Life (British TV series) facts for kids

"Challenges of Life" documents the capture of a young chinstrap penguin by a leopard seal (pictured).

This first episode introduces the series. It shows amazing examples of how animals find food, hunt, find mates, and raise their young from all over the world.

• In Florida Bay, bottlenose dolphins catch fish that jump out of the water. The dolphins create a mud circle with their tails to trap the fish.
• Other cool hunting methods include three cheetahs working together to catch an ostrich in Kenya. Chameleons catch insects with their long tongues in Madagascar. Antarctic killer whales attack a crabeater seal.
• In the Gulf of Mexico, flying fish leap into the air to escape hungry sailfish.
• In Brazil, tufted capuchin monkeys use rocks to crack open tough palm nuts.
• Venus flytrap plants in North Carolina trap insects to get nutrients.
• The mating dance of stalk-eyed flies is shown.
• Two male hippos fight over who gets to mate in a deep part of the Luangwa River in Zambia.
• In Oregon, male Clark's grebes perform a spectacular mating dance with their partners.
• A female giant Pacific octopus protects her eggs until she starves.
• Parents go to great lengths to protect their babies. A mother strawberry poison-dart frog carries each of her six tadpoles high into the rainforest trees. She puts them in safe bromeliad pools and feeds them with unfertilized eggs.
• On Deception Island, young chinstrap penguins are stuck on a beach surrounded by ice. Their parents have left them, and they must reach the open water to find food. One brave chick fights through the ice but is caught by a leopard seal. The Life on Location segment shows how filmmakers worked with a French yachtsman and the Royal Navy to film these predators in Antarctica.

"Reptiles and Amphibians" documents how a group of Komodo dragons (pictured) kill and eventually eat a water buffalo using venom.

This episode explores reptiles and amphibians. It starts with two male Komodo dragons fighting during mating season on Komodo. Even though they seem ancient, reptiles and amphibians are very successful because of their many survival tricks.

• In Venezuela, a waterfall toad escapes a snake by jumping off a branch. Nearby, a pebble toad avoids a tarantula by rolling down a steep rock.
• In the Pantanal, caiman wait for the rainy season to feast on fish.
• In Belize, the Jesus Christ lizard can actually run on water! The Brazilian pygmy gecko is so light it doesn't even break the water's surface.
• In Madagascar, a panther chameleon catches insects with its long tongue.
• Reptiles are cold-blooded, meaning their body temperature changes with their surroundings. Some have special ways to get warm. In the Namib Desert, the Namaqua chameleon darkens its skin on the side facing the sun to absorb more heat.
• In Canada, a male red-sided garter snake pretends to be a female using fake smells. This attracts other males, which helps warm up the "fake" female and increases its chance of mating.
• Malagasy collared lizards bury their eggs to hide them. But egg-eating hognose snakes know where to look.
• Other reptiles guard their eggs. Horned lizards in Arizona chase away egg-eating snakes. But if a lizard-eating snake like a coachwhip appears, the horned lizard plays dead!
• Niue Island sea kraits lay their eggs in a hidden chamber only reached through an underwater tunnel.
• During Africa's dry season, a male giant bullfrog digs a path to a main pool. This saves his young from drying out in their shrinking birth pool.
• On Komodo, Komodo dragons hunt water buffalo in the dry season. They stalk a buffalo for three weeks as it slowly gets sick from a venomous bite. Then, they strip the carcass in just four hours. The Life on Location segment shares the intense experience of filming this dragon hunt.

A breaching humpback whale, a species featured in "Mammals".

Mammals are super successful animals because they are smart, warm-blooded, and have strong family bonds.

