Airdate: David Attenborough’s Tasmania

In early June ABC screens David Attenborough’s Tasmania, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, exploring nature from wild weather to Tassie devils.

This is one episode, produced by Humble Bee Films in association with Tassie-based Black Devil Productions and BBC.

Tasmania is a vast, island wilderness of ancient forests and pristine rivers, surrounded by spectacular coastline. Its animal inhabitants are every bit as extraordinary as they are bizarre: a cast of black devils, white wallabies, miniature penguins and giant trees. With Antarctica the next landfall south, their lives are governed by the cool climate and strong seasonal calendar. Tasmania may be part of Australia, but life here is very different indeed.

Tasmania experiences greater seasonal change than anywhere else in Australia. Winter is the most challenging time of year, as temperatures fall below freezing and snow covers the landscape. On the mainland, animals like wombats, wallabies and platypus are mostly nocturnal, avoiding the daytime heat. In Tasmania, however, the cooler temperatures mean they feed and move around in broad daylight.

Spring in Tasmania brings milder temperatures however this time of year can also bring wild weather to Tasmania, most of which comes from the west, due to prevailing winds. The result divides Tasmania in two, with a dry eastern half and a wet western half.

Summer in Tasmania is most apparent in the dry, eastern half of the island. This dry half is more reminiscent of the Australian mainland to the north, though there are animals here that are distinctly Tasmanian.

Autumn’s arrival is marked by a bizarre event: the Tasmanian devil mating season. Females become receptive several times over just a few weeks and, to ensure the fittest young, will try to mate with as many males as possible. The males, however, have a very different objective. To maximise their chance of fathering young, they try to keep the female in their den for as long as possible. The result is a breeding system quite unlike anything else.

7:40pm Sunday June 3 on ABC.