![]() In part, this question is a result of a long-held view that humans were special because we use tools and other animals do not. ![]() But is tool use the right term to describe Percy’s clam-smashing? Or is it something better described as object handling or prey manipulation? It may seem like a fine distinction, but there is a serious scientific question underlying these descriptions. Narrator Sir David Attenborough states that Percy is ‘a fish that uses tools’. And this behaviour is likely to be more widespread than we currently know – there are scientific reports from 2011 of an orange-dotted tuskfish doing the same thing in Palau, and of a close relative, the black spot tuskfish, using a rock as an anvil on the Great Barrier Reef. One result is that the coral gets worn down and surrounded by numerous old, broken shells, which will give future scientists clues for finding other sites like Percy’s. The castle has a hardened spot on its inner rim that Percy targets over and over again with the clam, chipping away at the shell until it finally falls apart. But these molluscs are too tough for Percy’s teeth to crush, so instead she goes on a second journey, heading for a specific coral group that the producers called the ‘castle’. She then grabs the shell with her protruding front teeth, at which point most predators would simply eat their captured prey. She starts this process by searching out across the coral beds and sand flats for buried clams, which she discovers by blowing away the covering sand. In any case, Percy’s particular claim to fame is her ability to open clams by throwing and striking them against hard coral, breaking them apart. This sex-change operation was shown in the same episode for one of Percy’s wrasse relatives, the kobudai of Japan. Granted, she was female at time of filming the series-opening episode One Ocean, but larger females of her species are known to change sex when it would give them an evolutionary advantage. And it’s not entirely clear that she’s a female fish either. More precisely, she’s an orange-dotted tuskfish ( Choerodon anchorago also known as an anchor tuskfish) living in the warm waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Unlike most contributors, however, and despite a somewhat wonky grin, Percy gets to spend time in front of the camera. Just like thousands of other hard-working individuals, she put considerable time and effort into ensuring that Blue Planet II - the new BBC series that started on 29 October – is the most extraordinary window into the life of our planet’s oceans that anyone has ever seen. Zavodovski is an active volcano, and its waddling inhabitants have to daily brave the stormiest of seas to feed their young.Percy is extremely dedicated. Perhaps the most inspiring story told in “Islands” is that of the Chinstrap penguins - humanized to the point of practically becoming an episode of This American Life - of Zavodovski Island. That’s why Christmas Island rangers created “crab crossings” that allow them to safely travel beneath cars. Other ways crabs won’t make it to the ocean? If you smoosh them with you car. These crazy ants have killed roughly 15 million crabs by squirting acid into their eyes and mouths. ![]() It’s famous and many people travel to Christmas Island to see it, which is a problem, Attenborough explains, because colonies of crazy yellow ants were accidentally introduced to the island via humans on boats. the Christmas Island red crabs) return to the sea to mate. It marks the period when 50 million or so of these creepy crawlers (a.k.a. This terrifying display is called the March of the Red Crabs. When it’s time to get it on, they jump right in. They are extremely slow, much like the stereotype, until mating season. ![]() It’s off the coast of Panama and home to the cutest freaking sloths I’ve ever seen. We start on an island called Escudo de Veraguas. Perhaps that’s why Planet Earth took ten years to get a sequel. (Yes, the one where he famously hosted Mariah Carey during an iconic episode of MTV Cribs.) Instead, most of these not-so-iconic islands are straight-up impossible to reach. It’s called “Islands,” but it sadly does not include the private island owned by Virgin Airlines’ billionaire Richard Branson. Let’s just say that if the BBC asked me for a suggestion, I would’ve said Our Planet Still Has Stuff on It! Who Knew!?, but they didn’t, so let’s get to the animals.ĭavid Attenborough’s dulcet narration kicks in as episode one begins. After ten years, you’d think they would’ve come up with a better name. The breathtaking BBC series enjoyed by stoners and 8-year-olds alike is finally back, and it’s called … Planet Earth II. ![]()
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