Original air date: 27 March 1979
This episode follows the same theme as the previous one, but there are different variations: the episode is about grass eaters and their predators, the meat eaters.
As the outline shows the episode seems follow very strictly divided between the two main continents, the Americas and Africa, however, a few sequences from outside Africa can be spotted early on.
Selected sequences
Filming a “buffalo” eating and explaining it in simple graphics (9’35-10’35) when a lump of grass is given a second chewing. Normally this animal would be regarded as a “bison” which fits with its location in America. However most of this overview of eating grass is obviously filmed in Africa, including a giraffe.
The underground sequence of the mole rat is obviously filmed through a glass pane (13’10)
Final words:
So the long duels between hunter and hunted fought out on the open plain led to a great development of teamwork and communication. One animal came out of the forest to hunt on the plains that I’ve not yet mentioned. That’s a particularly interesting one to us, because it was our ancestor.
To trace it from its origins, we’ll have to go back into the forest, where its cousins still live.
Filming locations:
Attenborough appears in North America explaining how the buffalo eat (8’30)
Attenborough explaining how South American wildlife evolved (17’30)
Investigating a cave in Patagonia, South America (19′)
Attenborough appears among wildebeest on the plains in Africa (30’30)