The savage, rocky shores of Christmas Island, 200 miles south of Java, in the Indian Ocean. It's November, the moon is in its third quarter, and the … - David Attenborough

If we [humans] disappeared overnight, the world would probably be better off [making the point that the reverse is not true].

An eye from another world; a smell-detector, investigating the path ahead. We don't often see a snail that way, and that's because we've only recently had the tiny lenses and electronic cameras that we need to explore this miniature world. But when we meet its inhabitants face to face, we suddenly realise that their behaviour can be just as meaningful to us as the behaviour of many animals more our own size.

[African Rift Valley soda lakes]. Steaming-hot water comes from volcanic springs and is so loaded with soda that around the margins of the lake it solidifies into white curds. Yet flamingos come here in thousands. [...] The fact that so few creatures can tolerate these conditions means that any animal that can, has the place to itself and so can proliferate in vast numbers.