Following the trend in wildlife film-making, this episode tells us about ecology in the high grasslands of Qinghai, China, by focusing in on a family of Tibetan foxes whose main prey are the pikas (smallish rabbit-like mammals) present in abundance across the steppe. This is a beautiful, flower- (but also mosquito-) filled place of grassland and lakes and wetter bits and drier bits, which is locked down under snow for most of the year, but has a literal "flowering" for maybe 3 or 4. It therefore attracts migrant birds, as well as being home to mammals large (wild asses), medium-sized (Tibetan wolves, gazelles) and small.
The main issue is how the fox family can possibly survive when the mother is killed by wolves and when - very unusually - it consists of 4 cubs (3 male, 1 female). The male (referred to here slightly gratingly as "dad" in the most-Disneylike aspect of this Disney production) at first manages to hunt effectively, but then gradually tires. How he resolves this crisis is an amazing story, and indeed the storytelling is good here, while in no way can we criticise the magnificent filming of this sparsely-populated and amazing world of flowers, grass and water. On the whole there is also no flinching from hard truths of biology and ecology, even if there is actually a happy ending.
Biologist of long standing I may be, but I cannot fault this film-making in any way, and indeed got a great deal out of the programme, particularly given the "corona-world" circumstances in which I watched it.
The main issue is how the fox family can possibly survive when the mother is killed by wolves and when - very unusually - it consists of 4 cubs (3 male, 1 female). The male (referred to here slightly gratingly as "dad" in the most-Disneylike aspect of this Disney production) at first manages to hunt effectively, but then gradually tires. How he resolves this crisis is an amazing story, and indeed the storytelling is good here, while in no way can we criticise the magnificent filming of this sparsely-populated and amazing world of flowers, grass and water. On the whole there is also no flinching from hard truths of biology and ecology, even if there is actually a happy ending.
Biologist of long standing I may be, but I cannot fault this film-making in any way, and indeed got a great deal out of the programme, particularly given the "corona-world" circumstances in which I watched it.
