A Walk on Nature's Dark Side

3rd August 2012

Turtle The BBC has hit our screens with yet another dazzling natural world documentary. The Dark: Nature’s Nighttime World showcases the wonders of Latin America’s creatures of the night.

This time pushing the boundaries of thermal-imaging, the expert BBC team of biologists and specialist cameramen set out to shed some light on this unknown world and learn how Latin America’s animal kingdom has evolved to live in under the cloak of darkness.

The team, which includes creepy crawly expert Dr George McGavin, delve deep into the jungles of Costa Rica, Venezuela, explore the wetlands of Brazil and vent Jaguar ure up into the Patagonian mountains to get close to pumas, jaguars, tapirs, Green turtle hatchlings and the much maligned Vampire bats to name just a few.

In the first episode, highlights include the moment a large male Jaguar gets a little too close for comfort for Justine Evans as she camps out on a beach in Costa Rica, whilst a Tapir comes within touching distance of Bryson Voirin who has longed to see one in the wild. McGavin delights as he catches footage of a net-casting spider on the hunt and sees beetles with glow-in-the-dark headlamps!

Over the course of this illuminating series, the team encounter everything from deadly trapdoor arachnids to Giant anteaters, mating jaguars to Humpback whales, and they even discover new cave-dwelling species in Venezuela.

So why haven’t the BBC done a series like this before? Well, according to McGavin, the specialist technology required to capture such high quality footage in the pitch black did not exist until very recently.

The end of the episode leaves viewers with a tantalising glimpse of McGavin being dropped off in front of a place of perpetual darkness in Venezuela – the next show will see him delve in a newly discovered cave system to introduce us to critters that have never seen the light of day.

Watch the The Dark on Sunday evenings at 9pm on BBC Two. If you miss any episodes, don't worry, you can catch up on iPlayer.

By Natasha Preston, Marketing Executive & Wildlife Champion