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First Steps

Episode 1 of 6

Nature documentary with David
Attenborough. In this first episode, animals overcome their first great
hurdle - surviving infancy.

David Attenborough brings us the universal
story that unites each of us with every animal on the planet, the story of
the greatest of all adventures - the journey through life. For animals there
is just one goal in life - to continue their bloodline in the form of
offspring, the next best thing to immortality. The series shows how animals
attempt to overcome the challenges that face them at each of the six crucial
stages of life as they strive towards ultimate success. In the first
episode, animals overcome their first great hurdle - surviving infancy.
Flightless barnacle goose chicks face their greatest challenge at the very
start of their lives. In order to find food they must leap 400 feet down a
cliff, from the ledge where they hatched. Young fur seals in New Zealand
have found the perfect place to learn how to avoid predators like killer
whales. Instead of swimming out to sea they have discovered a stream that
leads into the forest and ends at a magical splash pool below a waterfall.
Here the youngsters learn together in perfect safety. The little-known
long-eared jerboa, deep in the Gobi desert, has the largest ears relative to
its body of any animal on earth. On its first night alone it learns how to
use its astonishing hearing to detect insect prey in the darkness. Albatross
chicks make their first flight from the Pacific island where they were born,
but huge tiger sharks are waiting for any that misjudge and land on the
sea.

Available now

59 minutes

Audio described

Last on

Mon 5 Aug 2019 16:15

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:55

    Henrik Jespersen

    Silent Flute

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter David Attenborough
Producer Tom Hugh-Jones
Executive Producer Michael Gunton

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