David Attenborough's upcoming BBC series, 'Parenthood', features a disturbing scene of African social spiderlings eating their mothers and elderly relatives alive. The behaviour, captured for the first time on camera, shows a pack of 1,000 young spiders hunting in a game of 'grandmother's footsteps' before devouring the older generation.
Series producer Jeff Wilson described Attenborough as 'delighted and horrified' when narrating the footage. Wilson noted that the combination of Attenborough's narration, Tom Howe's music, and the painstaking filming made it 'probably one of the best' sequences he had worked on in 30 years. He joked that parents would never skip snacks at school pickup again.
Scientists believe the ageing mother spiders deliberately mimic vibrations of trapped insects to encourage their young to eat their decaying bodies, ensuring the youngsters' survival. The scene is expected to spark debate about parental sacrifice and the 'generation wars', with some comparing it to millennials' struggles to get on the property ladder.
Filmed over three years across six continents, 'Parenthood' is the BBC's first natural history series focused on parenting. It also examines how animals adapt to climate change, which affected filming schedules as expected behaviours shifted. Camera crews used new techniques, including military-grade infrared cameras on off-road vehicles, to capture nocturnal lion-hippo chases.
Wilson believes such fieldcraft ensures AI cannot replicate the 'serendipity' of natural history TV. 'There is more magic out there than anybody understands,' he said. 'Parenthood' starts Sunday 3 August at 7.20pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
