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BBC Four Collections -

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specially chosen programmes from the BBC archive.

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For this collection, Sir David Attenborough

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has chosen documentaries from the start of his career.

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More programmes on this theme, and other BBC Four Collections,

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are available on BBC iPlayer.

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DIDGERIDOO MUSIC AND ABORIGINAL CHANTING

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Australia is full of fascinating, unique animals.

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I suppose the kangaroo is the most famous of them

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but there are many other creatures - insects, birds, reptiles - which are

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also unique to Australia and which occur nowhere else in the world.

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This country, the Northern Territory, has more than its fair share of them.

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We have been here now for over three months

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and we have managed to see quite a number of them.

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As always, the most productive place to search for animals

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is around water.

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Few creatures can live without it and up here there are great swamps

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that attract an enormous variety of birds.

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In the trees that fringe the lagoons, perch splendidly coloured bee-eaters

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which come here to catch the insects

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hovering above the surface of the tepid water.

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On the shore, one of the scavengers of the territory -

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a kite that has found some carrion

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and is having some difficulty in dealing with it.

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And, of course, there are ducks of all sorts.

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These handsome creatures are radjah shelduck

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or, as they are called out here, Burdekin ducks.

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Egrets and herons of many different kinds also throng the lagoons.

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These are pied herons.

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There are several sorts of ibis here too. This is the white ibis.

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And this, the glossy ibis,

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probing in the mud with their long, curved beaks in search of insects.

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And the biggest of all the birds on the lakes - the brolga,

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the Australian crane.

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Four feet tall with a seven-foot wingspan.

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Many of these birds, like this great white heron,

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have come here to feed on fish

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and there are lots of fish in these billabongs

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including the big barramundi,

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which is the finest tasting fish in the whole territory.

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But this, I was fairly certain, was not a fish.

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There was no dorsal fin on its back and it was swimming

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close to the surface and in a most un-fishlike way.

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What was it?

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I went round to the part of the shore

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for which it was heading to find out.

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And this is what it was - a goanna, a very large lizard.

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To be honest, goannas are not particularly dangerous.

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They don't have a poisonous bite, but all the same,

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they have been known to go for people when cornered

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and as they have extremely powerful claws

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and quite formidable teeth, I thought it best to take no risks

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and keep a stick handy to fend him off if he did go for me.

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One of their methods of attack is to slash their tail, like that.

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And that.

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And I dare say that that could be quite a painful blow

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if you got it across the shins.

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I expect this one was down by the lake looking for frogs

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or birds' eggs or maybe carrion.

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He can have few, if any, natural enemies

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and he certainly didn't seem in the least afraid of me.

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But eventually I became too persistent and then he was off.

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He went to seek safety back in the lagoon from which he had come.

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His long, pink, forked tongue, like that of a snake,

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is not, of course, poisonous.

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It's simply a way of smelling, of tasting the air, as it were.

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The name goanna is simply a corruption of the word iguana

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which, strictly speaking, is a South American type of lizard.

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But these lizards are quite different.

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They are a kind of monitor lizard

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related to the water monitor of Asia

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and the big Komodo dragon of Indonesia

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which is the largest lizard in the world.

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From the tip of his tail to his head this goanna was about four feet long

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but there are goannas that grow to be six feet or more in length.

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Goannas, in fact, are the largest lizards in Australia

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but there are lots of little ones too.

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One of the most grotesque of them all is this little creature -

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the thorny devil.

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It's only about four inches long.

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We found a pair of them in the Central Desert,

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skittering about in the grass of the dunes.

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These creatures seem to be able to live on next to no water

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and get all the moisture they need from dew.

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At the back of their necks they have a curious growth which is

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a sort of satchel of fat which can be absorbed during a bad season.

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Though they look ferocious and terrifying,

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particularly in close-ups like this, they are, in reality, quite harmless.

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Their mouths are too small to give you a bite

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and their only defence is this astonishing armoury of spines

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which must make them, I imagine, a pretty unpleasant mouthful

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for anything like a hawk or a snake

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which might try to make a meal of them.

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They eat only ants and indeed not any old ants

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but ants of a particular kind and size.

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Their mouths are too small to allow them to tackle anything

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but quite tiny ants.

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But though the ants they eat are minute,

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they consume enormous quantities of them,

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as many as 1,500 in a single meal,

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which must, I imagine, be a fairly long, drawn-out affair.

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But there are plenty of ants everywhere in Australia.

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In fact, there are lots of insects of all sorts, and wherever you go,

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you see spectacular monuments to insect activity.

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This is a termite hill.

