Attenborough in Paradise and Other Personal Voyages

Attenborough in Paradise and Other Personal Voyages is a DVD collection of seven David Attenborough BBC documentary specials.

The central area of New Guinea was thought to be uninhabited until aerial photographs showed signs of human habitation. Attenborough accompanies an expedition into the interior to find and make contact with these people and map the area.

Attenborough achieves a childhood ambition of finding and filming the birds-of-paradise described by Alfred Russel Wallace in his book, The Malay Archipelago. He visits New Guinea and surrounding islands to track down these breath-takingly beautiful birds. Their plumage, colours and mating dances are spectacular. The environment is so benign that the female birds can build their nests and raise their young without the help of males, so the females choose a mate on the basis of his beauty and dancing ability alone. As a result, sexual selection has produced the most incredible variety of extravagant displays imaginable....

A carved wooden idol that Attenborough purchased in an auction room is traced back to its origin: Easter Island. It was cheap because the seller believed it was a forgery. During the course of this programme its whole history is discovered: carved on Easter Island while there was still wood of the Toromiro tree (now extinct on the island), to represent the god Makemake, traded with the crew of captain Cook's ship, transported to Tahiti, probably traded by the Tahitians with the crew of an American whaling ship and ended up in the US.

Attenborough heads to Australia and New Guinea. Like the Birds of Paradise, Bowerbird females build their nests and raise their young alone so the male has all day to gather his treasures and create his bower. There seems to be a bowerbird rule: the more elaborate the bower the plainer the bird – the simpler the bower, the more vivid the plumage. David mischievously moves a leaf or a piece of lichen to see what the bird will do, then moves away. The bird flies back scoldingly and fussily returns his artistic display to its former perfection. Fascinating.

...
Wikipedia