David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities

Some animals appear to have stretched their natural gifts to the limits. Sir David Attenborough looks at the giraffe, who must reach the tallest branches to find food, and the chameleon, who must use their camouflage to hide from predators.

David discovers the curiosities that have led to accusations of forgery but have ultimately helped us rethink evolution. When early explorers brought the first specimen of a duck-billed platypus back to England in 1799, it was thought so bizarre it was deemed a hoax, while the midwife toad became the centre of a raging scientific storm in the 1920s that led to accusations of fakery.

Sir David Attenborough looks at some amazing quirks of evolution. David encounters two examples where nature has tinkered with the ageing process.

The single spiral tusk of the narwhal inspiration for tales of unicorns and the myriad variations on the twist of the snail shell have delighted and fascinated naturalists and artists since the dawn of civilization.

Zebra stripes vary subtly between the different species but there is one group of animals that has evolved colourful patterns of seemingly infinite variety, the butterflies. In this episode David looks at two examples of animal patterns that have bedazzled and baffled science for a long time, and uses modern tools to unlock their secrets.

Female Komodo dragons can reproduce without contact with a male; female aphids can clone themselves to produce copies.