The furry tomb raiders rumbled by BBC’S drones
Hamsters scrapping for posies in graveyard among the highlights of Sir David Attenborough’s new series
THE mystery of why flowers keep disappearing from graves in Vienna has finally been solved by BBC filmmakers who discovered wild hamsters are pilfering the bouquets.
The natural history series Seven Worlds, One Planet, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, has uncovered a host of animals and behaviours never before seen or filmed.
The exploits of thieving hamsters in Vienna’s cemeteries appears in the Europe episode, where the little mammals were spotted fighting over posies left by grieving relatives of the deceased.
Jonny Keeling, executive producer, said at the first screening, said: “I didn’t really know that you got wild hamsters in Europe and they live across all of mainland Europe, and we filmed a sequence in the middle of the city in Vienna in a graveyard, where they’re feeding on flowers and things.
“There is a very funny sequence that I won’t elaborate, but it’s incredible to see these totally wild hamsters running around, so that for me was one of the highlights.”
The series also captures polar bears leaping from rocks to hunt beluga whales in Hudson Bay, a huge jellyfish captured and eaten by sea anemones, pelicans mugging cormorants for their food in the Danube delta, singing rhinos, elephants balancing on their hind legs to reach for leaves, and the biggest congregation of whales ever filmed.
Much of the footage has been captured by superfast and quiet drones that can take discrete aerial shots, allowing for more intimate imagery.
Andean bears have been filmed feeding high in the trees, while dramatic footage shows leopard seals and killer whales hunting gentoo penguins in Antarctica. Wolves have been spotted stalking deer in the mountains of Italy and the jottus jumping spider is captured in its complex mating dance.
Sir David said: “I want people to take away how fundamentally astonishing and wonderful and beautiful things are. We’ve made a tragic desperate mess of it so far but at last nations are coming together and recognising that we all live on the same planet and all these seven worlds are actually one, and we’re dependent on them for the food we eat and the air we breathe.”
Asked by a five-year-old how he could help save the planet, Sir David said: “Live the way you want to live, but don’t waste things. Look after the world and the animals and plants in it, it’s their world, too. So don’t waste it.”
Four years in the making, the series has involved more than 1,500 people working across 41 countries, and has already been bought by China, the US, Australia, France and across Latin America.
The music has been written by Hans Zimmer. The BBC has promised to release one new natural history series each year until 2023.
Seven Worlds, One Planet airs on BBC One on Oct 27.