Not to be confused with the BBC’s recent (and more anthropological) series of the same name, this new six-part HD documentary made its UK debut on the Discovery network this month, but Sunday 11 March is the best day to catch it, as the whole lot is being run in one go from noon.
The series takes you on an epic 40,000km journey around ‘latitude zero’. Equatorial regions are subject to high temperatures and humidity, where the forces of nature are at their strongest. Although the zone covers only five percent of the Earth’s surface area, it’s home to an astonishing 50 percent of plant and animal species...
The programmes consider why everything grows faster, bigger and odder here in these ‘hot spots’ than anywhere else, and why the fight for survival is so intense. The powerful trade winds and great ocean currents are also generated here and their influence spreads far beyond the equatorial band.
This vivid high-definition tour takes in the unique Galapagos and Palmyra Islands; the rainforests of Southeast Asia; the Amazon; the Indo Pacific reefs; the extreme hot and cold of mountainous Ecuador and finally, the equatorial grasslands of Africa.
Related story: the South American rainforest comes under high-def scrutiny in National Geographic’s Mega Falls of Iguaçu this month.
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