Life in Cold Blood

[Earniel]

We've had films, games and what-nots in this entertainment forum, so it's time we've got some good documentaries in here as well.

Life in Cold Blood is the last Life on Earth documentary series by the ever great sir David Attenborough, wild life documentary-maker and all-around English icon. This last series deals with reptiles and amphibians.

The series, besides being visually pretty stunning, has also managed to show some rare behaviour or behaviour that never was caught on camera before, such as the rare Panamanian golden frog communicating with waving, rather extreme parental care by caecilians and gecko's begging a meal off insects.

What else? There are frogs applying their own natural sun block, tiny cameleons smaller than your finger, wrestling cobras, crocodiles who can make water dance by vibrations and Lonesome George, last of his kind.

I think the Panamanian golden frog scene was probably my favourite. I sat there with open mouth, because I've never seen anything quite like it. Such intricate communication. The wrestling poison arrow frogs were just the cutest ever. The life-birth of those cameleons was pretty spectacular too.

The sea-snakes were creepy, but I've always thought they were. But I was surprised to see a non-poisonous vegetarian among them.

Soo, anyone else seen them?

[Nerdanel]

Yay! Great thread, Eärniel.

As you probably know, I've seen it.. Saw the last episode not many days ago, and I will watch them all again. Many times. Partly because I have a great need to share this beauty with as many friends as possible..

I thought the live births of the anakonda and the shingleback skink of Australia were pretty amazing.. Those were some huge offspring coming out!

Also, how they showed the egg-eating snakes and the python eating an antilope.. Great stuff.

But the sea-snake wasn't a vegetarian, was it? It was eating the fish eggs, IIRC. No? I'm pretty certain there are no vegetarian snakes.

I'll be back..

[Earniel]

I thought the live births of the anakonda and the shingleback skink of Australia were pretty amazing.. Those were some huge offspring coming out!

I had seen live births in anacondas, although it's still impressive to see how the new-born are already quite a big snake on their own. The shingleback was indeed amazing. Who'd have thought that they'd stay partners for life. I also had to laugh with the explanation the scientist gave for picking shinglebacks as a favourite study object: I'l still be able to catch these when I'm very old! Sleepy lizards indeed.

Also, how they showed the egg-eating snakes and the python eating an antilope.. Great stuff.

Mindboggling how far that mouth could open! You'd always read that the snake can dislocate its jaw to swallow big prey, and you know big animals like antilopes do get eaten. And you'd think okay, so they can do that, but to see that 'small' snake's head can stretch that far, that's something else.

But the sea-snake wasn't a vegetarian, was it? It was eating the fish eggs, IIRC. No? I'm pretty certain there are no vegetarian snakes.

Indeed, I misremembered. Looks like I'll have to see it again to refresh. Luckily we've got them taped, and they will be watched more than once, oh yes!

What did you think of the thermal imaging of the galápagos iguanas? I thought it was very striking and a great way to illustrate their temperature regulation.

[The Gaffer]

Only seen a couple of episodes, but they are stunning. I saw the iguanas. Talk about life on the edge: warm up enough to swim in the cold water to feed, then back to warm up again.

The intimacy of the filming, and the tenderness of some of the behaviour they captured, is truly astonishing.

[Earniel]

I was surprised about the iguanas too, the window of opportunity to feed before they cool off seems rather small.

[Nerdanel]

Yeah, true.. And then there are the sealions who pick on them as well, while they're trying to feed. X) They didn't show that here, I saw it in another series called Galapagos.

I agree that the thermal imaging was very well done. For mammals, it's just hard to understand how quickly you lose body heat if you don't generate yourself: also, we could never survive the low temperatures they do.
That's actually also a problem with pet snakes (and probably other reptilians, too): people feed them excessively, because it's hard to realize that they really can be without food for weeks and weeks.

[Earniel]

Yes, it's difficult to comprehend for us mammals how long snakes can go until the next meal. I have to be told again and again, and I'm still amazed when it is mentioned in documentaries. Pretty fascinating, really.