Birds Do It, Bees Do It

There are three elements to this that, for me at any rate, were unique to watch. The first shows us how the female praying mantis quite literally snogs the face off her lover as they make his only baby. The second illustrates the most bizarre duel between a wasp and a tarantula - and to the victor goes the body of the loser for use as a living larder whilst it’s larva grows. Finally, there is the tiniest of kangaroo foetuses precariously crawling from uterus to pouch where it must complete it’s gestation. Rarely can photography have captured such scenes of violence and vulnerability, even by today’s standards. These show natural history film-making at it’s finest and epitomise so much of the rest of this feature as it takes us on a tour of the breeding habits of everything from some somewhat slutty chimps to bison who maybe only get an opportunity two or three times a year and tortoises who are still going strong, if slowly, as centenarians. The last twenty minutes takes us, quite uncomfortably, into the laboratory to demonstrate just how mankind has developed techniques of animal husbandry that enable us to feed the ever burgeoning human population, with scant regard to the welfare of the cows or chickens whose breeding habits are now no more natural than three legged elephants. The narration serves well as a guide, without overwhelming us with facts and figures, and the sheer variety of species included gives this an encyclopaedic feel to it that fits well with one of Cole Porter’s more mischievous lyrics.