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Life

New camera technology was used to build on the cinematic techniques first employed in Planet Earth, notably the pioneering use of stabilised helicopter-mounted cameras. The Life crew succeeded in using gyroscopic stabilisation to create steady shots from moving vehicles, even on rough terrain, allowing the cameras to track alongside reindeer and elephant herds for the first time. Miniature high-definition cameras were used extensively for the "Insects" programme. In the forests of Mexico, the crew erected a spider's web of cables in the canopy to give the sense of flying alongside millions of monarch butterflies. In Zambia, they filmed from a hot air balloon to avoid disturbing the huge flocks of straw-coloured fruit bats. (from wikipedia.org)

Image of BBC Life

Life is a BBC nature documentary series narrated by David Attenborough, taking a global view of the specialized strategies and extreme behavior that living things have developed in order to survive. The series is full of breathtaking images of living things' survival strategies, such as a school of fish flying over the sea to avoid their predators, plants hunting insects, and monkeys pounding palm nuts with stone tools. The series consists of ten 60-minute episodes including ten-minute Life on Location segments aired at the end of each episode. The first episode Challenges of Life gives a general overview of the series by showing examples of extraordinary feeding, hunting and parenting behavior of living things. The seventh episode Hunters and Hunted explores diverse strategies that mammals have adopted to hunt their prey and evade predators. Except for the two episodes, the remainder take a look at different groups of living things: reptiles and amphibians, mammals, fish, birds, insects, creatures of the Deep, plants, and primates.


Episode 01 - Challenges of Life
This episode gives a general overview of the series by showing examples of extraordinary feeding, hunting and parenting behavior of living things.

Episode 02 - Reptiles and Amphibians
This episode explores diverse survival strategies of reptiles and amphibians; how those primitive creatures could still thrive.

Episode 03 - Mammals
This episode looks at diverse survival strategies of mammals, the most successful group of animals: how to find food, how to raise young etc.

Episode 04 - Fish
This episode explores diverse survival strategies of fish, the most diverse group of vertebrate animals on the planet.

Episode 05 - Birds
This episode looks at birds' survival strategies, focusing on their feathers that have made them adaptable and enabled them to fly.

Episode 06 - Insects
This episode deals with insects who have evolved diverse survival strategies and become the most abundant creatures on Earth.

Episode 07 - Hunters and Hunted
This episode explores diverse strategies that mammals have adopted to hunt their prey and evade predators.

Episode 08 - Creatures of the Deep
This episode shows diverse survival strategies of marine invertebrates, the most abundant creatures in the ocean.

Episode 09 - Plants
This episode looks at diverse survival strategies of plants: how they get nutrients, how they disperse their seeds etc.

Episode 10 - Primates
This episode explores diverse survival strategies of primates that have adapted to many different habitats thanks to their intelligence, curiosity and complex societies.


Related Links
Life (BBC TV series) - wikipedia
Life is a nature documentary series made by BBC television, first broadcast as part of the BBC's Darwin Season on BBC One and BBC HD from October to December 2009.
Life on Earth: A Natural History
This is a nature documentary series presented by David Attenborough, about a study of the evolution of life on the planet.
Life Story
This is a six-part documentary series hosted by David Attenborough, revealing the challenges faced by individual animals at different stages of their lives.
The Living Planet
This is a BBC nature documentary series looking at the ways in which living organisms, including humans, adapt to their surroundings.
The Trials of Life
This is a nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, looking at animal behavior.