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Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

The listing below tells where the chimpanzee occurs in Attenborough’s works. The Readers Digest books are left out, for the time being. It should also be pointed out that the book accompanying the series Dynasties has a special chapter dedicated to the species. Instead of detailing each of the photos a “?” should suffice, at least for the moment.

A list of chimpanzee appearances in Attenborough’s works.

Chimpanzees have been very widely used in the Attenborough related documentaries. Should not be so surprising because of their close relationship with us.

The discussion in the ‘Mammals’ book feels like a summary of what has been said in the earlier books, these being Attenborough’s final words about the subject.

In the most recent series, ‘Dynasties’ the hierarchy in among chimpanzees was implied as being shown for the first time, but this was already hinted at in the episode about power play in the ‘Life Story’ series: a normal chimp decides to try to earn himself a higher rank among the troops and learns a valuable lesson in the meantime.

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Expanded Index, introduction

Despite each of Attenborough’s books containing an index there is none in his DVDs and certainly no cross-referencing index covering all his books. Searching for a particular animal like giraffes, elephants, or even seals, presently, it would only be logical to look at the ‘Life on Earth’ series as well as ‘Life of Mammals’ but where to go beyond that is anyone’s guess. This index of mine should solve such drawbacks.

Abbreviations: ep? (stands for an episode number), ch? (stands for a chapter number, in a book), p? (stands for a page number). For the first three books an enlarged Readers Digest (rd) version was also published. References to rd versions are in italics.
Bold face indicates pages with photographs.

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5-“Tiger”

Original air date: 9 December 2018

This final story is about a tiger trying to raise 4 cubs. Below are the main events in the programme.

An outline of the programme

For anyone finding the above outline somewhat overly simplistic way of reflecting the programme the following listing may be detailed enough.

As the list indicates despite criticism there is a very strong environmental message about human population problems in the programme (shown in yellow).

A detailed list of what happens in the programme. Marked are the important environmental messages.

Selected sequences

The filming of the tiger’s vanishing act (5’02-5’10) is a textbook example of splendid camera work.

Although the programme was only some 50 minutes long (and 10 minutes of “Behind the scenes”) the story continued. The fate of the star animals was revealed in a special video.

Reviews:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2018/12/09/dynasties-episode-5-review-long-may-tigers-keep-burning-bright/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/04/attenborough-dynasties-ecological-campaign

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/dynasties-episode-5-review-bbc1-tigers-david-attenborough-a8672846.html

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/bbc-dynasties-tiger-what-happened-15537361

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4-“Painted Wolf”

Original air date: 2 December 2018

This is the only programme whose subject Attenborough had not already treated specifically on video (see “Expanded Index”, coming up) and probably the animal with the most names in English. The story is about a fight between a mother and her daughter as the outline below indicates.

The outline shows the conflicts between a mother (yellow) and daughter (dark green) painted wolf

This scanty information may not be enough to reflect the programme for everyone. A more detailed overview is in the listing below as well as an indication of where the (to some) all important environmental message is to be found.

There are two very remarkable sequences of note in this programme.

Running on parched soil across footsteps left by elephants can be dangerous. Tammy’s sister broke her foot while running and was cared for (23’25-25′). Quite a remarkable fact. Usually such an accident would prove fatal to a carnivore, only plant eaters might have a chance (see Life in the Trees episode in Life on Earth).

The ritual to select a new leader (46′-46’30). According to Attenborough this has never been witnessed before, but it may sound too esoteric for most viewers.

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3-“Lion”

Original air date: 25 November 2018

This programme is about a family of lions. The below is a timeline showing what happens in the programme.

A more detailed look is given in the listing below, including the important environmental issues.

A listing of what happened in the programme – Environmental issues are shown in yellow

The programme gives an interesting insight into a strange world of a lion pride without any males. It actually leaves more questions than it answers. How do the females fend for themselves?

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2-“Emperor”

Original air date: 18 November 2018

This programme is quite unique in the series in being about an anonymous penguin. All penguins look the same (to scientists). Nevertheless the film makes a very interesting and informative viewing as the following timeline indicates.

A timeline of the main events of the emperor programme

The graphical timeline above is unavoidably very superficial. A more detailed view can be given in the listing below.


