Most monkeys couldn’t live up here. No fruit and few insects to feed on. But geladas are unique: they are the only monkeys in the world to live almost entirely on grass. They live in the largest assemblies formed by any monkeys; some groups are eight hundred strong, and they crop the high meadows like herds of wildebeest. David Attenborough, Planet Earth II: Mountains
The puma: the lion of the Andes. Pumas are usually solitary and secretive ... Although the cubs are now as large of their mother they still rely on her for their food. ibid.
In the American Rockies 100,000 avalanches devastate the slopes every winter. ibid.
A grizzly bear: it seems to be an odd creature to find on these high rocky slopes ... They’re searching for a rather unusual food: moths. ibid.
All mountains everywhere are being worn down by frost, snow and ice. ibid.
Mont Blanc – the highest peak in western Europe. ibid.
The giant Baltoro glacier in the Karakoram mountains of Pakistan. It’s the biggest mountain glacier on Earth – forty-three miles long and over three miles wide. ibid.
A snow leopard – the rarest of Himalayan animals .... These are the first intimate images of snow leopard ever filmed in the wild. ibid.
Golden eagles patrol these cliffs in search of the weak or injured. ibid.
One inhabitant endures the bitter winters out in the open – most other bears would be sleeping underground by now but the Giant Panda can’t fatten up enough to hibernate. ibid.
The red panda – rarely seen in the wild. ibid.
On the highest summits of our planet nothing can live permanently. The highest peak of all – Mount Everest – five and a half miles above sea level and still rising. The roof of our world. Of those humans who have tried to climb it, one in ten have lost their lives. ibid.
The salmon have arrived. This is the world’s largest freshwater fish migration. Across the northern hemisphere salmon returning from the ocean to their spawning grounds battle their way for hundreds of miles upstream. David Attenborough, Planet Earth III: Freshwater
Piranha can strip a fish to the bone in minutes. ibid.
This is our planet’s final frontier. An inner world where only the most adventurous dare to go. Beneath our feet are countless miles of cave shafts and passages. David Attenborough, Planet Earth IV: Caves
This is the biggest underground passage in the world ... It’s Deer Cave in Borneo. ibid.
The discovery of life that exists without drawing any of its energy from the sun shows us once again how complex and surprising the underground world can be. ibid.
A third of the land on our planet is desert. These great scars on the face of the Earth appear to be lifeless but surprisingly none are. In all of them life manages somehow to keep a precarious hold. David Attenborough, Planet Earth V: Deserts
Darkness brings huge changes. In the Sahara the temperature can drop as much as thirty degrees during the night. ibid.
The Atacama in Chile: this is the driest desert in the world. Some parts may not see rain for fifty years. ibid.
Lizards are desert specialists. ibid.
Gigantic plagues several billion strong, and as much as forty miles wide. They will consume every edible thing that lies in their path. This is one of planet Earth’s greatest spectacles. It’s rarely seen on this scale and it won’t last long. ibid.
Vast numbers of chin-strapped penguins come ashore to breed. David Attenborough: Planet Earth VI: Ice Worlds
One creature is just arriving: every winter Emperor penguins leave the comfort of their ocean home and begin a remarkable journey: they head towards their breeding grounds almost a hundred miles inland. ibid.
Abandoned by the run, the males are left alone with their eggs to face the coldest, darkest winter on Earth. ibid.
The females are returning and their bellies are full with fish. As they approach, waves of excitement ripple through the huddle. Each female calls to her mate, and he, recognising her song, trumpets back. Reunited at last. ibid.
The chicks grow quickly on a diet of fish and squid. ibid.
Vast open plains: immense spaces. Eerie silence. But any feeling of emptiness is an illusion. The plains of our planet support the greatest gatherings of wildlife on Earth. At the heart of all that happens here is a single living thing: grass. This miraculous plant covers a quarter of all the lands of the Earth. Grasslands exist wherever there is a little rain but not enough to sustain the forests. David Attenborough, Planet Earth VII: Great Plains
With nothing to stand in its way the blaze consumes anything that can’t flee. ibid.
North America: this rich pasture once supported the greatest herds ever seen on our planet. There were once sixty million Bison. ibid.
Elephant grass is the tallest in the world. ibid.
The long grass plains of tropical India are home to some of the largest grass-eating mammals on our planet. And some of the smallest. ibid.
This is our planet’s hothouse: the jungle. The tropical rain forest. Forests like these occupy only 3% of the land, yet they are home to over half of the world’s species. David Attenborough, Planet Earth VIII: Jungles
A male blue bird of paradise is advertising for a mate. It’s quite a performance. But he is not the only bird of paradise here keen to make an impression. There are nearly forty different kinds on the island of New Guinea. ibid.
A single hectare of rainforest may contain as many as two hundred and fifty species of tree. ibid.
Without fungi, rain forests could not exist. ibid.
80% of all insects live in jungles. ibid.
The secret of success in the competitive jungle is specialising. And this has led to the evolution of some intimate relationships between plants and animals. ibid.
Our planet’s continents are fringed with shallow seas. Rarely more than two hundred metres deep they lie on the continental shelves which may stretch sometimes for hundreds of miles before the sea floor drops into deep darker waters. All together they constitute a mere 8% of the world’s oceans, but they contain the vast majority of its marine life. David Attenborough, Planet Earth IX: Shallow Seas e9
Reefs are the work of polyps – tiny colonial animals like minute sea anemones. ibid.
Pygmy sea-horses – the world’s smallest – less than two centimetres high. ibid.
An electric flash! No – the display of a file clam. ibid.
Western Australia – these vast aquatic grasslands stretch for fifteen hundred miles. ibid.
The Great White – the largest predatory fish on the planet. ibid.
Trees – surely among the most magnificent of all living things. Some are the largest organisms on earth dwarfing all others, and these are the tallest of them all. The deciduous and coniferous woodlands that grow in the seasonal parts of our planet are the most extensive forests on earth. David Attenborough, Planet Earth X: Seasonal Forests
Giant Redwood ... These conifers grow at ten times the rate of those near the Arctic, and they live for thousands of years. ibid.
Away from all land: the ocean. It covers more than half the surface of our planet. And yet for the most part it is beyond our reach. Much of it is virtually empty. A watery desert. All life that is here is locked in a constant search to find food. David Attenborough, Planet Earth XI: Ocean Deep
Below five hundred metres new mysterious animals appear. ibid.
The weirdest in this world of the strange: Vampyroteuthis – the vampire squid from hell. ibid.
The floor of the Atlantic Ocean is split in two by an immense volcanic mountain chain that winds unbroken for 45,000 miles around the globe. ibid.
Home to the biggest animals that exist or has ever existed: the blue whale. Some weigh nearly two hundred tons, twice the size of the largest dinosaur ... The largest animal on Earth feeds almost exclusively on one of the smallest: krill. ibid.
The biggest of all fish, Thirty tons in weight, twelve metres long. A whale shark. Its huge bulk is sustained by mere microscopic creatures of the sea: plankton. ibid.
These manta rays are giants: eight metres across, weighing over two tons. ibid.
We can now destroy or we can cherish: the choice is ours. ibid.
Reptiles and amphibians are sometimes thought of as primitive, dull and dimwitted. In fact of course they can be lethally fast, spectacularly beautiful, surprisingly affectionate and very sophisticated. They have remarkably varied ways of catching their prey and defending themselves. David Attenborough, Life in Cold Blood I: The Cold Blooded Truth, BBC 2008
Most frogs only leave their shelters at night. ibid.
The biggest of all living reptiles ... salt-water crocodile. ibid.
Leatherbacks [turtles] are the biggest of all reptiles. ibid.