Secrets of our Living Planet (2012)

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Secrets of our Living Planet (2012)

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In this series, naturalist Chris Packham reveals the natural world in a way that you’ve never seen it before. For him, what is really beautiful about nature is not the amazing animals and plants that we share the planet with but the hidden relationships between them. These relationships may sound bizarre but without them, no life would be possible. Discover previously unknown relationships, like why a tiger needs a crab; or why a gecko needs a giraffe. Each week Chris visits one of our planet's most vital and spectacular habitats and dissects it, to reveal the secrets of how our living planet works.

Part 1: The Emerald Band
In this episode, Chris weaves a spellbinding account of how the very special conditions that exist in the rainforest have allowed vast colourful communities of animals and plants to evolve. And he reveals one particularly extraordinary web of life centred on a tree, the Brazil nut tree. It is one of the mightiest trees in the Amazon but it can only survive thanks to a little rodent called agouti, an orchid and a very unusual bee

Part 2: The Secret of the Savannah
In this episode, Chris reveals how the world's most spectacular grasslands flourish, despite being short of one essential nutrient - nitrogen. As it turns out, the secret lies with the animals. There are the white rhinos of Kenya that create nitrogen hotspots by trimming and fertilising the grass. They are drawn to these particular points by communal toilets or 'fecal facebooks', where they meet and greet each other. In the whistling acacia grasslands of Kenya, Chris reveals the amazing relationships between termites, geckos, ants, monkeys and giraffes that make these places so rich in wildlife

Part 3: The Magical Forest
Chris travels to North America to witness the annual miracle of the temperate forest: the destruction of its ecosystem in winter, followed by it rebuilding itself in spring. Chris marvels at the exquisite timing that is necessary in two particularly wonderful stories - the story of how the Canada lynx depends for its prey on a caterpillar high up in the canopy, and the story of why the giant trees of the north-west are dependent on bears and salmon.

Part 4: Waterworlds
In this episode, Chris travels across the world, from Iceland to Brazil, to Bangladesh and the Maldives. His aim: to reveal the secrets of our watery habitats, fresh and salty. The extra ingredients, carried in water and necessary for life, are oxygen and sediment. But it's how the animals manage these resources that determines whether a habitat can actually support much live. In the Brazilian Pantanal, Chris witnesses a riot of life, in a land where everything seems to be a giant: the snakes, the big cats, the otters, the fish- even the lilies! The reason? Well, it comes down to a very unassuming mollusc, the apple snail. In the Sunderbans swamp of Bangladesh, Chris shows us how crabs create an environment fit for mangroves, deer and tigers. In the Maldives, he meets the hero of the coral reef - the sponge. And in the deep ocean, Chris meets the biggest (or smallest) hero of them all. Plankton not only feed our ocean giants, they even influence our atmosphere and climate

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Secrets of our Living Planet (2012)

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Secrets of our Living Planet (2012)

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Secrets of our Living Planet (2012)

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Secrets of our Living Planet (2012)

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Secrets of our Living Planet (2012)

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Secrets of our Living Planet (2012)

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