Chris Packham's First British Beaver & Attenborough on Harry Hill

Harry Hill does David Attenborough & 'Life in Cold Blood'

You know you've made it big when Harry Hill takes the mick out of your film. On 'Life in Cold Blood' we waited in anticipation every week and sure enough Harry didn't fail to deliver. Throwing a bucket of water over an Attenborough look-alike as he sat watching Giant Turtles mate. An Attenborough look-alike having a bath when a giant wasp flies over to try and grab him... the latter clip in reference to one line in the script in which David, talking about developing tree-frog tadpoles, says that 'when it 's a choice between being carried off by a wasp or an early bath, there's no competition'. The list went on.

'My First British Beaver' - Chris Packham, Animal's Guide

It was only on the night of the broadcast of 'Animal's Guide to Britain', after receiving endless tweets and texts, did I realise just how much innuendo was in the film. Unavoidable really when talking about Beavers.

Sadly Harry Hill seems to not be on TV at the mo so that's a damp squib. However the folks over at Radio 1 had a school-boy giggle. They sent me this clip from yesterdays 'Innuendo Bingo' on the Scott Mills show - 'Beaver sound bite' from my episode of 'Animals Guide to Britain' not quite the genius of Harry but made me chuckle...

If you're slightly immature then you can watch the whole innuendo-laced clip, from programme 1 of 'The Animal's Guide' here:

Zoo Quest - Madagascar - eerie indris & world's smallest chameleon

Don't miss the third episode of Madagascar, BBC2 8pm, Weds 23rd February 2011.

If you've been watching the spectacular Madagascar series then, like me, you may be itching to find out more about this tantalisingly curious island of the east coast of Africa. Where better to start then with Sir David Attenboroughs first memories of the island.

I was fortunate to work with David Attenborough on 'Life in Cold Blood', and even more so to hear first hand of some of his adventures. None was more full of vigour and excitement than his tales of filming in Madagascar 50 years earlier. He had travelled there with staff from London Zoo to film Zoo Quest, a series which had already seen him trek through the thick forests of Guiana to capture a three-toed sloth for the zoos collections (accepted practice at the time). Now he was on the search for an Indri - a lemur which displays striking similarities to Marco Polo's long fabled 'dog headed man'. Little was known of them before the expedition, but David Attenborough and his team were able to attract a family of them using recordings of their 'spine-chilling unearthly howls'. They filmed them as they issued alarm calls and comforted each other in the treetops. As well as the subject of their quest, the films also featured other wildlife that the team had come across - most notably chameleons - a vast array of shapes and sizes - many of which had never been seen by the British audience before. It was gripping television.

The Eerie Indri 

It seemed such a shame that these classic, and pioneering films were hidden away deep in the BBC archives and had not been seen for decades. So whilst producing 'Life in Cold Blood' we searched the Gormenghast of the BBC vaults and located as much of this material as possible. We were able to use some of it in our 'making-ofs' that follow each episode of the series, and we gave DVDs to a very grateful Sir David. He also hadn't seen anything of Zoo Quest since they were broadcast in the 50s and 60's. I spent many a night absorbed by these incredible adventures, from a world that seems so long ago.

Fortunately we now have the BBC Wildlife Finder and the folks there have been locating and digging through this dusty archive to thrust some of these moments back into the loving arms of the British audience.

 

Watch more classic moments on the BBC Wildlife Finder

Watch an interview with David Attenborough about Zoo Quest on the WildFilmHistory website

David Attenborough introduces us to a mysterious island  

Attenborough Returns to Madagascar

David Attenborough had not been back to Madagascar since Zoo Quest, but in 2008 our team visited for 'Life in Cold Blood'. There we managed to film a creature that David had been waiting most of his life to see, a creature so tiny that ants cast shadows over it. Brookesia - the smallest chameleon in the world. You may remember it from the first episode of the Madagascar series, but I am proud to say that we also filmed it for 'Life in Cold Blood'. It proved to be such a memorable sequence that we decided to make a 'making-of' for the end of the film, featuring some of the 'Zoo Quest' archive.