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Termites are sometimes called white ants

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though it is not a particularly good name for them

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because although they may look like ants

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they are, in fact, not closely related at all.

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And termites or white ants are one of the plagues of the tropics.

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There are many different species,

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but most of them are extremely destructive.

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They will chew their way through pretty well anything -

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through boots, through whole libraries of books, through wood,

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through the foundations of houses until they collapse.

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They have even been known to eat entire billiard balls.

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In fact, there is a good Australian expression -

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to be white anted by somebody.

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That means that somebody has removed your foundations surreptitiously

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and eaten them away until you collapse.

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This particular sort of termite

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is a very unusual and indeed a puzzling one.

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It occurs nowhere else in the world

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but in this part of northern Australia.

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This is a magnetic termite hill.

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From this angle, it looks a large, flat object,

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but if you go and look over there,

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you get a completely different point of view.

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You can see that it is extremely thin,

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but, in fact, it's a sort of gigantic knife blade.

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Now, this is pretty odd in itself because most termite hills are round.

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But it is even odder because all the termite hills like this kind

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point directly north and south

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with the accuracy of a magnetic compass,

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from which they get their name magnetic termite hills.

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Termites build nests because they are very particular

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about the sort of climate, the sort of conditions, under which they live.

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They don't like it too moist, they don't like it too dry.

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They can't bear the light of the sun, and inside their nests,

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in the darkness, they can create their own climate, as it were.

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But as to why this particular species should build it

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pointing exactly north and south has long been a problem.

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At first it was suggested that it was because there is

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a prevailing wind here which comes from the north

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and which can be very strong

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and, if they were building them the other way,

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well, then the wind might blow over the termite hill.

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This way it presents the least resistance to the wind

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and so is least likely to be blown over.

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But that theory is no longer accepted.

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The accepted belief now is that the termites build it this way

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because they are inclined to get too hot in these hills

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and that in the morning, as now,

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when the sun is shining on the eastern side,

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well, the termites go into the shade on the other side of the hill

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and then when the sun goes round in the evening

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they will migrate to this part of the nest.

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Well, we can at least see

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if they are behaving this way by chopping a hole in the side.

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Well, there are one or two termites there, but that you would expect

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because these are one particular sort of caste of termite

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that lives in this hill.

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These are the soldier termites and you would expect them to come

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when you attack their home with an axe because these are the ones

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that come to repel boarders - these are the soldier caste.

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What we haven't seen here

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are the smaller, soft-bodied, white worker termites

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which are the ones that you would expect to seek the shade.

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Let's see if we can find them on this other side.

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Well, here are some soldiers

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and very many more than there were on the other side.

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And here are the white ones.

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Here are the little, soft-bodied, white caste of termite

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that are the ones you would expect to seek the shade.

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And there's a soldier trying to drag one of these soft, helpless creatures

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back into the shade away from the light which they so detest.

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So, it's true.

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The little white ones really are on this side, on the west,

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in the shade, in the coolness.

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But whether that is the complete explanation

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for this extraordinarily-shaped hill always pointing north,

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I'm not so sure because, after all, there's shade on a termite hill,

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even if it is a circular one.

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For me, the puzzle of these orientated termite hills

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still remains. And in case you're worried about the termites

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and the hole I've made in their nest, well, they'll be all right.

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In 24 hours, they'll have sealed off all these galleries

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and, once again, the colony will be in darkness.

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You can't walk in this sort of bush for long without seeing a kangaroo.

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But it's not easy to get a good view of them

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for they are very shy, nervous creatures.

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Actually, there are many similar-looking creatures,

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all of which most of us would call simply kangaroos.

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But, to the expert,

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there are several very different sorts with different names,

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like wallaby, wallaroo, euro as well as kangaroo.

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These, in fact, are wallabies.

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It gets extremely hot up here

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and water away from the lagoons is scarce.

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One of the ways the kangaroos keep themselves cool

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is to lick their forearms just as this one is doing.

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It's the equivalent of mopping your brow with a wet sponge.

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But they must drink sometimes

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and down in the south, in the desert,

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kangaroos will dig holes in the sand

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so that water can soak through and accumulate in a puddle.

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When they are at rest, they use their tail as a third leg,

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sitting back on it like a race-goer on a shooting stick.

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But when they run, they hold it out stiffly behind them

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and use it as an excellent balancing device.

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Kangaroos, of course, are marsupials,

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that is to say creatures that carry their young in a pouch.

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But there are many other marsupials in Australia besides the kangaroo.

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Pouched rats and pouched mice, pouched cats and pouched anteaters.

