'Life' on Screen: 22 Hours of Nature at its Most Riveting

The United Nations has declared 2010 the Year of Biodiversity, audience members at the Washington, D.C., screening of "Life," the Discovery Channel's new 11-part series, were reminded this week.

It was a fitting introduction for the documentary, which looks at some of nature's most unusual creatures, while worldwide, it is estimated that three species go extinct every hour -- a rate that has many concerned about environmental impacts, as well as the possibility of a planet that is increasingly less diverse.




"Life's" producers say they filmed over 3,000 days on every continent to make up the approximately 22-hour series, which is co-produced by the BBC. The first episode, which premiered Wednesday night at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, focused on the "challenges of life." The final episode is devoted to how filmmakers managed to get their shots for the documentary.

The nine middle episodes focus on reptiles, mammals, fish, birds, sea creatures (including the first video of a humpback whale mating battle), predators and prey, bugs, plants, and primates.

The shots in "Life" are beautiful and often stunning. But, at their best, they are also occasionally profoundly weird -- a description that feels particularly apt when watching the process by which the stalk-eyed fly comes by its stalks.

The flies are not born with their characteristic wide-eyed look, but instead, inflate their eyes up from their heads like tiny balloons, which then harden into long stalks. It's a serious business because, like Wyatt Earp scanning the length of the O.K. Corral at high noon, a stalk-eyed fly newly armed with stalks will soon go eye-to-eye with its counterparts for what can only be described as a high-stakes staring contest.

The winner will be rewarded with the very best that stalk-eyed fly life has to offer, while the loser will slink off into the jungle alone. It's a high-drama moment for a bug.

It's also a moment that leaves you feeling for the camera people who spent days crouched in the mud with camera pointed at a cocoon waiting for nature to unfold.

Oprah Winfrey narrates the series, which will start to air on Discovery on March 21.