Superswarms – Swarm: Nature’s Incredible Invasions (2009)

Directed by: Richard Klein, John Downer | 104 minutes | documentary | Original voice cast: David Tennant

Forget less is more. Quantity also has its qualities. This is certainly true in the animal world. One ant is easy to overrun, an entire army is a formidable opponent. Small animals in large numbers can destroy crops, obscure the sun and paralyze modern life, but if you have an eye for them, they sometimes make for a fascinating spectacle. Reason for the BBC to take a look at the world of super swarms, animal populations that are so attuned that they actually form one organism. For the sake of convenience, the documentary makers include not only bees and ants, but also mice and fish that reproduce uninhibited in the absence of natural enemies. Those are actually not swarms but plagues; cheating a bit, but we’ll forgive them.

The series ‘Superswarms’ consists of two episodes of 50 minutes each. The first, ‘When Worlds Collide’, shows the consequences of swarming for humans. Swarms often cause doom, seepage and rice fields eaten bare, but every now and then we, as bipeds, know how to make a virtue of necessity. Mosquito burgers are a welcome addition to the diet in Africa, and if you swing your cookware a little deftly, the winged scum will fly into the pan. The second episode ‘One Million Heads, One Beautiful Mind’ takes a closer look at the dynamics within a swarm and shows how the animals communicate with each other, learn from collective experiences and arm themselves against danger. You can see how ants form a living raft during a flood.

To uncover the secrets of superflocks, the BBC’s naturalists have taken advantage of the latest technology, enabling them, for example, to take part in the whirlwind air show that puts on a flock of starlings of 100,000 birds every year over Rome (tip: park your car under the trees where they spend the night). By filming swarms from near and far, the camera proves time and again that behind the apparent chaos of fluttering wings and crawling legs, there is often a well-organized, graceful whole. In addition, as a comic relief, there is also room for home videos from private individuals. For example, we see fishermen ducking on the Mississippi to avoid flying silver carp and an Australian farmer in her granary encounters a population of mice that you have to see to believe.

It should be clear that ‘Superswarms’ is not for people who get chills from creepy crawlies. For those who can marvel at the ingenuity of millions of locusts that fly in formation without colliding and can laugh at side-swaying crabs crossing a country road with a sense of self-preservation, this documentary is a must. The often hypnotically beautiful images have the quality you would expect from a BBC documentary and composers Stuart Gordon and Will Gregory provide appropriate musical accompaniment, thanks to the National Orchestra of Wales. A few minor hiccups: Dr. Who actor David Tennant is not the most obvious voice-over with his Scottish accent and we have already seen some scenes in documentaries such as ‘Life’. Not a disaster, pictures like this can’t get enough.