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Yahoo
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The extreme lengths parents go to in the natural world, according to Sir David Attenborough
The parents' story in the natural world has often been overshadowed by the cute and adorable offspring they produce. Yet, if you look a little deeper, the true revelations, drama and intriguing science lies with those with the ultimate responsibility – the parents. Over the course of three years, our teams found a deep well of fascinating new stories to be told about animal parenting. It took us to 23 countries across six continents, from the remote forests of Bhutan, to the gorgeous heathlands of Devon, to the wide open grasslands of Botswana. It is a subject matter that requires the very highest standards of wildlife filmmaking – rigorous science, meticulous planning, ingenious cinematography, and experienced field craft – as we set out to capture the extremely sensitive and private relationships between parents and offspring. And, of course, when all of that is in place, a passion for the serendipitous magic that the natural world can throw up at any moment. The resulting footage was astounding, both in the dramatic stakes of the parenting journey, but also the new insights into behaviour that our teams across the world captured. Most surprising of all, though, was recognising many of the same dilemmas that we, as parents ourselves, have to deal with on a daily basis. Are we providing enough food? Is the home environment we build good enough? How can so much excrement come out of such a small body? (Amazingly, Swamp Canary chicks pre-package their poo into bags for their parents to remove from the nest.) And how do we prepare our offspring for an unpredictable future? As ever, there are important lessons to be found in the world around us, if you look hard enough. When we asked Sir David Attenborough to lend his expertise and guiding voice to our series, he was delighted to be involved, having worked closely with us at Silverback Films on previous series for the BBC, The Hunt and The Mating Game. As always, his storytelling guidance, his knowledge of the natural world and his unique turn of phrase brought our footage to life, and his delivery of our revelatory story on spider matriphagy – in which a spider mother makes the ultimate commitment by sacrificing herself to her hungry spiderlings – is perhaps the best I've heard in the 25 years I've been working with him. And we didn't need to scrimp on the cute and adorable offspring after all. They just became supporting characters to the real masters of life's destiny: the parents. The animal kingdom guide to parenting San Joaquin kit fox A mother San Joaquin kit fox has an incredibly tough job – in the grasslands of California, she has to be both a tireless provider of food and a vigilant protector of her boisterous and growing kits. Her highly developed sense of hearing and smell help keep her aware of her environment, but in the year we filmed there, unusually heavy rains made her desert home into a sea of grass – and for an animal the size of a house cat, that makes parenting especially difficult. As soon as darkness fell, predatory coyotes were drawn in by the sound of her young, and the mother was left with a dilemma – continue to hunt kangaroo rats to keep her babies well fed, or stand guard by their den and keep them all safe. We were able to capture the unfolding drama using highly specialised military-grade heat-sensitive cameras. Western lowland gorilla The team were reliant on the expertise of Gabonese trackers working as part of a long-term study for the Max Planck Institute to get up close and personal with these incredibly special apes. We wanted to tell the story behind the choices a mother gorilla makes once she has raised her offspring to the point where they can survive on their own – in that two to three years, her situation may well have changed. The current dominant silverback of the group may well not be the best choice as a father for her future offspring and to assess this, she scrutinises his health, his territory, and his ability to provide protection. If he doesn't meet the criteria, she may well ditch him for a better option. It is an oft overlooked part of the parenthood story in the natural world, and our expert team worked hard to gain the gorillas' confidence to illustrate their lives. African elephant Courtesy of the BBC Elephant matriarchs are well known for their incredible parenting knowledge, developed over many years – there isn't much a mature elephant female hasn't seen or known how to solve. However, during our filming time in Samburu, Kenya, an extended drought was forcing the elephants there to share the limited water with the people living nearby, who were also under pressure from the drought. As if that resource sharing wasn't stressful enough, these droughts have often been followed by unpredictably heavy rainfalls resulting in flash floods. It leaves even the most experienced elephant mothers with some tough choices – how do you provide your family with enough water, and how do you know when to treat that same water with caution, as it has the power to sweep a young elephant calf away? Amazonian tapir In order to prepare her offspring for independence, a mother tapir has to show them all the available resources they will need to survive. On top of the