• In the Antarctic, a Weddell seal teaches her pup to swim under the ice for the first time.
• In East Africa, a rufous sengi uses a mental map of its cleared pathways to escape a chasing lizard.
• A young aye-aye takes four years to learn how to find and pull out beetle grubs. No other mammal can reach this food!
• Reindeer travel across the Arctic tundra. This is the longest land migration of any animal.
• Other mammals travel long distances in different ways. Ten million fruit bats (straw-coloured fruit bats) gather at Zambia's Kasanka swamps to eat fruit.
• Mammals use different ways to find food. At night on the African savannah, many hyenas can force lions away from a kill. In the Arctic, dozens of polar bears share a bowhead whale carcass.
• Raising young is key to mammals' success. Coatis and meerkats live in groups to share the job of caring for babies.
• A first-time African elephant mother needs the help of the herd's older female to get her young calf out of trouble.
• The biggest animals in the ocean are also mammals. The waters around Tonga are a place for humpback whales to have babies and find mates. A female leads a chase, with males battling behind her for dominance. The Life on Location segment shows the never-before-filmed humpback "heat run."

"Fish" documents the breeding cycle of a clownfish, pictured hiding amongst the tentacles of an anemone.

Fish are the most diverse group of vertebrate animals. They live in the world's rivers, lakes, and oceans.

• Slow-motion video shows how fast sailfish and flying fish move. Flying fish gather in large groups to lay eggs on floating palm fronds, which then sink.
• The male weedy sea dragon carries the eggs in the shallow waters off southern Australia.
• In the Southwest Pacific, a Convict fish makes its group of thousands of young fish do all the work.
• In the western Pacific, there's a lot of competition. A sarcastic fringehead defends its home (an old shell) from an octopus and other fish.
• In Japan, mudskippers live on rich mudflats.
• Freshwater fish are also shown. Tiny gobies climb Hawaiian waterfalls to reach calm pools upstream. In East Africa, barbels clean the skin of hippos and eat their dung in return.
• Wrasses clean coral reefs. Jacks also remove parasites by rubbing against the rough skin of silvertip sharks.
• Clownfish are protected by the waving arms of a anemone. Their life cycle is filmed in amazing detail.
• Other fish find safety in numbers. A huge group of anchovies is too hard for sea lions to catch. But sometimes, predators win. Ragged tooth sharks attack sardines trapped in shallow waters off South Africa.
• In Belize, Snapper fish release their eggs into the open water. But some eggs are eaten by hungry whale sharks.
• Life on Location shows how underwater cameramen filmed the sailfish and flying fish scenes.

"Birds" shows how lammergeiers in the Simien Mountains collect bones from animal carcasses and smash them by dropping them on to rock slabs.

Birds are the focus of this episode. Their feathers help them adapt and fly, making them incredibly versatile.

• The courtship flight of the marvellous spatuletail hummingbird is filmed in high speed. This slows down its super-fast wing beats. The male has to rest often because his long tail feathers take so much energy to display.
• Lammergeiers, on the other hand, glide effortlessly on mountain air currents.
• A red-billed tropicbird brings food back to its chick. It uses amazing flying skills to avoid magnificent frigatebirds trying to steal its meal.
• During their trip from Argentina to Canada, red knots stop in Delaware Bay to eat horseshoe crab eggs. This also gives peregrine falcons a chance to catch an easy meal.
• Some birds build nests in extreme places to avoid predators. Kenya's very salty soda lakes are a dangerous place for a lesser flamingo chick. Chinstrap penguins breed on a volcanic island near the Antarctic Peninsula.
• In South Africa, fewer fish mean Cape gannets sometimes have to leave their chicks to find food. This gives great white pelicans a chance to snatch an easy meal for their own young.
• Feathers are also used for display. Male sage grouse show off to each other. Clark's and western grebes perform a fancy dance to strengthen their bond. Thousands of lesser flamingos move together in a synchronized display in Lake Bogoria.
• Male birds-of-paradise show off their bright feathers in wild courtship dances. In West Papua, the small, plain Vogelkop bowerbird uses a different trick. The male decorates his bower (a special structure) with colorful forest items. He also copies other bird calls to attract a female. Their mating is filmed for the first time, after a long and difficult search shown in Life on Location.

Two billion monarch butterflies (pictured) hibernate in a small area of alpine forest in Mexico.

This episode enters the tiny world of insects. They have many different body shapes, armor, and wings. This has helped them survive and become the most common creatures on Earth.

• In Chilean Patagonia, male Darwin's beetles fight using their horns. They try to throw rivals from treetops to find a mate.
• A damselfly's chance to mate and lay eggs can be quickly ended by a jumping frog.
• Monarch butterflies use their wings to fly on a huge journey. They travel to their winter homes in the forests of Mexico's Sierra Madre.
• In Mono Lake, alkali flies are constantly hunted by Wilson's phalaropes and seagulls.
• Many insects have chemical weapons to defend themselves. High-speed cameras show oogpister beetles spraying acid at a curious mongoose. Devil rider stick insects shoot bitter oils from their heads. European wood ants spray stinging acid. Bombardier beetles shoot boiling liquid from their bodies.
• Some insects work together to gain an advantage. When an American black bear destroys a bee's nest, the colony moves their honey to a new spot to survive.
• Japanese red bug nymphs will move to a different nest if their mother doesn't bring enough food.
• In the Australian Outback, male Dawson's bees fight to the death over females coming out of their nests. All males die, but the strongest ones mate the most.
• Argentina's grasscutter ants form huge colonies with five million ants. They grow a fungus underground for food. Their nests have natural ventilation.
• Life on Location shows how the Mexico crew set up cameras high in the air to film the monarch butterflies waking up.

A killer whale's unique hunting strategy is revealed in "Hunters and Hunted".

Mammals have developed many different ways to hunt their prey and escape from predators.

• This episode revisits the cheetah hunt. It also shows how a nimble ibex kid escapes a hunting fox by leaping across a steep mountainside above the Dead Sea.
• Slow-motion video reveals how greater bulldog bats fish in Belize.
• Young stoats play-fight. This helps them learn to chase down prey like rabbits, which are much bigger than them.
• The dolphin hunt is shown again. In Alaska in midsummer, brown bears wait for salmon to return to the rivers. They feast to get enough fat for winter.
• The lead female of an Ethiopian wolf pack stays at the den to care for her cubs. Other adult wolves hunt rats on the high plateau.
• The amazing nose of a star-nosed mole helps it hunt underground. It even uses bubbles to find prey underwater.
• In Bandhavgarh National Park, a tiger tries to sneak up on a group of feeding chital deer. But a langur monkey, watching from above, warns the deer.
• The final scene shows a female killer whale taking elephant seal pups from their nursery pool in the Falkland Islands. This is risky because she could get stuck in the shallow water. She is the only killer whale known to hunt this way. Her calf watches her, so this knowledge will be passed on. The film crew was also very close, and Life on Location shows how they filmed this amazing scene.

The Australian giant cuttlefish is one of the marine invertebrates featured in "Creatures of the Deep".

Marine invertebrates are animals without backbones that live in the ocean. They have been evolving for a billion years and are the most common creatures in the sea.

• In hydrothermal vents, you can find creatures like Pompeii worms, crabs, and tube worms.
• In the Gulf of California, groups of Humboldt squid come from the deep at night to hunt sardines together.
• Under the permanent Antarctic sea ice of McMurdo Sound, sea urchins, red sea stars, and nemertean worms scavenge on a Weddell seal pup carcass.
• A fried egg jellyfish hunts among a swarm of Aurelia jellyfish in the open ocean. It spears its prey with harpoon-like tentacles.
• In the shallow waters off South Australia, hundreds of thousands of spider crabs gather each year to shed their shells.
• Many invertebrates have simple nervous systems. But giant cuttlefish have large brains and complex mating behaviors. Big males use flashing colors and strength to win a mate. Smaller rivals use tricks, and both ways can work!
• A giant Pacific octopus gives her life to care for her eggs for six months as she gets old. As a Pycnopodia starfish eats her remains, a king crab attacks it.
• Coral reefs, like the Great Barrier Reef, are huge living structures. They are made by tiny coral polyps that compete for space. Reefs are as diverse as rainforests. The episode shows Christmas tree worms, barnacles, Porcelain crabs, boxer crabs, orangutan crabs, sea cucumbers, nudibranchs, sea slugs, emperor shrimp, and cleaner shrimp. These show the many ways creatures live on a reef. Marine invertebrates also left a lasting mark on land. Their shells formed the chalk and limestone rocks of many continents. Life on Location shows how they filmed sea life in Antarctica and the birth of a reef.

