Planet Earth: Jungles

The eighth installment of BBC’s Planet Earth is about jungles. They cover only 3% of the land surface, but are home to about half of the world’s species. (Incidentally, a great argument from nature against any Malthusian complaints about overpopulation!) This time we’re feasted on many beautiful panoramas of the rain forest’s canopy covered in vaporous mist. Additionally, the episode features scenes of decay, moulds, fungi, larvae, ants affected by parasitic spores; a crab spider dangling from its silken threads inside a carnivorous pitcher plant to feed on ant corpses and mosquito larvae; bright green or yellow frogs with bulging eyes, some red or yellow, others blue-veined; elephants, buffalos, hogs and bongos (the antelopes, not the percussive instruments) in the Congo forest; monkeys of all shapes and sizes, swinging from tree to tree, branch to branch, playing and searching for food; the nocturnal colugo (flying lemur) gliding through the rain forest on the island of Borneo; and the magnificent mating dances of the birds of paradise in New Guinea. Perhaps the most astounding and disturbing scenes come at the end when we’re shown how the largest known tribe of chimpanzees is raiding their neighbors’ territory, brutally molesting a young female first and then celebrating their triumph by cannibalistically sharing the carcass of a young male chimp, a gruesome ritual David Attenborough refrains from explaining.