''Nature's Microworlds'' is a 2012 British

nature documentary A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or television documentary, series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures. Nature documentaries usually concentrate on video taken in the subject's nat ...

series. Produced by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, the series is narrated by

Steve Backshall Stephen James Backshall (born 21 April 1973) is a British naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC Television, BBC TV's ''Deadly (franchise), Deadly...'' franchise. His other BBC work includes being part of the expedition ...

and produced by Doug Mackay-Hope. There are thirteen thirty-minute episodes in the series, which was first broadcast on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

. Each episode focuses on its eponymous region, exploring the wildlife of the

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often slightly but sometimes substantially. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square m ...

found there: The featured ecosystems include the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

volcanic islands Geologically, a volcanic island is an island of volcano, volcanic origin. The term high island can be used to distinguish such islands from coral island, low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the Tectonic uplift, uplifting of c ...

known as the Galapagos, the

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

s of the

Serengeti The Serengeti ( ) ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa, spanning the Mara and Arusha Regions of Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game r ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

covering most of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, the

kelp forest Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp, which covers a large part of the world's coastlines. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on E ...

located in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by about 75 miles (120 km), accessible via California S ...

, the

Okavango Delta The Okavango Delta or Okavango Grassland is a vast inland delta in Botswana formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough at an elevation of in the central part of the endorheic basin of the Kalahari Desert. It is a UNESCO Wor ...

where the

Okavango River The Okavango River (formerly spelt Okovango or Okovanggo), is a river in southwest Africa. It is known by this name in Botswana, and as Cubango in Angola, and Kavango in Namibia. It is the fourth-longest river system in southern Africa, runni ...

empties into a wetland surrounded by the

Kalahari Desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semiarid climate, semiarid sandy savanna in Southern Africa covering including much of Botswana as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African ...

, and the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

wilderness of the

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

archipelago.

Episodes

There are thirteen thirty-minute episodes in the series—plus a three-part specials series—first broadcast on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

on the dates shown.

Season 1 (2012)

Season 2 (2013)

Insect Specials (2013)

Critical reception

David Crawford of the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

'' criticized the first episode for its short length and "lightly sketched" coverage of science, but wrote that it is "full of arresting images". A similar criticism was made by Jonathan Wright in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', who stated that the first episode is "far too short at 30 minutes and thus skims over some subjects". Crawford writes that the fifth episode, like the first, "packs a lot of information into its short running time," and praised the final episode on Svalbard, likening it to a " mini-episode of ''

Frozen Planet ''Frozen Planet'' is a 2011 British nature documentary series. It was produced as a co-production between the BBC Natural History Unit, Discovery Channel, Antena 3 Television S.A., ZDF, Skai tv and The Open University, in association with Dis ...

''" filled with "jaw-dropping, eye-covering scenes". ''

'' Martin Skegg was more positive on the length of the final episode, writing that "relaying the complex interplay of life in just 30 minutes, the film is a punchy antidote to the sometimes bloated 'event' nature".

References

External links

*
''Hidden Habitats''
at

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is owned by AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary series). Unlike the BBC's ...

Nature's Microworlds
at

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

* {{BBC Natural History Unit 2012 British television series debuts 2013 British television series endings BBC television documentaries Nature educational television series British English-language television shows Documentary films about nature