David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities

Some animals appear to have taken Nature’s gifts and stretched them to extreme limits. With these two natural curiosities one creature has ended up with a super-stretched neck, the other a stretchy tongue. In both cases nature has found a way to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Nature can baffle us so much we don’t believe what we see. In these two stories David Attenborough discovers the curiosities that have led to accusations of forgery and have ultimately helped us rethink evolution.

Aging and eternal youth seem to fascinate us. In this episode, David Attenborough encounters two examples where curious bodies and extreme lifestyles may unlock the secrets of the ageing process and longevity. For both of these animals wrinkly skins are not a sign of age, they help them survive!

The Narwhal is a mysterious creature of the high Arctic that has been the inspiration for tales of unicorns. David Attenborough looks at how the striking appearance of the spiral tooth inspired art. The reason why it has only one tusk and why it is spiral is still something of a conundrum. Two-tusked narwhals are occasionally discovered giving us insight into its evolutionary past.

Animals that are beautifully patterned or brilliantly coloured have attracted the attention of collectors for centuries. In this episode David Attenborough 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.

Recently it was discovered that female Komodo dragons can reproduce without ever having contact with a male. Meanwhile, in our own back gardens female aphids can clone themselves to produce thousands upon thousands of copies. How and why do these two very different creatures reproduce by virgin birth?