Life in Cold Blood - Smallest chameleon in the world


David Attenborough meets the smallest chameleon in the world

 (Sir David Attenborough locates Madagascar on a globe)

Spot the Rattlesnake!

Can you spot the timber rattlesnake Crotalus horridus in the photograph below?

This rattlesnake's excellent camouflage is one reason why it’s a good idea to wear gators and tread carefully when visiting the woods of upstate New York. Timber Rattlesnakes are potentially one of the most dangerous snakes in North America with enough venom to kill a person. Fortunately they have a relatively mild disposition and before striking, will hold their tails high and rattle like mad to try and scare you off. If you do get too close they may strike in defence.

Rattlesnakes are sit-and-wait predators - they wait for prey to come to them. They find a suitable place, which might be alongside a track rich with the scent of mouse urine, and then they coil up like a spring. They are capable of waiting, silent and still, for several days until a mouse comes along, at which point they have enough pounce in their coils to strike up to two thirds of their body length. Instantly injecting enough venom the mouse is dead before it hits the ground.

Thankfully most snakes tend to only inject venom when they are feeling peckish. Otherwise it's a bit of a waste. So if you are bitten by a timber rattlesnake the bite is usually 'dry'... but still painful, and definitely a reason to go straight to hospital.

To reveal the location of the rattlesnake in the photo click the image below. You can see the sequence from 'Life in Cold Blood' below. This is the first time a wild rattlesnake strike has ever been caught on film.

Photograph taken by James Brickell on a shoot for 'Life in Cold Blood'

Timber Rattlesnake sequence from Life in Cold Blood

Life in Cold Blood wins Bafta

48 years since his first win,
Sir David Attenborough added another Bafta to his cabinet. Attenborough won his third individual award, the specialist factual Bafta for his BBC1 documentary programme about reptiles and amphibians, Life in Cold Blood.

Sir David took to the stage after an excerpt from Life in Cold Blood showed a pair of copulating tortoises. "Thanks go to spitting cobras, axolotls, golden frogs, dwarf chameleons, those happy tortoises," Attenborough said. "This Bafta was won not by me or them but by the production team. I have got the best job going and to go around the world and see all those marvelous things is more than anyone could wish for."

A month shy of his 83rd birthday, the broadcaster has no plans to slow down. Asked if he was considering retirement, Sir David replied: "No, certainly not. I'm going off to the Antarctic next, at the end of the year, to look at penguins and that sort of thing - and icebergs, if they're still there."

The Nominees:

Specialist Factual:Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

Claudia Lewis, Kim Shillinglaw

BBC Four/BBC Productions

Life in Cold Blood

Production Team

BBC One/BBC Productions

Lost Land of the Jaguar

Production Team

BBC One/BBC Productions

Stephen Fry & the Gutenberg Press: The Machine That Made Us

Stephen Fry, Patrick McGrady, Lucy Ward, Philip Crocker

BBC Four/Wavelength Films

Attenborough and the BBC scoop the Golden Panda

Last Wednesday night in Bristol, at a glittering ceremony, actress and comedienne Joanna Lumley presented Wildscreen’s infamous Panda Awards to the world’s best wildlife and environmental filmmakers.

The Awards, which have been running for 26 years, are firmly established as the most prestigious in the natural history filmmaking calendar. Over 420 entries were received this year, with 22 prizes being awarded.

At the Awards Joanna Lumley said, “It’s very heartening this year to see so many films with a strong environmental focus – it seems at last the environment is going mainstream, and is on everyone’s agenda.”

The top award, the Golden Panda, has been awarded to Armoured Giants – The Cold Blooded Truth a BBC Natural History Unit programme presented by wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough. Sir David joined colleagues from the Natural History Unit to collect the Award.

