Life in Cold Blood DVD Available in U.S.
Attenborough Nature Documentary Shares Life of Cold-Blooded Animals
Aug 11, 2008
Life in Cold Blood looks at the creatures that walked the bridge from water to land, and explains why some went back to the water. The documentary, co-produced by the BBC and Animal Planet, has been viewed in the U.S, but this is the first time it has been available here on DVD.
Attenborough has shown the secret lives of plants and animals for more than 50 years, through series such as Blue Planet, Planet Earth, The Life of Birds, and The Life of Mammals. Life in Cold Blood is both ground-breaking and possibly the last time Attenborough fully participates in a documentary.
Production of Life in Cold Blood
The five episodes that make up the documentary each have their own theme, and each shows spectacular footage filmed using a variety of new camera equipment and techniques. The crew used thermal cameras to view the temperature of sun-bathing iguanas, infrared cameras to capture nocturnal animals, and a tortoise-cam, used to film images from the shell of a tortoise.
Attenborough consulted with experts from around the world to understand how to best film his subjects. As a result, the crew was able to film some amphibian and reptile behavior that has never been filmed before.
One of these firsts was the filming of a caecilian mother feeding her young. Studying this amphibian is difficult, because it lives underground and is sensitive to its environment. During the filming, Attenborough and the scientists saw the babies drinking, but noted that they had teeth almost from birth, and wondered why they had teeth if they only had fluid to feed on.
From the BBC official site for Life in Cold Blood:
"For the first time the mother was filmed providing her young with a milk-like secretion and even more bizarrely allowing them to tear off and feed on her skin. Both the team and the scientist had the privilege of seeing this new behaviour for the very first time."
Among the firsts is one notable last: The last time golden frogs were filmed in the wild. Shortly after filming, the entire population was captured to attempt to save them from a fungus that threatens wipe out the species.
The Companion Book to Life in Cold Blood
Attenborough also wrote a companion book for the documentary, also titled Life in Cold Blood. The stories in the book loosely follow the subjects in the films, although the book offers more detail on some animals than in the films. Also, at times, the films give more details than the book.
The book has large color photographs from photographers around the globe and Attenborough's sense of transitioning from one animal to the next. There are six chapters, roughly following the five episodes of the series. In the book, the crocodilians are separated from the turtles and tortoises, whereas they share time in the documentary.
Life in Cold Blood the book was published by Princeton University Press in February, 2008 for the U.S. and Canada.
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