Tracking the Planet

Documentary

Documentary

Our planet is alive. A dynamic, moving, pulsating organism. Air pressure rises and falls, ocean currents meander, and the climate continues, by tiny increments, to warm. And at the same time, billions of animals are on the move. All over the planet, animals are fitted with sophisticated tracking devices by teams of dedicated scientists, which tell us so much about what they're up to. From rhinos in bulky satellite collars, to microscopic chips glued to the back of a bee, they record where the animals go, what they eat, and how and why they migrate across the globe. But they record so much more than that too - modern trackers can also log local climatic conditions, windspeed, temperature, even some measures of the animal's own health; heartbeat, or skin temperature. Every tagged animal is transformed into a tiny dynamic weather station, collecting data on climactic conditions and the health of ecosystems, which would be impossible to collect otherwise.