Miles Barton, from the BBC Natural History introduced Sir David, “There is only one person that you can get a commission about a load of slimy, scaly cold-blooded creatures on BBC 1 these days, that is of course David Attenborough who is as enthusiastic about these underdogs of the animal world as anything else!”

Sir David continued “This Award means something particularly important for me, because over the past 25 years I’ve been making series’ of programmes about whole groups of the animal kingdom and amphibians and reptiles were the last group. The BBC was not always so keen on amphibians and reptiles…they’d say ‘why don’t you do something you can pat, or something that flies?’ This series has completed the final ‘set’ for me and I am thrilled beyond measure it should receive your approbation.”

The Award ceremony was attended by over 600 people from all over the world. Guests were in Bristol attending the Wildscreen Festival – a week of seminars, discussion and debate.

Click here to see a full list of this year’s winners.

By Bristol Media

Actress Joanna Lumley hails world's finest wildlife filmmakers in awards held in Bristol.

The World's best wildlife filmmakers gathered in Bristol last night for the "Oscars" of their industry.

The 2008 Panda Awards, which recognise and reward the best wildlife and environmental films from around the globe, were held at Temple Meads' Passenger Shed. Actress, humanitarian and animal rights campaigner Joanna Lumley hosted the awards, which are part of the Wildscreen Festival.

Wildlife filming legend Sir David Attenborough presented the top award, the Golden Panda, to Bristol's very own BBC Natural History Unit for its programme Armoured Giants – The Cold Blooded Truth.

Life in Cold Blood, Golden Panda award winners

The Natural History Unit had a successful night, picking up five awards. As well as the Golden Panda, the Bristol department won the Earth Sciences Award for Earth: The Power of the Planet – Atmosphere, in which presenter Dr Iain Stewart shows how the atmosphere has shaped the world we live in.

It also picked up the Natural History Museum Environment Award for Battle to Save the Tiger, which examines the threat of extinction faced by the tiger, and the Films at 59 Award for best sound for Galapagos: Born of Fire, which follows the lives of the animals living on the group of islands that shaped Darwin's theory of evolution.

The Bristol Natural History Unit also won the best editing award for Expedition Guyana, in which an international team of naturalists, filmmakers and climbers travel deep into the heart of the jungle to search for animals that live in the little-discovered South American country.
The unit was also co-producer on a number of other winning programmes.

The Panda Awards, which have been running for 26 years, are the most prestigious in the natural history filmmaking calendar.

More than 420 entries were received this year, with 22 prizes handed out at the Bristol ceremony.

This is Bristol

Life in Cold Blood: Armoured Giants more valued than any other programme on TV

Monday 3rd March, 21.00, BBC1
6.1M Viewers, 26% Audience Share
(Average for Monday 21.00 = 5.62M, 23%)

This programme recieved an AI (Audience appreciation Index) of 93 - which is a BBC record.

This shows, out of a hundred, how much the audience valued the programme, and is considered more important than the number of viewers.

Radio Times: Armoured Giants
In tonight's final dispatch from the world of the reptiles one scene stands out. We see a male marine turtle in the throes of what David Attenborough likes to call "making love" or "union" with a female. The mating couple are enjoying an undersea embrace that looks tender and beautiful - until a rival male turns up and starts trying to get in on the act, biting the first male's flippers, swatting him in the head and so on. Then more interlopers arrive and they all try to butt in. The tussle that ensues is astounding - a mixture of brutal and touching. For that matter, so is the moment when an alligator lunges at Sir D, and not forgetting the postscript about the world's loneliest creature, the Pinta Island tortoise, who is about the same age as Attenborough and, perhaps also like him, one of a kind.

