City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Planet Earth :, produced by Alastair Fothergill; narrated by David Attenborough, programmes 6-11

eng

Planet Earth :

produced by Alastair Fothergill; narrated by David Attenborough

Documentary series which celebrates our planet in all its glory, both its spectacular scenery and its captivating natural history : 6. Ice Worlds : Although the frozen worlds of the Arctic and Antarctic experience the greatest seasonal extremes, it is the advance and retreat of the ice that is the real challenge to life. As the sea freezes, Antarctica doubles in size and all animals except for the Emperor Penguin flee. In the Arctic, the polar bear's ice world literally melts beneath its feet, forcing it to swim vast distances and take on one of the deadliest adversaries on the planet --- 7 : Great Plains : looks at the world's great plains - immense wilderness areas that seem empty, but which support the greatest gatherings of wildlife on earth, including two million gazelles on the Mongolian steppes, three million caribou in North America and 1.5 million wildebeest in East Africa. At the heart of all this is single living thing - grass - able to survive in the baking savannahs of Africa, the frozen tundra of the Arctic and the floodplains of India --- 8 : Jungles : Tropical rainforests cover just three per cent of our planet yet are home to a staggering 50 per cent of the world's species. They are the richest environments on earth but also the most competitive. Travelling through this enchanted world we uncover the amazing strategies the inhabitants adopt in order to survive. Look out for the flying frog mating orgy and the sinister bodysnatching Cordyceps fungi that eat their victims alive ----9. Shallow Seas : the epic journey of a humpback whale and calf as they cross the richest seas that fringe our coasts. From tropical paradises, where the newborn calf takes his first faltering breaths, to the storm-ravaged icy polar seas, the whales' great feeding grounds, we reveal seas of great contrast and surprise ---- 10. Seasonal Forests : eveals the greatest woodlands on earth, from the evergreen forests of the frozen north to the deciduous dry forests of the equator. The Taiga forest is a silent world of stunted conifers cloaked in snow and ice; by contrast the broadleaf forests of North America and Europe bustle with life, while the baobab forests of Madagascar are the strangest of all, with bizarre upside down trees ---- 11. Ocean Deep : a look at life deep undersea. A 30-tonne whale shark gorges on a school of fish and a unique overhead camera reveals common dolphins rocketing at speed. Descending into the abyss, deep sea octopus fly with wings and vampire squid use bioluminescence to create a colour display. Time-lapse footage taken from 2,000m down captures eels, crabs and giant isopods eating

not applicable