Why are Caribbean hermit crabs lining up on a beach? For housing, of course
For most people, the words ‘hermit crab’ likely bring to mind shy, near-motionless crustaceans sitting in a cage in the corner of someone’s bedroom. In their natural habitats, however, hermit crabs are clever, highly social creatures capable of living more than 20 years. This excerpt from the award-winning BBC One nature documentary series Life follows a group of hermit crabs on a small Caribbean island off the coast of Belize. Faced with either finding new shells or baking to death under the intense heat of the sun, the group takes part in a mutually beneficial, oceanside housing swap that truly needs to be seen to be believed.
Director: John Brown
Producers: Ian Gray, Michael Gunton
videoBiology
For 3 billion years, life was unicellular. Why did it start to collaborate?
4 minutes
videoBiology
Dive deep into an egg cell to see how ageing reboots when a new life begins
2 minutes
videoMathematics
After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour
20 minutes
videoEcology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes
videoEnvironmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
videoMeaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
videoAnimals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
videoEarth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes
videoBiology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes