David Attenborough's favourite moments
Introduction to this collection
David Attenborough's favourite moments from the last 30 years represent not only memorable personal experiences, but also the diversity of life on our planet and the rapidly changing technological face of broadcasting. From close encounters with some of the world's rarest creatures, to poignant commentary on the state of the planet as a whole, this collection celebrates both an incredible career and the joy of watching wildlife.
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48 video clips in this collection
Dancing dragons
Life
The beautiful, balletic courtship of weedy sea dragons.
Of all the creatures filmed for Life, the weedy seadragon ranked as one of David Attenborough's favourites.
Blue whale breach
The giant of the ocean in all its majesty.
Blue whales are symbolic ocean giants. Yet despite their size and apparent visibility, they've rarely been filmed in any detail and comparatively little is really known about their life and its habits. As Sir David points out, if so little is known about these giants, how much less is known about the myriad smaller creatures of the seas.
Inside the blue whale
The Life of Mammals
The anatomy of the largest mammal ever to have existed.
Everyone has heard of the blue whale, yet they are rarely seen and not often filmed. Sir David's delight at the privileged close up view of one of these ocean giants as it breached right beside him is evident.
Killer whale hunt
A grey whale calf is no match for specialised ocean hunters.
A key sequence from the Blue Planet series, this dramatic and poignant clip showed some extraordinary, and for some shocking, behaviour by killer whales. The challenges were to reflect the long drawn out hunt - it lasted six hours - and to balance an uncensored view of nature with the audience's ability to accept it.
Chimp tricks
The Life of Mammals
David Attenborough learns that you can't teach an old ape new tricks.
Another of the sequences voted as a favourite David Attenborough moment sees Sir David visiting a group of orphaned chimps that are being taught the survival skills needed to live in the wild. As his boat nears the landing point, a surprise greeting party arrives on the scene and right in the boat!
Aping apes
The Life of Mammals
Rescued orangutans give insight into ape development.
David Attenborough spends time with an unusual group of orangutans at Camp Leakey in a sequence that shows some fascinating animal behaviour. These orangs have spent time both in the wild and living alongside humans, and as a result they've developed all kinds of new talents and interests. Their capacity for mimicking behaviour outside their normal experience and then passing it on to their own young illuminates aspects of higher ape and therefore human development.
Animals in this collection
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Adelie penguin
Adelie penguins are found in the Southern Ocean round Antarctica.
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African bush elephant
African bush elephants are the largest living land mammals.
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Blue whale
Blue whales are the largest animals ever to have lived - bigger, even, than the largest of the...
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Bornean orangutan
Bornean orangutans live in the canopy of Borneo's tropical rain forests.
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Bumblebees
Bumblebees are a familiar sight in our gardens.
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Hot vent crabs
Hot vent crabs are only found around hydrothermal vents, hydrothermal seeps and submarine...
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Cape gannet
Cape gannets breed on islands off the coast of Nambia and South Africa.
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Cartilaginous fishes
The cartilaginous fish are so named because their skeleton is composed of cartilage which is not...
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Chimpanzee
Chimpanzees are probably the most intelligent non-human animal.
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Common short-beaked dolphin
Common short-beaked dolphins are very social and are seldom alone.
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Crab spiders
Crab spiders don't build webs to catch their prey.
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Darwin's frog
Darwin's frogs are also known as Darwin's toads.
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Eastern Gorilla
Gorillas are the world's largest primate and for years they've been portrayed as fearsome and...
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Army ant
Army ants live in Central and South America.
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Emperor penguin
Emperor penguins are the largest of the penguin family, and endure the worst breeding conditions...
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Frogs and toads
Frogs and toads are the most diverse and widespread of the three amphibian orders.
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Galápagos giant tortoise
Galápagos giant tortoises were studied by Charles Darwin when he made his famous visit to the...
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Giant tube worm
Giant tube worms grow to over 2 metres long and inhabit the hot waters around hydrothermal vents...
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Gopher tortoise
Gopher tortoises rely on forest fires to clear their habitat of scrub and make room for edible...
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Great white shark
Great white sharks are widely feared as the most dangerous of man-eaters, but they are at far...
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Killer whale
Killer whales, or orcas, are actually the largest members of the dolphin family and one of the...
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Coelacanths
Coelacanths are living fossils.
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Six-wired bird of paradise
Six-wired birds of paradise live in the forests of Papua New Guinea.
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Leopard seal
Leopard seals are named after their spotty coats and for being fearsome hunters.
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Magellanic woodpecker
Magellanic woodpeckers are ivory-billed woodpeckers that are found in Argentina and Chile.
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Marine iguana
Marine iguanas are the only marine lizards on Earth.
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Cobras
Cobras in the genus Naja are found in Asia and Africa.
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Pantropical spotted dolphin
Pantropical dolphins are the ones on dolphin friendly tuna.
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Platypus
Platypuses are both bizarre looking and unusually adapted.
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Pompeii worm
Pompeii worms live in the hot water around hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean and can...
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Snow leopard
Snow leopards are one of the most beautiful of the cats, and are also exceptional athletes capable...
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Southern Elephant Seal
Southern elephant seal males weigh 8 to 10 times more than females, which is the biggest weight...
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Southern sea lion
Southern sea lions are also known as maned seals.
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Superb bird of paradise
Male superb birds of paradise carry a two-pronged, iridescent blue shield on their breasts.
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Superb lyrebird
Superb lyrebirds are famed for their extraordinary ability to mimic.
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Termites
Termites are a highly successful group of colonial insects, with thousands of species.
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Tiger
Tigers are the largest of all the cats.
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Tisza mayfly
The giant or Tisza mayfly is Europe's largest species of mayfly.
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Vogelkop bowerbird
Vogelkop bowerbirds are found in New Guinea and are named after the beautiful shelters they build...
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Wandering albatross
Wandering albatrosses hold the record for the bird with the largest wingspan, with some...
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Weddell seal
Weddell seals were named after a British sea commander in the 1800s, Sir James Weddell who also...
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Capercaillie
Capercaillies found in Scottish woodlands are the biggest species of grouse in the world.
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Western red colobus
Western red colobuses live in large groups, with sometimes as many as 50 members.
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