countless plant species that make up their diet, she must also lead her calf to the clay licks [where animals gather to eat] located within their rainforest home. The clay helps offset the toxins within many rainforest plants, and it will be vital for the calf to know where and how to find them. Our team worked with a fantastic Brazilian camera team to stake out these clay licks with thermal cameras and a network of camera traps to capture the special moments when a mother leads her calf to this life-giving remedy. Orangutan Courtesy of the BBC Orangutans invest a huge amount of time into preparing their young for independence – almost a decade. Where we filmed, deep in the jungles of Borneo, the abundance and whereabouts of the best food changes year on year, and a mother orangutan must teach her young where and how to find it. And it's not just food, but know-how too – and to see a young orangutan learning how to make his own bed by copying his mother has to be one of the highlights of the series. The mother selects larger sticks to build a stable mattress, and smaller sticks to form the rim; she even chooses leafier branches for the pillow, and she does this every day. Pheasant-tailed jacana Often in wildlife filming the story you come home with is more interesting than the story you set out to film. In Thailand, we knew the parental commitment shown by pheasant-tailed jacana fathers was a good story – but what we hadn't expected, and what the jacanas we were filming certainly hadn't prepared for, was a caterpillar infestation that devastated the lilly pads that the jacanas needed to raise and protect their young chicks. What started as a simple story about the complexity of raising a family who can't swim or fly on the surface of a lake, turned into a Cormac McCarthy-esque epic journey out of the aftermath of Armageddon to find a suitable home for the family. We have a mantra – always be open-eyed to the serendipity of the natural world – and there are dramas even the best planned script could never predict. African social spider This story, which has never been filmed before in full, has to be one of the most extraordinary examples of animal behaviour I've ever seen. African social spiders live in large sprawling nests of up to 50 adult sisters, who hunt together within the nests, emerging en masse to engulf prey insects that become trapped. Each female will lay up to 50 eggs, and when the eggs hatch, the mother spider begins to feed her spiderlings with regurgitated 'milk' made from decomposing her own insides. As the spiderlings grow in size, they become more and more voracious and soon become large enough to take on solid prey. Within a few weeks however, between the resident sisters there are too many spiderlings, and not enough food to go around. This is when their mothers do something extraordinary – their movements become more and more laboured, and their struggling appears to mimic the vibration of a distressed prey insect. Courtesy of the BBC These vibrations are picked up by their own spiderlings, who descend on their mother's dinner table one last time – only this time, their mother is the main course. To witness this sacrifice on location in Namibia, and to work out how to film it, was one of the most extraordinary challenges I've come across in 25 years of making wildlife films. Burrowing owl Quite possibly the most charming bird on the planet, burrowing owl parents work around the clock for the brood. They first scout a suitable home underground (hence their name) to lay their eggs and, once agreed upon, they form a formidable team to first incubate and then feed their chicks over the course of several weeks. It's a 24-hour job, and the larger the chicks become, the harder work it is to find enough snacks to keep them satisfied – what parent doesn't recognise that pressure? As they spend longer and longer away from the burrow, their chicks become exposed to predation pressure, and we witnessed and filmed wily road runners constantly trying to find opportunities to grab young owl chicks. Ingeniously, the chicks have evolved an alarm response to intruders that sounds exactly like the warning rattle of a rattlesnake. Its effective for most mammals – in this case, however, rattlesnakes are one of the preferred prey of the road runner, which further endangers the chicks! Cheetah Cheetahs, though extraordinary predators, have a lot to contend with as parents. As one of the smaller cats in the Maasai Mara, their kittens are extremely exposed to larger predators like lions and hyenas, so their mother is in a race against time to feed them up to get them large enough to fend for themselves. Harder still is to expose them to the correct hunting techniques and situations so they can learn through their own mistakes. In the time we spent with this fantastic cheetah mother, one could feel the pressure and frustration at trying to get her teenage kittens to become better hunters. Remarkably, she provided them a young Thompson's gazelle for practice – a low-risk prey item on which to literally cut their teeth. It's an extraordinary parental commitment to witness. Banggai cardinalfish Courtesy of the BBC One for the fathers out there – left to fend for his fertilised eggs brood, a Banggai cardinalfish father decided the best way to look after his precious cargo is to house them inside his mouth. This 'mouth brooding' father keeps them safe until they