Wildlife Specials — Season 1, Episode 27: Dolphins - Spy in the Pod (1)

Episode synopsis

The award-winning team behind Penguins - Spy in the Huddle use hidden cameras to go into the heart of the dolphins' world, offering the chance to encounter dolphins up-close. The camera eyes of thirteen different 'Spy Creatures', including Spy Dolphin, Spy Nautilus and Spy Turtle, allow behaviour to be captured that has never been filmed before, including a vast superpod of spinner dolphins hunting huge shoals of lanternfish while dodging the gaping mouths of giant rays. In Mozambique, a newborn bottlenose dolphin learns from his mother as they follow a mysterious gathering of stingrays and then hunt huge kingfish. He practices his sonar, plays with bubbles and also discovers ways to dislodge pesky suckerfish. Nearby, the males live a playboy lifestyle as they play chicken with supertankers, visit a coral health spa and surf the waves. When they try to woo the females their direct approach threatens the baby, but eventually bouquets of seaweed have the desired effect. Other astonishing sights include dolphins using rings of mud to catch fish and the spectacular highspeed leaps and corkscrews of spinner dolphins. There is humour too, when Spy Turtle encounters real amorous turtles and Spy Squid has a near miss with a hungry potato bass.

About Wildlife Specials

The BBC Wildlife Specials are a series of nature documentary programmes commissioned by BBC Television. The Wildlife Specials began with a pilot episode in 1995. 20 programmes have been made to date, with three of the recent ones being in multi parts. The earlier programmes were produced in-house by the BBC's specialist Natural History Unit, but the more recent Spy in the... titles were made by the independent John Downer Productions. The first 18 programmes, up to 2008, were narrated by David Attenborough. The most recent two were narrated by David Tennant. "The world's leading natural history filmmakers meet the world's most charismatic animals" — BBC tagline

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Great White Shark: The True Story of Jaws
• E2Polar Bear: The Arctic Warrior
• E3Crocodile: The Smiling Predator
• E4Leopard: The Agent of Darkness
• E5Eagle: The Master of the Skies
• E6Humpback Whale: The Giant of the Oceans
• E7Wolf: The Legendary Outlaw
• E8Tiger: The Elusive Princess
• E9Lions: Spy in the Den
• E10Grizzly: Face to Face
• E11Gorillas: On the Trail of King Kong
• E12Serpent: Through the Eyes of the Snake