REVIEW: Chris Packham's Animal Einsteins, Series 1 Episode One 'Masterminds'

 REVIEW: Chris Packham's Animal Einsteins, Series 1 Episode One 'Masterminds'

I'm not really the biggest fan of Chris Packham - I personally find him quite dull in the pantheon of nature presenters - but credit where it's due, he did a great job here at presenting this show. His presenting style was more engaging than I'd seen it be before, and the format seemed to suit him well.

This episode did remind me a lot of the animals versus humans episode of The Chasers' Road Trip, particularly the part on monkeys, which even showed one of the same games that was referenced on that show, regarding the ability to remember number sequences. It is a very clever skill though, and does demonstrate nicely how clever these animals can be.

As does the crows that can make tools with their beaks. The way they can bend something to create a curve at only two years of age, when a human being cannot even perform such a skill at age five, is remarkable, and I loved the idea of crows wearing NASA spacesuits in a dozen generations' time. Make it happen, NASA!

One thing I never expected to see happen in this show was bees playing football. It's one of those things that sounds so bizarre that if it wasn't for the video evidence you'd brush it off as an early April Fools, but it's there, in this documentary, clear as day. Those bees are playing football. Not only that, but they can do maths too. It's only a matter of time before one of them replaces Rachel Riley on Countdown...

The cleaner raf fish being able to see their own reflection and recognise it as themselves is impressive too in the context of the fact we are given that very few animals can recognise themselves in a mirror, and just think they are seeing another member of their own species. The way it linked into whether dogs have a sense of self is a weird coincidence, as I was only musing to my Mum the other day about whether our dogs have ever realised what they look like, or if they just wander around with no sense of who they are. It's an interesting thought for sure that maybe their sense of self comes from their smell rather than their vision.

It's always great to see meerkats in these nature documentaries; meerkats are my favourite animal species, and the one animal I always look forward to seeing at the zoo, so any nature documentary that features them is a big thumbs up from me. It was quite fun learning about how they teach their young, and tell them off when they misbehave during a period of learning just like children in a classroom. I guess meerkats aren't too dissimilar to us after all...

What are your thoughts on Animal Einsteins' first episode? Let me know in the comments.