A perfect country?:

Sir David Attenborough sings the praises of New Zealand.

New Zealand, take a bow. Speaking to the TV Guide, Sir David Attenborough praises this country for its excellent record in conserving endangered species.

In discussing A Perfect Planet, his latest landmark BBC series – which explains how the Earth works and features a scene in which seriously injured turtles receive life-saving surgery at an ER unit in an aquarium near Boston – the world’s most popular naturalist outlines his views about zoos.

“New Zealand has done extraordinary things in saving endemic species, of which it has a great number,” he says.

Attenborough goes on to highlight a species that has been saved by the work of zoos.

“If you look, for example, at the Arabian oryx, that was extinct in the wild. It was only saved because people realised that zoos in America, as well as private collectors, kept them. So they brought them together and created breeding stock.

“They grew in numbers and were re-released into the wild. So there are cases of real urgency where, in fact, animals must be kept in captivity.

“It’s important that the public at large are aware of the reality of these things and get close to animals and see what they smell and sound like. So I justify zoos, provided they are scientific and selective about what they keep and look after their animals to the best possible standards. That’s OK by me.”

Made over four years in 31 countries across six continents, A Perfect Planet demonstrates how the forces of nature – weather, ocean currents, solar energy and volcanoes – underpin the astonishing diversity of life on Earth.

In doing so, the five-part series underscores how animals adapt to whatever the world flings at them.

Including such rarely seen animals as the white wolves of Ellesmere Island, the bears of Kamchatka, the vampire finches of the Galapagos and the golden snub-nosed monkeys of China, A Perfect Planet aims to transform the way people view the world.

The final episode investigates the drastic impact of the planet’s newest and most destructive force of nature – humans.

Attenborough declared that, “Today there is a new force, one so powerful it threatens life on Earth. Human activity is now so dominant, it is disrupting the forces of nature and the vital habitats life needs to survive on Earth.

“Everyone worldwide now understands that we are at a crucial point and our planet is poised close to really big disasters.”

Still astonishingly lucid and compelling at the age of 94, the presenter adds that, “The thing I keep reminding myself of is that there are now three times as many human beings on the planet as there were when I first made a TV programme.

“That’s not something that has happened over many eons of history. It’s happening right now, and if we don’t sort out how we deal with our planet, we are in big trouble.”

However, Attenborough says that it is not too late to do something about the global warming that is destroying Earth.

“To preserve our planet, we need to act now. If we do that, there is still time to restore the ecological balance that once made the Earth our perfect planet.”

Attenborough goes on to outline ways in which people can try to halt climate change.

“We need to reduce the demands that each one of us makes on the planet in terms of how much food we eat, what we throw away, the space we occupy and what we use for power.

“We should act with some restraint in how we treat the world around us. If all of us did that, our problems would be solved.”

Attenborough signs off by stressing that despite the cataclysmic effect the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the human race, it has nevertheless helped us to cherish nature more.

“The remarkable thing about it is that it’s made a lot of us much more aware of the natural world.

“Usually, we have busy lives, we’re always running around and moving here, there and everywhere. But many of us have been stuck at home since the spring and I’ve never listened to more birdsong in my life. I think that applies to a lot of people.” During the pandemic, “We have realised our dependency – both emotionally and intellectually – on the natural world in a way that we’ve never done before.”