| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (44 min. 5 sec.) ; 267041459 bytes |
| Summary |
Sir David Attenborough travels from Panama to Africa, the USA, Australia and South America in search of mammals whose constantly growing incisor teeth with chisel-sharp enamel on their front edges enable them to break through rock hard surfaces. They are The Chisellers.In Panama we meet agoutis, terrier-sized rodents who can chew through the toughest surface as if it was butter, as do all rodents from the tiniest harvest mice to the mighty beaver. Many rodents, like squirrels, carry away excess nuts one by one to bury them for eating later on. The seeds of plants in the Mojave Desert are so tiny, that kangaroo rats use special cheek pouches like shopping bags, to carry enough seeds back to their burrows.While canoeing in Wyoming Sir David watches beavers fell massive trees with their front teeth and then build dams to rival anything that humans can achieve. Naked mole rats stay underground all their lives finding roots and tubers by tunnelling hundreds of metres from their breeding chambers and in Australia, mice cause such plagues that the farms are literally overrun by carpets of running mice! The largest rodents in the world, capybara, also occur in huge numbers on the swampy grasslands of South America. Grazing in great herds, they look remarkably reminiscent of the antelopes seen on the grassy plains of Africa.PRODUCTION DETAILS:A BBC/Discovery Channel co-production presented by Sir David Attenborough produced by Mike Salisbury |
| Event |
Broadcast 2012-12-01 at 18:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: G |
| Subject |
Mammals -- Anatomy.
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Mammals -- Behavior.
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Mammals -- Food.
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Mammals -- Physiology.
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White-tailed prairie dog -- Behavior.
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Panama.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Attenborough, David, host
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