Alaska: The Nutrient Cycle by wildlife filmmaker Paul Klaver.
Once they enter fresh water chum salmon stop feeding and morph into an aggressive creature intent only on mating. After spawning, they die and their bodies become a source of nutrients for everything in the forest and sea.
This 14 minute video had the kids riveted and shows how the end of the salmon’s life directly benefits the animals and ecosystem around them. A note a warning for more sensitive viewers: this video includes a lot of creatures eating very dead-looking fish.
There are more videos tagged with life cycle and death in the archives, including Radiolab’s excellent Whale Fall.
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