Name: Weird Nature
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2002-03-20
Rating: 7.7

Marvelous Motions

Mar 20, 2002

Series looking at strange animal behaviour reveals nature's quirkiest movers and shakers. From dancing seaslugs to cartwheeling caterpillars this is nature at its most weird and wonderful. In a series of magical sequences, crocodiles gallop, salamanders transform into wheels and bushbabies bounce like rubber balls. Lizards and frogs stage an extraordinary air show, the Mexican jumping bean reveals its fidgety secrets, lemurs pogo and two-legged lizards hunt like dinosaurs. Using new filming techniques and some extraordinary special FX, this is nature as never seen before.

45m

Bizarre Breeding

Mar 28, 2002

Discover dancing scorpions, courting birds that give trinkets as gifts, mice that mate themselves to death and a mantis that eats its partner in an exploration of strange behaviour in nature's bizarre breeding rituals. Meet frogs that rear their young under their skin, fish that leap from the water to lay eggs on leaves and a bullfrog father that becomes lifeguard to his offspring. There are fish that change sex, others that bubble-wrap their young, male hamsters that act as midwives and even a male that becomes pregnant. And, in this weird world, discover a shrew that creates a living daisy chain of its own young.

45m

Fantastic Feeding

Apr 3, 2002

Series exploring strange animal behaviour which reveals the many inventive ways animals catch prey. Discover a creature that employs glue-guns as weapons, a fish that slashes with a chainsaw and a spider that lassos its prey with a swinging blob of glue. Meet a fish that targets its prey using its mouth as a water pistol, a shrimp that stuns its prey with sound and a lemur with an ET-like finger that taps for a meal. Plus a frogfish whose mouth moves faster than its prey can see, a snake with a tail that acts as a maggot-like lure and an eagle that has found a novel way to break into prey. There is even a mantis shrimp with a knockout punch that reaches the speed of a racing bullet and a stoat that uses hypnosis.

45m

Devious Defences

Apr 11, 2002

Series exploring bizarre behaviour in the animal kingdom looks at creatures that employ camouflage, armour and other methods to ward off predators. Discover skunks that handstand, crabs that dress up and fish that are slime monsters. Meet an armadillo that can roll into an impregnable ball, owls and frogs that puff themselves up and a cobra that spits venom. There are fish that can copy a chequered board, octopus that shape-shift and creatures that can turn inside out. There are even birds that use projectile vomit or repulsive missiles and creatures that turn playing dead into a performance to die for. Using new filming techniques and some extraordinary special FX, this is nature as never seen before.

45m

Puzzling Partners

Apr 18, 2002

Discover a lizard that uses a scorpion as a bodyguard, a toad that sets up home with a tarantula, an animal that uses hummingbirds as an air charter, the barber that fish use, a crab that carries living fisticuffs, mutant frogs, a snake that acts as pest controller in an owl's nest, dolphins that co-operate with fishermen, a bird that guides people to honey and an odd farmyard full of strange friendships.

45m

Peculiar Potions

May 9, 2002

Series exploring strange animal behaviour looks at how a surprising number of creatures take substances for pleasure or to cure ailments. Discover starlings that use aromatherapy, chimps that administer their own medicine, an odd amphibian that can heal itself, bee bouncers that stop drunk and disorderly bees returning to the hive, monkeys whose liking for happy hour tells us about our own drinking habits, lemurs that ingest mind-altering millipedes, hedgehogs that indulge in strange rituals, cats that get high on plants and reindeer whose fondness for magic mushrooms may have spawned the greatest legend of them all.

45m