Animal Dynasties battle for survival
Attenborough tells stories of species at risk of extinction
Blood ended last week with village GP Jim Hogan (Adrian Dunbar) coming clean to daughter Cat, admitting he had killed his wife. The pair faced off at the lakeside beauty spot Cat’s mother Mary loved so much as Jim pulled the suspected murder weapon, a missing garden frog ornament, from the water. So he DID kill her - or did he? All is revealed in Monday night’s final episode on Virgin Media One at 9pm. Jim and Cat animals at critical periods. Because each of the animals are rulers they are determined to hold on to power and protect their family, their territory and their dynasties.
The first episode shows a colony of chimpanzees struggling to exist on the edge of the Sahara Desert.
Lions relax They’ve been driven to the outskirts of the jungle by the gold rush in Senegal, which has brought many more people to the area.
Cameras follow the efforts of a chimp named David as he tries to face down threats to his leadership.
Later in the series, the Marsh pride of lions in Kenya’s Masai Mara are almost wiped out by farmers who use poisoned meat to kill them in order to protect the cattle they have chosen to graze in lion territory.
Later in the series the painted wolves episode tells a painful story of a mother and daughter at war over scraps of food for their two packs on Zimbabwe’s floodplains.
Hemmed in by humans, they find themselves pitched into battle against one another. Executive producer Mike Gunton says Dynasties is a far tougher watch than predecessor Planet Earth II. He warned: “Dynasties is a much grittier journey into the natural world, but it’s an important one. The animals are extraordinary creatures. “But they’re also animals that have to share the world and compete with humanity. We tell incredibly dramatic stories of these animals living really difficult lives against their rivals, their enemies and each other.”
Dynasties starts on BBC1 tonight at 8.30pm.