Seven Worlds, One Planet

Southern cassowary

Casuarius casuarius

Daintree Rainforest, Queensland, Australia

The southern cassowary is one of the largest animals left in the ancient Daintree rainforest. The male raises his chicks alone for over 9 months. Here, we see him breaking up fruits into smaller pieces that the chicks can eat and helping them navigate the forests' streams. This sort of care is well needed, as only half of cassowary chicks make it to adulthood. When one chick becomes separated, the male helps its offspring relocate the group with a deep booming call that carries well through the thick forest.

Little red flying fox

Pteropus scapulatus

Roper River, Elsey National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

The ancestors of little red flying foxes were among the few animals that could, by way of flight, reach Australia, having been isolated for millions of years. With walking and taking off being cumbersome on the ground, they hang upside in trees. At the Roper River, thirsty bats swoop down to the river, low enough to wet their bellies and return to their roosts to suck the water out of their fur. But, thye have to be wary of freshwater crocodiles waiting in ambush; many bats are snapped up by the crocs as they make contact with the water's surface.

Location inferred from credits; plus, this behaviour has been filmed (on the Roper River) before for BBC's "Lands of the Monsoon" [1] at what appears to be the identical location
[Link 1]

Freshwater crocodile

Crocodylus johnstoni

Roper River, Elsey National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

The Roper River is crowded with freshwater crocodiles at every two metres, lying in wait. As thirsty little red flying foxes swoop down to wet their bellies at the water's surface, the crocs strike with deadly speed to snap them up in their jaws.

Location inferred from credits; plus, this behaviour has been filmed (on the Roper River) before for BBC's "Lands of the Monsoon" [1] at what appears to be the identical location
[Link 1]

Eastern grey kangaroo

Macropus giganteus giganteus

Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales, Australia

At the top of the Great Dividing Range, kangaroos must tolerate harsh conditions. The young are able to use the pouch on their mothers' bellies to take shelter from snowstorms.

Location inferred from credits, and local news coverage of episode [1]: "Kangaroos in the snow in the Perisher Valley, a proposed development site, in a scene from Sir David Attenborough's Seven Worlds, One Planet documentary."
[Link 1]

Mainland common wombat

Vombatus ursinus hirsutus

Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales, Australia

Wombats are well-adapated to surviving in the more snowy peaks of Australia. Even if a wombat needs to traverse great distances to find food, they can take their time. Not only is there little competition at these altitudes, but they are also able to subsist on a few mouthfuls of bark and grass for over a week.

Eastern grey kangaroo

Macropus giganteus giganteus

Namadgi National Park, New South Wales, Australia

Eastern grey kangaroos living on open grasslands need to be speedy to evade predators such as dingoes. Most can outrun a dingo, but losing control and slipping on uneven terrain can be fatal.

Location taken from media pack [1]: "We filmed in a park in southwest Australia called Namadgi"
[Link 1]

Dingo

Canis lupus dingo

Namadgi National Park, New South Wales, Australia

Dingoes hunt kangaroos on the open grasslands of Australia. Their prey can outpace them on even terrain so the dingoes attempt to chase the kangaroos onto uneven ground to take advantage of individuals that lose control and slip. We see the leader of a pack, a white female, successfully take down a kangaroo and bring the carcass back to her pups.

Location taken from media pack [1]: "We filmed in a park in southwest Australia called Namadgi"
[Link 1]

Koala

Phascolarctos cinereus

Australia

Gum trees are found in Australia and their leaves are poisonous to most animals; an exception is the koala, which feeds on nothing else.

Unlikely to have been filmed in the same reserve (Mulligan Flats) as the short-beaked echidna, despite the narration suggesting this; according to a report covering the fauna of this reserve [1]: "The species has not been recorded in the locality and is generally not known to occur in the lowland areas of the ACT."
[Link 1]

Short-beaked echidna

Tachyglossus aculeatus aculeatus

Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve, ACT, Australia

Echidnas are an example of an egg-laying mammal and, unlike the marsupials with which they share the continent, don't have pouches.

Location based on interview with consultant: "But it was in 2019 when the BBC came to visit to film its Seven Worlds, One Planet series that Andrew and the echidnas came into their own. He volunteered with the film crew, teaching them about the echidna and their idiosyncrasies. They are about as unique an animal as you can get, Andrew says. When the BBC was here, I spent a lot of time with the rangers keeping an eye on the echidnas. It got to the stage where I could lie on the ground and they'd approach me. You just have to sit quietly, with no sudden movements and they'll come up to you." [1]
[Link 1]

Jumping spider

Jotus remus

Barrington Tops National Park, New South Wales, Australia

The Jotus remus jumping spider is relatively new to science. It is an active predator and is shown hunting a bush cricket. Female jumping spiders only mate once in their lifetime; any potential mates that court a female after this are likely to be killed. Because of this, the male Jotus remus attempts to woo the female with caution, waving the "paddles" on his legs over the edge of a leaf to get her attention. After this, the spiders mate.

Location inferred from credits. This new species was discovered in 2015 by Jürgen Otto [1]
[Link 1]

Perentie

Varanus giganteus

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

Rain hardly falls on 70% of the Australian continent and in such a dry environment, reptiles dominate. At two metres long, the perentie is the largest. Rather than seeking out water, the perentie gets its water from eating smaller lizards, such as bearded dragons, skinks and thorny devils. We see a perentie successfully hunt a bearded dragon.

