By the midday heat, the Green-billed toucan has retreated to a shaded area of the treetop. Its huge but lightweight beak serves among others things as the regulator of its heat balance. Depending on the ambient temperature, the blood that flows through its bill can be cooled or heated. This natural air conditioner allows the Toucan to stay cool on the hottest days here in the jungles of South America.

On the southern edge of the Atacama the desert fox is searching for food. His sensitive sense of smell and hearing helps it to track down small mammals, lizards and insects. But also it does not disdain carrion. It travels many kilometers every day on the way to its next meal. Though today is a bad day for the fox. The rare rain in this region blurs all tracks and the noise of the precipitation deafens it to the sounds around it.

Such as in the fairy tale the pool frog is sitting on the edge of the isolated pond and with his call he attracts the females in heat. If a female passes by he clings to her until she lays her eggs and the male can inseminate them. However, he is not very picky about his choice so it can happen that the male out of sheer love madness mixes up the sex of its partner.

The Rock Monitor observes the area from its safe tree hole in the old acacia. With the rising midday sun, the lizard withdraws here to wait the hottest hours of the day. Only when the temperature cools down in the afternoon it leaves its hole in search of food. Then from its hole it is able to overlook the enemy from a distance, and eventually able to withdraw to the back of its cave.

Unimpressed the proboscis monkey is sitting at the treetop of a coastal mangrove and eating calmly the young shoots that it can reach with no effort. Due to the bloated stomach caused by the  fermenting leaves, the bright ruff in its shining coat and an unrealistically large nose it has been given the nickname „Dutch Monkey“. The original inhabitants of Borneo saw the similarities between the apes and the Dutch traders of the 17th century.

In the afternoon, a pack of lions have gathered at a waterhole on the western edge of the Kruger National Park to wait for nightfall. Part of the pack is also a young lion which will have soon reached sexual maturity. The leader of the pack and the females still tolerate his presence, but soon he will have to leave the pack and go his own way. But until then he is allowed to flex his muscles.

A cold westerly wind is blowing from the Atlantic over the Cape Cross, a peninsula on the Skeleton Coast in North Namibia and propels the patchy morning fog into the arid inland. But the male seal is not bothered by the cold wind nor interested in the fog. Now, immediately after the birth of the seal pups, the bloody battles for best area and the largest harem begin to decrease. Thus, the male seal finds little time to recover from these exhausting confrontations.

At dusk when it’s cool the Bennett Wallaby has left its shady hiding place in the bushes in order to go and search for succulent grasses and ferns. However the quiet stillness of the evening in the Narawntapu National Park in Tasmania is deceiving and the Wallaby must constantly be on guard. The Tasmanian Devil and stray dogs are hunting the graceful marsupials. Even the smallest noise interrupts the Wallaby while eating and it searches for the direction from which the sound came and quickly searches for an escape route.

In the morning the leopard has moved back on a branch of the Acacia where it uses the coverage of the branches to observe the bushland under it. Its attention is on a group of Springbok antelopes, that are grazing between the bushes nearby. Yet, they are too far away to be worth the effort for the leopard. But it has time and can wait until the herd moves in its direction and the leopard gets its opportunity.

On the Atlantic coast of Argentina , lies the animal sanctuary called Punta Tombo. This is the location of the world´s largest colony of Magellanic penguins. During the breeding season, which lasts from about September until the end of March, about four hundred thousand  penguins inhabit this location. Males and females constantly take turns during breeding. A parent penguin goes out in the morning to hunt for food, while the others take care of the offsprings. But now, in February the young penguins almost have their wings so the parents get a break too.

At nightfall, the Praying Mantis has chosen a spot under a village lamp to wait for insects that are attracted by the bright glow of the light. It remains at this point for hours without the slightest movement and observes the area with its compound eyes. If a careless insect comes too close, it will catch it with its leg in a split second. Once in the clutches of the Mantis, the victim has no chance of an escape and ends up as dinner.

The polar bear has caught a scent and looks while standing upright in the direction of the wind that brought the seductive scent. For about 6 months, the polar bear had hardly any food. And now, in December it waits at the edge of the Hudson Bay for the coast to freeze. Once the ice pieces can carry it, it will migrate to the sea and hunt seals. At the end of its hunting season the bear will have gained 100 kg to make it over to the next summer.

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