Life in the Undergrowth
★ 8.3 · 2005 · 49m · Documentary
David Attenborough reveals the amazing stories behind the tiny lives of invertebrates, exploring their incredible miniature world with ground-breaking camerawork and technology.
Episodes
1. Invasion Of The Land49m · David Attenborough tells the story of the land-living invertebrates. He delves into the private life of Europe's dramatic leopard slug, a common garden resident with a truly bizarre end to its marathon mating ritual; watches the courtship ballet of tiny springtails on the underside of a leaf; sees swarms of bright red South African millipedes find partners, and in the caves of Venezuela meets the giant bat-eating centipede.
2. Taking to the Air49m · As the early June sun begins to set over a calm river in Central Hungary, masses of ghostly shapes emerge from their larval cases to take to the air for the first time. They are mayflies and in a spectacular display, thousands of them demonstrate how the very first wings were used. From the stunning aerobatics of hoverflies in an English garden to the mass migration of purple crow butterflies in the valleys of Taiwan, this episode tells the tale of the first animals ever to take to the air. Unique footage reveals the lightning fast reactions of bluebottles and hoverflies, filmed with one of the world's fastest cameras, and David Attenborough handles the world's largest (and perhaps most ferocious) insect - the Titan beetle.
3. The Silk Spinners49m · Silk is the invertebrates' great invention, used in a range of ways from from the protective stalks of lacewing eggs to the amazing hanging threads of New Zealand's 'glow worms'. Spiders, though, have taken silk-spinning to extremes. The common wolf spider has no web, but the female is a gentle parent, encasing her eggs in silk and carrying the precious bundle wherever she goes. The bolas spider uses a ball of sticky silk soaked in a copy of moth pheromone to lure its prey. Millions of communal spiders live and feed together in a vast, towering web - an arachnophobe's nightmare.
4. Intimate Relations50m · The world of invertebrates exists in a web of relationships with plants and other animals. Unique footage of the world's smallest insect (a fairy wasp only quarter of a millimetre long) shows it flying underwater to find the eggs of water beetles in which to lay its own brood. Some ants 'farm' the trees that give them shelter, creating areas known as 'Devil's gardens'. To make sure these grow without competition, they kill off other seedlings in the surrounding vegetation. The blister beetle's larvae huddle together on the end of a piece of grass and mimic a female bee. When a male bee tries to mate with the 'female', the larvae grab on to his belly. Confused, he flies away and searches for a real female. When he eventually finds her and mates with her, the beetle larvae hurriedly swap from his front on to her back, and hence get carried back to her nest where they eat her pollen supplies.
5. Supersocieties50m · Invertebrates don't always operate alone. True society was the last feature to evolve in invertebrates, as recently as the time of Tyrannosaurus. In the last programme see the tensions below the surface in some of the great social structures built by insects, and witness the carnage when an ant colony and a termite colony wage war.More Like This
The Chicano Squad
2024 · ★ 9
Chronicles the groundbreaking team of bilingual patrol officers plucked from their beats and suddenly promoted to Detectives to form the first all-Latin homicide unit dedicated to tackling Houston's soaring rate of Latin homicide cases in 1979.
More info →
Wild Ones
2014
Who is the King? TV series finds inspiration in the rhythms of nature as shown through the wonders of the animal kingdom. It explores different aspects of animal behavior, including hunting techniques and feeding habits, family elationships and defense mechanisms, courtship and mating rituals.
More info →
Wildest Europe
2017
Wildest Europe reveals the incredible beauty and diversity of wildlife in Europe’s major natural habitats. The result is a surprising and wonderful journey of life in many dramatic and varied landscapes. No other continent has such a variety of landscapes and wildlife crammed into so little space. Sculpted by millions of years of rainfall carving out caves, rivers, islands and coastline of this diverse and epic landmass we explore the major waterways that provide home to a myriad of life forms, as well as the forests and woodlands and the grasslands, marshlands and plains. Europe’s habitats also span from sea level to mountain top, and once again wildlife has adapted to thrive in both places. Wildest Europe is a landmark series that explores this great continent of extremes…
More info →
The Wild Andes
2018 · ★ 8.5
Explore the Andes mountains' extremes and celebrate the animals that call it home on a 4,000-mile journey along the western edge of South America, from icy Southern Patagonia to the oxygen-deprived Altiplano plateau to the northern tropical Andes.
More info →
Extraterrestrial
2005 · ★ 10
Leading scientists from all over the globe report from the Planetary Investigation Lab - where they asses the most likely locations for extraterrestrial life. Under investigation are two new planets, The Blue Moon, world of flyers, and Aurelia, the land of light and dark. Using the lastest computer generated imaging (CGI) and 3-D effects, the show takes you on a galactic journey to these new planets and brings you face to face with alien life forms - like the skywhales, gulphogs, stinger fans, and caped stalkers.
More info →
