I have a few thoughts that go along with this series, Frozen Planet, on the Discovery Channel. The ratings for the initial premier were around 26 million people so that should give a sense of how popular this program is. I was captivated the entire hour I watched and also DVR’d the second episode. I hardly ever watch anything nature oriented but footage of fascinating animals and nature in Antarctica is unbelievable.

The first thing that crosses my mind is how do they get the footage? They have picture perfect shots of polar bears, seals, penguins, wolves, and killer whales. I just can’t believe a human is there filming because everything looks so natural. Plus they have tons of underwater shots where a camera has to be impeccably placed and this is such a vast area that I have no clue how it happens. The quality of the video is unreal too and the time taken to put this together has to be thousands of hours.

Another aspect that makes the show so good is that there are unique animals that I don’t ever see much footage of. The wooly bear caterpillar, some crazy whale with a huge horn on its nose, and a giant (seriously giant) seal are just a few. Watching a polar bear try to catch a seal by creeping along and then stamping his feet on the ice isn’t something you see everyday. I think the fact that this is the Arctic, an area that I personally have little experience viewing, is what makes this show so enthralling. I highly recommend giving it a chance.

This is a complete side note but I got the idea from the show. Here is a wooly bear caterpillar.

He is unique because he spends his few spring and summer months eating and then hibernating in hopes of becoming a moth. The calender year only gives life in the Arctic a few months of spring and summer before everything freezes over. So this process can take somewhere over a decade. When the caterpillar goes into hibernation and literally freezes itself, his heart stops. It stays this way frozen for the 6+ winter months and wakes up and does the same cycle over and over. If this doesn’t make humans want to freeze themselves in hopes of a cure for death in the future, I don’t know what else would.