Planet Earth part two - press pack
Programme three: Planet Earth - Jungles
Jungles cover roughly three per cent of our planet yet contain a staggering 50 per cent of the world's species.
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Located around the warm, sunny equatorial zone, complete with constant daylight, they are the most productive habitats on earth.
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Beautiful floating aerial shots introduce the world's most spectacular forest vistas and high-definition cameras enable unprecedented views of the species that live on the dark jungle floor.
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Conditions are perfect for life to flourish, but surviving the jungle is far from easy. Finding food in a rainforest is a challenge –
particularly for large animals.
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Elephants survive by supplementing their diet with minerals mined in water filled depressions, which are found in forest clearings. To get to the choicest bits, the elephants must drill down with their trunks and blow away the top layer of silt.
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In the Ngogo forest in Uganda Planet Earth captures a natural history first when the largest chimpanzee group in the world –
150 strong –
defends its territory from neighbouring chimp groups. On one patrol a youngster from a rival group is killed and eaten.
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But the most successful jungle strategy is to specialise.
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The red crab spider –
the most specialised spider in the world –
spends its entire life on a small, water filled pitcher plant. It feeds partly on mosquito larvae which it catches by swimming to the bottom of the pitcher.
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Other jungle specialists include the colugo, which has been likened to a flying tea tray, and the alien-like group of parasitic fungi called cordyceps. The cordyceps infiltrates an insect host, feeds on it, and then bursts out of its body.
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Producer –
Huw Cordey
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Planet Earth Diary
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Jungles – Trouble In Paradise
By producer Huw Cordey
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When cameraman Paul Stewart was offered the chance to film bird of paradise displays in a remote valley in New Guinea, he thought all his chickens had come home to roost.
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Little did he realise that it would take him over two months, two separate shoots and a massive 600 hours sitting in one metre square bush hides to achieve his goal.
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What no one fully appreciated was that birds of paradise are very choosy about when they display. The action only happens when females are around; if it's not too wet and hot; if there's enough food around in the forest; if they're not disturbed and, finally, they really have to be in the mood!
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So, why they've evolved in the steamy, wet forests of New Guinea is anyone's guess. During the entire duration of the two shoots, all the conditions were right on only five or six occasions.
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And in between these painfully few moments of activity, Paul could do little more than sit and wait for the blue bird of paradise, the six plumed bird of paradise and the superb bird of paradise to spring into action.
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Paul is one of the most experienced wildlife cameramen around but even he had to admit that, after spending so long waiting, he was lucky to survive the experience with his sanity intact.
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