Sir David: Blue Planet II is the real deal
Footage of wrasse that change sex among the firsts in Blue Planet II, Sir David Attenborough’s new series
MATING is never easy when you have an unsightly bulbous appendage protruding from your head. But the male Asian sheepshead wrasse, or kobudai, has even greater problems.
The female wrasse is endowed with the extraordinary ability to unexpectedly switch gender, a change that not only scuppers any burgeoning relationship with the male but also creates another headache for him – a new love rival.
The gender-switching ability of the wrasse has been captured in detail for the first time for BBC’S Blue Planet II which airs on Sunday.
Scientists believe the female wrasse makes the switch because she can pass on more genes as a male, although it is unclear why some change while others remain female.
It is just one of dozens of filming and scientific firsts captured over four years by the production team, who also recorded huge flying fish that snatch birds from the sky, boiling seas, and armour-clad octopuses.
Sir David Attenborough, who narrates the new series, said he was most impressed with new footage showing the efforts of the male anemone fish.
“There have been a lot of really important scientific discoveries,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“There’s a little anemone fish off the reef living in the sand that is surrounded by dangers but it finds refuge in the tentacles of an anemone, because it alone is immune to their poison.
“But the female has to lay eggs, and she can’t do that on the soft tentacles of an anemone. So the little male goes around trying to find something where she could lay safely.
“He finds an empty coconut shell, but the trouble is it’s miles away from the safety of the anemone. So he decides he’s going pull the thing all the way back. So he struggles with it, and the triumph on his little face when he does.”
The new series comes 16 years after the original Blue Planet aired, and filmmakers have taken advantage of the latest marine science and cutting-edge technology to mount 125 expeditions across 39 countries, and spent more than 6,000 hours diving. The team said the programmes were the most authentic yet, after the BBC Natural History Unit has faced criticism for filming footage in zoos rather than in the natural world. Sir David said: “To say we were distorting natural history would be absurd. However, we wouldn’t do that now, I don’t think, because we are being very very meticulous to be correct and not in anyway misleading.
“We do our best to be as honest as we can, and the Natural History Unit is extremely careful about constructing stories from too many sources.”
The crews managed to film animal behaviour that until now has been rejected as just sailors’ myths.
Mark Brownlow, the series producer, said: “What’s exciting is we are working with scientists and we are helping them further their science. Often the logistics is too massive for them to independently launch their own expedition, but by collaborating we work together. A good example is the common octopus near Cape Town – when this octopus feels threatened it picks up stones and shells on the seabed and wraps them around itself and it seems to be a protective coat. Not only does it camouflage but it actually seems to be using the shells as a shield and we filmed that for the first time,” he said.
In a series of firsts, the filmmakers also captured tusk fish breaking open hard-shell clams by cracking them against coral outcrops, while mobula rays were filmed beating their cloaklike wings as they feed, stirring up plankton, some of which produces bioluminescence when disturbed.
This could only be filmed because of brand new light sensitive cameras.
In New Zealand, killer whales were filmed forming relationships with bottlenose dolphins, and trevally fish were filmed for the first time leaping from the water to snatch terns out of the air.
‘To say we are distorting natural history is absurd. We are being very, very meticulous to be correct’