Big is Beautiful (Mince alors !)

The world is full of giants,

huge creatures that fill us with awe and wonder.

There are different ways of defining big.

Biggest in volume or the biggest of their kind.

Some are gentle giants.

Others are deadly hunters.

Sometimes titans clash.

But one thing is for sure,

the huge animals of this world

are fascinating, diverse, and beautiful.

A giant looms in the dark.

A diver seems unaware,

until a shadow appears from the murk.

An enormous shark.

But there is no need to panic.

Despite being the second biggest fish on the planet,

it eats only the smallest inhabitants of the sea.

This is the basking shark.

It might just fall short of the record for the biggest fish,

but it's a true giant up to 12 meters long and over 19 tons.

And as fish go, its mouth is the biggest,

a vast sieve, a meter across.

Its gills, fanned out to the sides,

not only extract oxygen from the water,

but they are also modified

to trap tiny particles from the sea.

It locates and swims through areas of dense plankton,

sifting through 2,000 cubic meters of water an hour,

and filtering out the tiny food.

Humans seem drawn to the giants that share our world.

They fascinate and inspire,

but what is the attraction

and why are these monsters so huge?

The world can sometimes seem like a big place,

a land of colossal creatures.

These multi-ton mammals certainly dominate

and even alter the landscapes,

overshadowing their neighbors.

But size isn't everything

and giants can come in all shapes and sizes.

Even little things can be giant

when something's the size of a black rat

it doesn't sound very big unless it's a spider.

The world's biggest spiders can be 30 centimeters across

and weigh 175 grams.

They can even feed on small birds and mammals.

Despite their fierce reputation,

this tarantula's a diligent mother.

She laid eggs on the ground and tended them for a month.

Now the little ones will continue to live

under her protection

until they are ready to fend for themselves.

These creepy crawly colossi can terrify us.

Of course, they have no interest in hunting down humans.

We are the giants to them

and they'd rather stay out of our way.

Climbing the size ladder,

the biggest rodents can be as big as dogs.

We think of rodents as small, scurrying pests

that hide in our skirting boards,

but capybara are like monster mice.

Over a meter long and 66 kilos, bigger than a Labrador.

Their chunky bodies is a perfectly designed

for a semi-aquatic life

with their eyes, ears and nose high on their heads

so they can stay submerged to escape the fierce midday sun.

The social mammals hang out in pods

with numerous adults watching for danger

while their youngsters play.

Capybaras are harmless gentle giants,

but not all of the biggest are benign.

Crushing the scales at nearly a ton

and able to stand upright to a height of 2 1/2 meters,

as tall as a school bus,

the lord of the Arctic, the polar bear.

Most bears are omnivores, but not this one.

This is a carnivore through and through.

One of the few creatures on earth that sees humans as food.

With legendary strength, it can kill whales,

pulling them from under the ice.

But in this case, he doesn't need to.

A giant carcass has washed ashore.

Polars can act like bears with sore heads.

They don't usually like company,

but when the sea serves up such a feast,

they congregate in an uneasy truce.

Usually females with cubs

avoid the big, dangerous males at all costs.

But with the boys bulging with food,

they feel safe enough to join in.

Polar bears can eat two kilos in a sitting,

and it's not long before they are picking ar the bare bones.

The Arctic doesn't always lay on such a feast.

And as the summer draws in bears can go hungry.

Both their fat reserves and their tolerance wear thin.

The first snowfalls are a sign that winter's coming,

but it will take weeks for the seas to freeze

and enable the bears to hunt for seals,

They're landlocked and hungry, and now tempers fray.

This bruiser, missing his ear, is testimony

to the potential severity of the fights.

But for the most part,

it's more like a point-scoring wrestling match.

It's not to be taken lightly.

30 centimeter paws are tipped with five centimeter claws.

And the skull, nearly half a meter long,

can bite with 5,000 kilos of force.

The bears use their battles to sort out a pecking order.

The biggest badass bears will dominate the best areas

and will get to eat first at feasts.

The bigger the bear, the harder the fall.

Big can be deadly, but also beautiful.

With looks that can kill,

the Siberian tiger is the biggest of cats.

It's so big and scary that it's been hunted by farmers,

wanting to protect their livestock and families.

That, combined with the fashion for beautiful furs,

have pushed these giants to the brink.

Now they haunt only lonely remote areas

of the boreal forest.

This one follows in the tracks of some giant prey.

Big cats need big meals.

Moose, standing over two meters at the shoulders,

are the largest members of the deer family.

Moose make their living nibbling twigs

when no green growth is available

and their broad hooves can act as snow shovels

to uncover traces of grass.

But even when the feeding's hard work, they remain alert.

Their long legs enable them

to step over the deep snow drifts

that slow the tiger down.

Next time, he'll need a stealthier approach.

Next in line to the throne, the king of beasts.

There is no doubt that lions are magnificent cats

and not exactly small.

Big males can weigh 270 kilos.

The characteristic manes of the males can vary

in different parts of their range

and can be any shade from black to blonde.

They also have one of the most impressive voices in Africa,

deep rumbling sound waves that can be heard

from eight kilometers away, even by human ears.

They're not quite as huge as their stripey counterparts,

but they make up for size with teamwork.

The plains of Africa have some of the biggest inhabitants.

As the plant eaters got bigger,

the predators needed to evolve new strategies to hunt them.

Lions are the only members of the cat family

to function in prides.

Prides typically consist of related females

and the few unrelated males who have claimed the throne.

Among cubs, only the male's bloodline will be tolerated.

With the extra muscle power, there is no giant of the plains

that's too big for this gang to tackle.

But with their social development,

lions have also evolved a complex hunting behavior.

The pride fans out with flankers moving into position

to cut off their prey's escape routes.

While the strikers creep in as close as they can,

ready to spring the trap.

One of the strikers fall short of the mark.

But the frightened herd's playing into the pride's paws.

A wildebeest can weigh 250 kilos,

but it's a push-over for this pussy.

But despite their strength and pack play,

still only one in 10 of the big cat's hunts end in success.

A successful hunt largely comes down

to assessing the strength of prey.

If they pick the right victim,

there'll be on the fast track to success,

But they're not the only giants to gang up.

Cape Buffalo are no easy target.

Giants in their own right,

these bad tempered, wild cattle can weigh

nearly a ton topped off with 130-centimeter sharp horns.

The most dangerous predators

are the ones you don't see coming.

The buffalo prefer to have the upper hand

and when they spot danger, they present a United front.

The lion tries to call their bluff,

but faced with many tons of horned heavyweights,

his nerves crack.

Buffalo have been known to disembowel lions

with a flick of the horns.

These gangs routinely clash,

and there can be casualties on both sides.

When caught alone or taken by surprise,

the buffalo can be in trouble.

For lions, it's worth the risk.

A carcass this size can keep a family

in beef dinners for a week.

Buffalo are formidable foe.

Their herds can be so huge,

both in numbers and tonnage

that they must keep constantly on the move

so they don't graze themselves out of house and home.

And when they stand together, they are almost untouchable.

The titanic battles of predator and prey

aren't limited to the plains.