David Attenborough's shock BBC series on animal parenting has filming firsts

The extraordinary lengths that some animals go to in order to protect their young are highlighted in Sir David Attenborough’s new BBC1 series Parenthood.

For some species this means teaching their offspring how to hunt, for others it means raising their young in their mouths or even sacrificing themselves to ensure that the next generation thrives. Filmed over three years across 23 countries in six continents, Parenthood showcases never-before-seen animal behaviours in 6K ultra high definition.

The five-part series contains stories about animal behaviour that has never been caught on camera before and explores the heart-warming dedication, astonishing ingenuity and remarkable patience of animal parents across the natural world. It comes after Prince William was given a stark warning from 'appalled' David Attenborough on a pressing issue.

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Producer and director Jeff Wilson says: “Many of these very intimate behaviours are very difficult to film. When you see the behaviours come to life on screen, I think it gives you a new appreciation of the investment and commitment of many parents.”

African social spider: The story follows a mother spider in Namibia who raises 30 offspring alongside her 50 sisters in a huge nest - and eventually sacrifices her own body to feed her young in an act called matriphagy. This is the first time this story has been captured in full for a documentary.

Sir David says that the health of the mother spider starts deteriorating from the moment she lays her eggs.”The demands of parenthood are taking their toll,” he says. As she prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the survival of the next generation, her struggling mimics the vibrations of a distressed insect prey. “The hungry spiderlings descend en masse to their mother’s dinner table one last time - only this time, she’s the main course,” he says.

And once they’ve eaten her, they turn their attention to their aunties. “They eat every adult in the colony, one by one.”

Iberian Lynx: The Iberian Lynx is the rarest species in the documentary and one mother is filmed raising her kittens in a disused barn in souther Spain.

Once on the brink of extinction, the recovery of the Iberian Lynx in the region is a remarkable success story and shows how humans can help animal parents thrive in the face of enormous challenges.

In the barn, three generations of lynx are raising their young together. Sir David explains: “This was only possible because farmers changed their practice to suit the needs of the native wild animals. Quicker than anyone imagined, the native animals moved back - prey first, then predators.

“We’re beginning to understand that it’s possible to use our world for our needs while also providing for wild animals.”

Banggai Cardinal Fish: In coral reefs, where space is limited, creatures must be creative to find homes for their young. In Indonesia, a dedicated banggai cardinalfish father overcomes this problem by raising his young inside his mouth. This means he must go for a whole month without eating himself. “Starvation, however, is the least of his worries,” Sir David says, because predators are lying in wait to try and eat his baby hatchlings.

Somehow he has to negotiate a way to move from the safety of a sea urchin to the looser tentacles of an anemone - happily sharing his new home with a clown fish who looks just like Disney’s Nemo. Once there, some of the babies seem unwilling to leave the safety of his mouth, Sir David notes, so the father gives them “a little encouragement” in the form of a watery cough. “His 30 days of fasting have given them an excellent start in life.”

Killer whales: Few species are more inventive in their search for food than killer whales, who are seen off the coast of West Australia indulging in some never before filmed “practice hunting” behaviour. Led by the grandmother matriarch, who can live into her 80s, members of one orca family work together to submerge the head of another group member to practice stopping it from breathing.

This technique is then used for real when the granny orca spots a blue whale who is alone and a prime target. “Working as a team, the orca keep their victim’s blowhole beneath the surface, exactly as they’ve been taught,” Sir David says.

Orca have only recently been discovered to hunt blue whales - the largest animals that have ever lived - in response, it is thought, to changes in their ocean home.

Tri Tri Goby fish: In a Caribbean river, a Tri Tri Goby harnesses the currents to oxygenate the eggs about to be laid by the female. In a perfect nursery pool he selects pebbles to create the ideal protection for her, but a once-in-a-lifetime storm sweeps him and everything he’s built downstream.

The determined wannabe dad - he’s not called Tri Tri for nothing - must climb 300m of waterfalls if he is to get back to the pool and have another chance at parenthood. Sir David notes that he is “much bulkier” than when he did it as a youngster and that “juveniles with boundless energy” dart past him.But somehow he gets there, and sets about starting over.

This is the first time a Tri Tri Goby fish has been filmed transferring rocks to build a nest tunnel for his young.

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