SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH continues his look at cold-blooded animals in the second part of his new series. Tomorrow’s Life in Cold Blood features footage of a male frog “giving birth” and the way in which female caecilians — similar to worms — feed their young. The series was only made possible by advances in camera technology. Equipment used by the BBC’s Natural History Unit included ultra-high-speed, thermal, miniature and on-board cameras, which show up some complicated behaviour. Sir David said: “Reptiles and amphibians are sometimes thought of as slow, dim-witted and primitive. In fact, they can be lethally fast, spectacularly beautiful, surprisingly affectionate and extremely sophisticated.” Among the shots captured for the show was the male marsupial frog in Australia. It has pouches on its hips to carry the developing tadpoles that later pop out as tiny frogs. But catching the exact moment that the tadpoles crawled into the pouches, and then emerged, was tricky. A spokesman for the BBC said: “The team was working with scientists at studying this behaviour in their own breeding colony and they had to advise the Australian cameraman, Mark Lamble, when to film. “But even they had rarely seen the behaviour during their years of study. The scientific team helped with the watch and, after several days, the tadpoles crawled into the pouches and he successfully filmed it. “It would be another month before the male “gave birth” to the froglets and the due date was inconveniently between Christmas and New Year.” Meanwhile, a special set had to be built to film the baby ceacilians eating their mother’s skin for nourishment. The BBC spokesman said: “Caecilians breed in shallow, humid chambers beneath the soil and are light and humidity-sensitive creatures that can be easily disturbed. So, the scientists recommended building natural sets for the mothers and their youngsters to allow filming with the minimum of disturbance. “The team had alternate three- hour shifts watching and sleeping . . . on the benches in the scientists’ lab. “Don’t let anyone tell you that wildlife filming is glamorous. “But the results were incredible. The skin eating occurred every three days or so, but lasted for only 10 minutes and was often at night.” V LIFE IN COLD BLOOD, BBC1, Monday. 9pm. | 
