Original air date: 1 March 1984


Selected material:
Ground squirrel (20′-20’30)

Using the tail to defend against the burning sun
The bushmen of Africa (29′-30′)

After drinking the liquid from the desert plants they wash their face with it
The Welwitschia plant (30’40) named after the scientist who described it first

The plant on the left is some 1500 years old. The gigantic leaves can be up to 70 years old. Being in the Namib desert (on the west coast of Africa) it gathers moisture on the leaves which are taken up by its roots.
The darkling beetle (33′)

Gathers moisture on its legs, similarly to the Welwitschia plant.
The fringe-toed lizard (45′)

uses gymnastics to tolerate the hot sand.
Coming up: “…But these small islands of life are under constant threat. If the wind veers and blows steadily from another direction, nothing can stop the sand. Eventually the advancing dunes may well overwhelm this oasis, and then this small world that’s been brought into existence in the desert by the presence of water will be extinguished. The force that drives the dune, of course, is the wind, and the wind, too, has its own world of living organisms. Many of the spiders and beetles and other insects that live in the oasis arrived by air. And many of the plants, too, coming as windblown seeds or carried by birds. And that world, the world of the wind and the sky, we’ll be exploring next time.”