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Planet Earth DVD Episode Guide - Episode 1 - From Pole to Pole


The first episode of the Planet Earth documentary series illustrates a journey around the globe and reveals the effect of gradual climatic change on the planet Earth. Emporer penguins are filmed enduring four months of darkness, without food, in temperatures as low as -70 degrees celcius during an Antartica winter. Meanwhile, and at the opposite end of the Earth in the Artic, polar bear cubs make their first steps into a world plagued with rapidly thawing ice. Also shown is the 2000 mile migration, the longest land migration of any animal, of three million caribou which are dramatically hunted by wolves. One of the prized sequences in the Planet Earth series shows the wolves in full pursuit of a caribou.
Crossing to the eastern forests of Russia, Planet Earth features footage of the world’s rarest cat, the Amur Leopard. With a population of just 40 individuals, the sequence of the Amur Leopard underlines the harsh realities brought upon wildlife populations when their habitats are destroyed. Commenting on the sequence, narrator David Attenborough says that it “symbolizes the fragility of our natural heritage”.
Also featured in the first episode, Planet Earth provides footage of the jungles of the tropics which cover 3% of planet Earth’s surface, yet are home to 50% of its animals. Such percentages depict the importance of preserving Earth’s tropical forests. Meanwhile, in the seas, the one-second strike of a great white shark is shown in slow motion as it ambushes a seal.
Other species shown in the first episode include New Guinea’s birds of paradise, elephants swimming in Africa and the earth’s entire population (300,000) of baikal teal flocking. Another gem of the Planet Earth series, a sequence made possible by the team’s utilization of a powerful “heli-gimbal” camera, African hunting dogs are shown in the efficient pursuit of impala.

Post adapted from Wikipedia. Content is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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