Article 1: Planet Earth: Mountains

Written by: George Fenton

Seen on 5/01/15

The author of Planet Earth, George Fenton, writes his movies for a plethora of reasons.
Chief among them is bring to light the plant and animal life in various climates. He also
demonstrates how these forms of life survive in their usually treacherous living environments.
This is usually involves showcasing their adaptations to their surroundings. Fenton also puts on
the show to inform the public of the plight of some of the more endangered species. In the
Mountains episode, he discusses the Snow Leopard of the Himalayas. He expressed the fact that
they are highly endangered of becoming extinct; with population numbers as low as 200-600
individuals across the entire mountain range. George then went on to describe the Geladas
monkey, whom hide in the nearby cliffs in the mountains of Ethiopia. These monkeys would
climb mountains to eat the limited plant life, mostly grass, then retreat back down the steep,
vertical cliffs to hide from the predators on the top of the mountains. He then ended on the
subject of Grizzly Bears. Specifically, how the mother takes care of her young after their
hibernation. The bears must trek up the sides of mountains to find rock fields, ripe with hundreds
of thousands of moths, which may sound like a light meal after months with no food, but the
moths are actually rich with fats and protein, so with their nutrients and their vast numbers they
make a perfect meal for the mum and her cubs.
The only real questions raised by this article are Why? And How? How did the animals
manage to survive long enough to adapt to their respective niches, and Why did they adapt in
that way when there could have been so many different, and possibly easier ways to go?

This information is extremely useful to my portfolio of animals, as it directly shows how

they live, survive, and eventually perish in their natural environments. Its enormously important
that the wildlife is shown in its natural environment, because this eliminates any human-caused
externalities which could alter the life or death of the creatures.