[1986] S04E20: The Skyhunters
Yet another bird episode! They must've ordered quite a few and they just managed to all come to a head in season four, I guess. Vultures are the stars this time and Nature looks into the various stereotypes surrounding these oft-maligned flyers. For instance, despite being (as Darwin said; I'm paraphrasing here) "disgusting birds" accustomed to "acts of putridity," they're actually rather clean, taking every opportunity to freshen up. More than that, among all birds of prey, they're the most successful and numerous.
The episode focuses on the Serengeti variety which thrive as scavengers, just like their fellow coworkers, the hyenas. (I say that because there are shots of hyenas feeding and the vultures and storks just walk over, pretty as they please, observing and eating scraps.) Vultures' survival is interesting enough that ornithologists do "vulture-spotting" expeditions, which I assume is like Trainspotting with less drugs. Different vultures have different beaks, which ensure they all have a food prep role at the beggars' banquet.
Interestingly, turkey vultures in rainforests have such a huge, thriving ecosystem to scan, they can actually end up with more carcass num-nums than in Serengeti. This is because there's more mammals living per square mile here, that, on average, some will die of natural causes each day. And, unusually for vultures, they have acute olfactory senses and can reliably sniff out fresh kills within twenty-four hours.
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Overall, a fairly enjoyable episode. There's a little burnout on bird-themed eps, but vultures' habits are fairly interesting and the program does a good job of giving them a second look. Hell, just their day-long, energy-efficient gliding piques the curiosity.
And with that, the season ended. When I first started, I thought this would be a little easier, but somewhere along the line, seasons expanded to twenty-episode behemoths, so that naivete's on me. Dunno who's still following along, so I'll tear a page from Ebert's playbook and list my favorite picks for anyone jonesing to play catch-up:
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Season 01
: I'm leaning toward "Amate: The Great Fig Tree" or "Kopje: A Rock for all Seasons," though people who dislike episodes with creepy-crawly insects would probably prefer the latter. Half the season was kinda bogged down by a naturalist-themed miniseries, so finding a good episode in the first half isn't too hard.
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Season 02
: "On the Tracks of the Wild Otter" was fantastic and I hope future aquatic-themed episodes -- at least ones focusing on singular family units -- can live up to its standards. Runner-up might be "Big Business in Bees," though a close third-place would be "Resurrection at Truk Lagoon".
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Season 03
: "Sexual Encounters of the Floral Kind" wins handily, just for the back of its narration, but "Lost World of the Medusa" was pretty good, too. Honestly, this season kinda shrugged off most of
Nature
's growing pains and most eps were recommendable.
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Season 04
: "The Gooneys of Midway" was a close, and funny, look at the albatross and it's the one I hold in the highest esteem. "The Ganges Gharial" was also fun, though, and is a look at exotic wildlife we usually don't think about in the States.
Some of the eps were still in VHS-quality archival recordings, but as we move on, I'm expecting some good things! I should also list for my own purposes episodes I'm still missing:
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3x14: Kitum - The Elephant Cave
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4x17: Birdwatch from Florida