Skin eating Caecilians: behind the scenes with the Scientists

The image below is a close-up of the tooth of a Caecilian, specially adapted for peeling the mother's skin, discovered by Natural History Museum scientists in 2006, and filmed for Life in Cold Blood. Watch the original scientific footage on the Natural History Museums website.

clipped from www.nhm.ac.uk Close up of grappling hook teeth of young amphibian caecilian that they use to eat their mother's skin. © The Natural History Museum/Alexander Kupfer A remarkable form of parental care, where young amphibians feed on their mother's skin, is revealed today in the journal Nature. The species is called Boulengerula taitanus. The females transform their outer skin into a thick, nutrient-rich meal for their babies. The young crawl over their mother and peel and eat the skin with their specialised teeth. This highly unusual method of parental care is called dermatotropy and was previously unknown in animals. 'That this amazing behaviour has never been seen before shows how much we still have to learn about the diversity of these animals,' said Mark Wilkinson, zoologist at the Museum. Caecilians are snake-like amphibians related to frogs and newts. They mostly burrow in tropical soil and their underground behaviour is rarely seen. B. taitanus is from Kenya and can grow up to 30cm long.

6.1 million watch last episode of "Life in Cold Blood"

The last ever appearance of David Attenborough in a major natural history series attracted just over 6 million viewers to BBC1 last night, March 3.

Attenborough's Life in Cold Blood concluded with 6.1 million viewers and a 26% share on BBC1 in the 9pm hour last night - up 500,000 viewers and two share points on last week's outing, according to unofficial overnights.

The audience for the fifth and final episode of Life in Cold Blood increased throughout the hour, peaking at 6.4 million and a 28% share in the final quarter hour between 9.45pm and 10pm. The series launched with 6.7 million viewers and a 28% share in early February.

Life in Cold Blood will be Attenborough's last major full-scale natural history series - the 82-year-old has vowed to film one-off programmes from now on, including one on evolution.
Attenborough's examination of the reptilian world continued to easily win its slot against the final episode of ITV1's drama series about a fictional British royal family.
Source

Crocodile feeding frenzy filmed for Life in Cold Blood

In Australia, David reveals newly-discovered behaviour. On a flooded road by a small river, over 40 huge saltwater crocodiles gather and work together to feast on migrating fish. Just like bears feeding on salmon, they gather together especially for this event and dramatically pick off fish as they leap through the air. This is remarkable behaviour, since these crocodiles are highly territorial and have to suppress their aggression when they are massed together.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk A BBC crew managed to film over 40 of the huge beasts gathering and working together to feast on fish migrating up the Mary River in Australia. This cooperative feeding behaviour has only recently been discovered - saltwater crocodiles are usually highly territorial creatures. The animals were filmed with the help of infrared cameras because the spectacle took place during the night. Mullet migrate in spring; they wait for the high-tide so they can swim up-river to breed. The crocodiles knew when to gather at the river. The BBC crew filmed them picking the mullet off one by one as the fish swam past. The footage was recorded for BBC One's Life in Cold Blood. Life In Cold Blood is on BBC One on Monday, 3 March at 2100 GMT.

Life in Cold Blood: Sophisticated Serpents

Monday 25th February, 21.00, BBC1
5.5M Viewers, 23.6% Audience Share
(Average for Monday 21.00 = 5.62M, 23%)

Radio Times:
It's all forked tongues, beady eyes and slithering tonight - lots of slithering. "Snakes, it must be admitted, have had a bad reputation ever since one appeared in the Garden of Eden," sighs David Attenborough. He clearly loves them, but is aware that many of us don't, so he does his best to sell serpents to us as brilliant hunters, elegant movers - even tender lovers. And by the end you may be won over. Because it's not all slithering: you may never have seen a snake jump before (like a cracking whip), or spit, or wrestle, or give birth to live young underwater, or snuggle up to another snake; but having watched this, it's hard to regard them as quite so irredeemably legless and alien. And for those of us who enjoyed it in the first episode, there's a reprise of the sequence in which an African rock python eats an antelope...whole. And when you learn that this meal can keep it going for a whole year, you're forced to admit: snakes are cool.

