Mammals

This article is going to be looking at the latest BBC Earth David Attenborough documentary - Mammals. This is a six-part series looking at why mammals have been so successful, showing us their adaptations, intelligence, and sociability. In essence, it's an excuse to show us lots of footage of mammals being interesting. Mammals is clearly meant to be something of a homage to Life of Mammals, another David Attenborough documentary which first aired in 2002. Even the font on the poster for Mammals is the same. Given that Life of Mammals is, in my opinion, the definitive documentary of my favourite extant vertebrate class, I was both excited and sceptical when Mammals was announced. Thankfully, I needn't have been worried.

Like most recent BBC Earth documentaries, the episodes are divided based on environment - Dark, The New Wild, Cold, Heat, and Forest. This differs from the 10-part Life of Mammals, which grouped its episodes based loosly on taxonomy. I do like that by using environment, Mammals avoid becoming just a Life of Mammals remake. Environment is also a good way to create an episode which feels cohesive to the audience. However, I do prefer the Life of Mammals format for a series that's meant to be tackling a specific taxonomic class - I think it's a more effective way to introduce the audience to what makes a mammal. I did want Mammals to go a little further in distinguishing itself from other documentaries such as the Planet Earth series - if you're going to choose to focus in on Mammals, then educate us about them! A really good example of this in Life of Mammals is the episode 'Return to the Water', which introduces the audience to the three major groups of mammals which independently became aquatic - Pinnipedia, Sirenia, and Cetacea. That said, there's lots of times when the narrative is effective at providing context, for example in Dark, where the Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus) is used to consider what early mammals might have been like.

The Mammals' soundtrack was composed by Thomas Farnon, a British composer born in Guernsey. You might know him from his involvement in the score for Our Planet II on Netflix. It's worth pausing here to acknowledge that David Attenborough documentaries have started to become synonymous with Hans Zimmer scores (or at least his involvement on some of the soundtrack). I personally have been a fan of his work, with my favourite probably being "The Blue Planet", which was the theme for Blue Planet II. However, I have met many people who strongly dislike his nature documentary scores, and I do accept that there can be a problem when other composers also contribute to or are the people primarily responsible for a soundtrack, yet don't seem to get as much acknowledgement. I don't think this is any one persons' fault, just a natural consequence of having someone as famous as Zimmer involved, but it does mean that from time to time, it's nice to see another composer given the spotlight. Some of my favourite nature documentary tracks have come from other composers, with Benji Merison and Will Slater's soundtrack for Dynasties being a favourite. Similarly, I really enjoyed Farnon's work on Mammals. If you haven't yet listened to the full version of Mammals Suite then I encourage you to give it a listen. The track 'Austin Bats' is also a highlight, and accompanies one of my favourite scenes from the series.

The rest of this article is going to be me working through the series episode-by-episode. I'll give some overall thoughts and highlight a favourite segment or two. If you've not yet watched Mammals and want to avoid spoilers, I recommend you stop reading here.

The series opens with "Dark", which I think is definitely the best episode of the series. Certainly it showcases the most impressive technology, with the clearest footage of nocturnal behaviours I've ever seen. Two of my favourite segments from this episode are on bats. In fact, Mammals as a whole does a really good job of showcasing how interesting and diverse bats are, which is important given that with almost 1,400 species now recognised, bats represent almost 1/5th of mammalian biodiversity (Frick et al., 2020). It is therefore only right that the show dedicates time to exploring their diversity. Both the greater bulldog bats (Noctilio leporinus) hunting off the coast of Trinidad, and the Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) emerging from their roost under Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas, are breathtaking scenes. Given their often negative reputation, I really hope that Mammals converts at least a few more people into bat lovers. I myself have become especially fond of them after discovering a few Daubenton's bats (Myotis daubentonii) which hunt on the Bourn Brook near the University of Birmingham campus. 

Most BBC Earth documentaries produced these days will have an episode which explores the impact humans are having on the planet. Normally this is the final episode in the series, leaving the audience with the stark message that everything we've seen in the rest of the series could easily be lost within our lifetimes as a result of human actions. However, in an interesting break with tradition, Mammals places this 'human impact episode' second in the series with, "The New Wild". It can feel a little jarring to have this come so early in the series, but I really like this decision. I believe it makes the point that our impact on the environment can't be compartmentalised away from everything else we see in this series; it is a pervasive problem. Hopefully the audience will have what they see in this episode in the back of their mind when they watch the rest of the series, creating an important context. By embedding this episode within the series, I also think people are more likely to watch it, and so hopefully its messages will reach a larger audience.

