Human Planet (2011)
Like all life forms, humanity partially adapts to types of natural environment, yet also tends to change them. Each episode examines how life differs for men and nature in some type of environment, from Arctic to desert and jungle, from coasts to mountains.
Cast: John Hurt
Cities: Surviving the Urban Jungle
Urban environments are man-made, so human design seems totally to overtake wildlife habitats. Yet animals abound in cities and suburbs, many as pets or working, but others exempt by religion or even able to pursue their natural life with some fancy adapting, as many animals do in the wild.
Rivers: Friend and Foe
Man always was attracted by rivers, not unlike seas, for water, fishing, irrigation, transport. And he deals in many ways with their dangers, ranging from torrents, frost and perilous crossing to floods.
Grasslands: The Roots of Power
Grass lands cover vast plains, such as savanna, prairies and pampas. The many, almost indestructible grass species, for various types of soil and other conditions, feed huge herds, whose migrations are followed by many predators and (semi-)nomadic peoples, such as the Mongol master horsemen.
Mountains: Life in Thin Air
Life in the mountains demands elaborate adaptations, for despite the extreme biological diversity people often have little choice of meat supply, despite elaborate hunting methods such as nets in clearings to lure giant bats.
Jungles: People of the Trees
Although a mall part of earth's landmass, tropical rain forests contain half the animal species, mainly on altitudes out of human reach, losing 100 a day, often undiscovered, trough rapid wood-cut, clearing for agriculture etcetera.
Arctic: Life in the Deep Freeze
In the vast icy wastes of the Arctic very little grows. It's dark for months in the winter and the freezing temperatures make it particularly inhospitable. Yet four million people live there thanks to ingenious survival techniques passed down through generations.
Deserts: Life in the Furnace
Deserts cover a third of the earth's land mass, yet harbor only some 300,000 inhabitants, many of which are (semi-)nomadic hunters/herdsmen, making navigation and adapted animals, such as camels, vital.
Oceans: Into the Blue
Nearly all human populations in coastal areas interact intensively with the sea. The food harvest is enormous, varied and obtained in various, sometimes ingenious ways, including cooperation with wild dolphins.