Planet Earth part two - press pack
Programme five: Planet Earth - Seasonal Forests
From the evergreen forests of the frozen north to the deciduous dry forests of the equator, Seasonal Forests reveals the greatest woodlands on earth.
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At the edge of the Arctic the Taiga forest is a silent world of stunted conifers cloaked in snow and ice. The trees may be small but filming from helicopter and satellite reveal its true scale.
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It's a belt that circles the globe, broken only by ocean, and containing a third of all trees on earth. During the short summer it produces so much oxygen that it changes the atmosphere.
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The forests may be vast but the animals are scarce and it's populated by wandering loners such as the lynx and wolverine.
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Travelling further south reveals that it is the trees that are the stars.
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In California the cameras fly up the tallest trees on earth –
giant redwoods over 100 metres high. General Sherman, a giant sequoia, is ten times the size of a blue whale and the largest living thing on the planet.
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The oldest organisms alive are the bristlecone pines that, at more than 4,000 years old, pre-date the pyramids.
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The broadleaf forests of North America and Europe bustle with animal life.
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The most startling illustration of their richness only happens once every 17 years when the nymphs of the cicada burst from the soil as adults, creating the biggest ever insect emergence.
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In the forest of Eastern Russia the rare Amur leopard battles for survival in the freezing temperatures. There are fewer than 40 of these cats remaining in the wild.
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Extraordinary and intimate footage captures the mother leopard's struggle to feed her cub.
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The baobab forests of Madagascar are the strangest trees of all. These bizarre upside down trees store water in their swollen trunks and harbour equally curious wildlife, such as the tiny mouse lemur.
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Producer –
Mark Linfield
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Planet Earth Diary
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Seasonal Forests – Forest Fliers
By producer Mark Linfield
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As trees don't move much themselves, it was a challenge to film them in an interesting way.
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In Forest Fliers the Planet Earth crew attempted to film the extraordinary baobab trees in Madagascar by attaching a camera –
and cameraman –
to a hot air balloon.
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But unlike conventional ballooning, there was no basket or safety rail.
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"It's like sitting on a park bench suspended in mid-air," described cameraman Warwick Sloss.
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The contraption did at least have a motorised fan on the back, allowing it to be steered by its pilot and inventor, Frenchman Dany Cleyet-Marrel –
although it transpired that the steering was to be the problem!
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With normal ballooning the idea is to go high, well above obstacles. When filming trees, however, it's better to get really close to your subject for the most dramatic shot possible.
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In Madagascar a momentary lapse of concentration resulted in a head-on collision with a baobab tree –
leaving the crew dangling from a great height with seriously damaged equipment.
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Once safely down, the crew set about trying to repair their balloon and start again!
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