Brave little mandarin ducklings (Earth)

The mandarin ducks are courting.

The female mandarin nests in a tree hole and when it's time for everyone to leave she leads the way.

The ducklings are only twenty four hours old.

It's a long drop, and a few calls of encouragement are required.


They won't be safe until they reach water
and the forest pool is almost a mile away.



~~~~~~~~~
Earth is a 2007 nature documentary film which depicts the diversity of wild habitats and creatures across the planet. The film begins in the Arctic in January of one year and moves south, finishing in Antarctica in the December of the same year. Along the way, it features the journeys made by three particular species, the polar bear, African bush elephant and humpback whale, to highlight the threats to their survival in the face of rapid environmental change. A companion piece to the 2006 BBC/Discovery/NHK television series Planet Earth, the film uses many of the same sequences, though most are edited differently and there is some previously unseen footage.

Earth was co-directed by Alastair Fothergill, the executive producer of the television series, and Mark Linfield, the producer of Planet Earth's "From Pole to Pole" and "Seasonal Forests" episodes. It was co-produced by BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media AG, with Discovery and NHK providing some of the funding. The same organisations collaborated on Fothergill's previous film, Deep Blue (2003), itself a companion to his 2001 television series on the natural history of the world's oceans, The Blue Planet. The British version of Earth was narrated by Patrick Stewart and the US version was narrated by James Earl Jones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_%2...

• Category

  Film & Animation

[musekiteer]

I have seen this footage before, but it is too adorable not to watch again! They make the drop look enormous!.

[Simba92]

The first one who jumped looked like he was saying afterwards "That was easy" :P

[Justin D]

Miles too cute for words! Gorgeous little fellas!

[enterprise0709]

I know it's all part of nature...

But that landing must hurt like hell!

[skinnybanana123]

Falling with style

[dbzhannah]

SKYDIVING

[PhoenixEclipseCurse2]

I seriously love the slow motion and music... Flapping their wings like they're going to fly and then PLOP!

So cute. :)

[bj20091000]

Ummm at 1:13 you can clearly see she has her wing clipped???

[Deathrune456]

SOME CALL ME FOWL........I consider myself a ducking.

[Finesse King]

Yummm

[Finesse King]

They look like they taste very zesty. :)

[MyChristy12]

So are mandarin ducks like asian