Category: Expanded index

The table below shows where wild dogs appear in Attenborough’s works, regardless of their common name each time.

Notice the extra information in the Readers Digest version of the Trials book. These books were exceptional when it came to explaining matters through numerous photographs (as in this case) or drawings.

It may come as a surprise that, despite the seemingly conscious effort to use a ‘correct’ name for the species in the Dynasties series it was ignored in the Netflix series afterwards. Possibly some influence from someone at Netflix but bearing in mind that the species was only barely mentioned the name being used should have been irrelevant.

The following is a list of jaguar references in Attenborough’s works

* The same incidence is referenced in the Mammals series Ep. 2 at 25’55 for a jaguar. Except for one more reference (ep 3 at 05’45) it is completely left out of the series.

Varied ways of male and female hunting strategies (Planet Earth 2). Females hunt wary capybara while males hunt a mighty caiman (26’35).

(Panthera pardus)

The following list details where the leopard appears in Attenborough’s works.

Snow leopard, it should be pointed out, is a separate species (Panthera uncia), but presumably since it has the word ‘leopard’ in its name for simplicity sake it is treated as the same species. The same applies to the species clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) mentioned in Living Planet. Black panthers, on the other hand, are just a melanistic form of leopards, in Malaysia (Mammals book). The jaguar has a similar melanistic form occurring in South America, however, it never seems to occur in Attenborough’s works.

It is worth drawing special attention to the rare varieties in the Planet Earth (Amur leopard) and Africa (Rwenzori leopard) books.

The following is a list of tigers in Attenborough’s works

Lions have been treated so extensively the list has to be split in two parts. First is the Life Collection. For the time being this list almost completely ignores the series.

Lions have been filmed quite extensively so it may seem surprising how much we do not know about them. The ‘Spy in the..’ programme was actually the very first in a series of programmes applying various kinds of hidden cameras to film the most intimate details of an animal’s behaviour. This film could even be regarded as an prelude to what was to happen in the ‘Dynasties’ series. However a pride with no males !! After the two new males took over the pride the daughter got pregnant soon after her mother. Usually the females take care of the hunting but both were rearing young at that time. Presumably the males did the hunting although that usually does not happen, their manes makes them too conspicuous (at least in the daylight).

In Life on Earth it is revealed lions can sprint for 80 kph for short bursts, their prey can do it for longer.

Cats in general are only treated in the first series and its respective books. It is, however, interesting to take a closer look at how the index system treats the cats each time. As the ‘*’ indicates there are a few errors. In the Reader’s Digest version treatment of cats (in general) is one page short (page 309 is missing). In the revised version (2018) cats are missing from the index. Needed to be searched relative to material in the original book.

The big cats

The term “big cats” has sometimes been used about all cats or a certain number of picturesque ones (including the cheetah and the puma). That seems like stretching things. The term is actually defined by their ability to roar, because of the structure of their voice box. Technically speaking this refers to the Panthera genus of the cat family, which would rule out the above mentioned species.*

References:

*Alan Turner & Mauricio Anton (1997). The Big Cats, and their fossil relatives. Columbia University Press. Page 60.

The table below shows where in Attenborough works the emperor penguin has appeared.

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

The final installment is a feature film that Attenborough made in co-operation with BSkyB 3D. This film followed the life of a single penguin from a chick to adulthood. In an interview with Sky News Sunrise he made no secret about how they ‘cheated’ by using the fact that the individual penguins at the same age cannot be told apart, they all look the same: The bachelor’s growing up time was cut by filming different individuals for different stages in a chick’s life.

The final installment, mentioned, is a feature film that Attenborough made in co-operation with BSkyB 3D. This film followed the life of a single penguin from a chick to adulthood. In an interview with Sky News Sunrise* he made no secret about how they ‘cheated’ by using the fact that the individual penguins at the same age cannot be told apart, they all look the same: The bachelor’s growing up time was cut by filming different individuals for different stages in a chick’s life.

* Reference is missing at the moment.

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.

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.