And Arctic night came to be

"A Perfect Planet" is a BBC One series, narrated in the original by David Attenborough. Here in Sweden, our very own Henrik Ekman is the mysterious voice in the background. I recently watched the second episode, titled "The Sun". Ostensibly about the impact of sunlight on Earth´s wildlife, it´s really a nature photographer´s extravaganza, showing spectacular images from all over the world. This time, the production team takes us to Southeast Asia, Ellesmere Island during the Arctic night, mainland Canada, the Sahara desert, New Zealand, Alaska, and a few other places besides. We get to see the bizarre life cycle of the fig wasp (which has co-evolved perfectly with the fig trees), the weird mating rituals of the garter snake, hibernating frogs, snow geese fighting it out with Arctic foxes, silver ants in the Sahara, gibbons, and the sooty sharewater (a bird that migrates between New Zealand and Alaska, thereby experiencing "an eternal summer"). 

But the most astounding and frankly scary footage comes from Ellesmere Island north of Greenland. You would think an island in the middle of the Arctic Ocean would be devoid of "higher" wildlife. You would be wrong. Even during the coldest and darkest time of the year (the Arctic night lasts four months here), the island is the scene of an eternal struggle between hords of muskoxen and packs of Arctic wolves. It frankly looks like another planet. In the documentary, the wolves actually fail to kill a muskox, and are forced to chase enormous swarm-like flock of Arctic hares instead! It looks almost comic. Last time I watched a documentary about Ellesmere Island, I waxed philosophical. Somehow, the fate of the animals at this God-forsaken place, being forced to act out their pre-programmed behavioral patterns over and over, made me more appreciative of being born a human...

Finally, two complaints. At least in the Swedish version, the narrator quotes the Bible but garbles its meaning. No, citizen, the Bible doesn´t simply say "And light came to be". It says very explicitly that *God* created the light. But nice try, atheista. Also, the observation that one hour of sunlight contains all the energy humanity needs is irrelevant, since there is no way to harness that large amount of solar power. Funny how the little sound bites tells us more about the Zeitgeist than the big picture...

If Our Lord also created Ellesmere Island after hounding the wolves out of Eden is, alas, less clear!

Still, recommended. Especially in conjunction with the first episode, reviewed by me elsewhere on this blog.