David Attenborough with a Green Mamba

Snake hunt filmed for first time

This is incredible footage and even more so when you realise that almost every time you think you have seen snake predation on TV it has been cleverly constructed from various shots - big closeups of fangs striking the camera etc. This is mostly due to animal welfare controls - legal restrictions, and the BBC's strict policies when working with animals. So the best way to show the true behaviour is in the wild. It is very rare, however, that the opportunity arises to do this, and in this case it was because of the cooperation from a group of dedicated scientists who were tracking and monitoring several rattlesnakes in the field. Still it proved a huge challenge as you will see in the "Under the Skin" section of programme Four of "Life in Cold Blood".

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk The fearsome hunting skills of a wild rattlesnake have been caught on camera for the first time. Using a specially designed camera trap, a BBC crew managed to film the snake killing and then eating his victim - a small mouse - in the wild. The mouse died almost immediately after being stabbed and injected with the timber rattlesnake's deadly venom. The snake hunt was filmed in New York State, US, under the guidance of rattlesnake expert Harry Greene. He helped the crew track the snake by using radio telemetry. The footage forms part of the BBC One series Life in Cold Blood. Life In Cold Blood is on BBC One on Monday, 25 February at 2100 GMT.

Life In Cold Blood: Dragons of the Dry

Monday 18th February, 21.00, BBC1
5.4M Viewers, 22.6% Audience Share
(Slot Average for Monday 21.00 = 5.62M, 23%)

Repeated on Sunday at 6pm.

Radio Times: 3/5 - Dragons of the Dry
More than any other presenter, David Attenborough is at home sharing the screen with his animal subjects. Or perhaps they feel at home sharing it with him? Either way, the double act produces moments that feel almost showbiz. A highlight this week is the piece to camera Attenborough does by the side of a fabulous monitor lizard, standing handsomely on its back legs, milking its moment of fame. Prior to this series, I wouldn't have thought to use the words "fabulous" and "lizard" in the same sentence, but again and again here you're struck by the beauty of lizards, geckos, skinks and chameleons. Watching dwarf chameleons being born, clinging one-toed to a branch for the first time, is a truly wondrous sight and very touching indeed.

David and a Green Iguana (Photo: Miles Barton, BBC)

Life in Cold Blood: Land Invaders

Monday 11th February, 21.00, BBC1
5.6M Viewers, 23.6% Audience Share
(Average for Monday 21.00: 6.37M, 26%)

Radio Times: 2/5 - Land Invaders
As David Attenborough's slimy, scaly epic continues, it's the behind-the-scenes sequence that again hits the hardest. In the main programme, we learn that Panamanian golden frogs have a sweet way of signalling to each other by waving. In the postscript, however, we discover that, thanks to a fungal disease, the footage of them doing so was to be the last ever filmed of them in the wild. You may find you haven't felt so emotional towards a frog since Kermit. It's not all sad, though. One of the pleasures of an episode devoted to amphibians is the chance to see species where it's the males who look after the kids. The proud African bullfrog excavating a canal for his shoal of tadpoles before ushering them through to the big pond is wonderful, as is the poison-arrow frog giving piggybacks to his young. Neither, though, can match the devoted parenting of the mother caecilian, a wormlike creature that lives mostly underground: she feeds her writhing young on (shudder) her own skin.

A male Alpine Newt courting a female by wafting its pheremones with it's tail

A few comments from the viewers panel:

"A masterclass "
Male 61

"You have to watch attenborough"
Male 44

"What knowledge would we have on animal behaviour if it wasn't for David Attenborough"
Female 63

"Another triumph for the BBC wildlife programs - they never let you down!"
Female 35

"Nothing left to say in praise of this series of programmes - he has maintained the same high standard for 50 years."
Male 68

"Surely anyone would be enthralled. The camera work was excellent and David Attenborough is always superb - he sounds so interested in his subject."
Female 67

TONIGHT: Life in Cold Blood 'Land Invaders' with David Attenborough

David Attenborough delves into the extraordinary and intimate lives of the soft skinned amphibians and finds marsupial frogs where the father carries his young in pouches and then gives birth, giant salamanders over a metre long that wrestle for territory and newts that display just like underwater birds of paradise. From steamy jungles to dry deserts amphibians have taken their first footsteps onto land using their bizarre life histories to break their ties with the water and invade the earth.
BBC One Monday 11th February at 9pm.
Repeated BBC One Sunday 17th February at 6pm

