Life Story

Episode
Episode Five
Broadcast Info
2014 (58 mins)
Description
Competition to win a partner has created both the most extraordinary beauty and life-threatening violence in nature. The stakes could not be higher: without a mate, the journey of life ends here... sometimes literally. The male of the dazzling, aptly-named peacock jumping spider must pick his way between the bodies of failed suitors for his one chance to win a female’s affections. For the green turtle, it’s the female who risks her life: as males pile in to mate with her, she struggles beneath their combined weight, desperate for a breath of air at the surface. But few will go as far as one unlikely architect. Diminutive and drab, a male pufferfish compensates for his lack of charisma by building the most complicated and perfect structure made by any animal - a spectacular submarine "crop circle" in the sand - created to get himself noticed by a female.
Genre
Research; Biology; Natural History

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Life Story". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/216584 (Accessed 11 Jan 2025)