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And on our walks through the bush, I kept a sharp lookout for them.

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Well, that up there is a pretty unusual sight.

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That's a possum.

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Actually "possum" is not a very good word for it because the word

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is used for all sorts of very different sorts of animals.

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A possum originally is an American Indian word

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and was used by the settlers in North America for a rat-like creature

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which, in fact, was also a marsupial.

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When people came here, they applied this word "possum"

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to this rather enchanting little creature sitting up there,

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which is very different indeed from the possum of North America.

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The local and native people here call it a wick

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and maybe that would be a better word.

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This particular possum is found all over Australia,

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not only up here in the top end, but way down south too,

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and it is almost entirely vegetarian.

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It spends its time chewing the leaves and the fruit

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and also will look for honey and sometimes birds' eggs

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which it finds in these trees.

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It's an unusual sight, because it's really a nocturnal animal,

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that is to say it spends most of the day sleeping in a hole

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so you don't often see them sitting around like that one up there.

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And perhaps it's fortunate that no-one else is seeing them

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because the people around here eat this creature.

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They regard it as a very tasty delicacy.

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He's not moving very much precisely because he is a nocturnal animal.

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During the day, he finds it a bit hot and he'll probably stay there

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for the rest of the day and then when the night-time comes, well,

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he'll probably go down and start snuffling around for food.

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So, he won't do much.

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He's rather sleepy and I think we'll probably just leave him up there.

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That magnificent flock of birds is a flock of galahs -

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rose-breasted cockatoos.

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Beautiful creatures with pink undersides and grey backs.

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Australia is a marvellous country for birds of the parrot family -

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parrots and parakeets and cockatoos - and there are many

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that are more gaudy than that but not many that are more beautiful.

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The galah itself, actually, is very common

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and indeed it is something of a pest.

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It's extremely noisy and it eats the crops

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and so there is an expression here - people often call a man a galah.

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That means he is noisy and talkative and not much good for anything.

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Although they are so common, the galahs aren't shot for food

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because they are extremely tough.

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In fact, they say that the only way to cook a galah

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is to put it in a billy with a steel axe head

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and then you boil it until the axe head is soft enough

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to stick a fork into and then your galah is eatable.

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But what marvellous birds they are.

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HARSH BIRD CALL

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Hear that?

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That's the call of a kingfisher-like bird called the kookaburra.

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Down in the south, the kookaburra has a hysterical laugh for a call

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but up here, well, it's rather different.

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Like they say, the country up here is so harsh

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that everything bites except the butterflies,

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and even the laughing jackass, the kookaburra,

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hasn't got anything to laugh at.

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Although animals are, in fact, abundant here,

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you can often walk for hours and even days

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without seeing anything very interesting.

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The fault is usually your own - you move too clumsily and noisily

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or your eyes are not sharp enough.

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Sometimes you can look for one particular thing

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that's really quite common and it may take you weeks to find it.

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It certainly took us a long time

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before we eventually discovered this.

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This strange construction is the work of one of the most

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extraordinary birds in the world - the bowerbird. And this is his bower.

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In front lies a huge collection of white objects.

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Most of them are snail shells bleached by the sun,

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but there are also little bits of white bone, a few quartz pebbles,

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one or two chips of glass - goodness knows where he got those from -

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all of them white.

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And at the back, two parallel walls of twigs forming an avenue.

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Bowerbirds are relatives of the birds of paradise,

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which occur north of here in the big island of New Guinea.

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But whereas the male bird of paradise has magnificent, spectacular plumes

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with which to display in front of his mate,

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the bowerbird is a relatively drab little creature.

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A brownish creature about the size of a thrush

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with a little bit of pink at the back of its neck.

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So he can't display with plumes but what he displays with

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is this treasury of articles which he collects at his bower.

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This isn't a nest, it's simply a place where he displays.

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Different species of bowerbirds have different tastes in what is

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most desirable and attractive for the jewels, if you like,

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to decorate his display ground, and this one prefers white objects.

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00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:59,000
Now, if you want to attract a bowerbird, and I...

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SCREECHING

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There he is now. SCREECHING

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So he's around here.

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If I want to bring him down here,

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I've got in my hand some red seeds that I've got from a tree just nearby

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and he can't abide these, so if I put these in his bower,

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I hope that he'll come down and whip them out as soon as I put them there.

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Let's see.

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And here he is.

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And there go four of the red seeds which he hates so much.

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Only the cock birds make these bowers.

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Occasionally the hen bird will come here too, mostly she just watches.

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But when she feels the moment is right,

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she will mate with the male here within the bower.

