Original air date: 24 October 1990
Selected sequences
Interesting camerawork (repeated through 1’35-2’13)
Skua attacking Attenborough and then Attenborough bending down in defence – this particular sequence is from the end of the time range given above. Naturally, in the first frame, the bird is only attacking the cameraman.
Dislocating its lower jaw (17’57-17’59)
A thirst snake dislocating its lower jaw to swallow its prey (a slug). The arrows show the movements of the jaw moving forward to get a grip on the prey and thrust it further inwards.
Bluffing it (19’30)
A frilled lizard inflates its frilled skin to make it look larger, long enough to startle a dingo long enough for the lizard to escape
Warning you off
“The problem about having poison as a defence is, if you’re not careful, by the time you’ve convinced your attacker you’re not worth eating, it has either mauled you or killed you. So many animals that have poison advertise the fact long before it’s necessary to use it.” Introductory words for warning signals (20’13-20’30).
Attenborough (top left) deliberately bothers a skunk that warns him off by showing off the stripes indicating that he is poisonous (right). Attenborough, however, doesn’t let go and keeps on so he is shown the poison glands (underneath the tail, bottom right). It may be confusing that the skunk displaying to his right towards Attenborough even though the frames are ordered differently to give an accurate timeline of the story.
Mimicry
Insects are the masters
A plant hopper (insect) pretending to be an ant and a fruit fly pretending to be a spider, even convincing a real spider, closer to the camera, that is trying to communicate with the fly (23’50) !
They are also masters of blending in
The antenna may give the insect on the left away, but the one on the right is some kind of a bush cricket looking like one of numerous dead leaves lying on the forest floor