Mammals fight for their lives in David Attenborough’s new series

Arctic foxes have turned to cannibalism as they struggle to find food in a warmer world.

This is one of the behaviors that has never been depicted before in Sir David Attenborough’s latest series, Mammals.

It focuses on how these animals are adapting to a world rapidly changed by us, the most dominant mammals.

You can also see otters navigating Singapore’s busy roads and lemurs clinging to toothbrush trees to stay cool in rising temperatures.

“Mammals” is a difficult series to watch, but it also showcases the incredible ingenuity of some of the world’s most successful animals.

In the final episode of the six-part series, Sir David said: “If we make the right decisions, we can protect the future not only of our fellow mammals but of all life on Earth.”

This series comes 20 years after the original Life of Mammals series. In that time, technology has improved significantly, allowing the BBC’s Natural History Department and its partners to capture sequences that were previously thought impossible.

The opening episode of the series was shot entirely in darkness and revealed an African leopard using its specially adapted eyesight to prey on sleeping monkeys.

“Thermal cameras today are amazing and can see so much detail. You can see the fur and whiskers of animals, and that technology has opened up a whole new world to us,” says series producer. Scott Alexander explained.

The team went to extra effort to capture some of the sequences. In episode 4, “Cold,” a sleeping pod was specially designed to allow a camera crew to track a polar bear for days on the ice of Svalbard, Norway.

As a result, the research team was able to capture a polar bear hunting reindeer inland. The researchers believe this behavior developed as sea ice melted, making it harder to hunt seals.

“This shows the flexibility of polar bears to compensate for the loss of hunting opportunities for marine mammals,” said John Whitman, assistant professor at Old Dominion University and principal investigator at Polar Bear International, who advised the series. Stated. ”

However, he added that research has shown that this prey is not enough to supplement their caloric needs. “Therefore, the most important action to take to protect the polar bear species is [is] Climate change countermeasures. ”

It’s been 20 years since the last series, and what’s even more surprising is the scale of human expansion. Since 2000, nearly 750,000 square miles (1.9 square kilometers) of her habitat, about eight times the area of ​​the UK, has been lost, with food production being one of the biggest contributors.

“Today, almost half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture. Across Southeast Asia, vast palm oil plantations are replacing what was once primeval forest,” Attenborough said in episode 2, “A New Wilderness.” ” to warn you.

Deforestation means fewer food sources for local wildlife like pig-tailed macaques. But nevertheless, this episode gives us an amazing story of their survival. A family of macaques has been filmed entering a palm oil plantation and capturing the rats that now live there.

“These pig-tailed macaques were primarily vegetarians, but they are becoming carnivorous,” Lydia Baines, the episode’s producer, told BBC News.

“Animals have to adapt in real time, and evolution is essentially going on. Darwin would absolutely be fascinated by this,” she added.

However, not all mammals are so successful. In one episode, we learn that rising temperatures in the Arctic will cause the ocean to freeze by the end of the year, and without sea ice polar bears and arctic foxes will be unable to hunt. One fox waited so long that the crew suspects he starved to death. Other foxes are trying to eat him because of hunger.

In another harrowing scene, a baby howler monkey is left orphaned after its parents electrocute them when they mistake a power line for a tree branch.

Photographing animals is not only a heartbreaking event, but also a scientific breakthrough.

Dr Christine Cooper, Senior Lecturer in Animal Physiology at Curtin University in Perth, worked with the BBC Natural History Unit to help track the echidnas in Episode 5. While attaching transmitters to the animals in this series, you could hear them making noises to each other underground. This phenomenon had only been heard once before and was not recorded on tape.

This discovery led to a new scientific paper by Dr. Cooper and his team. She says her research is essential if we want to protect animal species.

“So if we can understand how animals function and how they meet all the requirements, we can get an idea of ​​how they respond to a changing world. We can also take steps to conserve the species,” she explained.

This series returns to some of the mammals photographed in the original series to see how human intervention is helping them survive.

Blue whales were on the brink of extinction until a whaling ban allowed their numbers to recover. Mammals explores how mammals are now facing new threats from shipping traffic, and how scientists’ work tracking them is helping to introduce safety measures such as slow lanes. Masu.

Scott Alexander says this shows how we can work together with mammals to help each other.

“The message for me is [of the series] “The Earth is amazing, let’s do what we can to protect it, live alongside these animals and share in this incredible diversity,” he said.

‘Mammals’ starts on Sundays at 19:00 BST on BBC One.