hatch within his mouth, at which point he then needs to deposit them in a safe part of their reef ecosystem – one which has few predators, plenty of cover, and little competition. It's no easy job, as a busy reef is dangerous for both him and his fry. Potter wasp No internationally filmed major wildlife series would be complete without an extraordinary British species whose behaviour is equally deserved of celebration – and the potter wasp is no exception. Filmed on the heathlands of Devon with the help of an equally fantastic scientist John Walters, the sequence shows the exceptional devotion and skill that a female potter wasp undergoes to first craft a clay pot for her single egg, before stuffing it full of juicy caterpillars – a larder for her unborn offspring. Over the course of a few weeks, she builds up to 25 of these pots, each a loving commitment to her future young. It's her life's work. She will die before her young emerge from their mother's pot the following spring. It's an extraordinarily beautiful sequence. Parenthood airs on Sunday August 3 at 7.20pm on BBC One. All episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mirror
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Sir David Attenborough to front new landmark BBC series weeks after 99th birthday
The much-loved presenter has alluded to approaching 'the end' of his long life, but shows little sign of slowing down Sir David Attenborough is to mark his birthday this week by announcing that he will present the BBC 's next landmark natural history series later this summer. The veteran broadcaster, who turns 99 on Thursday, is the expert narrator for Parenthood, a blue-chip five-parter which examines the extreme lengths different species will employ to ensure the survival of their offspring. BBC specialist factual commissioning boss Jack Bootle told The Mirror that Sir David has already recorded his carefully-worded scripts for all five episodes. "This is a wonderful, warm, engaging and surprising series, made by some of the very best wildlife filmmakers in the world, and I'm thrilled Sir David is joining us again to narrate it,' he said. The series, from the makers of Wild Isles, The Hunt and The Mating Game, highlights how parenthood in the animal kingdom is a high stakes game in which some animal parents must come up with extraordinary strategies and tricks to give their young a head start. Series producer and director, Jeff Wilson, said the series would be 'the ultimate celebration of the joys and challenges of raising offspring in the natural world'. He explained: 'Silverback Films did a deep dive into the subject over 2.5 years, uncovering extraordinary new behaviours and jaw-dropping dramas using the world's best wildlife cinematographers and directors. 'We are incredibly proud that Sir David was on board with us to bring to the screen a landmark series that has something for everyone – moments of heart warming tenderness, high stakes narrative , and a timely guide from a huge cast of unbelievably engaging cast of characters on how to navigate the complex world of Parenthood.' From orca teaching their offspring to hunt blue whales, orangutan showing their young how to make their beds and hippo families navigating the terrifying African night, the cameras have captured many gripping moments. Stories also include dedicated elephant mothers showing their calves where to find water, cardinalfish fathers who house their fry inside their own mouths, and a lion pride which adopts the cubs of a recently killed matriarch and raise them to become giant hunters. One insider said: 'Everyone is thrilled to have David on board. It's what was hoped for when production on this series started three years ago but seeing the scripts and hearing his narration is always so exciting. It's such a privilege to have him.' The new project has emerged a few days after the celebrated TV presenter made headlines by referencing that he was approaching 'the end of my life' - saying that, when it comes to restoring our oceans over the coming decades, he will 'not see how that story ends'. Launching his new book and TV series Ocean last week, for National Geographic, Sir David explained: 'When I first saw the sea as a young boy, it was thought of as a vast wilderness to be tamed and mastered for the benefit of humanity. Now, as I approach the end of my life, we know the opposite is true.' BBC bosses have high hopes that Sir David will front the third of the award-winning Blue Planet series next year, once he has turned 100 next May. A source told the i paper: 'Blue Planet III isn't due to transmit until the end of 2026. As David no longer travels the globe filming, there is less need to get him on board early in the production stages - as long as David wishes to continue doing narrations, we are of course delighted to have his brilliant contributions.' In 2018 the award-winning presenter admitted he would only quit making documentaries about the natural world if he felt the quality of his work was slipping. 'If I think I'm not producing commentary with any freshness, I hope I would be able to recognise it before someone else told me,' he mused. But Sir David said there were plenty of ways to make the job less physical, which he has since put into action. 'I do dread not working, although there are things I can do without running up steps six times – books to be written, things I've never got round to.'