My one disappointment with this episode is that the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) sequence falls a little flat. It was always going to be a challenge to match the blue whale scene at the end of "Return to Water" in Life of Mammals, where David Attenborough sees a blue whale for the first time, his awe and excitment so vividly captured. Nevertheless, it is important to show that even one of the world's most iconic mammals is being affected by human activity.

Water is my favourite episode in the series, but that is because my favourite episode in any nature documentary is nearly always the one about the marine environment. Water isn't a perfect episode, with a middle section which feels like it meanders off course slightly, but this is made up for by two segments in particular.

The first of these is the scene in which false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) and bottlenose dolphins (Delphinus truncatus) hunt together. Initially I was somewhat annoyed by the fact that they once again chose to try and direct the audience into thinking that the false killer whales are hunting the bottlenose dolphins, a repeat of a sequence in Blue Planet II. However, this was quickly forgotten once I realised that they'd managed to go one step further, filming the reason for the meeting between these two species.

The second segment which I loved was the sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus). I always love to see them in documentaries, and I did think at one point that they might have finally captured footage of a sperm whale hunting a giant squid (Architeuthis dux). While this sadly did not turn out to be the case, it has given me renewed hope that we're getting close, and that if we stick enough cameras on enough sperm whales, we'll get to witness their battles sooner or later.

Cold reminded me just how much I love wolverine (Gulo gulo), an elusive species I'm not sure I remember seeing before in a nature documentary. The Mammals team managed to film behaviour never captured before, including of a male wolverine making food deliveries to his mate, who we later see emerging from her den with her kit. This segment was included in the 'filming of' segment at the end of the episode, and seeing how difficult the footage was to capture makes it even more magical. In the future I hope to write a zoo review of Dudley Zoo, which is the only place where I have seen wolverine.

I'm not entirely sure what my favourite segment from Heat was, with the episode making slightly less of an impression on me. That said, similar to Cold reminding me of my love for wolverines, Heat has given me a newfound love for echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). It's also important to me that echinda featured in Mammals, I don't think the show would be as good if it didn't include at least one monotreme. I will admit I'm a little disappointed at the lack of platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), but of the two I'm glad we got echidna so I could discover just how much I like them.

 The final episode of Mammals was Forests. As someone who isn’t ashamed to admit to loving cute, fluffy animals, my favourite segment was always going to be the Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans). I’m not sure it gets much cosier than a nest of squirrel kits curled up in a tree. The sequence about the threat that power lines are posing to mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) in Costa Rica also made an impression on me, and I like that the show continued to show human impact beyond The New Wild, while also giving hope that there are solutions.

Mammals was always going to face a challenge trying to live up to Life of Mammals, but I think it does a good job of paying homage while also doing its own thing. To say I was excited when the first episode opened with David Attenborough in a cinema would be an understatement (and if you don't know what I'm on about, go away and watch Life of Mammals). I'm not sure there's anything truly iconic, no watercooler moment like the racer snakes (Pseudalsophis biserialis) and marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) in Planet Earth II. Nevertheless, Mammals was a pleasant surprise, and I'm excited to see what BBC Earth produces next.

Sources

BBC Earth (2024) Mammals: Official preview ft Coldplay. 12 March. Available at: https://youtu.be/aBWblQKr6oU?feature=shared (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Cute pika steals food from neighbours. 18 April. Available at: https://youtu.be/aBWblQKr6oU?feature=shared (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Baby flying squirrel takes flight for the first time. 2 May. Available at: https://youtu.be/aBWblQKr6oU?feature=shared (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Amazing armadillo looks for love. 12 July. Available at: https://youtu.be/aBWblQKr6oU?feature=shared (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Are we loving cheetahs to death? 19 July. Available at: https://youtu.be/aBWblQKr6oU?feature=shared (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Filming a family of whales. 31 July. Available at: https://youtu.be/aBWblQKr6oU?feature=shared(Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) This spiky animal blows snot bubbles. 9 August. Available at: https://youtu.be/aBWblQKr6oU?feature=shared (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Cold [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/mammals (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Dark [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/mammals (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Forest [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/mammals (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Heat [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/mammals (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Mammals [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/mammals (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) The New Wild [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/mammals (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

BBC Earth (2024) Water [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/mammals (Accessed: 25 September 2024).

Brusatte, S. (2023) The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. London: Picador.

Frick, F. W., Kingston, T. and Flanders, J. (2020) “A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation”, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1469(1), pp. 5-25.