Finding the Way • 1990 • episode "5/12" Trials of Life

Category: Nature

How animals ranging from albatrosses to ants can navigate themselves over long distances.

Make a donation

Buy a brother a hot coffee? Or a cold beer?

Hope you're finding these documentaries fascinating and eye-opening. It's just me, working hard behind the scenes to bring you this enriching content.

Running and maintaining a website like this takes time and resources. That's why I'm reaching out to you. If you appreciate what I do and would like to support my efforts, would you consider "buying me a coffee"?

Donation addresses

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

patreon.com

BTC: bc1q8ldskxh4x9qnddhcrgcun8rtvddeldm2a07r2v

ETH: 0x5CCAAA1afc5c5D814129d99277dDb5A979672116

With your donation through , you can show your appreciation and help me keep this project going. Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a significant impact. It goes directly towards covering server costs.

Trials of Life • 1990 • 13 episodes •

Arriving

An examination of the diverse techniques employed by animals to disperse and protect offspring.

1990 • Nature

Growing Up

For animals, there is no greater challenge than surviving the vulnerable first years of life. This episode demonstrates that nature's solutions are as varied as those in human society.

1990 • Nature

Finding Food

The search for food in the animal world. With leaves defended by poisons and seeds clad in thorns, animals fight back in very innovative ways.

1990 • Nature

Hunting and Escaping

Life-and-death duels are fought daily in the wild: an orchid turns out to be a predator, killer whales ambush sea lions and chimps pursue colobus monkeys.

1990 • Nature

Finding the Way

How animals ranging from albatrosses to ants can navigate themselves over long distances.

1990 • Nature

Home Making

How all animal architects aim to keep both the elements and intruders at bay through features that include defensive moats.

1990 • Nature

Living Together

Examining some of the weird relationships that develop between species, from birds that relieve clients of hangers-on to hermit crabs that enlist stinging anemones to repel octopuses.

1990 • Nature

Fighting

How many animals - including zebras, moose and stalk-eyes flies - assess their opponents' fighting prowess before making an attack that risks injury or death.

1990 • Nature

Friends and Rivals

From vampire bats to baboons, Sir David Attenborough investigates the importance of recognising friends and respecting the power of rivals throughout the animal kingdom.

1990 • Nature

Talking to Strangers

From the love songs of fish to the flashes of millions of tiny beetles, Sir David Attenborough examines methods of communication used by animals.

1990 • Nature

Courting

This edition looks at the various methods employed by species to attract a mate, including whales that sing "songs", hamsters that emit an odour, and manakins that do acrobatic dances.

1990 • Nature

Continuing the Line

A look at the many and varied ways in which animals procreate in order to ensure that their genes are passed on to the next generation.

1990 • Nature

Once More into the Termite Mound

The inside of a termite mound proved especially challenging for Attenborough: it was so cramped that he could only face in one direction. He therefore had to slowly crawl backwards out of shot when performing re-takes.

1990 • Nature

You might also like

New Worlds

Surveys those environments that have been created by and for humans.

12/12The Living Planet • 1984 • Nature

The Desert Coast

A magic journey along Patagonia's Atlantic coast where the land may be barren but the sea is rich with life. In this wild and unforgiving place, killer whales risk it all to survive while huge male elephant seals battle for the chance to breed.

S1E1Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World • 2022 • Nature

Lakes and Rivers

Just as Africa constantly throws-up mountains which intercept moisture-laden clouds from the oceans, so the changing landscape also creates grooves and basins which channel and gather the precious moisture that falls on the high ground.

S1E6Wild Africa • 2001 • Nature

Arctic - Far North

The Arctic region of Russia is considered the most inhospitable places to live. But polar bears, lemmings, Arctic foxes, and seals - Arctic - simply heaven. In late August, with the onset of the breeding season is going very strong male musk for traditional competitions for the right leadership in the pairing with females. Weight of an adult bull can reach 400 kilograms. In a skirmish with a rival musk ox to deliver a decisive blow running away at 40 miles per hour. Sound from the blow horns fighting males can be heard at a distance of more than one kilometer.

S1E5Wild Russia • 2009 • Nature

Bird Brain

Watch as birds solve puzzles and challenge our basic notions of intelligence. Call somebody a “bird brain,” and you’re not delivering them a compliment. But as NOVA shows, birds turn out to have advanced problem-solving skills that we usually assume are unique to humans. Watch astonishing tests of avian aptitude: parrots that can plan for the future, jackdaws that can “read” human faces, and crows that can solve multi-step puzzles with tools like pebbles, sticks, and hooks. Could these just be clever tricks based on instinct or triggered by subtle cues from their human handlers? To rule out any doubts, NOVA puts feathered Einsteins through their paces and reveals skills that even three- or four-year-old children have a hard time mastering—such as putting off one reward now to get a bigger one later. From this revolution in thinking about our feathered friends, the conclusion seems irresistible that bird brains see the world in ways that aren’t so different from our own.

NOVA PBS • 2021 • Nature

Collision

Climb to the top of erupting volcanoes and relive the devastation caused by earthquakes to discover how they created the Europe we know today.

S1E2Birth of Europe • 2011 • Nature