ArticlesCategory: Animals"Life" by Discovery Channel
By: Micheal C. of Regis Jesuit High School
After 65 million people fell in love with the movie "Planet Earth", Discovery has decided to make a "squeal". A new reality television show called "LIFE", narrated by Oprah Winfrey. "LIFE" is focusing on one, but very wide topic, the "Challenges of life". The television will focus on how animal, plants and bugs try to survive the wild. It shows us how animals, bugs and plants have learned to adapt to their environment, and they use what they have around them to survive. From the cheetahs in Kenya to flies in Malaysia, "LIFE" shows us each and every quality of the organism talked about. For instance, cheetahs are not known to hunt in groups, however, three brothers in Kenya, have learned that when teamed together, they are able to catch even larger preys. They learn that if even one of them dies, they will have an even lower chance of getting their prey. From hunting, to reproduction, "LIFE" shows us the 365 degree view of an organism. A Pacific Octopus only is able to give birth once in their life time. The mother hunts, not for food, but a safe den for her eggs. Once a den is found, the mother lays every one of her 100,000 eggs. Now she stops eating all together and focuses on only her eggs. Once she has laid the eggs, it is as if there is a biological bomb inside her. She starts to slowly die, but not before she cleans her eggs, makes sure that they have oxygen to breath, and many other things. Her last "will" is to blow warm water on her eggs so that they can survive. Once the eggs hatch, the mother dies after about half a year. With the good, there's always the bad. The shooting of "LIFE" took over four years to get is clean and polished, and over 3000 days of filming in the actual environment. (Environment as in ALL the continents, ocean, and habitats!) Some of the very latest technology was used to make "LIFE". (Some were invented just for the show!) New cameras were invented so the crew could easily captured breath taking shots of organisms. Some allowed them to "fly" along side birds, butterflies, and other flying creatures and allow them to take videos from a "bird's eye" view. A "yogi cam" was used to allow tracking of the migration of animals. "The earth is home to more than 30 million different animals and plants - every single one in its own fight for survival." Humans play a role in their survival, if we were to not take care of nature, organisms, or Earth for that matter, "LIFE" might just slowly, but surely rage a war of "survival of the fittest".
