One of the great challenges in searching for life on other planets is that we still have so much to learn about life on our own Earth. Amazingly, that is true not only at the micro level of biochemistry and genetic codes, but at the macro level as well. You would think that there would be little left to learn about elephants, bears, penguins and jaguars — the creatures sometimes lumped together by jaded zoologists as "charismatic megafauna" — but you would be wrong.
The new series "Hostile Planet" (its second episode premieres tonight at 8PM EDT on National Geographic) offers abundant evidence in that regard. At first glance, it looks like something you have seen before, another documentary show about nature, red in tooth and claw. It does indeed showcase quite a few megafauna of the charismatic variety. But the settings, the visuals and above all the behaviors caught on camera are a revelation.
Giving an additional twist to the formula, the host of the show is Bear Grylls, an adventurer and survivalist best known for shows like Man vs Nature and Survivor Games. Here he flips the roles, presenting the animals as the precarious survivors — or not, as is often the case. Some clips from the show have already begun making the rounds on the internet, like a startling showdown between a jaguar and a crocodile (seen above) or a heart-skipping sequence in which a snow leopard takes a 200-foot tumble off a frozen cliff while pursuing a Himalayan blue sheep.
