Walking with Beasts
| Walking with Beasts | |
|---|---|
The original DVD cover of Walking with Beasts
|
|
| Also known as | 'Walking with Prehistoric Beasts' |
| Genre | Documentary |
| Created by |
Tim Haines Jasper James Andrew Wilks |
| Developed by | Andrew Wilks |
| Written by | Kate Bartlett Jasper James Michael Olmert Nigel Paterson |
| Directed by | Jasper James Nigel Paterson |
| Creative director(s) | Mike Milne |
| Narrated by |
Kenneth Branagh (UK) (US) |
| Composer(s) | Ben Bartlett |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Tim Haines |
| Producer(s) | Jasper James Nigel Paterson |
| Location(s) | Arizona, Brazil, Ethiopia, Florida, Java, Mexico, South Africa, Yukon |
| Cinematography | John Howarth Michael Pitts |
| Editor(s) | Greg Smith Andrew Wilks |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
BBC Natural History Unit Impossible Pictures |
| Distributor | BBC Worldwide |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC, Discovery Channel, ProSieben |
| Original release | 15 November – 21 December 2001 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Walking with Dinosaurs |
| Followed by | Walking with Monsters |
| Related shows | Other shows in the Walking with... series |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Walking with Beasts (Walking with Prehistoric Beasts in North American releases) is a 2001 six-part television documentary miniseries, produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. It is the second installment of the Walking With... series and a sequel to Walking with Dinosaurs. Beasts takes place after the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago depicted in Walking with Dinosaurs, and recreates animals of the Cenozoic with computer-generated imagery and animatronics. Like Dinosaurs, its narrative is presented in the style of a traditional nature documentary. Some of the concepts it illustrates are the evolution of whales, horses, and humans.
In North America, Beasts was broadcast on the Discovery Channel with replacing Kenneth Branagh as the narrator. It would later be re-edited and re-narrated for the second season of Prehistoric Planet for the Discovery Kids lineup.
The episode starts by showing how the dinosaurs were dominating the land and that mammals were small. Then it shows how a comet demolished the dinosaurs. It then shows how mammals then evolved into new forms. The first episode depicts the warm tropical world of the early Eocene which was 16 million years after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Birds, including the giant carnivorous Gastornis, rule this world, while mammals are still very small. The setting is near the Messel pit in Germany. Due to volcanic activity, sudden bulk escapes of carbon dioxide trapped underneath lakes pose a significant hazard to the local wildlife. The episode centers around a Leptictidium family, a leaping, shrew-like mammal, which has emerged in the dawn hours to forage for food. As the mother Leptictidium forages, first in solidarity, and then with her pups, she wanders near a large predatory mammal, identified as an Ambulocetus, a "walking whale". Despite its crocodilian similarity, the Ambulocetus is shown swimming by caudal undulation like a modern cetacean. A female Gastornis, who has been taking care of the single egg in her nest, makes two attempts to hunt a small herd of Propalaeotherium, early horses. The first attempt fails when sounds among the vegetation betray her presence. The second attack proves successful when the Propalaeotherium consume fermenting grapes and are unable to evade her attack. The Gastornis also defends her territory from another Gastornis. Unfortunately, while the mother hunts, a horde of Titanomyrma, giant carnivorous ants, encounter the egg when it was just starting to hatch. When the female discovers her dead offspring at dusk she leaves the forest to try and start another family.
...
Wikipedia