Secrets of Our Living Planet
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- Episode
- Ep1 - The Emerald Band
- Broadcast Info
- 2012 (59 mins)
- Description
- A groundbreaking, global nature series with Chris Packham. Each week Chris visits some of our planet’s most vital and most spectacular habitats and dissects them, to reveal the secrets of how the natural world works together. Chris shows us why the real beauty in nature is not just in the wonder of individual animals, but in the amazing, even bizarre, connections between species: Relationships that we’d never imagine, but without which, life couldn’t survive. Like why a tiger needs a crab; or why a gecko needs a giraffe. In The Emerald Band, Chris explores the most complex habitats on our planet: rainforests. What makes rainforests so full of so many varied and weird creatures - what we call biodiversity? Starting with a mere ant, Chris weaves a spellbinding account of how, thanks to the very special conditions that exist in rainforests, vast colourful communities of animals and plants have evolved. And just to prove how amazing they are, he reveals one particular extraordinary ecosystem: that of the Brazil nut tree. One of the mightiest trees in the Amazon can only survive, thanks to a little rodent called an agouti, an orchid and a very unusual bee.
- Genre
- Natural History
How to cite this record
The Open University, "Secrets of Our Living Planet". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/82994 (Accessed 19 Aug 2026)