TThe Etruscan shrew is a small, furry time machine. Earth’s smallest mammals weigh less than a ping pong ball and grope for food at night, mimicking the first mammals 200 million years ago. The reason they lived in darkness was simple: Dinosaurs roamed around during the day.
Two-thirds of mammals are still nocturnal, so David Attenborough’s latest nature extravaganza, Mammals, begins with an episode dedicated to life in the dark. In addition to the Etruscan shrew, mole rats, coyotes, and many other animals hunt under the black skies, most of which require modern filmmaking technology to appreciate.
The first game’s night-vision aesthetic helps dispel, or at least delay, the obvious criticisms of the series. Natural history shows always try to make it seem like they have a specific goal or theme, but mammals, which started out as cunning underdogs, are today dominant on the planet. This research on them feels like a fairly nonspecific premise. It could lead to just a cool show about animals in general.
But the thrilling and creepy battles between predator and prey are always enough to draw us in, and the mammals start with Corker in Zambia. (Incidentally, the audio of Attenborough introducing a new segment by simply inflecting a place name is one of the eternal joys of wildlife TV shows: “Zambia.” Now say to yourself in your best Sir David whisper: Armed with leopardapetum lucidum (a reflective tissue behind the retina that allows you to see brilliantly in the twilight of a crescent moon), he chases the impala and takes it to the tree instead. They attack sleeping baboons.
Baboons can’t see, but they can hear, so as soon as the leopard breaks a twig, the primate runs away, screeching. We hold our breath as we watch a mother and her baby stranded at the end of a branch. Can it bear the weight of a leopard? As the big cat sinks its teeth into the unlucky baboon, blood can be seen gushing and dripping from the bough. What might have been removed from the traditional color sequence is here depicted in reversed monochrome. But blood is creepier in night vision, as is a footprint on one of the Impala’s hind legs.
Equally tragic is the tragedy of a Cape buffalo living in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater. You can fight spotted hyenas. You can repel 10 spotted hyenas. But then 20, 30, 40 of them appeared, glowing an eerie light gray through the night lenses. The buffalo is slowly torn apart.
But mammals find a way to photograph in color in low light at least half the time. The greatest technological achievements of this time occur in the Sahara desert. There, the fennec fox, which is rarely seen because it disappears among the sand dunes when humans approach, is captured in clear detail on its nighttime adventures thanks to ultra-sensitive cameras. If floodlights were shining on it. Their super cute ears allow them to hear the beetles and lizards they like to eat, and pick up the distant cries of potential mates.
It’s comforting to know that it’s possible to make new friends, even if you’re the size of a guinea pig and roaming endless stretches of sand in just a few hours. Meanwhile, in Argentina, a large, hairy armadillo also spends a memorable night chasing a female fornication through an abandoned farm building. A shot of a large, hairy armadillo rearing up on its stubby hind legs and appreciatively sniffing the rich scent of a large hairy armadillo is easily the single best image of the episode, beating out some strong competitors. is.
One-fifth of all mammals are bats, so the show takes time to spot bat wonders, such as the giant bulldog bat that lives on the Trinidad coast. Again, night vision filming gives the sections set inside the cave a disturbing and alien atmosphere, as if the creature’s moist wing membranes and flapping jaws weren’t repellent enough. . However, at sea, we revert to traditional moonlight photography to capture the very impressive sight of bats catching invisible fish. A single fin on the water’s surface is enough for bats to use echolocation to guess where they’re going. Just swoop down, scrape the surface with your claws, and the rest is done. The range of mammals may be wide, but so far they are definitely on the hunt for wonder.
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