Global fall

 

More like summer!

"A Year on Planet Earth" is a four-part nature documentary released in 2022. I just watched the fall or autumn episode. It´s pretty eclectic and follow very different animals all over the world. It´s not even clear whether it´s always "fall" in the various locations.

Elephants in Africa, grizzlies in the Yukon, chipmunks in Quebec, muskoxen in Norway, Amur falcons chasing swarming termites in Nagaland, and monarch butterflies in both Maine and Mexico...you get the picture. Add zillions of crabs on Christmas Island and you´re done! 

I think we´ve seen most of this before, tbh, but it was a nice diversion from the election drama in a certain North American nation...

Cornering the camel

"A Perfect Planet: Weather" is the third installment in the recent BBC Earth saga. As usual, we get to see the wild, the weird and the wonderful from our (far from perfect) planet. 10 million flying foxes gathering in one small forest in Zambia, fire ants floating on the Amazon river, turtles laying eggs in Amazon sand banks which are washed away after only three months of existence, bee-eaters chased by eagles and crocodiles in Africa, red crabs afraid of sea water on Christmas Island (50 million of them), and the constant threat of climate change looming in the background. 

The high point of the production is the film crew´s search for the last remaining wild Bactrian camels in the Gobi desert (Mongolia). Imagine a desert that´s as cold as the Arctic, and where the camels can survive only by eating snow. If they can find it, that is... Finding the camels wasn´t easy either, the team apparently looking for them for two weeks! 

Despite protestations to the contrary, there is no particular "message" or educational value in this series, although it might of course give you a better appreciation of Nature. Or, more likely, scare the hell out of you (or make you admire new camera technology). Stay tuned for more extraordinary footage next week...