The Living Planet

- Season 1

(1984)

Explores how the surface of the Earth continually moves and transforms due to volcanic activity both above and below sea level and how animals and plants have adapted to cope with the varied resulting environments.

How some creatures and plants manage to overcome the harsh environments found at high altitude together with those prevailing in the Arctic and Antarctic.

An exploration of the various global forests in the northern hemisphere and how animal and plant life, both permanent and migratory, have to cope with changing seasons and climates.

A study of tropical rain forests and how it's universal climate provides the habitats for the immense variety of flora and fauna that proliferate there.

A study of the vast grasslands of the Earth and how they support a great variety of animal life from insects to large herbivores including their predators.

Roasting temperatures during the day and equally cold temperatures at night, require both animals (incl. humans) and plants to adapt to extreme habitats including minimal availability of water.

Describes the ability of birds, insects and bats to fly including migration often over great distances; and how plant seeds defy gravity in order to disperse over a wide area.

David Attenborough reveals the extraordinary variety of animal life that live both in or close to or otherwise depend on freshwater focusing principally on the Amazon river and other global freshwater expanses.

From worms to crocodiles, all manner of creatures and plant life have to adapt to the unique habitat that exists where the land meets the sea and cope with the rise and fall of daily tides.

How isolation on islands and atolls has lead to unique diversity and specialization amongst animal and plant life together with the devastating results of human intervention.

From plankton to whales, there is as much amazing diversity of life and habitats in the world's oceans as there is on land. A marine lifestyle presents unique problems for its inhabitants.

Over the last 10,000 years, modern man has utilized his superior intellect to colonize most of the Earth in order to further his species; sometimes to the detriment of other creatures and damaging natural habitats and environments.