Location inferred from credits

Central bearded dragon

Pogona vitticeps

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

The bearded dragon is shown as an example of lizards that a perentie hunts. Later, we see a perentie successfully manage to catch and swallow a dragon that wasn't quick enough.

Visual ID: Between the two bearded dragon species found in this area of Northern Australia, P. minor and P. vitticeps, the individuals on screen appear to the be latter - considerably larger and more robust than P. minor.

Centralian blue-tongued skink

Tiliqua multifasciata

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

The skink is shown as an example of lizards that a perentie hunts. Later, we see a skink drink droplets of water off of leaves after a rare shower of rain.

Thorny devil

Moloch horridus

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

The thorny devil eats hundreds of ants per day. It also has the ability to collect water by simply being in contact with it with any part of its body. The water travels up the lizard's scales by capillary action and eventually reaches its mouth; this allows the animal to keep its head up to watch out for predators while quenching its thirst.

Ant sp.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

Ants are the main prey item for the thorny devil.

Budgerigar

Melopsittacus undulatus

Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia

Flocks of budgerigars can travel over 300 miles in a day through the desert to find water. One such flock, 10,000-strong, gathers around a billabong. They begin to drink with caution, wary of the birds of prey in the area. They have sheer numbers stacked in their favour. In such a large flock, an aerial predator is unable to easily lock onto a single target. Even as one individual falls prey to a black falcon, the rest of the flock move on to search for the next opportunity to drink intact.

Location based on cameraman David Parer's website [1]: "David Parer filmed budgerigars coming in to drink at a dam in Far North Queensland. (Drone footage filmed by another cameraman.)."
[Link 1]

Brown goshawk

Accipiter fasciatus didimus

Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia

A brown goshawk is an example of a bird of prey that hunts budgerigars. In this instance, the goshawk is more interested in quenching its thirst at the billabong that the budgies have gathered at. While it continues to do so, the budgies are less wary to take a drink.

Visual ID is very tricky, but on balance, I believe this is the brown goshawk, rather than the collared sparrowhawk. Especially at 35:14, the robustness of the animal is clear; its eyes, bill and head are much smaller in proportion to its overall body, whereas collared sparrowhawks are generally more gracile [1]. Moreover, there is a slight "glare" in the animal's look, versus the "stare" associated with sparrowhawks: "Goshawks glare, sparrowhawks stare" [2]. Two subspecies of brown goshawk are found in Australia, A. f. didimus and A. f. fasciatus. According to IOC World Bird List, the former is found in northern Queensland, where this sequence was filmed. [3]
[Link 1] [Link 2] [Link 3]

Black falcon

Falco subniger

Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia

A black falcon is an example of a bird of prey that hunts budgerigars. It's difficult for the falcon to lock onto a single moving target among a swirling flock of thousands; nevertheless, we witness one successful hunt.

Introduced as another "bird of prey" in the area in addition to the goshawk. I'll consider removing this entry if this is too vague a mention, but it is the actual bird seen hunting the budgies, not the goshawk. My best guess is that this is a black falcon. The square tail seen at 35:47 and 37:19 distinguishes this black falcon from the brown falcon [1] [2]
[Link 1] [Link 2]

Grey reef shark

Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos

Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, Australia

Australia's coral reefs, such as the one at Ningaloo, support thousands of species of fish and other organisms; this abundance of life attracts large predators such as sharks. In a once-in-a-decade event, the grey reef sharks that gather here corral schools of smaller fish closer and closer to the shore, rather than attempting to pick off individuals. Once they are penned against the beach, trapped in the shallows, the sharks strike.

Location from Roger Munns' blog [1]: "Australia was another shark sequence but this time the subject was grey reef sharks. I was tasked with filming cleaning behaviour at a shallow cleaning station on the Ningaloo reef system. Here grey reef sharks use the cleaning services of small blue-streak cleaner wrasse who pick off parasites and dead skin from the sharks. This cleaning block is so shallow that you can actually see the sharks cleaning while snorkeling at the surface."
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Tasmanian devil

Sarcophilus harrisii

Maria Island, Tasmania, Australia

Tasmanian devils are opportunists. Upon finding the carcass of a wallaby on a shore, a female begins to feed. They are able to eat 40% of their body weight in a single session and their powerful jaws allow them to consume even bones. This female's two pups, at six months old, will still rely on her milk for a further three months. These animals once lived across the whole country, as evidenced by 60,000-year-old prehistoric carvings (petroglyphs) of tasmanian devils at Murujuga on Australia's northern coast.

Location inferred from credits, which includes the Save the Tasmanian Devil Programme that manages a wild population on Maria Island. This is backed up by cameraman Ed Saltau [1]: "It presents the dingo as Australia's wolf rather than a wild dog, shows the cassowary in the depths of the Daintree and tassie devils at a den on Maria Island. All filmed for real in the wild using an understanding of wildlife behaviour, patience and the latest camera tech and cinematography. The conservation message at the end is masterful."
[Link 1]

Tasmanian brushtail possum

Trichosurus vulpecula fuliginosus