The dragon's blood tree survives in semi-desert conditions by collecting moisture from mist and fog.

Plants face a daily struggle to find water, nutrients, and light.

• On the forest floor, where light is scarce, time-lapse videos show ivies, creepers, and passion flower vines climbing into the treetops. They use sticky pads, hooks, or coiled tendrils.
• Epiphytes are plants that grow directly on tree branches. Their bare roots absorb water and trap falling leaves, which give them nutrients as they rot.
• Animals can also be food for plants! The sundew traps mosquitoes with sticky fluid. Venus flytraps close their leaves on unsuspecting insects.
• Sandhill milkweed protects itself from monarch caterpillars by releasing sticky liquid from its leaves. The milkweed survives because, like most plants, it produces flowers. The newly hatched butterflies then help pollinate these flowers.
• In Dominica, the purple-throated carib hummingbird has a long beak. This helps it reach the energy-rich nectar of the Heliconia flower.
• After flowering, brunsvigia plants in South Africa are broken off by strong winds. Their seed heads then roll across the ground, spreading seeds.
• In Borneo, Alsomitra is a plant that makes winged seeds.
• Saguaro cacti produce juicy fruit to attract desert animals. These animals eat the fruit and then spread the seeds.
• Some plants have adapted to live in extreme environments. Dragon's blood trees and desert roses thrive on dry Socotra. Coastal mangrove trees survive by filtering salt from seawater.
• Bristlecone pines live high in North America's mountains, above 3,000 meters. They have a short six-week growing season and can live for 5,000 years! This makes them the oldest living things on Earth.
• Grasses are the most successful plants of all. Two types, rice and wheat, cover more land than any other plant. Life on Location goes behind the scenes of a time-lapse sequence in an English woodland. Because filming plants growing outdoors is hard, this scene used plants grown in a studio with a bluescreen background that looked like a real forest. This whole project took two years to make.

Japanese macaques are the most northerly primates, enduring winter temperatures of −20 °C (−4 °F) in the Japanese Alps.

Primates are smart, curious, and live in complex groups. This has helped them live in many different places.

• In Ethiopia, male hamadryas baboons bring order back to their group after a fight with a rival troop.
• In Japanese macaque society, only certain family members are allowed to use the warm thermal springs in winter. Others are left out in the cold.
• Examples of primate communication include a silverback gorilla showing his territory by making loud calls and beating his chest. The loud calls of spectral tarsiers help keep their group together.
• In Thailand's rainforests, lar gibbons use song to strengthen their family bonds.
• Baby Phayre's leaf monkeys are born bright orange. This helps the grey adult monkeys keep an eye on them.
• A young orangutan learns all the skills it needs to survive in the forest. This includes finding food, moving through the trees, and building a shelter.
• On South Africa's Cape Peninsula, chacma baboons search for food in kelp beds when the tide is low. They find nutritious shark eggs and mussels.
• White-faced capuchin monkeys collect clams in Costa Rica's coastal mangroves. But they don't have strong enough jaws to open the shells. So, they hit the shellfish against trees or rocks. This eventually tires out the muscle holding the shell closed. Life on Location follows camerawoman Justine Evans to Guinea to film tool use in chimpanzees. Their clever hands help them use plant stems to "fish" for ants and termites. They have also learned to crack nuts using precise hits with a stone. One male chimp is even filmed sharing his stone with a female.