Next Friday’s Eco Film at Sadhana Forest will be another episode of BBC’s series Life, this time it is about mammals.

Genre: Documentary, Nature. Produced by: British Broadcasting Corporation, 2009, 59 Minutes, English

Intelligence, warm blood and strong family bonds have made mammals the most successful group of animals on the planet: they can even survive the Antarctic winter. In this documentary, a seal leads her pup on its first swim beneath the ice. Reindeer move through the Arctic tundra, making the longest overland migration of any animal. Other mammals have evolved different ways of traveling long distances: ten million fruit bats congregate at Zambia’s swamps to eat from fruiting trees. Mammals employ different strategies to find food. At night on the African savannah, hyenas force lions off a kill by outnumbering them. Raising young is another important factor in mammals’ success. A first-time African elephant mother needs the experience of the herd’s matriarch to get her young calf out of trouble. The largest animals in the ocean are also mammals. A female humpback whale leads her potential suitors on a chase, the males battling for dominance behind her.