Gavarms said:I have been so looking forward to this. The trailers shown on the BBC have made this look EPIC!
Did they ever release "The Blue Planet" on Blu-Ray?
The Orca Attack on the baby Grey Whale in the opening episodes was one of the best pieces of TV I have ever seen!
VideoStunning footage has been captured of three cheetahs cooperating to hunt and bring down an adult ostrich. The high-definition (HD) film of the hunt was recorded by a BBC crew for the natural history series Life. The behaviour could be unique among cheetahs, which are usually too slight to bring down such a formidable foe.
However, the three cheetahs, thought to be a band of brothers, have learnt how to routinely hunt this largest of birds. Life producer Mr Adam Chapman describes how the film crew captured the cheetahs behaving in such a striking behaviour on camera.
"It's in a place called the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. The main bit of Lewa is about 60 square miles, it's huge. Basically the wildlife comes and goes off it."
Ten years ago, three male cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) arrived in the area, which they soon made their territory. Male cheetahs often form collations to defend a good hunting area and gain better access to females.
But while cheetahs are incredibly fast, they are so slight that even coalitions usually only attempt to hunt animals that a single male can bring down. However, these three brothers have learnt to hunt cooperatively, Mr Chapman explains.
"They are amazing on what they will take on," he says.
While researching and filming for Life, Chapman and his colleagues saw the cheetahs hunting the calves of common eland, one of the largest antelope in Africa.
"If they got really lucky they'd succeed, and if they got unlucky they'd get beaten up by the adult eland or chased off."
The team also saw the cats hunting injured oryx, which sport long sharp horns over 1m long.
"One of them was quite lucky not get skewered in the process. The cheetah are pretty cock sure. They chance their arm. And that's probably how they came to start taking ostriches routinely. By one of them giving it a go."
Cheetah running
The epic ostrich hunt was filmed in high-definition (HD) by BBC wildlife cameraman and presenter Simon King, who captured the event early one evening, after tracking the cheetahs for most of the day. In the film, the three cheetahs can be seen stalking a male ostrich and giving chase, before breaking off midway to hunt an unsuspecting female ostrich instead. One male cheetah jumps on the female ostrich's back, before the two other brothers join in to wrestle the huge bird to the ground.
"An ostrich is big enough and strong enough to actually run with the cheetah on its back," says Mr Chapman. "These three are hunting prey that it really takes their combined effort to pull down."
"There are a lot of cheetah in Africa, but however long I've been interested in these things, I've never heard of it before and I've certainly never seen it."
"What is special about it is they do it routinely, and they do it together."
The film crew say there is anecdotal evidence that the cheetahs may hunt in phase with the full moon, as it offers the best light at night. The behaviour of the three cheetahs is so unique that it will likely die out with this particular band of brothers.
"When one of them pegs it and they are forced to stop doing it, that's it. There won't be another generation of Lewa cheetah hunting ostriches," says Mr Chapman.
That is good news. Can't believe it has taken this long thoughsubzero9285 said:Not yet, but The Blue Planet and Sir David's Life Collection will eventually be released on Blu-Ray, according to the BBC "they're in the pipeline".
Hyphen said:I'm not much of an animal fan, I'm more into the planet Earth itself. But I saw an advert for this on BBC1 the other day - Cheeky buggers used E.S. Posthumus' 'Unstoppable' track to accompany it. And despite the abundance of animals and insects, the music immediately made the advert more interesting. But I ain't gonna fall for it. I'd much rather look at mountain vistas than mountain lions.
9. Plants
Plants have successfully managed to conquer every habitat on the planet by using ingenious and cunning strategies. Through the use of time-lapse photography, Plants reveals how plants battle for life and face the challenges of their habitats.
The team were trying to achieve a shot that had never been attempted before the entire growing season in a woodland filmed in one shot. It would bring together elements of time lapse photography, in the both the field and the studio, computer graphics and a lot of hard work and patience.
Set in a secret location on Dartmoor, the team carried numerous wheelbarrow loads of kit the 1.5 miles to the site and took two days to build the track.
With a bicycle wheel, a piece of string, a ladder and a stills camera, the team finally managed to get the base shot.
Then the track had to be rebuilt in the studio to exactly the same length and angle and the forest had to be reconstructed around it in blue screen by time lapse cameraman Tim Sheppherd.
It took over a year to be fully completed, from a five-week track to film the foxgloves opening, getting spiders to spin webs, and even a high-speed camera shoot to get the water droplet falling at the end of the sequence.
Then it was over to Mick Connaire, the graphic designer, to bring it all together.
day one!subzero9285 said:Starts this Monday on BBC One at 9:00 pm, non-UK viewers will probably get the Blu-Ray box set before Christmas. You won't have to wait a year, which is what happened with the Planet Earth release.
subzero9285 said:You'll love this archive then, detailing some of his older work.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/attenborough/index.shtml
subzero9285 said:This the programme that gofreak is talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcvh...F6FF25589&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1
It's split into parts, so just check out the playlist for the rest of it.
Thanks for that as well. Loved every bit of it.subzero9285 said:This the programme that gofreak is talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcvh...F6FF25589&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1
It's split into parts, so just check out the playlist for the rest of it.
Thanks for the pics.Wes said:Some more pictures shot by the production team: