The Mating Game

The planet's open grasslands are one of the most challenging places to mate - because every move can be witnessed by potential partners, jealous rivals or hungry predators. A young male ostrich is shown learning a tough lesson as he tries his luck for the first time and is plunged into a fight, while a mature zebra stallion on the Serengeti faces the daunting task of defending his mares from roaming bachelors amongst a herd 30,000 strong. Some benefit from sneaky strategies - despite having muscles to rival any bodybuilder, a male kangaroo can easily lose out to a less impressive rival with better tactics. But the king of the sneaks is the ruff bird, who uses a cross-dressing strategy to deceive rivals and impress willing females, and a spider who uses trickery by offering worthless gifts disguised as prized treasures.

The Ocean is where life first experimented with the Mating Game, and over time this has led to some of the most ingenious mating strategies of all!

Jungles and rainforests are home to 80 per cent of all species on earth, but they cover just 2 per cent of our planet's surface. To win the mating game here, you need to be able to stand out from the crowd. For some it's all about putting on a show, whereas others must fight for their chance of victory. And for a few creatures, working together is the key. Chimpanzees are notorious for their brutality and violence, and for most this is the simplest way to secure a mate. Dominant males can fight off rivals and impress the ladies. But for one younger male, forging long-lasting relationships through care and attention has proved to be an incredibly fruitful method of currying favour with the female chimps. The abundance of food in the jungle means that many species can focus much of their attention on breeding. In Papua New Guinea, a MacGregor's bowerbird has spent his life collecting sounds and building a castle, all in the hope of attracting a partner. And for the first time ever in the wild, the courtship display of the great argus pheasant is laid bare for all to see. Whilst some animals might prefer a more subtle approach to mating, one jungle creature has his desire to breed written all over his face. A mandrill, the largest and heaviest monkey in the world, wears his blue and red face like a badge of honour. Only the strongest males can wear such bright colours, so he's hoping that his face alone will be enough to warn off any rivals to his throne. When it comes to winning the mating game, a potential player can't afford to lose his head. Unless, that is, his intended partner is a cannibalistic mantis. Sometimes, giving everything is the only way to win. Whatever the strategy, when it comes to mating in the jungle, there are few taboos.

Freshwater covers only a tiny fraction of the earth's surface, but it is a vital meeting place for many animals - the stage on which millions gather to find a mate. Yet with so little of it available, and often only briefly, the challenge for most individuals is how to overcome intense competition when your rivals are just as dependent on the precious freshwater for their success. Whether it is from melting ice, torrential rain or shrinking wetlands, the cycle of freshwater is the trigger for spectacular mating rituals and fierce combat. The start of the rains in South Africa triggers a violent battle between male giant African bullfrogs. Rare hooded grebes in Patagonia perform one of nature's more comical dances to seduce their partner, and a male cichlid fish builds a home for his harem from old snail shells, but a sneaky dwarf has the last laugh there. The mating season for animals that live in freshwater is often determined by when is best for their new offspring - even if that moment is far from ideal for the parents. In the wetlands of Zambia, female lechwe antelope search for the strongest males while contending with drought, and in the Pantanal of Brazil at the end of the dry season, caimans congregate in huge numbers around the last remaining water to perform their spectacular displays. For all those dependent on the cycle of freshwater to breed, timing is everything.

All life is driven by the need to breed. Yet for a few, the odds of success are overwhelmingly against them, so these have adopted the most extraordinary mating strategies of all.