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But the place must be kept spick and span by the cock bird

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ready for that occasion.

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00:23:32,120 --> 00:23:36,160
Later on, the birds will make a nest which may be some distance away.

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It's built afresh each year. But the bower is kept from season to season.

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If you live in this country,

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it can be useful to know where the bowers are.

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Because if you drop something bright and shiny, like a coin,

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you can be pretty sure that within a day or so

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the local bowerbird will have collected it

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and added it to his treasure.

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00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,720
There's even a story that an old bushwhacker lost his glass eye

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00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:03,280
while out riding and he found it a couple of days later

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00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:06,200
staring up at him from the middle of a bower.

331
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,800
No other bird shows such a passion for building and decorating

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00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,240
as does the bowerbird. It's one of Australia's marvels.

333
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:18,120
Week after week, we wandered through this bush,

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00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:21,680
for there was one last creature which I'd not yet seen

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00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:25,840
and one which I was determined to find before we left Australia.

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00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:29,280
Everywhere we went, we passed these huge termite hills

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which can stand as high as 20 or 30 feet.

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00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:36,240
It's astonishing to think that these gigantic towers

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00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:40,400
are just the work of tiny insects less than half an inch long.

340
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:44,280
How long it takes them to build these vast nests

341
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,920
no-one knows for certain, but it must be many years.

342
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:56,400
But termite hills were not what I was looking for.

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00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,920
I was searching for a reptile.

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00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,400
A reptile which is not particularly rare, but yet,

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00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,440
search as we might, we couldn't find it.

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00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:09,560
It seemed as though our luck was out. Day after day passed fruitlessly

347
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:13,000
and then, at long last, our luck changed.

348
00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:27,720
And there is the lizard I wanted to see more than any other.

349
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:31,960
It's the most spectacular of the entire lizard tribe

350
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:35,320
in this part of the world. It's the frilled lizard.

351
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,200
It may not look very spectacular now

352
00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:46,160
because it's got a big frill of skin around its neck

353
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:50,280
which is folded up, but just as I get closer, it will get alarmed

354
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:55,560
and will display, I think, and show this big fan, trying to terrify me.

355
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,920
The easiest way to catch him would be to throw a cloth over him

356
00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:14,160
but since I haven't got a cloth I'll just have to use my shirt.

357
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:27,640
Got him.

358
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:41,640
Well, this wonderful frill around his neck,

359
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:44,040
like an Elizabethan ruff,

360
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,800
is in fact just thin skin covered in scales

361
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:51,200
which under his chin are a lovely red colour.

362
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,400
It is strengthened by bones, little thin bones,

363
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,800
which come from beneath his jaw down here

364
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:02,040
and with those he can spread it out.

365
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:06,560
In fact, the arrangement is such that he can only spread it out fully

366
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,320
by opening his lower jaw

367
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:12,920
so that the total effect of suddenly baring your jaws

368
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,360
and spreading out your frill, your fan, your ruff,

369
00:27:16,360 --> 00:27:19,160
is really altogether quite terrifying.

370
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:23,080
He uses it to scare off intruders, just like me,

371
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,680
but also the two male frilled lizards use it

372
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:31,000
when they are battling in competition for a female.

373
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:35,920
But although he may look so ferocious, he is not particularly so.

374
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:40,200
He doesn't have a poisonous bite. He lives mostly, in fact,

375
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:44,080
on flies and small insects and he makes quite a good pet.

376
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:48,360
In captivity, he lives on eggs and raw meat.

377
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:52,240
He is, I think, one of the most spectacular

378
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,280
of all the lizards in the world

379
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:56,680
but we still haven't seen perhaps

380
00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:00,480
one of the most extraordinary of his habits.

381
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,160
And that is, when I let him go, he will run away, no doubt,

382
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:08,720
and, if he does, I think that he will probably rear up on his hind legs

383
00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:14,560
and run on his two back legs rather like a miniature dinosaur.

384
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:17,000
Anyway, I'm going to let him go now

385
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,640
and I only hope he shows us how to do it.

386
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:31,600
Go on.

387
00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:36,600
Shoo! Go on.

388
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:39,320
Shoo!

389
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:42,560
Shoo!

390
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,200
Surely he must be one of the oddest of all lizards.

391
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:58,120
I was glad that, at last, we had found him,

392
00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:01,160
for without seeing him, our trip through the Northern Territory

393
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:04,000
wouldn't have been complete, for me at least.

394
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,320
DIDGERIDOO PLAYS

395
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:13,640
PERCUSSIVE STICKS JOIN IN

396
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,040
ABORIGINAL CHANTING