Creatures of the night

Press, 22 October 1984, Page 11

Creatures of the night

Two programmes on creatures of the night will be screened in the “Our World” slot on Two tonight

Humans rely heavily on sight as a way of perceiving the world outside and tend to regard night time as a natural period of rest and inactivity. But for a whole spectrum of wildlife, twilight is the signal for the working day to begin. These are animals whose senses are adapted to night-time conditions and which turn the darkness to distinct advantage. For the film, “Night Life,” David Attenborough narrates as cameras chronicle an imaginary night in the English countryside — the fox stalks his prey, the barn owl pounces on a hapless vole, beetles mate, spiders moult while, in the branches above, the nightingale provides fullthroated musical accompan-

iment As the film cameraman, Owen Newman, secured his stealthy pictures, the wildlife sound recordist, Ray Goodwin, spent weeks capturing the minutest noises, about two-thirds of them in stereo. Other sounds made by animals but too difficult to record were simulated. The soundtrack was then laboriously edited on to film over an eight-week period. The film dubber, Peter Copeland, recalls the task of mixing and track laying for “Night Life” as being “of feature film proportions.” The film was made during the summer at a small village near Salisbury in Wiltshire. “The idea was to make the animals the important things,” says the producer, Dilys Breese, “and the humans in the film a backdrop. People always say ‘the dead of night,’ but that’s just when a lot of animals really come

The second item is a 8.8. C. “Q.E.D.” programme titled “Light Creatures of the Night” Bioluminescence is perhaps one of nature’s strangest phenomena. Little is known about the chemistry which enables fireflies, plankton, molluscs, jellyfish, Crustacea, corals, and even mushrooms to glow in the dark. Even less is known about the reasons why so many life forms have this mysterious ability. There are theories which suggest that some “light creatures” use their glow to communicate, while others use it for defence. The flashlight fish, found in the Caribbean, even carries a pair of “headlights” which enable it to find its way around in the murky depths. Not surprisingly, sex seems to be at the root of many examples of bioluminescence. Fireflies probably

use the ability to signal their position to prospective mates, although scientists are still puzzled by some species which flash synchronously, with thousands of insects pulsing their lights simultaneously. In fireflies, two enzymes known as luciferin and luciferase are combined by the insect to create the green glow, although this technique is not common to all light creatures. The “headlights” of the flashlight fish actually comprise two large colonies of luminous bacteria which live beneath the fish’s eyes. The’United States Navy is spending millions of dollars in an effort to unravel some of the mysteries of bioluminescence. Western strategists want to know how and why certain species of plankton — the dynoflagellates — glow when touched. These microscopic creatures can make the

wake of a large warship, sometimes up to 16km long, embarrassingly visible at night, giving enemy aircraft a distinct advantage. Certain species of luminous fish may also be thwarting the efforts of the United States Navy to develop a new method of laser communication, since the sexual message of these marine creatures can cause interference on certain light wavelengths. The “Q.E.D.” film crew used the latest image intensification equipment, capable of magnifying a light source up to one million times, to bring the myriad forms of bioluminescent life to the television screen. However, in spite of impressive developments in the technology which enables man to see these creatures as never before, scientists cannot yet shed much light on the light creatures of the night