For more about Life in Cold Blood and to see exclusive clips visit www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/lifeincoldblood

Caecilians:Sharks of the Soil

"Reptiles and amphibians are thought of as slow, dim-witted and primitive," says David Attenborough in this the start of the final chapter of his Life on Earth saga. However they can also be, as this beautifully conceived (and presented) programme shows, affectionate and sophisticated." Daily Teleeraph

"It is effortless, intriguing and utterly sublime: TV that entertains & educates with painless ease." Observer.

"Here is the mythic presenter cosying up to frogs, alligators and iguanas, captured by the finest wildlife photography in the world. Where does the BBC go from here?" Times

BBC Wildlife Magazine Podcast: Life in Cold Blood

BBC Wildlife Podcast...

Miles Barton, series producer of Life in Cold Blood, joins the team to talk flesh-eating babies, skinny seaweed and pet elephants. Plus, Sir David Attenborough on Darwin, the value of understanding and his possible successor.

Download MP3

Intro to Prog 1: Life in Cold Blood

Life in Cold Blood: The Cold-Blooded Truth

Friday 4th February, 21.00, BBC1
6.7M Viewers, 28% Audience Share
(Average for time slot: 6.37M, 26%)

Radio Times: 1/5 - The Cold Blooded Truth
The great communicator has his work cut out here. The ninth and final chapter of David Attenborough's nature epic brings him to reptiles and amphibians, also known as the Ugly Lot. Surely the scaly, slimy creatures of the Earth will need more than his raptures (and the BBC Natural History Unit's visual magic) to get us on side? Never fear, by the end of tonight's opening episode, you'll find yourself warming to cold-bloodedness, rather as the sweet North American painted turtles thaw out after a winter frozen in their burrows. When you see the males courting underwater by stroking the females' cheeks, you may even agree with Attenborough that reptiles and amphibians "can be touchingly warm-hearted". Other highlights range from the comic - jousting tortoises - to the gross - a python ingesting a whole deer, like a vacuum cleaner very slowly sucking in the family dog. But be sure to stay for the "making of" postscript about chameleons, where we see the great man's face (and voice) light up as he fulfils a lifetime ambition.

Some recent "Life in Cold Blood" reviews

The Observer.
"... an exhilarating piece of filming, matched by a host of other gems: the South American waxy monkey frog which keeps its skin moist by rubbing itself all over with oily secretions, for all the world like a sunbather on speed. It is effortless, intriguing and utterly sublime: TV that entertains & educates with painless ease. "

The Times
"Here is the mythic presenter cosying up to frogs, alligators and iguanas, captured by the finest wildlife photography in the world. Where does the BBC go from here?"

Daily Telegraph
"Reptiles and amphibians are thought of as slow, dim-witted and primitive," says David Attenborough in this the start of the final chapter of his Life on Earth saga. However they can also be, as this beautifully conceived (and presented) programme shows, affectionate and sophisticated."

Mail W/E
*****"David Attenborough returns with another ground-breaking series to get us marvelling at Mother Natures Glories. Attenborough explains why reptiles (dry skinned), such as marine iguanas, spend so much time lounging around in the sunshine, while amphibians (moist skinned) must avoid it. Not so, however, the South American waxy monkey frog, which has developed a clever feature that enables it to enjoy sunbathing sessions - an in built supply of sun tan lotion. Amazing stuff and there is plenty more in this spectacular opener. "

TV Guide
"Thermal imagery is the new buzzword here, and it really adds pace and drama to the series which, unsurprisingly, oozes quality."

Life in Cold Blood: The Panamanian Golden Frog

In Panama, David meets the rare golden frog – filmed for the last time in the wild. It communicates with its rivals and mates by semaphore in the form of gentle hand waves.