The Cold-Blooded TruthA cold-blooded creature needs solar power – soaking up the rays but hibernating in winter.We meet frogs that moisturise, jousting tortoises and frozen turtles that return to life.They can be sophisticated creatures like the bubble-massaging saltwater crocodile or the Balearic wall lizard that has a relationship with a flower, but there are the exceptions to the cold-blooded rules such as the teenage tyrannosaurus rex and the largest reptile on earth, the leatherback turtle.
Land Invaders
Amphibians invaded land by evolving some of the most bizarre life-histories on the planet.We discover the biggest salamander on earth, a newt with an aphrodisiac tail and a worm like amphibian, the female of which feeds her skin to her babies.The most diverse and engaging amphibians are the frogs, here Panamanian golden frogs communicate by semaphore, a jewel-like poison-arrow frog displays great parenting skills and escapologist tadpoles evade predatory wasps.
Dragons Of The Dry
Enter the world of the lizard: from the chameleons, masters of the arboreal life to geckos tapping a code to plant-hopper insects and baby pygmy blue-tongued skinks huddling in their burrows long after birth. In the deserts are found some of the most bizarre lizards: baby Bushveld lizards mimicking acid-squirting beetles; the well-armoured and bizarrely spiky, thorny devils and the lizard kings – the Australian monitors – fast, intelligent and efficient hunters.
Sophisticated Serpents
Snakes have developed the ultimate economy of design and are the most elegant and iconic of hunters.Among the incredible species seen here are blind tiger snakes that hunt using just their sense of smell, magnificent African spitting cobras and a bizarre turtle-headed sea-snake hunting on a coral reef. And, for the first time ever, cameras capture a snake ambush in the wild and the beautiful spectacle of yellow anacondas giving birth underwater.
Armoured Giants
The world of the armoured creature is equally fascinating and bizarre. Galapagos giant tortoises solve the problem of making love in a suit of armour; a heated sea turtle orgy leaves females in mortal danger and we witness the explosive arrival of a baby pig-nosed turtle. Giant saltwater crocodiles crowd a flooded river-run to fish for mullet, and a mother caiman leads her brood of young in a touching trek to a communal crèche.