stealthily in water as out of it. ibid.
These otters spend their entire lives at the coast. ibid.
Predators give us a dramatic health check on the planet’s wild places. David Attenborough, The Hunt VII: Living With Predators (Conservation)
As dusk gives way to twilight the encroaching darkness is lit by life. These dancing lights around me are produced by fireflies, creatures that have the strange ability to produce light, they bioluminesce. Attenborough’s Life that Glows, BBC 2017
The discovery of more and more luminous creatures raises more and more questions. Why? What is the light for? And how is it made? ibid.
This language of light even has local dialects. ibid.
The threads of certain fungi form a glowing underground network. But why would a fungi shine in the permanent darkness of the soil. We just don’t know … Some species only glow above ground and at night. ibid.
On rare occasions the oceans do glow. ibid.
These lights are made by captives which are farmed in special organs below the eyes of flashlight fish. ibid.
Bacteria may have been the first living lights. ibid.
The family is one of the most powerful forces in nature. Family life is full of wonder, beauty and drama. David Attenborough, Dynasties s1e1: Chimpanzees, BBC 2018
In our modern world, ensuring the survival of the next generation is becoming ever more difficult. ibid.
Senegal, West Africa: home to a remarkable troupes of chimpanzees. It gets so hot and dry here, it’s the very limit of where they can survive. This territory is ruled by one strong and determined leader, an alpha male known as David. ibid.
He’s surrounded by rivals prepared to kill him for his crown. ibid.
Autumn in Atka Bay, Antarctica. Just a few weeks ago this was open sea. Now, a new frozen landscape is forming. This new world appears devoid of life. Well, almost. An Emperor penguin. And he is not alone. Thousands of Emperors are coming to this frozen bay. They are here because the new ice provides the safest place for them to breed. David Attenborough, Dynasties s1e2: Emperor
Emperors pair up anew every year … This bond needs to be one of the strongest in Nature … The couples now face weeks of waiting while their eggs develop. ibid.
He will now have sole responsibility for their egg all through the long harsh winter. ibid.
The males now perform one of the most spectacular demonstrations of cooperation in Nature. ibid.
Lions are the very image of majesty and indeed of Africa itself. Their strength lies in the power of the pride, their tight-knit family. Lions have ruled the savannas for millennia, and yet within the last twenty years or so their numbers have fallen by almost half. David Attenborough, Dynasties s1e3: Lions
Perhaps the most famous lion pride of all: the marsh pride of Kenya’s Maasai Mara. ibid.
The family has been abandoned by all the adult males. ibid.
Here in the heart of Africa lives one of this great continent’s most extraordinary yet misunderstood animals. Animals that only thrive through remarkable teamwork. And through the strength and skill of their leaders. Painted wolves, once known as Cape hunting dogs, are one of Africa’s most threatened territories. David Attenborough, Dynasties s1e4: Painted Wolf
Tigers are the largest, most powerful and perhaps the most loved of all the big cats. Yet over the last century their numbers have declined by 95%. David Attenborough, Dynasties s1e5: Tiger
Two hundreds million years ago our planet looked very different than it does today. It was entirely covered by sea which surrounded one super continent we call Pangea. And then Pangea began to break up. Life was cast adrift on fragments of land. And these fragments eventually became our seven continents. David Attenborough, Seven Worlds, One Planet I: Antarctica, BBC 2019
We are changing the world so rapidly that wildlife is now facing of its greatest challenges yet. ibid.
Of all the continents, one was sighted by humans just two hundred years ago. ibid.
Only one mammal can live this far south: the Weddell seal. ibid.
One of the richest feeding ground in all the world’s oceans. ibid.
The frozen surface of the sea hides a great secret: it may be hostile above the ice, but below it conditions are so stable that life over millennia has had time to diversify. Creatures here grow to a great size … ibid.
Asia: the largest of all the world’s continents. It stretches from the Equator to beyond the Arctic Circle. This is a continent of extremes. Here, temperatures can drop to bellow minus sixty degrees Celsius. On land, survival is almost impossible. But for a few weeks of summer the ice melts, and the coast is transformed. David Attenborough, Seven Worlds, One Planet II: Asia
Pacific walrus … 100,000 of them: almost the entire world population is here. They are gigantic. ibid.
Asia has the hottest deserts, highest mountains and tallest jungles on our planet. This is a continent of incredible variety. ibid.
Meet the blue-faced, golden-coated snug-nosed snow monkey. They are among the heftiest of monkeys … The whole group snuggles together at the slightest opportunity to keep warm. ibid.
The bird was mistaken. It was a viper with a lethal bite. This species has only recently been discovered … On its tail movable scales have been modified to look like a spider’s legs, and its tip like an abdomen. ibid.
At the southern tip of South America the Andes mountains rise almost vertically. Their very height affect life throughout the continent. The barren slopes look inhospitable. But like all parts of South America they are actually rich with wildlife. A family of Puma. They live further south than any kind of cat on Earth. David Attenborough, Seven World, One Planet III: South America
Here on the coast of Peru there are so many seabirds fishing in the offshore waters that the cliffs are covered in droppings over a metre thick. ibid.
The Andean bear: only a few thousand remain. They eat mostly leaves and fruit. ibid.
A few patches of forest still remain. One in Colombia is the home of one of the world’s rarest monkeys: cotton-topped tamarins. They are critically endangered. They live largely on fruit and are particularly fond of tree sap: this is packed with sugars, so it also attracts insects. ibid.
Once fledged, these young [parrots] will follow their parents for up to a year learning where to find the salts. ibid.
Anacondas are the largest of all snakes. They grow to over 200 kilos. And they usually stalk their prey from the water. ibid.
Australia: an island continent cast adrift during the time of the dinosaurs. Isolated from the rest of life on land for millions of years, the animals cast away here are today like none elsewhere. This is a land of survivors. David Attenborough, Seven Worlds, One Planet IV: Australia
The animals and plants here are armed: built to live alongside dinosaurs. ibid.