Life in Cold Blood

Film evenings begin with potluck refreshments and social hour at 6:30 pm,
followed by the film at 7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the film.

LIFE IN COLD BLOOD
Episode I: The Cold Blooded Truth
by David Attenborough

This first Episode discusses the keys to success of reptiles and amphibians, looking at thermoregulation, parental care and the time-scales on which reptiles operate. David Attenborough begins in the Galapogos Islands, using thermal imaging to demonstrate how marine iguanas warm their bodies by basking in the sun before feeding. Meanwhile, the lizard inhabitants of a Minorcan island have a relationship with its indigenous dead horse arum plants. David visits Dassen Island to witness one of the world’s greatest concentrations of tortoises — around 5,000 of them. Few reptiles are active at night, but crocodiles can rely on water that retains much of its daytime temperature. Conversely, amphibians’ moist skin would be damaged by the sun and so most of them are nocturnal. An exception to this is the waxy monkey leaf frog, which can deal with sunlight by covering its body in a wax secretion. A puff adder illustrates the relative inactivity of reptiles compared to mammals: one large meal can last up to a year. When it hatches at the onset of winter, the young painted turtle stays underground, near frozen until the spring when it can emerge. David wonders if the dinosaurs’ immense size allowed them to maintain warm blood. The largest living reptile is the leatherback turtle and indeed is able to be so large because of insulating body fat.

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