A list of what happens in the programme

In bad weather, anyone watching penguins huddling could hardly avoid noticing it moving. This seems to be, at least partly, for thermal regulation: Outside the huddle the temperature can be around -50°C but surprisingly deep inside a large huddle it can reach an incredible +30°C which would cause overheating!*

The incident with the stealing of the young (27’20-29’20) caused quite a stir and so did their accident of being trapped in the ravine (30’45) according to the presenters of the Breakfast show on BBC the next morning. Due to copyright laws and other problems I can’t include a video of their discussion here.

However they did not seem to notice what seemed to be the most remarkable sequence in the programme: two mothers stuck in the ravine and solving the problem in completely different ways. One sacrificed her young to save herself, the other, using her beak and wings as ice picks as the image above shows, managed to get out of the ravine while keeping her young! The above image is taken from The Sunday Times, 13 October 2019.**

Marked in yellow is obviously the important environmental message of the programme.

References*

Stephen Moss Dynasties: The rise and fall of animal families. BBC books (2018). Pp. 208-11.

**Lindsay McCrae 2019. The Sunday Times. The BBC Dynasties emperor penguin rescue: “We couldn’t watch and do nothing”. Extracted from My Penguin Year: Living with the Emperors — A Journey of Discovery by Lindsay McCrae (Hodder & Stoughton).

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1-“Chimpanzee”

Original air date: 11 November 2018

This is the first programme in the Dynasties series. The list below gives an idea about the story line. Being a rather recent series it is very important to point out the problem of potential spoilers.

A timeline of the programme showing how the story unfolds

Since the story is concentrates on a single animal species a more detailed look seemed unavoidable pointing out where environmental issues are mentioned (in yellow).

It may seem strange to have the alpha male have the same name as the narrator. In the interview Attenborough implied that this was an unfortunate coincidence. One might ask “Why not just change it?” It is not as if the chimp knew that name (used among the scientists) or would be likely to listen to the programme. Consequently it might seem logical to just change it to something else more logical for the all those involved.

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Introduction to Dynasties

Original air dates: 11 November – 9 December 2018

This series is completely different from anything that had been on television before (connected with Attenborough at least) in being restricted to a few individuals of a single animal species. This leads to more sequences, each of them being shorter than before. As a consequence a graphical presentation of the outline is not as applicable, a text form is used instead.

Attenborough is listed as a member of the production team, yet, in an interview he admitted he did not know about the fate of various animals when narrating the finished film. That may seem rather strange. In this series he does appear more frequently than in recent series, actually more frequently than in any other of the those he has narrated.

In almost all episodes the animals get names, a method that used to despised by scientists as being too anthropomorphic. This obviously makes it easier for the viewer to make connections. The only exception is the penguin episode: as Attenborough admits in the interview, above, all penguins (of the same species) look the same so it is hard to stick a label to an individual if you can’t safely stick to it.

This series (and earlier as well) has been critised for ignoring the impact humans have on the environment.

Attenborough defended their way of doing things: including too much environmental message in a programme would be off-putting

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/04/attenborough-dynasties-ecological-campaign

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13-“The Compulsive Communicators”

Original air date: 10 April 1979

As the image below shows the episode is basically split into three parts.

The final episode at a glance

It inevitably starts in Africa and ends up in modern times.

Selected sequences

Strangely, one of the most memorable sequences is the one at the very beginning where Attenborough is talking from a crowd of people. The cameraman has zoomed in from very far away. The episode actually starts by showing people communicating for some 40 seconds before Attenborough starts talking from the crowd. He has already been speaking for half a minute (and stuttered a few times) before the cameraman starts zooming out. The problem is that he has to learn a very lengthy text to speak and has no way of leaving any notes to have a look at when there is something he doesn’t remember. When zooming out the camera will reveal all such cheat sheets for almost a whole 60 seconds!

Attenborough’s references his own earlier works. Including a scene from “Blob on the Map” (17’45-22’10).

A second sequence is actually a couple of those. Late in the episode Attenborough talks about the start of writing just before he mentions the discovery of the DNA. If this was a few decades more recent people might take the extra hint that DNA was also being used there because it has turned out to be a very good way of condensing information, like the written word. They probably didn’t know it at that time.